April Ieremia has spent the last year dishing out tough love. As a weight-loss mentor and, in her own words, a little bit of a cow, the former Silver Fern and TVNZ sports broadcaster wasn’t afraid to “tell it like it is” in 2014. But most of the women on the receiving end of April’s special brand of caring couldn’t be happier and, incidentally, neither could April.
It’s been a year of discovery, change and joy for the straight-shooting mum-of-two. Using her own experiences – Weekly readers will remember her incredible 30kg weight loss in 2011 – April took 30 Kiwi women from Whangarei to Invercargill under her wing, with her online-based weight- loss mentoring programme Easter to Christmas. She instilled the idea that 2014 was all about them.
“If you were to look at a snapshot of my life, 2014 was quite a momentous year,” she says with a smile. “So many new things began, things I’m truly passionate about.”
Exploring her newfound passions for meditation, travel and spiritual growth have been at the top of her list, as well as motivating, guiding and pushing women who wanted to lose weight but didn’t know how – including Kendall Brown and Mandy Reilly.
Kendall and Mandy have completely turned their lives around since meeting April.
“It all started with this one here,” April says, pointing at Kendall, who’s asking the Weekly’s stylist about buying the dress she’s just tried on – her first “nice frock” since losing an incredible 36kg in a year.
“She found me on Facebook and said, ‘Please, help me,’” April says. “I was a bit taken aback; it wasn’t something I’d ever thought about. I’m not a personal trainer or a nutritionist or anything! But I said, ‘Okay, I’ll help you, but it will have to come from a very honest place and I’ll call it as I see it!’”
“I was desperate,” says Kendall, shaking her head. “I was huge. My God. I saw a photo of myself and it was terrible. I couldn’t believe it. I was 125kg. So I reached out to April.”
Using her own weight-loss journey as a guide, April developed a simple programme for Kendall with the aim of helping her to lose 30kg. She then figured if she was going to help one woman, she may as well see if any others were keen too.
“I signed up on the last day,” says Mandy, another “graduate” of the programme, who reached the 30kg weight-loss milestone last month.
April has helped Kendall, middle, and Mandy lose a staggering 66kg between them.
“Like Kendall, it was a photo that got me. A week before I joined, my GP told me I had type 2 diabetes. Then I saw a photo on Facebook and I thought, ‘No, that’s not me.’
“But it was. I cried and cried and cried. I was finally ready to do something about it.”
That “something” isn’t new, radical or even anything these women didn’t already know, says April, who simply sees herself as an “enforcer of common sense”.
She advocates eating unprocessed and raw foods, doing 60 minutes of exercise and drinking three litres of water a day. She also catches up with her Auckland-based girls for walks and training sessions, which she fondly describes as “comedy acts”.
“I definitely haven’t reinvented the wheel here,” she admits. “I’ve called it Easter to Christmas because that time is a nothing time. You won’t lose any weight, between the Christmas pig-out, the Chardonnay summer and the chocolate treats of Easter. But between April and December, there’s no excuse.”
April’s approach to helping women such as Mandy (right) lose weight involves tough love – “telling it like it is”.
The programme is geared towards losing 30kg in 30 weeks, just as April did. With the women spread throughout New Zealand, she thought it wise to set up an online community, divided into North, Central and South, with everyone sending in their weights weekly.
“It’s about having someone riding you and keeping an eye on you,” she says. “It’s about accountability.
“In the beginning, I did wonder if I was able to do that, to keep on people’s backs like that. But the ‘bossy cow’ side of me wasn’t there to motivate or anything – it was honesty.”
The most memorable moment of Kendall’s journey was an example of that brutal honesty – but it’s just what she needed to spur herself into action. “I was coming up with all these excuses not to do anything – it was everyone else’s fault but mine that I wasn’t losing any weight,” Kendall remembers.
“So I turned around and said, ‘Fine’,” April adds. “‘If you want to look like a beached whale for the rest of your life, keep doing what you’re doing.’”
“And I thought, ‘What an absolute cow,’” laughs Kendall. “But I realised a few weeks later that April was just being real. I did look like a beached whale!”
Honesty, accountability and self-belief are the cornerstones of April’s approach – as well as a genuine empathy and understanding of what it feels like to be overweight and unhappy. “I get it because I’ve been through it,” she says.
“You don’t want a skinny nutritionist telling you how to lose weight because, it’s like, how the hell do you know? It’s a bit patronising. Unless you’ve been in that place, you don’t understand feeling fat and disgusting.”
Nine months on, Kendall and Mandy’s lives have been transformed. Kendall has ticked quarter and half marathons off her list, with plans to cycle the Otago Rail Trail and hike the Milford Track over the summer.
Inspired by her own journey, she has quit her job as a hairdresser and is training to become a life coach.
She’s still got around 20kg she wants to lose, but is certain she’ll get there. “I’m not quite where I want to be, but there’s no denying my entire life has changed,” says Kendall.
“I was able to do it because April was there, and she cared.”
Meanwhile, mum-of-four Mandy made the decision to be selfish in order to get her weight under control, and says she turned her family’s lives upside down for nine months.
“I cut all the after-school activities out of the kids’ lives,” she says matter-of-factly. “The food was different, the routine was different, everything was different so I could focus 100% on losing the weight.
“I didn’t go out, I said no to everything. I sacrificed so much to do this – but now I don’t have diabetes any more. My blood tests are good.
“To be honest, I didn’t realise how strong I was. To be at the other end, it’s amazing!”
While the first programme has officially finished, there are still several women who will be back next year to achieve their goal of losing 30kg.
“The goal is to finish the damn thing!” April exclaims. “A third of the women have lost up to 10kg, another third have lost more and Mandy and Kendall have done it. I’ve promised them I won’t finish with them until they’ve finished what we started.”
Instead of calling herself a weight-loss mentor, April’s found her role to be more like that of a “big sister”, and has become deeply invested in her girls’ lives. “I have been through everything with them!” she smiles. “Relationships, romances, family, hardships.
“And because I feel like a sister, I have the ability to tell the truth unconditionally.”
Instead of calling herself a weight-loss mentor, April’s found her role to be more like that of a “big sister”.
She’s incredibly proud of the progress her “little sisters” have made, but in the process of helping members of the group rediscover their zest for life, April has realised it is time to follow her own dreams – which means enjoying another new direction in 2015.
“When I first started the weight-loss thing, it was a passion,” she explains. “The joy of being able to help these women has been amazing, and I’ll still be doing it this year. But the biggest passion in my life is, and has always been, netball. So I’m getting involved in coaching.”
Inspired by her 11-year-old daughter Atlanta – who is already 1.82m tall (6 foot) and making representative squads – April’s returning to the sport that made her a household name, with aspirations to one day coach professionally.
However, there’s already a bit of rivalry between mum and daughter. April coaches for Auckland, while Atlanta plays for North Harbour.
“We get out of the car in different colours,” April laughs. “Atlanta shoots, like I did, but she’s a bit more genteel than I was. She needs a bit of aggression!”
Shoot-outs in the driveway are a very popular pastime, with son Xanda (9) also getting in on the action. “He’s a keen basketballer, but I make him shoot with a netball hoop,” grins April. “I figure if he can get it in that, then a basketball hoop will be easy!”
With so many fingers in so many (healthy) pies, April admits this year is shaping up to be one of her busiest yet.
“But it feels very optimistic, very positive,” she affirms.
“There is a lot going on – I’ll be indulging in one of my other passions, travel, by hosting a few cruises, and I’m going to Africa for my birthday, which is my favourite place in the whole world.”
She’s not dating anyone – “I haven’t met anyone interesting enough, although, I’ve never really looked!” – and doesn’t care one way or another.
Life, she says, is good. Better than good. “It’s great,” she smiles. “It’s that old saying, You get out what you put in. The key is to wake up every morning and ask yourself, ‘What excites me the most?’ And then do it.
“Take it as far as you can with no expectation of outcome, and when you can’t go any further, move onto the next most exciting thing.
“That’s what I do, and I’m happy. Really, very happy.”
April’s top tips for weight loss:
Lots of air: deep breathing, meditation and yoga
Lots of water: 3 litres per day
Lots of exercise: 60 minutes per day
Reduce stress
Less food: avoid processed foods – raw food is your friend
Detox regularly.
Follow the rules on weekdays and take the weekend off.
