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Weigh to go Kerre McIvor!

After losing 15kg, the ravishing radio host reveals her slim new shape.
Kerre McIvor

Kerre McIvor is not the sort of person to do things by halves. So when she turned 50 recently, she didn’t just celebrate with a party. “I’m having a year of turning 50 and milking it for all it’s worth,” says the radio host and Weekly columnist. “It’s half a century – it’s worth celebrating!”

As she dons a stunning sequinned dress for our photoshoot, in honour of the milestone occasion – the sparkling outfits are another example of how she’s not doing things by halves – Kerre recounts how her year of celebrations kicked off on her actual birthday, December 27. Accompanied by her husband Tom McIvor, mother Colleen Woodham, daughter Kate Berich and son-in-law Ranko – who were visiting from the UK – plus a couple of friends, Kerre went to Soul Bar and Bistro in Auckland’s Viaduct Harbour, with a musical balloon that played Happy Birthday tied around her waist.

“It was a beautiful day,” recalls Kerre. “I drank Champagne and ate good food. A man at the restaurant got his friends to sing Happy Birthday to me in Maori, then the whole restaurant sang to me. It was bliss. By the end of it, I was, as Pope Francis would have said, bloated with my own magnificence. It was splendid!” She followed that up a month later with a party at her home, with lots of loud music and dancing. “Nobody ended up in the pool, which was surprising.”

Kerre’s birthday celebrations have included everything from balloons to Britney Spears.

And because she felt like she didn’t get to spend much quality time with the close girlfriends who were at her party, she’s going to have outings with each of them throughout the year. “I didn’t get a chance to tell them how much I value them, so I’m going to make sure I do that,” she explains.

Kerre also treated herself to a trip to Las Vegas, where she met up with London-based Kate and went to concerts by Fleetwood Mac and Britney Spears. “I figure I might as well make the most it – it’s not every year you turn 50,” she says. “Not that I feel 50. I’m quite surprised to be this age, because I always thought I would feel different, but I don’t. I remember thinking at 20 that 50 was the age of antique buildings. Then, all of a sudden, you are there and life is good. I think as long as you have your health, then it is a great age to be.”

Kerre says she was her biggest at the time of her and Tom’s wedding, saying, “My boobs were frightening”.

And because she felt like she didn’t get to spend much quality time with the close girlfriends who were at her party, she’s going to have outings with each of them throughout the year. “I didn’t get a chance to tell them how much I value them, so I’m going to make sure I do that,” she explains.

Kerre also treated herself to a trip to Las Vegas, where she met up with London-based Kate and went to concerts by Fleetwood Mac and Britney Spears. “I figure I might as well make the most it – it’s not every year you turn 50,” she says. “Not that I feel 50. I’m quite surprised to be this age, because I always thought I would feel different, but I don’t. I remember thinking at 20 that 50 was the age of antique buildings. Then, all of a sudden, you are there and life is good. I think as long as you have your health, then it is a great age to be.”

“It works for me because I am an ‘all or nothing’ person. I found it really did help, although I had six weeks off it when Kate was home over Christmas. But it helped me lose the rest and I’ll keep going.”

She has also stopped drinking alcohol and, since she’s always been fond of a tipple or two, that’s quite a big deal. “I do feel a bit better for it, although I never felt bad drinking. I was certainly fatter because of it – there are a lot of empty calories in alcohol. I’ve noticed that I’m a lot less puffy because I’m not having all of that sugar.”

Kerre loves the fact that, at 50, she can do 50 press-ups – “and they’re man press-ups!” – and run for an hour and a half without too much trouble.

“I love what my body can do, rather than what I think it should look like. My body is battle-scarred and it doesn’t have that glorious, golden translucency that comes with being young, but I don’t care. I wouldn’t want to be younger again for anything. I had good times in my twenties, thirties and forties, but that was then. Now it’s time for new adventures.”

Goals she has set herself for her fifties include running the Queenstown International Marathon and becoming better at ocean swimming. She’s doing Pilates to help improve her strength and and has also taken up golf.

“That was the husband’s idea. I was a golfing orphan growing up – both my parents played and I hated the game. But it is something we can do together, out in the fresh air.”

Kerre is looking forward getting as much out of life as she can as she gets older. “I look at my mother and her friends who are in their late seventies. These are women who dress nicely, have lots of energy, play sport, travel and do charity work. They are really interesting people. I think, ‘I want to be like you.'”

One of the new adventures Kerre is looking forward to is a change in her working hours. After 18 years of doing the 8pm to midnight shift on Newstalk ZB, she’s moving to the midday to 4pm slot. She says she’ll miss her night- time audience. “I don’t mean to sound arrogant, but I am very protective of them. They’ve always been there for me.” But the afternoon shift is perfect “apart from the fact that I am going to have to find ways to fill my nights. There will be lots of temptation to go to all these social events, but I should probably stay at home reading self-improvement books.”

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