CHANNEL 4 lifestyle show How To Get Fit Fast is resolute in its mission to help the public work out which exercise regime is right for them, dispel workout myths and uncover the fastest way to get fit. And with viewers more health-obsessed than ever, presenters Anna Richardson and Amar Latif are positive it will, again, strike the right chord.
"I represent the average female," begins Richardson (47). "I'm of average fitness – if not a little below. I'm carrying too much body fat and I'm genuinely not interested in exercise," she admits. "So it's about finding the easy thing that works for me.
"Amar said, 'The key to finding the exercise that you're going to enjoy is to believe that you're not exercising'.
"This programme is about being believable and achievable," she adds. "Whereas when I look at some of the DVDs that are out there, and the exercise and nutrition books, I think, 'I'm never going to be able to do that' and nor do I want to."
"Absolutely!" agrees Latif (43), who contends we all have busy lives and the question is how we can fit exercise into it.
"What if you can sneak it into your daily routine without actually allocating any specific time for it?" asks the star, who is registered blind, having lost 95 per cent of his sight by the age of 19 due to an incurable eye condition.
"For example, one of the things I look at is cycling and it's noted that people who cycle to work are, on average, one stone lighter than people that don't. But it doesn't have to be cycling – it's about working smarter."
It's about finding something that's enjoyable and doesn't leave you feeling guilty, Richardson notes.
"I can't emphasise enough how low it can make me feel seeing all these gym-perfect bodies," she says. "I want to be healthy and attractive but still really womanly."
The show has made her focus on what is achievable for her and the specific areas she needs to change, she reasons. "For example, I discovered that I have way too much visceral fat and I've also got high cholesterol. So that for me has raised a huge red flag in terms of, 'Whoa, hang on a minute, my dad had a heart attack and two strokes. If I'm not careful, even though I'm not overweight, I'm going to really struggle."
As well as upping her physicality, she has also turned her back on alcohol.
"I recognised that I was one of those people that was using the glass of wine in the evening as a bit of an emotional crutch and a de-stresser," she says.
"So I've given up the booze, I've resolved to bring my cholesterol down and I've resolved to lose a stone and to exercise daily.
"It's down to me and Sue to do at least two hours of walking with the dog every day," she says, referring to her famous partner, Sue Perkins. "And to make sure we're in a green space, because it benefits my mental health."
"Everything else is secondary: your health and wellbeing is so important," echoes Latif. "You can succeed in whatever you do, but if you don't have that, then nothing is great. Nothing feels good."
Adopting a healthier attitude towards screen time – namely social media – could help too, the pair believe.
"You can become obsessed with it and then that obsession can turn into a de-motivation or the other extreme – it becomes an addiction," muses Richardson.
"Sue and I have just introduced a rule that when we're together at night, from 8pm onwards, when we've settled down to watch TV, we put our phones down and try not to become obsessed with Twitter or Instagram or whatever it is."
"I actually now switch my phone off and put it in the drawer," Latif, from Glasgow, adds. "Even having your phone near you isn't a healthy thing at night, and it's brilliant – I get that peace of mind when it switches off."
Taking his disability in his stride, the entrepreneur – who became known through the groundbreaking reality series, Beyond Boundaries – is an advocate for change.
For one, he set up Traveleyes in 2004, the world's first commercial tour operator to specialise in holidays for blind as well as sighted travellers.
He's set to lead a trip out to Tuscany next month, whereby fully sighted teenagers from international schools act as the eyes for the blind travellers.
"They don't expect a blind person to do the things that I do," says Latif. "People are ignorant to that, but I don't mind because if I was fully sighted I wouldn't know how a blind person did things. I see it as a great opportunity to help change perceptions."
:: Episode one of How To Get Fit Fast will air on Channel 4 tomorrow.
