Food was their passion, and their problem: how overweight couple lost 59kg in a year and ran a half marathon
- She was a 91kg bride, then a 111kg hermit, while he was 113kg and flirting with diabetes, when they took on a 10-day ‘lean and tone’ challenge
- They learned about wise meal portions and healthy food choices, and began exercising; key to their success has been the support of friends
When Mick Tsang and Tina Choi committed to losing weight after years of overindulgence, mutual support and the help of their fitness community made all the difference.
The Hong couple met 18 years ago at the printing company where they worked, and have been married for eight years. Their mutual infatuation with food helped bring them together, but started to weigh on them, literally. “After dating, we shared the same habits including eating … we ate out a lot and our weight started to increase,” recalls Tsang.
Choi struggled to shake off the surplus pounds, losing weight with diet pills only to have it return. At her wedding in 2010, she tipped the scales at 91kg (200lb).
Meanwhile, the groom’s weight had hit more than 95kg. “By then I developed lifestyle conditions like diabetes, high cholesterol and high blood pressure,” Tsang recalls. Eventually his wife developed the same problems. The pair began taking daily medication to manage their chronic ailments.
Matrimonial bliss melted into contentment and they continued eating. For Choi, that meant wolfing down meat and three bowls of rice in a single sitting and drinking four colas with each meal.
There were constant reminders of their weight. On flights, Choi needed a belt extender. “I couldn’t unfold the table because my body took up so much room,” she says. Finding clothes that fit her was problematic. Eventually, she began to live a hermit-like existence, watching TV dramas and eating processed food.