Inspiration
Eventually Katrina Saunders wants to run with her mini horses. But first, she’s working on walking to the letterbox.
When you’re morbidly obese, small steps feel like a mile – but a trip to hospital is only ever just around the corner.
The NPA is working to turn that corner into a gulf.
“Just getting dressed is hard – real hard,” said the 37-year-old mini-horse breeder from Marshlands.
“I was supposed to have a blood test three weeks ago but I still haven’t gone because I can’t find a park close enough.”
To grasp the extent of Katrina’s journey, and the achievements of the NPA’s Marlborough on the Move programme, you need to go back 10 years.
That’s the last time she exercised before chronic asthma forced her onto the sidelines of life.
A decade of inactivity coupled with poor nutrition saw Katrina weigh 170kg before she joined the Team Challenge, made possible by the NPA.
“I thought about (getting active) for a long time but I was too embarrassed,” she said.
“It was not even the money.
“For years, I’d go to the gym take one look at all these people with nice bodies and say “I’m outta here.”
But the Team Challenge was different because it allowed Katrina to work out in the pool with people of a similar background.
Recognising a community need, the NPA is working with the Stadium 2000 to target the region’s most at-risk people by providing a comfortable environment, motivation, support and expert advice.
NPA programme director Helen Steenbergen said the Team Challenge was designed to reintroduce people to regular exercise.
“The Team Challenge is not about creating dependency – it’s about giving them the kick start they need to make positive, healthy, sustainable changes to their lifestyle,” she said.
Katrina was one of 130 people to complete the first course of this 10-week programme designed to provide expert nutritional advice and physical training for low-socio economic, Maori and Pacific Island and obese groups.
And not only did she complete her course, she has taken out a gym membership and agreed to be a mentor for the second Team Challenge which has attracted 150 entrants.
By the end of calendar year, the NPA will have helped get 500 people back into action.
“That will have a massive impact on the community,” said Mrs Steenbergen
Katrina doesn’t need to know how the NPA made it possible, she’s just glad we did.
“Everything in life is hard – but getting into the pool is like, ahh, a big relief,” she said.
“I call it my time.
“It’s easy, it’s fun – there’s no excuses here.
“It’s the only thing that’s easy. I get in the pool and I can do 15 minutes without stopping – at home I can’t walk to the letter box without stopping.”
Katrina said she joined the programme in an effort to change her life.
“I’m doing this more for fitness (than for aesthetics) so I can push a trolley and breathe and walk around town and make my bed – now when I make my bed I’m tired,” she said.
“It’s really embarrassing – I use to be huffing and puffing just trying to talk to my friends on the phone.”
“My doctor is rapt I’m doing it.
“This is the first winter that I haven’t had a chest infection – I am a bit fitter. If it wasn’t for this I’d be sitting at home probably on the way to hospital – I haven’t been to hospital for a while.
“It’s amazing, I’ve had asthma all my life and to go one winter without infection… normally I end up in hospital 4-5 times a year with chest pains – just about all the staff up at the hospital know me.”
Stadium 2000 Chief Executive Office Paul Tredinnick, who runs the programme for the NPA, said almost half of the 130 people to complete the first Team Challenge had continued exercising since it finished.
“Some of them weighed more than 130kg when they started. To observe their progress and hear their stories about the transformation it’s had on their lives is just unbelievable,” Mr Tredinnick said.
“We’ve seen continuation rates of about 50 per cent, carrying on at their own expense or through other programmes.
“That’s huge!”
For Katrina, the NPA has provided the catalyst she needed to take affirmative action, and one day, we hope to see her running free with her horses.
“I breed mini horses, my daughter does all the shows because I can’t run around with them. But that’s one of my goals – that we can do the shows together,” she said.
