Eating Well For Life

At Te Atatu Toasted we take a simple approach to living a healthy lifestyle – it’s about eating good food and moving your body.

That’s why we are big fans of Dave Letele from BBM Motivation. Dave (aka the Brown Buttabean) is a former professional boxer who hit rock bottom after his sporting career ended. But he turned his life around, losing more than 100 kilograms through exercise and good eating – now he helps thousands of other Kiwis with easy-to-follow fitness programmes and meal plans.

We know his story will resonate with Te Atatu Toasted fans – in our Wellness survey more than a third of you told us that eating healthier was a top priority for you in and more than half of you want to get fitter or exercise more.

Here are his tips:        

• When you are starting a healthy eating regime, planning is key. Write down what you are going to eat for the week and shop for what you need. Putting your plan on paper will make it easier to stick to
• Don’t count calories or weigh food. Keep it simple. Aim for each meal to have:
  • Three fistfuls of vegetables
  • Two palm-sized portions of protein for men and one palm-sized portion of protein for women
  • A fistful of good carbs (optional)
  • A thumb-sized portion of good fats
• Avoid processed carbs and go for options such as oats, kumara, pumpkin, potato or brown rice. We definitely agree with Dave on this one – we use only wholefood ingredients in our cereals!
• Eat regularly – “When you are hungry you are in the danger zone and you are more likely to make bad food choices,” says Dave.
• Drink plenty of water
• Don’t obsess over the scales – everyone loses weight at different rates. Instead, notice how your clothes fit better, that you have more energy and fewer bad moods.
• Don’t starve yourself – “Treat your metabolism like a raging hot fire that you have to keep feeding.”
• Avoid fad diets, and pills and potions. “Just get the basics right, eat good food and the weight loss will follow as a side effect. You need an eating plan you can follow for the rest of your life.”

If you want to get more help from Dave and his team, head to the BBM website – you can check out the online programmes, which offer exercise and meal plans, or sign up for a community bootcamp. Or join the Facebook group and get inspiration and motivation from the 14,000-strong BBM community.