Helping people to eat healthily, one steak at a time

For a long time, Zimkhita Macingwane enjoyed a love-hate relationship with food. She often overindulged, leading to excessive weight gain.

Spurred on by an embarrassing incident in 2023, she embraced a rigid weight-loss programme and managed to beat her weight demons.

Now the Ngcobo-born former SABC journalist and former OR Tambo district municipality spokesperson is on a quest to change people’s lifestyles in Mthatha and surrounds, plate by plate and one steak at a time.

Macingwane has opened a restaurant, Zimnandi Eatery, in the bustling Mthatha central business district, offering a range of healthy foods, including an assortment of game meat (venison) for people hoping to maintain balanced and healthy lifestyles.

The 37-year-old mother of three said she wanted to offer her clients a different experience.

The eatery officially opened for business on Monday last week.

“We offer a lot of game meat, which is popular with people who know it has a high protein content. It is also lean and tender when properly prepared,” Macingwane said.

“We offer anything from kudu, ostrich, venison (or deer), crocodile meat and a little bit of bush pig and warthog. We offer your normal dishes such as chicken and fish as well.

“Another important factor of game meat is that it’s not injected with growth hormones and other chemicals like your domesticated animals.”

She said the aim of her new venture was to provide an option to people keen to embark on a balanced and healthy lifestyle so that “when they want to wine and dine, they have this option that provides healthy meals in a restaurant”.

The eatery also offers a variety of green teas and fruit and vegetable smoothies.

After her weight ballooned to 147.5kg, Macingwane joined a gym in Mthatha. But she battled to shed her excess weight.

That was until March 2023, when she attended a national communicators’ forum workshop in Cape Town.

“I am generally an active and energetic person but going to the gym did not work.

“Remember, I had this toxic relationship with food, and I was the only person there of that size.

“The chairs at the workshop were too small and uncomfortable for me — and this was a three-day event.

“After the first day, my body ached, and that’s when I decided to do something.”

Back home she knuckled down and did research on different weight-loss mechanisms, stumbling on a programme which included a procedure using a gastric balloon.

“It’s a balloon they put inside your stomach to occupy space so that your mind thinks you are full and you eat less. But it was for a certain period only.”

She shed about 50kg between September 2023 and August 2024. But the battle was not over.

Macingwane attended counselling sessions which “helped change my mindset and relationship with food”.

“Now when I see bread, I know how much starch my body really requires,” she said.

For years she had just eaten food for comfort, but through her research she learnt that all the body needed was to be nourished.

Today Macingwane weighs about 80kg, having lost about 66kg — but she plans to continue her healthy habits forever.

She said she had derived a lot of benefit from eating healthily, including seeing her mental health and sleep patterns improve.

Macingwane conceded that her weight-loss journey had not been easy.

She often suffered from cravings and terrible headaches and was told this was because she was no longer consuming sugar and other products with a high sugar content.

She is now trying to put her newfound knowledge to good use by helping others who want to choose a healthy lifestyle through offering balanced meals in her restaurant.

She said Zimnandi Eatery was her own way of raising awareness about healthy eating.

“We are planning to invite dietitians and other health experts to come here, maybe at weekends, to offer this information free of charge.

“Our ultimate aim is to empower people with information so that they can make informed choices about their lives and lifestyles.”

She has roped in qualified chefs to prepare the meals, while her. restaurant manager, Ncumisa Gwele, has been in the food business since 2020.

Gwele previously ran her own restaurant in a gym in Libode and another one in Mthatha.

She told the Dispatch they usually got their meat from suppliers in the Western Cape, Mpumalanga and KwaZulu-Natal but were also planning to rope in an Eastern Cape supplier.

“We are just trying to show people that healthy food can also be tasty, especially if prepared the right way.”

Chef Buhlebemvelo Mbontsi described cooking in the restaurant kitchen as “my peace, my place of joy”, saying at Zimnandi they offered something unique.

“Of course, people will always gravitate towards something new that may seem a bit strange to them. No other places offer what we do, so this place is proving popular.”

Daily Dispatch