Scotty Stevenson: Men's Health Week Ambassador on the importance of taking care of your health

This week is Men’s Health Week, aiming to cull the number of Kiwi men dying from preventable illnesses. 

They encourage men to start with the small steps that can enable them to turn their health issues around. 

On their website they say that ‘living longer, more enjoyable lives takes a little work, but we’re all up for it’. 

Scotty ‘Sumo’ Stevenson is an Ambassador for Men’s Health Week and told Francesca Rudkin that after his wife died of cancer a few years ago, he’s very aware of how important it is for his children to make sure he’s around for as long as he can be. 

He’s also coming from a background in sports broadcasting, and thinks that while we look at athletes as role models, but don’t tend to take the same consideration for our health as they do. 

“We forget that while we might not be competing for Olympic gold medals, we can still do our best every day to get our exercise in and to make sure that if we’re not feeling 100%, then we go and do something about that.” 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Kerry Wood and Morning's podcast from
News Talk. Said B.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Also just want to strub it out there, gentlemen. It
is Men's Health Week. Too many keyw men are dying
before their time from preventable illnesses. Men's Health Week it's
all about encouraging ki we men to check out their
health and ask if they're on top of it. And
we all know many guys who are actually doing it right,
and one of those is Men's Health Week Ambassador Scotty

(00:34):
Sumo Stevenson as Scotty is worth me. Now, good morning.

Speaker 3 (00:38):
Good morning, Francesca. How are you?

Speaker 2 (00:40):
I'm really good, So tell me why did you decide
to step up and be an ambassador Men's Health Week?

Speaker 3 (00:47):
Well, lively, because Mark Sainsby made me to be perfectly honest.
Now look at he just asks me if I wouldn't
mind reminding fellows out there that you know, you've got
to look after yourself, and you know we try to
make sure I do that. I'm a single fello of
these days, and I lost my wife to it's a
couple of years ago, and so I'm aware of how

(01:09):
important I am now to my children to make sure
I'm around as long as I can be, and to
be with them while they grow up. So you know,
I think Mark's all the synergy there. And of course
I've spent a lot of my broadcasting life working in sports,
so surrounded by fit people and people who take care
of their bodies and take care of their minds. And
you know, we look at these athletes in particular as

(01:31):
role models, both our men and women's athletes, and sometimes
we forget that while we might not be competing for
them the gold medals, we can still do our best
every day to get our exercise in and to make
sure that if we're not feeling one hundred percent, then
we gon't do something about that by first of all
seeing a GP and taking it from there if we
need to.

Speaker 2 (01:52):
Are men good at talking about their.

Speaker 3 (01:54):
Health, not particularly, not as good as we should be,
And so I think we're getting better by and large.
But I think men rather than talking about things on
it for for far too long and just say I'll
be all right, It'll be all right, and not do
anything about it. And we caught off a use to comparison,
if the morning light comes on in the car, you'd

(02:16):
be straight down to the mechanics to get that sort
of out. But we've all got our own morning lights
with our bodies and our brains, and we need to
take more notice of them.

Speaker 2 (02:24):
How have you sort of changed your attitude to your health, Scottie?
And I don't know if people know this, but you
did something quite incredible. I think about four years ago
you ran the Old Ghost Road, which is one of
my favorite trails. It's eighty five kilometers long, and you
did it in a day, which I did it in

(02:44):
two days, and I thought that was pretty impressive. And
then I read that you did it in a data
say that is crazy. It's so impressive.

Speaker 3 (02:53):
Yeah, I got I got back from you know, i'd
always battled with awake, and I got back from a
work for it was actually to the winter of other
games in Sochi, and I came back and I realized
I was really unhealthy about where I'd found my else physically,
and so I started running each day, which was probably
the worst idea I ever had actually at the time,

(03:13):
But sooner or later I sort of found that I
developed some consistency with just getting out every day and
having a run, and it didn't have to be a
long run, and sometimes you have to stop and walk.
But it was okay because it was just half an
hour footy minutes out there getting some oxygen and getting
some time for the brain. And over the following months
it became really crucial and central to my mental house

(03:36):
just to get out there on the road or on
the trails and just to have that time. And one
thing leads to another when you find that consistency. And
I lost a fee a bit of weight, and then
I decided that I'd try and run a half marathon,
which I did. I mean I'd try to run a
full marathon, which I did. And then one night over
over a glass of wine and an awards night of friends,
today I'm doing this ultra marathon. Bot it them begun,

(03:58):
I said, okay, I'll have a crack of that. So
that's how I found myself at the start line of
the Ghost Ultra Marathon, and yeah, managed to complete that.
It was quite an emotional day actually, to go from
not running at all to for finishing an eighty five
k run. Yeah, it was pretty special. And while that's
just my own personal story, I think everyone's get a
little a little physical or an exercise challenge and then

(04:21):
they find the desire, find their reason, and then find
that consistency. Because I can tell you more than the
physical benefits of a mental one.

Speaker 2 (04:29):
And I'll get to that in just a moment. But
it's really important for mem and not to try and
change everything at once, not to go okay, or I'm
going to use this as an opportunity to you know,
I'm going to really change my life. It's you can
you can just just take little challenges, whether it's thinking
about what you're eating and then think about some exercise
and small steps along the way, or as you say,
the first thing is to go to that gp find

(04:50):
out maybe what what what you know might be of
concern to you, and then you just you just can
just slowly work away that, don't.

Speaker 3 (04:57):
You Yeah, that's exactly right. I think we're convinced that
it has to be completely transformative. You know, you have
you get on the side, and then you've got to
stick to it. And you could have sacrificed all these
things in your life. And so many people get put
off by that because they look at that and they
think that is just going to be far too hard.
Why would I want to do that? And I had
a little rule while I was training, and while I

(05:18):
was getting better each day at running, I had a
rule that was just say yes to less, and I
never went without and I never banished anything from my diet,
and I still went out and had a bear with
my friends. And it was just thinking a little bit
harder about the choices we make every day. And that
was the change for me. It wasn't anything that was hugely, instantly,

(05:40):
overnight transformative. It was over a period of or a
couple of years where I just learned how to make
better decisions for myself. And that was the most rewarding
thing of all. The fact that I never earned any
of this felt like I was going without all that
I was sacrificed for my life. In fact, any bad
habit I had just became replaced with a good habit.
And a habit is a habit, whether it's a bad

(06:01):
one or I could one, and we can learn new
habits and we can get rid of.

Speaker 2 (06:04):
Bold one say yes, was that what it was, Scotty? Yeah?
I will attempt to remember that at certain times. Hey,
Logo did want to touch on the mental health and
men as well. Is it my imagination or are we
starting to open up or are men starting to open
up and talk a little bit more about mental well being?

Speaker 3 (06:27):
Yes, we are. I think we're surrounded by those conversations now.
We read about it every day. And the sad fact
is that more men take their own lives in this
country than do women. We wish that no one would
find themselves in that situation, but men in particular are
susceptible to take their lives, and that is, I think
because sometimes there are different pressures on men to be

(06:49):
certain things in life. There's the pressure of providing for families,
which is still a big thing, is the pressure of work,
and there's an intense loaningness I think in our society
is some would say now we're more connected than ever,
but we're more alone than ever in some ways as well.
A lot of our connections are very surface levels. So

(07:09):
finding our friends and finding people in your life that
you're prepared to have those conversations with and who importantly
are prepared to have them with you. And we talk
about this all the time. It's just as simple as
checking in every once in a while, if a friend
pops into your head that you haven't spoken to for
a couple of weeks, for a couple of months. Even
just flick them a message or pick up the phone

(07:30):
and say how you doing. Most often you'll get a
good thanks, and that'll be about the conversation, but it
doesn't let them know that someone's out there thinking about them.
And you never know what's going on in anyone's life
at any time. And that even goes for those people
that you might think are the most outgoing, gregarious, unloving
people in life. Quite often they are masking something or
could be masking something in their life that is causing

(07:52):
them significant pain. So you know, always just to tap
on the shoulder and ask us someone as and you
know we do this often and you would have noticed this,
Francesca and your line of work as well. We've got
off and walk past someone and say how you doing,
and then we need a wait the answer. If you're
going to ask someone how they are, stop, actually wait
with them and see what they say. You'll be able

(08:13):
to channels there or right or not by just looking
them at the face and seeing it on their face.

Speaker 2 (08:18):
Well, Scotty, thank you for checking in with us today.
And look, I know you're incredibly busy and as you said,
you've got your soli. Dad to your two gorgeous boys.
But have you had any chance to hit the trails recently?

Speaker 3 (08:30):
Do you know what? I haven't, and I have been
a bit slack on my training, but that's okay. I'm
actually just about to hit out for a run right now.

Speaker 2 (08:38):
Francis, Oh, there, we go use it or lose that. Scotty.

Speaker 3 (08:41):
Yeah, I keep my daly in but I'm a bit
stuck in the city at the moment, so I haven't
had a chance to hit the trails. But you know
what if I can't find a trailer road into.

Speaker 2 (08:51):
Scotty Stevenson, thank you so much, really appreciate it talking
to us there. Scott is one of the many fabulous
ambassadors for Men's Health Week.

Speaker 1 (08:59):
For more from Kerry Wood in Mornings, listen live to
news Talks it'd be from nine am weekdays, or follow
the podcast on radio.