Clean living reaps rewards

Sarah Ridings, Hayley Larkin, Meghan Smith and Julia Costello, who with Michelle Marais (absent), lost 27.3kg during Junk Free June and plan to continue their healthy habits. Photo / Michael Cunningham

A team of five teachers who embarked on Junk Free June are blown away by the results of their final weigh-in, losing 27.3kg between them.

Julia Costello said the team became so accustomed to "clean eating" that they weren't even particularly tempted by the indulgent options at their end-of-month celebratory feast.

"At the start of the month, we were saying, 'I can't wait until we can eat this or this.' By the end of the month, we didn't even really want [junk food]," Ms Costello said.

The teachers from Raumanga's Christopher & Robin Early Childhood Centre now planned to continue the habits they formed during during June, which saw them cut out lollies, sugar, chips, alcohol, energy drinks and "anything you can cast as junk".

"It was all clean and healthy, lots of vegetables, protein and home-cooked meals - no takeaways," Ms Costello said.

"Now we're just going to go back to just having little treats on the weekend, and keeping it up, because we all lost so much weight."

The team comprised Sarah Ridings, Hayley Larkin, Meghan Smith, Michelle Marais and Ms Costello.

Because it was a team effort, the teachers won't reveal who lost what, but said they also made small healthy changes for the children in their care. They thanked the centre's parents and pupils, some of whom gave their pocket money to sponsor the weight-loss effort, raising $210 for the Cancer Society.

Junk Free June is a nationwide fundraiser for the Cancer Society which encourages participants to give up their unhealthy vices for the month.

About $385,000 had been raised by the 11,000 participants as of yesterday, with donations still flowing in.