Twelve weeks of diligent effort and unwavering self-control drove Nigel Harwood to become Australian IRONMAN’s 2004 BodyBlitz Grand Champion. This Gold Coast graphic designer set his sights high and achieved his goals, and he’s eager to see where the wave carries him from here.

Personal image was Nigel’s strongest motivation to finally get in shape. Besides the grilling from family and close friends, he was sick of feeling embarrassed to take off his shirt in public. And living on the Gold Coast, looking buff plays a major part in one’s daily life — especially if you’re an active beach-goer!

The final straw came when Nigel returned from a trip home to Warrnambool, and stopped into a surf shop to buy a pair of jeans and some T-shirts. “Nothing would fit me. The XXL shirts all fit like lycra and I was having to squeeze into size 39 jeans. That was it — I had to do something!”

A down-to-earth socialite, Nigel’s affable air was what got him in trouble in the first place. “I wasn’t so much into night-clubbing, but I did enjoy frequent barbecues and a few beers with my mates.” His love for the amber fluid combined with hectic work commitments made it all too easy to fall into a sedentary lifestyle. After a hard day running his own graphic design business, Plush Creative, “there was nothing better than sitting down at night and sipping on a few icy beers.

“Today’s fast food has made it easier and cheaper to access unhealthy food. It’s much more inconvenient and expensive to surround yourself with good food, making it easy to fall into the drive-through trap. When I got busy with work I’d just grab food on the run, and sometimes I would wait until dinner before eating anything! Other bad habits included sweets and cola — and not the diet kind.”

Having grown up on the coast, Nigel started surfing at age 14, hitting the waves five-days-a-week until he was 25. But gradually, work commitments allowed for less and less activity. Even though he included bike riding, snorkelling, and some sporadic training, it simply wasn’t enough to counteract the rest of his hours as a beer-swilling, grease-gobbling, chocolate-chomping couch potato. The “fitness freak-out,” as he puts it, would never last longer than the average New Year’s resolution.
Nigel describes himself as a fairly driven person, who strives for the best in himself. “I try to be successful in whatever I do, and even though money isn’t my primary focus, I still like to feel comfortable.” But comfortable he was not, so he decided to get back on track with the obvious area that was eluding his efforts — his health.

“I noticed a poster for the BodyBlitz Challenge in my local health food shop and I said to my girlfriend, Samone, ‘this time I’m gonna do it — I am going to get fit’. So I set my mind to it and downloaded the entry form once I got home. I don’t think I realised just how big I was until I took the before photos and saw what I actually looked like from behind. My back was huge! People obviously called me ‘big fella’ for good reason.”



Once Nigel’s mind was made up, he resolved to let nothing stand in his way. “The goal had been set and I was going to do it this time, no more failures. Sure, stopping all the bad foods and the beers with mates was going to be hard, but I had made a personal commitment and I was sure as hell going to stick to it. I was making a change, not just for the 12 weeks, but for life! I wanted to enter my early 30s with a positive and healthy attitude. If I could accomplish the initial 12-week goal I knew I could do anything, and I figured getting fit would help me physically and, above all, mentally. I knew that it would get me feeling positive about myself as well as my appearance.”

Positive thinking was the key component to Nigel’s success, and subsequent victory. “I said to myself from the start, ‘I am going to win!’ even though I knew the chances of it actually happening were quite slim. Visualising myself as the winner, I laid out in my mind the 12 weeks ahead, reminding myself, ‘one step at a time’.”

Ironman Body Challenge   Start 24/5/04 End 24/8/04 Height: 182cm 182cm Weight: 91kg 76.5kg Chest: 44” - 112cm 39.75” - 101cm Waist: 40.5” - 100cm 34” - 86.5cm Calves: 14.5” - 37cm 14.5” - 37cm Arms: 13” - 33cm (relaxed) 15” - 38cm (flexed) 13.75” - 35cm (relaxed) 15.25” - 39cm (flexed) Thighs: 22.5” - 57cm 22” - 56cm Bodyfat: 24% - taken using four-point 8.3% - taken using caliper test nine-point caliper test

The rewards started to appear after the first five weeks. “When I stepped on the scales and saw that the numbers were coming down, it gave me the drive to keep going. I felt that making it to the end and perhaps even getting the recognition of being a monthly winner would be accomplishment enough.”

The end goal was Nigel’s strongest focus throughout the Challenge, and the fact that he had announced his plans to friends and family meant that quitting was not an option. “I would sometimes get out my before shots, look at myself and realise what I was doing. I often looked at the end photos of what Rick Brennan accomplished last year and thought that if I could look anywhere near as good as that I would be happy. I believed in myself throughout and gave 110 percent during training, as I knew that’s what it would take to get me where I wanted to be.”

The Challenge became part of Nigel’s life and he enjoyed the focus and the dedication that was involved, rather than looking at it as a chore or a punishment. He knew he was making progress while on one particular beach run when, without realising it, he covered over 10km. “I felt like I could have kept going, so I realised I was starting to respond to the training. This lifted my motivation further, allowing me to kick it up a gear and really hammer my body into the shape I wanted.”

One possible risk with such an extreme undertaking is becoming too self-absorbed. “The challenge really sets you into a ‘me, me, me’ mindset. You become so involved in yourself that everything you do seems to have an impact. I really need to thank Samone for putting up with me throughout my ‘selfish’ period, as she had to sacrifice certain aspects of our social life for a while.” Sometimes, though, a little selfishness isn’t necessarily a bad thing, as not paying enough attention to your body can cause more harm than good, for individuals, as well as their partners.

Finding a balance between going out for dinner and drinks, and eating ‘boring’ but healthy meals is crucial, and now, after the 12 weeks, Nigel has arrived at that place. “Nowadays we both think about what goes into our mouths before eating it.”

On average, Nigel trained one body part per day in addition to his cardio sessions. “My overall theory throughout the Challenge was not about amount of weight; it was about performing controlled movements using what I thought to be good form — peak contraction, definite pause and slow release. To avoid injury I still hold this philosophy as a strict rule, but it was embarrassing at first seeing guys lifting huge weights — with training partners over-assisting. I quickly realised, though, that they were going about it all wrong, and told myself that they were the ones harming themselves rather than building their muscles correctly. To avoid this pressure to lift more, I trained alone all the time — never using a personal trainer.”

In the beginning, beach running was Nigel’s primary cardio, performed first thing in the morning. Later in the Challenge, he switched to fast walking, covering the streets around where he lived. The weight training took place at Healthworks gym in West Burleigh, usually in the evenings between 4:30 and 6:30pm. “As far a supplements go, I was taking about three protein shakes a day along with creatine and L-glutamine. I believe the supplements played a vital role in staving off soreness, which allowed me to keep on training.” Nigel also supplemented his diet with multivitamins and minerals, a B-complex and about 1000mg of extra vitamin C every day.



“The hardest part of the Challenge was just doing it. I won’t tell anyone it was easy because there’s no easy solution to weight loss. People now constantly ask me ‘what did you do?’ thinking that there was some miracle weight-loss pill or potion.”

Nigel’s realistic and honest approach was what got him to where he is now. “Simply getting off your behind and changing your way of life is the miracle! Having to monitor the clock constantly to know when to eat was arduous, as was the cardio and the weight training, but in saying that, it was not impossible.”

Finishing was like winning a race. “To see the photos and to hear people’s comments made it all worthwhile. I laid out the before and after photos beside each other just to look at what I had done — and that was a trophy by itself. Friends couldn’t believe what I had done and the positive feedback made me realise the actual magnitude of the change. I think seeing someone close to you do something like this makes you realise that average people can make drastic changes in their lives if they just try. My win has started a spurt of new gym memberships all around me as people gain confidence to do the things that they’ve been putting off.”

When Australian IRONMAN informed Nigel that he had taken the crown of Grand Champion, it took a while for the reality of it all to sink in. “I was shocked to get a call telling me I had won it all — that was a total head rush! It didn’t sink in until I had hung up the phone that I was the Grand Champion. It still seems surreal even now, but I think when I see the magazine cover it will all hit home.”

Last month Nigel was flown down to Melbourne along with the female Grand Champion, Melinda Troughton. “The trip to Melbourne was a pure buzz and not knowing what we were in for added to the excitement. To meet everyone and see that they were all so easy-going made what I thought was going to be a hard thing so much easier.”

Nigel arrived looking like a model, and left feeling like one. “Leaving Melbourne and arriving home sort of felt like everything was over, but I know it has only just begun. From here, the road ahead will be exciting. Continuing a healthy lifestyle will give me happiness as well as many other future opportunities, and I really plan on making the most of the exposure.”

Since the weekend in Melbourne, Nigel has given himself a couple weeks of some well-deserved R&R. “But I have now set myself new goals both in the gym and in my personal life. Career-wise I’m not sure what lies ahead outside of graphic design. I really want to take advantage of what I have done, but whether or not that will involve modelling or acting, I don’t really know.”

What he does know is that a book is in the works, as well as a supplement sponsorship. Any opportunity arising will surely be tackled in the same fashion he did with the Challenge. “I think that helping others through their training would be very gratifying, and I think the average person can relate more to someone who has actually achieved some major weight-loss goals. In the meantime I will be setting up an online forum and advice page on my website www.plushcreative.com.au — you’ll just have to follow the links to Plush Fitness.” IM