For better or worse, newlyweds Charlene and Eric Sutherland vowed to lose weight together. They just didn’t anticipate how much fun it would be.
At a total of 480 pounds—200 pounds for her, 280 pounds for him—Charlene and Eric had resigned themselves to being hefty. “We’d been heavy all of our lives, and diets never worked, so we stopped taking our weight problem seriously,” Charlene recalls.
Still, as Christmas 1997 rolled around, the 24-year-old Toronto couple dreaded their families’ weight-directed comments that were sure to come. So they bought a scale. Shocked by what it said, they felt that they needed to lose weight. This time, they would try exercise.
But a dilemma surfaced instantly. “We really wanted to do this together. We just didn’t see eye-to-eye on how—not at first, anyway Charlene says. “I like aerobics and lifting weights, but I hate gyms. I wanted to work out in front of the TV. But Eric gets bored. He’s more of a sports guy.”
Fortunately, the newlyweds found a creative compromise: dancing. In reminiscing about his dancing days with friends, Eric remembered that cutting a rug had cut back his weight during his university days.
But neither Charlene nor Eric wanted to return to the smoky bar scene, so they transformed their living room into a dance hall. Pushing aside the coffee table, the duo jammed to the fast-paced tunes of their favorite 1980s and 1990s bands for an hour every night.
“Dancing satisfied Eric’s need to do something interesting and my need to avoid health clubs,” Charlene explains. Their team approach worked so well that they decided to apply it to their eating habits. Together, they gave up junk food and soda, and they trimmed the fat content of their meals.
A year later and a collective 115 pounds lighter, this couple is ready to resize their wedding rings.
WINNING ACTION
Drop pounds as a pair. If your spouse needs to slim down, too, why not do it together? It will be more fun, and it may bring you even closer together. Dancing is an ideal activity for couples, but if it doesn’t appeal to you or your spouse, find something that you both like. Compare lists of your favorite activities or browse class offerings at your local YMCA or health club to see if something piques your and your spouse’s interest
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