Transcript
DAVID LETELE: The whole thing started with me turning my own life around. I was 210 kilos, depressed and hated my life and the body I was in. And the decision to turn my life around has resulted in a movement that spans the world and helps everyday people just start living a healthy lifestyle.
SARA VUI-TALITU: What does a healthy lifestyle look like?
DL: Well a healthy lifestyle, it looks like just getting up off the couch stop eating pies and soft drinks and just start moving. It doesn't mean not having a treat here and there. It is something you are able to maintain and for me, I can't maintain not having treats, but it is no longer a treat if you do it every day it is just the way you eat. So for me, a healthy lifestyle is just being active and eating as best you can, most of the time.
SV: What flicked the switch for you?
DL: What flicked the switch for me was when I couldn't tie my shoelaces and I was sweating walking 5 meters and I realised I would not be around much longer if I carried down along this path and I wanted to be here for my kids and that's what happened.
SV: Now you have a lot of people following you in terms of their fitness journey too. Tell us about some of their stories?
DL: We've got an amazing group, Buttabean Motivation and some of the stories we have got. Well one guy is called Phil and he was close to 300 kilos, he was 295 kilos and lost 60 kilos in one year. Again he had one foot in the grave and this guy could not walk 50 metres. I would see him for one week and then not see him for two because he was in hospital. He is a Samoan guy, only young and literally one leg in the grave and we have helped turn his life around completely by just showing him the way but we can only aspire. They still have to do the work.
We have got a guy called Luke. He was just last July he weighed 211 kilos, and he was going down the path of getting the gastric bypass operation and in consultation with the doctor, the doctor dosed off and I told him that was a sign from God when that happened. From that, he didn't want to be operated on by that doctor and he went out looking for alternatives and then he found us and he has now lost 80 kilos. It is not just the weight loss. The weight loss is just a side effect of living a healthy lifestyle and he is now completely different and no more sleep apnoea. More energy. He gets home and plays with his son and he is not just getting home and going to sleep and eating rubbish. There are amazing stories in the group. We have got guys who have had heart attacks and are in the fittest they have ever been, 60 year olds, 70 year olds. We have got a guy who has been with us and been on high blood pressure pills for five years, and three weeks he has been with us and he is no longer on that medication. What we teach is a lifestyle and everything else is a side effect of that.
SV: How much do you charge?
DL: Everything we do is free. So all my community sessions are free, and we have free bootcamps in west Auckland and south Auckland. All you got to do is go onto our Facebook page, which is Buttabean Motivation, Buttabean spelt b-u-t-t-a and you will see all our sessions on there. 30 sessions a week, all for free.
SV: How can you sustain it being free, this business?
DL: We are very lucky. For me, it is all about me helping the people without having any obstacles in the way. We are very lucky, we get a bit of funding from Manukau Urban Maori, Counties Manukau Sport and Colmar, and that is enough to keep us going. All my team leaders, all 11 of them, that run all the bootcamps they are all volunteers and they have all turned up themselves just to get fit under myself and some of them have lost up to 60 kilos and they run all these sets. It is different to just hiring a Personal Trainer because people have seen these guys transformation and they have the right mindset and now they are passing it on. It is all about passing it forward and the blessings will come from all this work we are doing.
SV: Any advice to other Pacific people who might be thinking about it?
DL: For everyone out there, well over 70 % of our Pacific adults are overweight and 30% of our children. It is alarming statistics and my advice is to stop thinking about it. We think and we always say we will start tomorrow and I have visited too many people in hospital where there are no more tomorrows and too many people who die but would have given anything for another week or two weeks. Anything. Now my best advice is just to start. Now starting doesn’t have to be going out and going to a gym, it can just be getting off the couch and walking to your letterbox. Stop drinking fizzy drinks. Stop eating rubbish. Just start small and bit by bit it all adds up. Don’t let excuses get in the way. Find your why. My why is my children my life. I want to be here for my kids and end of the day it is your life. You have got to want to live it and want to be here. Find your why and if it is strong enough you will find a way to overcome those excuses when it is cold and raining outside. people always ask me when it is raining, are we still going to train? I will ask the question, do we still go KFC or takeaways in the rain? Well it is only rain and if your why is strong enough then you can overcome it.
SV: How about in the region, are people in the Pacific islands following you too?
DL: Yeah not that long ago I was in Niue, only a few months ago and we ran a movement over there, running our bootcamps over there but unfortunately even in the islands we are suffering and it is the same things as here. Too many fried chicken joints and everyone is walking around drinking fizzy drinks instead of water. It is not our food that makes us overweight. I am sick of people saying we have to stop eating taro. Our ancestors ate taro and they were not obese. We just have to stop being lazy and eating rubbish every day.
