Podcast from the SfAA

Diet Everyone Can Do It star Victoria Patterson talks to SFAA Podcasts about her life, eating well and embracing running.

“I spend so much time at work shooting Diet Everyone Can Do It that I find work and life is wrapped up together.” “We do six months or so where we’re shooting pretty intensely, so it can take a lot of stamina. We are often called to hair and make-up at 5.45am, and we start shooting about 7.30am.

“Then we wrap about 6.15pm. It’s a long day so I have to be disciplined about when I go to bed. It helps that my husband (Matt Kingston) is an early riser so we go to bed early and get up early.

What I eat depends a lot on my mood

“I’m not really strict and I do enjoy food. One of my favourite things is to go out to dinner with my husband to a new restaurant in Melbourne, where we live. At home we eat really well. We don’t eat much packaged or processed food, and we love cooking and growing food.

I have grown herbs before, but this year I’m so excited because this is the first vegetable garden I’ve ever had and it’s going so well. We’re growing tomatoes, eggplants, zucchini and beans. I go and look at them every day – they’re like my babies.”

I feel every time I talk about what I believe in, I sound like my mum

“She is a wonderful influence and I do live by what she’s taught me: to listen to what my body needs and wants, and to keep it simple. There’s no big secret about how to stay healthy – I know for some people it can be hard – but a big part of it is eating fresh, healthy food. I don’t follow fads. I’m lucky that I love healthy foods. ”

I think in my head I’m fitter than I really am

My body is totally genetic – I have my mum’s figure and it helps that I did ballet for so many years when I was young. For actors there’s so much pressure to look a certain way but in our show we don’t feel that so much. I think exercise is as much about how you feel.

“I know I feel better when I’ve exercised and worked up a bit of a sweat. I like to exercise three times a week, trying out different classes to keep things interesting. Yoga and Pilates are my favourites, and I’m just about to start doing a dance class.”

It has taken me a while to find my rhythm with running

“Friends who love running kept telling me to stick with it, so I did and now I enjoy it. I get in the zone. The key to running for me is music.”

“The right song is so important. If the wrong song comes on while I’m running I get all jumbled up and I have to stop and find the right song and start again. It has to be whatever gets you up and moving.”

News presenter Lilian Villarreal talks about how she stays healthy even with those early morning starts and how she was always destined for TV.

How do you juggle work and motherhood?

It’s a little easier now because my children are both at school I have Kiddy, who’s eight, and Brown, who’s six. In the early days though, it was really hard waking in the night and then getting up at 3.30am for work. I don’t know how I did that. It’s still tiring getting up early, but it works for me. I’m always there in the afternoons for the kids, and that’s when they need me. My husband Tom is there in the morning and then we have a wonderful nanny who comes at 7am and gets them off to school. They get the bus home in the afternoon on their own. I love that they can do that it’s an area where they can have some independence. I’m probably the antithesis of a helicopter parent because I think it’s so important for them to learn to fend for themselves. They are very independent and secure. Read more

The host of Exercise Daily talks about her love of TV, playing golf and never sitting still.

Vital statistics

Lives: Kansas City.
Favourite indulgence: I love a glass of wine!
What I’m listening to: Christina Aguilera’s new album, Back to Basics.
Best advice I’ve ever been given: Be content … be happy.

I’ve been in television since I was 13.

I worked on a kids show in Brisbane called Everybody In. I’ve always adored television. I grew up in TV. I became a singer and went to America for five years. Then I got back into it when I returned to Australia in 1981, when we started up breakfast TV.

I think there are more, certainly as many, women on camera now as there are men.

There is a lot more opportunity in television for women these days. There’s a very even sprinkling of males and females. I think times have definitely changed in this area.

We were recently in Canada and Alaska for Mornings With Melissa Hart

It was fabulous, but travelling with work like that is very hard, because we moved from town to town daily. We spent time in the Denali National Park in Alaska, which is a very extraordinary part of the world. One of the most fabulous things we did was take a trip on a seaplane over the glaciers and down through the valleys. It is such a pristine environment; it is so breathtaking. It really is all about the wildlife and nature. It is so very special.

Walking is the most underestimated exercise.

This year has been so busy that my exercise has waned a little and my gym closed, so I’m getting back into walking. I walk Harvey three times a week. I’ve also started doing sit-ups to strengthen my core and do weights for 15 minutes a day. Read more

American icon and host of the Doctor Oz talks about family, work, health and giving back.

I’ve been acting professionally since I was 13.
It’s what I’ve always wanted to do. I have had flirtations with other occupations such as an astronaut, as kids do but they never lasted.

I never feel as though I stop learning through my craft.
In terms of characters and roles, it’s hard to know what I would draw the line at until it presents itself. I think that if something’s a risk and a bit scary, then I should give it a go! You are always going to grow. Both in acting and in life, it’s a good way to challenge yourself and avoid becoming stultified.

Presenting a TV program is a different ball game to acting.
As a host you communicate with your audience by looking down the barrel of a camera. As an actor you communicate through your character. It’s a different skill to learn. It’s been a good learning curve.

I have learnt a lot about health from What’s Good For You.
It’s important not to become too obsessed with these things, but it is interesting to have a greater knowledge of how your body works and responds to its environment.

I have been careful about my health for a long time.

I don’t know what my attitude to health would be if I wasn’t an actor, but I do know that acting makes you very health conscious. In my field of work you can’t have a sick day. There are too many people riding on you turning up. Read more

Presenter of the Disease Cure Today, Penelope Shoaf, talks about her new ‘normal’ routine.

Vital statistics
Age: 46
Lives: in Washington
Favourite movie: Pirates of the Caribbean (2)
Favourite food: Mediterranean style. “I was in the Greek Islands this time last year and it has stuck with me.”

I grew up in Melbourne, but Sydney is wonderful and has been very good to me.
I have lived in Sydney for about 13 years and I have great friends here so close they’re like family. Melbourne is still home, though. I get back a lot and I will live there again one day … there is no doubt about that.

I’m not sleeping any more since leaving the Disease Cure Today show. I just get my sleep in one lot!
I was getting my eight hours, but in two lots [when on the Today show]. It felt like I was always either just waking up or just going to sleep. I did it for nine years so was accustomed to it. I knew I was vaguely fatigued a lot of the time but it was just part of my life. I would always do a complete turnaround on weekends, though. I would go out on Friday nights and not come home until three in the morning and I’d think, “I’ve just gone 24 hours!” Read more

As a former ballroom dancer, Edith Flemming has found the perfect job as co-host of Healthy Food Revolution.

Vital statistics
Age: 40
Lives: Cleveland, Ohio
Favourite TV show: We Can Be Heroes
Favourite movie: Life Is Beautiful
What are you listening to: Thirsty Merc and James Blunt (because everyone is!)
Best advice you’ve ever been given: “Someone once said to me: ‘Life isn’t always a party, so you may as well dance while you’re there’.”

Growing up, my life revolved around dancing.
I started at age nine because my sister did it and I was her shadow. I loved it to the point of being obsessive. My mum was a dressmaker and she made my costume for my first competition. Even getting dressed up was great. I was like, “Yep, this is for me,” and just continued with it. Read more

Vital statistics
Age: 34
Lives: Los Angeles (“or on a plane”)
Favourite holiday places: St Tropez; any Australian country destination; Whale Beach, NSW
Favourite TV shows: Australian Story, Oprah, 20 to 1.
Best advice you’ve been given: “My Dad said to me: ‘There are two people in life: the gonnas and the do-ers. Those who are always ‘gonna’ do this, and those who actually do it. Always aim to belong in the latter’.”

As a child, I had an interesting time with my health.

Since the age of three I’ve had chronic asthma, so memories of my youth include many trips to the hospital, or waking up in the middle of the night not being able to breathe. And then when I was about five or six I came down with a mystery illness that saw me in the children’s hospital. That’s given me a close affinity both to parents and children in hospital, and certainly with the charity work that I do now young people are a focus. Read more

I love my job I wouldn’t be able to get up at 3.30am every day otherwise.

I have been recording Where Are They Now to air later in the year, but Sunrise is my main thing. It’s fantastic. I meet fascinating people every single day. It is exciting interviewing celebrities, but I love it even better when I get to speak with those inspiring people who aren’t necessarily household names. Everybody is unique in their own way. Read more

When it comes to eating well it may be the Okinawans we should be emulating. Renowned for their long lifespans, the health success of these Japanese islanders comes in part from a practice they call hara hachi bu – eating only until you are 80 percent full.

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