How losing 32kg has changed this pensioner's life

When Tauranga woman Nia Marx first came face to face with healthy eating campaigner Leigh Elder, visions of her school gym master flashed through her mind.
The 79-year-old thought to herself: "Uh oh, I don't really want anyone to tell me how fat I am."
But a year later she had lost 32kg.
Mrs Marx is telling her weight-loss story as a list of high-profile local people such as Tauranga city councillor Tony Christiansen and Dame Susan Devoy back a Bay campaign against obesity and type 2 diabetes.
The fight is being led by Mr Elder, a Tauranga healthy eating campaigner and author, as Government predictions show 270,000 people have diabetes and the number at risk could run to two million by 2028.
Mr Elder developed the Eat For Keeps healthy eating programme.
Now 79, Mrs Marx was head of the entertainment committee at Ocean Shores Retirement Village when a trim Mr Elder came knocking on her door in 2005.
The pair spoke for 45 minutes.
"After he'd gone, I thought that's actually something I could live with because diets left me cold. It seemed almost as though it was only a case of looking at things differently."
In the 12 months following that conversation, and the talk Mr Elder gave at the village, Mrs Marx lost 32kgs, dropping from 122kg to 90kg.
Today, she has maintained that weight loss and attributes her success to a few simple changes.
She introduced more protein into her diet, often through a protein powder, cut out potatoes, kumara and root vegetables and switched her white bread for wholegrain.
"I think it's really got to come from your heart. Just the fact that I really hated myself. I looked awful and I waddled around like a duck. I sort of thought this is really disgusting," she said.
The first time Mrs Marx began noticing her body changing for the better was when she looked in a shop window and noticed a woman wearing the same blouse as her.
She soon realised the reflection was actually her own.
"I really didn't recognise myself. I felt on top of the world after that," she said.
Family and friends have also noticed the change and the comments are a reward in themselves, she said.
"One of the boys at the bar at happy hour, he said, 'what have you done with the other half of Nia?" she said.
Mr Elder said of diabetes: "Health authorities predict a 50 per cent increase between now and the next 20 years."
"The other scary thing is that four times that number will be at risk.We are keen to focus on type 2 diabetes as it is a preventable, lifestyle disease and both our successes, and scientific studies, have proved this many times over. And, we even know what causes it, too much glucose in the blood," he said.
Tony Christiansen has Type 2 diabetes and says Mr Elder's philosophy has helped him reduce his medications, lose weight and keep it off.
To learn more about Eat for Keeps, visit www.efk.co.nz