All I want for Xmas is to lose some kilos

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Fitness guru heads Herald campaign to improve health and lifestyle of four participants from varying backgrounds by Christmas

Kiwi men are being encouraged to get off the couch and become more active in a new initiative being launched today.

Fitness guru Lee-Anne Wann is working to take men of differing ages, careers and wellbeing levels and make them healthier.

Ms Wann has teamed up with Niki Schuck PR and the Herald to launch the campaign - Men's Health: Small change, big gain - by helping four men lose weight over the next six weeks.

SkyCity chief executive Nigel Morrison, The Hits radio content director Jason Winstanley, the Herald's deputy editor Chris Reed and the newspaper's travel editor, Winston Aldworth, have all signed up for the cause.

Ms Wann - who is also the nutritionist for the Warriors - is hugely passionate about what she does and says the key to success is being able to make small changes to your lifestyle, with a big goal in mind.

MORE HEALTH TIPS at Lee-Anne Wann's website and the Men's Health Trust New Zealand

"It's just about looking at groups of people who may not have good information or higher risk people.

"There's lots of information out there for people to lose weight and there's lots of information for diets," she said.

"But particularly with males, there's not always a lot of information in terms of health and well-being."

Maintaining a balance of work life, exercise and eating better was what she hoped to pass on to the participants; as well as readers who will follow their progress over the next few weeks.

"I come from a corporate world and we tend to stick our heads down and work our butts off," she said.

"We work long hours and you work to deadlines, you have obligations and stress and you do what you have to do to get the job done. And because of that, you often will pay a price - and often that is health.

"I want to give males options and ideas, rather than going extreme. How you can put things into your life that create sustainable healthy change. It's how healthy and how fit can we take somebody without disrupting their existing lifestyle."

The men have already had separate consultation sessions with Ms Wann and discussed their varying lifestyles and made realistic goals to losing weight. Each participant has been given an exercise plan and eating regime.

Despite what people may think is a crash diet and boot-camp styled regime, Ms Wann insists it is not.

"It's about what kind of exercise is appropriate for this person, for their goals and for their lifestyle. If one of them travels a lot, there's no point in me putting together a training routine that requires them to be somewhere - that's not going to work.

"So we design a travel programme. We design stuff around their life. It's about giving people lots of ideas and options to try - because not everything works for everybody."

The Herald will feature weekly diaries from each participant starting on Monday.