Shannan Ponton has been the poster boy for incredible health and fitness since he first hit Aussie screens in the early 2000s.
Here the 49-year-old Northern Sydney local opens up about the two health scares that shook his family and shares some choice tips on how to stay fit this festive season.
Many of our readers will remember you from your time on Network Ten’s The Biggest Loser. You were on the program for an incredible 10 seasons. What kept you dedicated to the show for that long?
It’s my absolute passion. It’s the same reason that I’m still a trainer now. I wake up at 4.50am, five days a week and still do 25, 30 sessions a week, because I just love it.
I never really changed anything in my training. The methods that I used on the show were the methods that I’d already been employing for my clients. And my philosophy never changed. Eleven seasons it went for, and you can’t be disingenuous in that time, because you’re going to be exposed for who you are. So, I didn’t have to be anyone other than myself on The Biggest Loser.
What locals may not know is in 2010 you had a health scare after your wife discovered an unusual mole on your upper thigh. Could you share about that experience?
It was in Bali. I was putting on some sunscreen and I had my board shorts pulled up, so I didn’t get burnt under the legs. My wife goes, ‘What’s that mole there? I don’t like the look of that’. And typical, pigheaded, macho, Australian bloke, I said, ‘No I’m fine. Don’t be ridiculous’.
From the beach in Bali, she made an appointment at the Skin Clinic in Neutral Bay. The doctor took one look and goes, ‘Mate, that looks like a melanoma’.
It was in the middle of the [Biggest Loser] season that they cut it out. I had 15 stitches and it was a 10-centimetre cut. When they confirmed it was a melanoma, they had to go back and recut it two weeks later and put 21 staples in. That was to remove something that was half the size of my fingernail. I always thought that was for shock and awe in media, it’s not.
In 2020, your youngest son, Bronx, was also diagnosed with a bone tumour. How did you find out about the diagnosis?
I was on the way to [Seven Network’s] SAS Australia and my son had been in hospital with pain in his knee. They did some scans, and they showed up a bone tumour on his knee. My wife found out the morning I was driving to SAS. She didn’t tell me. She was amazingly staunch and kept it to herself.
On the last day, when I came out of filming, one of the producers said, ‘Listen, a bit of news from home. Looks like your son’s got a tumour’. Hearing the words ‘child’ and ‘tumor’ as the first sentence coming out of SAS was absolutely brutal. But we were so lucky that his tumour was called a non-ossifying fibroma, which they believe is totally benign. So, at the moment it’s just ongoing management.
It must have been an incredible shock both times. What did those experiences teach you about cancer?
It’s an insidious disease that knows no bounds. Without my wife seeing that one spot, cancer would have killed me. But at the same time, I’ve learned from that lesson and become hyper-diligent. My kids have never had a sunburn these 10 years.
Even for myself, I decided then and there that I was going to get all the checks and balances ticked, which included prostate cancer, colonoscopies, etcetera, which I never would’ve done otherwise.
Returning to SAS Australia, you were one of the fittest contestants entering the show, yet you experienced hypothermia, frostbite, and significant weight loss. Could you share what being on that program was like?
Without a doubt SAS is the most brutal thing I’ve ever been exposed to. I suffered hypothermia three times in five days. The first time, I absolutely froze, and I was a zombie. I was paralysed, basically, and I had no cognition. Then they [the producers] go, ‘Mate if that happens again, you’re out’. So, I didn’t let them know the next two times.
At any moment, I thought there would be a producer that pops out and goes, ‘Shannan, are you alright?’ but it wasn’t like that at all. It was as ruthless as you saw. I literally didn’t lay eyes on another person for the full 13 days that I was there.
We’re about to enter the silly season and a lot of people struggle to maintain their health and fitness routines at this time. Could you share some tips on how to keep up the good habits?
The best advice is it’s Christmas day. Don’t make it Christmas week or Christmas month. By then, the damage you do becomes too hard to rectify. If you leave it as Christmas Day, go and knock yourself out. Have a great day, do whatever you want, but get back on the wagon eating your healthy, normal diet as quickly as you can.
Also, don’t go more than two consecutive days without training. If you don’t go more than two consecutive days without training, you’ll be able to keep it tight.
A great way for locals to keep fit during this time is to enter the upcoming Northern Beaches Sun Run. Could you share why you decided to be an ambassador for the event?
I believe so wholeheartedly [in this event]. I still get that buzz of being nervous before the run, when you get to the start line, and you have the butterflies.
With the Sun Run, you can also get sponsored to raise money for charities. Since The Biggest Loser, I’ve made it my passion and my goal to help as many charities as I can, including Canteen, the Melanoma Institute, Cancer Council Australia, Cure Cancer Australia, the Starlight Foundation and Bear Cottage. I’m a bit of a charity accumulator, but I figure the more that I can do the better!
So, for me, it’s the best of everything. It’s the best of your body, it’s the best of your mind, and the best of your soul, raising money for people that I’ll never meet, but knowing that I’ve done a good deed.
The 2023 Sun Run will be held on Saturday 4 February beginning at Dee Why Beach. For more information or to enter, visit sunrun.com.au.