April Ieremia is challenging the cuddly and unfit to spend winter transforming their bodies with exercise and healthy eating.
The former broadcaster and netballer was in Masterton on Tuesday night to promote her new book, April Loses It, which tracks her mission to lose 30kg in 30 weeks.
About 100 "perky women" were at the Paper Plus event, and April said it was inspirational to go on the book tour and meet so many people who were keen to lose weight.
While the original idea was "to stop being fat", she said she was now pleased to be motivating others to "get off their butts".
It was when she got to just over 100kg that April decided she needed to do something about it.