The RL diet: Jackson Hastings discusses his eating routine in our new food feature

Drew Darbyshire

Photo courtesy of Richard Long

The rugby league diet is our new feature where we give you an insight into the eating habits of your favourite professional players, in partnership with Heaven ‘N’ Health.

Wigan’s new recruit Jackson Hastings is our first guest…

Sum your diet up Jackson…

“I don’t think mine is as healthy as it should be! I live with Joey [Lussick] and he’s domesticated but he doesn’t have a massive repertoire in the kitchen. We’ve got about three options, taco Sundays and then we either have chicken or steak! That’s literally all we have.

“Sometimes we will go out for food to Wagamama or Nando’s. I’ll probably have chicken or steak with potatoes and some broccoli.”

Breakfast…

“I go to Starbucks because I usually have physio in the mornings at 8:30am. I’ll get a flat white coffee and a bacon and egg roll so it’s nothing too special.

“We train hard enough to get away with things like that but afterwards we end up having an ice cream or chocolate or something like that. We train hard and it’s easy for us to burn the calories so although my diet isn’t the greatest or the most interesting, I make sure I get the job done with my fitness and nutrition and that’s the main thing.”

Game day preparation… 

“Joey cooks a spaghetti bolognese before a game in the slow cooker. We have a routine that we are in at the minute – I just lay in bed and wait for him to give me a text saying ‘come down for dinner’. I’m grateful he cooks for me because I’d be lost without him.”

Your final meal if you was on death row…

“That’s a tough one. I’d probably go to somewhere like McDonalds or KFC because it tastes good and I can eat a heap of it.

“I would order as much as I could. I’d get 20 chicken nuggets, two large chips, 20 chicken selects, two large cokes and I’d try to polish it off.

“I would then probably drive to the Trafford Centre and I would go to Haute Dolci for the best dessert ever. I’d get the American waffles with extra strawberries and blueberries, Nutella sauce and three scoops of vanilla ice cream. That’s what I’d have if I was on death row – but hopefully it’s not for a long time!”