Richard Johnson: ‘After weighing-out, I had tea, a biscuit and a couple of cocktail sausages’

The champion jockey on the temptations of Chocolate Buttons and how a hot tub and a bowl of peas helps him keep his weight down

For so many years, while he beat me to be champion jump jockey, my great rival AP McCoy’s intake seemed to consist entirely of fast food, cola and Kit-Kats, then nothing for three days.

I grew up on the family farm. As a child, before Sunday lunch, I remember going to the field with a little bucket and my dad digging the first baby potatoes from the bottom of a root. Then, come harvest, seeing 20 tons being carried off on a lorry.

Related: Richard Johnson: Coming second to AP McCoy? It hurt for many years