Their journey begins: From fat to fit in six weeks

Healthy Kiwi Males Initiative trainer Lee-Anne Wann is ready to get our men back to peak fitness. Photo / Chris Gorman

The Men's Health: Small Change, Big Gain challenge is on. Every Monday, starting today, each of the participants will give us an insight into their week. There are guaranteed to be ups and downs, but with the help of their trainer and nutritionist Lee-Anne Wann, the boys are hoping to make a change.

Jason Winstanley

(The Hits radio content director)

I'm pretty average when it comes to living healthily. Actually, I'm way below average. I eat too much. I drink too much, smoke too much and work too much.

Sport is something I watch on TV - and not something I do. So in a moment of weakness, I have been convinced by some close friends and colleagues to go on a six-week programme with Lee-Anne Wann to help sort some of these things.

My first catch-up was on a Saturday morning. I managed to make it through the eight-minute treadmill run. Then, after lots of pinching, prodding and measuring, she told me what I already knew - things are out of whack in my life.

There was plenty of bad news, including my blood pressure.

There was good news too, though. Lee-Anne tells me I have good genes and there's lots I can do to reverse the damage I've done to my health.

I finished our meeting full of optimism. Maybe this is going to be okay, after all. I've kicked things off with some supplements which will help to tell her what's going on with my body.

But the real work starts on Monday morning at 7am.

Wish me luck!

Nigel Morrison

(SkyCity chief executive)

Well, it's started! Been coming for a long time. It's started and stopped before but this time I knew I really needed to get it done. Drop those 10kg (should be 20!) and shapin' up.

Taking on this six-week challenge with Lee-Anne was timely and provided that extra motivation. My first visit on Wednesday - all over the body fat with pincers, and there's a lot to cover!

Pleasing there was a good frame under there just waiting to come out. The road cycling, running and rowing of years gone by did some good.

The gut and the man-boobs have to go - no argument from me! Lee-Anne's enthusiasm and absolute conviction that she could fix me filled me with optimism.

I felt in safe hands and confident she was going to do all the work. But 10 push-ups later ... Hmmm, maybe not!

Long hours, frequent flying (I write this from the Koru lounge, heading to Adelaide), rarely eating home-cooked meals, my office on Federal St - between Depot and the Fed Deli - were some of the lifestyle challenges.

Pleased I didn't have to give up all the things I love. Those bacon doonas from Depot aren't so bad after all! Armed with zinc and multi-vitamin tabs, here we go!

Chris Reed

(Herald's deputy editor)

The wife's really loving this. For years she's been telling me to see a nutritionist. Years.

I was dismissive. Eat better, do exercise - that's all you need, I retorted. Not that I did either.

I was thin and healthy for a bit. Coincided with me being single, able to please myself.

Now I'm 42 and embroiled in a very public effort to swap fat for fit with three other middle-aged men. Like a really crap boy band that's let itself go. (No Direction? Take Fat?)

Of course Lee-Anne is more than "just" a nutritionist. Although weight loss is one target, I'm as, if not more, interested in reducing stress and sleeping better. I regularly work 12 hour-plus days, often jumping from day to night shifts with little sleep in between.

I'm on a five-point plan for week one. More water, protein-based brekky (eggs and avo rather than muesli), healthy snacks (dried apricots, nuts and seeds - much better than it sounds), two decent exercise sessions a week and supplements.

Zinc absorbs nutrients so improves recovery, healing and repair. It can also aid prostate health. Magnesium is a central nervous system relaxant, that calms and helps with sleep.

So far? Headaches from caffeine withdrawal but otherwise already feeling more relaxed. I've twice slept through my 2-year-old's morning race along the wooden floors and got a decent kip between shifts. Almost unprecedented.

So, quietly optimistic. Which means the prospect of more good news and bad. Feeling better but a life of the wife saying she told me so.

Winston Aldworth

(Herald's travel editor)

Mother Nature has many ways of telling you that you need to get into shape.

When my boss was asked to look around the office and consider which of the many flabby 40-ish men should be 'volunteered' for a course of dieting and exercise, his eyes settled on me. I hear you, Mother Nature. Loud and clear.

Another sign: Self delusion. I weighed 105kg at the start of this process - at least I thought I did. When asked what I clocked in at, I dimly recalled the last time I'd stepped on the scales, divided that number by a factor of hopefulness and multiplied it by wishful thinking squared. The result: 105kg.

In Lee-Anne Wann's office - where body weight is based more in reality than hopefulness - I clocked more than 108kg. I'm going to give her scales the benefit of the doubt.

That's Mother Nature prodding me in the chest.

A third sign. When my photo appeared in Saturday's Weekend Herald, I thought to myself "God, what a fat bastard". My girlfriend said: "That's not a bad photo of you."

That was Mother Nature pointing at me and laughing loudly.

And fair enough. I won't bore you with my excuses, but I've put on a few extra kilos in recent times ... well, in recent decades. I'm hopeful this process will put me on the path to knocking some of them off.

So it's goodbye to sugars and most of the processed carbs I was guzzling and hello to coconut oil, fish oil and more exercise.