Chapter 10: The Battle between Choi and the Weighing Scale

There was an increase in the number of overweight and obese working adults in Singapore. Worried that this scenario will translate into an increase in the number of diabetes, high blood pressure and stroke patients, the country advised companies to step in to promote a healthy working environment for their employees.

The Health Promotion Board was organizing a programme known as Fitness @ Work in the Financial Business District, which consisted of forty minutes of workout sessions one evening every week, at the Singapore River Promenade. That was one great venue for working out where participants could enjoy the vista of the Singapore River while trying to bend over and reach their toes, and tourists could marvel at the sight of our men and ladies hopping and stretching while they enjoy their coffee by the river.

Our company sent out mass emails to everybody about this healthy programme and urged all to participate. In the email, it had a italic note stating that the generous Health Promotion Board will be rewarding participants with goodies such as sports towels and sports bottles for every four sessions of participation. Oh, limited editions of Fitness @ Work sports bottles! How motivating!

“Hey Beng, do you want to join me to the Fitness @ Work workout session this evening?”
“Yah, okay Choi.”
“Okay, I’ll give you a shout one hour before the event to remind you.”

Five minutes before the workout session, my MSN Messenger popped out. I had got a message from Choi.

“hey, can’t go for the workout. Gotta finish a report by today. Sorry”

For the next few weeks, Choi made the effort to invite me for the workout session every week but failed to reserve some effort to actually attend it.

As part of the nationwide Workplace Health Promotion Programme, our company had collaborated with a healthcare group to provide free health screening for all employees. From the conversation among the secretaries that I heard while making coffee in the pantry, it seemed like the participation from our company for that Fitness @ Work workout session was pathetically low. Apparently our company felt that since the limited editions of sports towels and sports bottles could not motivate us, perhaps we needed somebody to tell us straight into our faces how dangerously unhealthy we were so that we could start exercising.

Rose marked a morning on our calendars for the free health screening. Obediently, our whole team, except Dawn who was pregnant, exchanged our breakfasts for the chance to find out how unhealthy we were. When we entered the huge office reserved for this health screening exercise, we saw a couple of tables with white table clothes and each seated with a stern looking lady dressed in white next to a cold looking equipment. It was amazing how this medical group had successfully decorated an empty office and transformed it utterly to look like a hospital.

After a simple registration, and visits to the washrooms to return with our urine samples, we were all set to be examined.

From table to table, I answered some questions, got my finger pricked and achieved a couple of scribbles and ticks on my health report card. Blood glucose level? Okay. Blood pressure? Okay. Cholesterol level? Okay. Then I arrived at the last table. I stood on the scale while the plump lady took down my height and weight readings carefully. We sat back at the table and she did some furious tapings on the calculator, and then looked up at me. Solemnly.

“Mr. Tan, your Body Mass Index is twenty-four, so you’re slightly overweight,” Ms. Plump Lady chided. I wondered how she will look at our Choi and his paunch.

“I suggest that you should exercise more.”
“Er… but I’m already running and doing weights three times a week.”
“Oh… then are you eating a lot of rice and meat?”
“No, not really. I’m a light eater and I take more vegetables than meat.”
“Oh… okay… then could you please proceed to my colleague standing over there so that she can take your body fat percentage measurement?”

Standing at one corner was a slender lady holding on to a black clipper that looked like some kind of torture equipment that will release electric current to burn any fat it detected. She tried her very best to pull as much flesh as she could from my triceps, held on to them using the black clipper and noted down the reading shown on a panel on the black clipper. This painful process was repeated for my back and waist.

“Mr. Tan, your body fat percentage is eighteen,” Ms. Slender Lady smiled.
“So am I good?”
“Yes, you’ve got a healthy body fat percentage for your age.”

When everybody was back at the office, we exchanged and looked at each other’s health report card.

“KZ, you sure are healthy!” exclaimed Nicky.
“Eat vegetables,” replied KZ.
“Hmm… my cholesterol level is slightly high. Maybe I should take more vegetables as well,” mused Rose.
“Wow Nicky, you’re pretty healthy for a sedentary guy,” commented Sally.
“Of course girl, I swim every week!” Nicky grinned.

Then I realized that Choi was looking slightly uncomfortably at his health record card.

“Choi, you okay pal?” I nudged Choi.
“Yeh,” Choi managed a tepid smile. “Just got a slightly high blood pressure.”
“Don’t worry. If it’s not very high, you can still try to bring it back down.”
“And a slightly high Body Mass Index, and a slightly high body fat percentage.”
“Friend, these are the testimonies to your voracious fondness for good food.”
“Haha… right. And my lack of exercise.”

For the next few weeks, Choi tried to include less meat and more vegetables in his diet. He finally made the effort to run once a week too. But only for that few weeks.

Following the free health screening, our company sent an email to every employee regarding a corporate discount programme it had started with the popular CF Gym. The CF Gym was offering each employee a two weeks free pass to its gym near to our office, and an attractive discount for its membership if we decided to sign up. From the conversation among the secretaries that I heard while making coffee in the pantry again, it seemed like the free health screening revealed that majority of the employees were considered overweight. Apparently our company was concerned with the unhealthy image it was portraying to the public.

“Hey Beng, aren’t you a member of CF Gym?” Choi asked avidly.
“Yah.”
“How about I join you to the gym for the next two weeks?”
“Sure, why not?”

On the first evening that we went to the gym, a physical trainer was assigned to take care of Choi. Choi looked slightly discomfited going through the same body fat percentage and blood pressure measurement again and having somebody telling him how unhealthy he was again.

A fitness consultant, a.k.a. sales manager, then joined the physical trainer and tried out his entire repertoire on Choi with all the talks about how risky it was to be overweight and all the talks about how joining the gym will help him to lose weight safely. Eventually, after an hour, Choi was convinced that he needed a new gym membership to start a new healthy life so he signed up a year’s membership.

A couple of free training sessions with that physical trainer were thrown in for Choi, and for about a month, Choi had a chance to reminisce the Basic Military Training during his National Service.

“Okay, let’s add another ten pounds!”
“Mr. Choi, let’s do one more set of squats today!”
“Nine… ten… come on, just five more! You can do it!”

For the first two months, Choi religiously had his workout at the gym a couple of times each week. Then for the next one month, he went for his workout once a week. Then he went for his workout once a month. Then once every few months. Then he stopped.

One day, Choi came over to my desk with a glass of yellowish colored water.

“Dude, try this!”
“I’m not trying anything until you tell me what this is,” I rejected.
“Organic apple cider vinegar.”
“And I’m supposed to become even smarter after drinking this?”
“Yeh right,” Choi raised an eyebrow. “It’s a popular diet drink that’s tried and proven by Hollywood stars.”
“I don’t suppose this piece of information comes from any medical journal?”
“I heard it from the conversation among the secretaries when I was making coffee in the pantry. They said it’s totally natural and there won’t be any side effect, so I guessed why not give it a try?”

For the next few weeks, Choi went on a low fat diet supplemented with that organic apple cider vinegar. For that few weeks at four o’clock everyday, Choi walked around grumbling about his hunger, Dawn tried offering him some biscuits, and he rejected it and insisted on staying on his diet program. Then another few weeks later, Choi stopped walking around and grumble about his hunger. The bottle of organic apple cedar vinegar on his desk disappeared too.

From the Fitness @ Work workout sessions to the organic apple cider vinegar, Choi managed to lose five kilograms and his blood pressure was back to normal. Not a bad achievement after all, I would say.