New Year, New You: Drew Campbell and Ivy Leung from World Health Store
For the past three years, the World Health Store (WHS) has been making the capital a little bit healthier, and will make it even easier to keep your new year’s resolutions with mini-shops opening all around the city. Agenda sat down with founder Drew Campbell and Marketing Director Ivy Leung to muscle up on how to get healthy –and stay sane – in the upcoming year.
Why did you decide to open a health store in Beijing?
DC: I was exposed to the world of health and wellness at a very young age and I am a social entrepreneur who likes to create businesses that genuinely help people. I had 15 years of experience working in health focused firms such as GNC, and when I saw that there were no Western-style health stores in China, I set out to create one. It was an obvious decision from the get-go.
Why did you think China is a great market for health products?
DC: Between 1959 and 1969, 20 million people died from famine. Now, meat, milk and oil, sweets are all abundant, and one out of every 70 people in China is obese. What’s more, six to ten million people are set to join those ranks each year.
That being said, what I see and truly admire is that people here want to take control of their health. Five years ago, there were few gyms in Beijing; now they are uniformly spread across the city. People are definitely becoming more and more health-conscious.
IL: At our store, the proportion of Chinese customers has significantly increased and I think it is a result of Chinese consumers becoming more familiar with imported health products.
What do you tell people who are looking for quick solutions?
DC: If something sounds too good to be true, it usually is. I have tried many “fat loss pills” myself and not one of them has made a huge difference. There is no substitute for fat loss than what we have learned: a nutritious diet and regular exercise.
IL: I think we live in a quick-fix society where everyone wants everything now, but health is a long-term commitment. If you lose weight too quickly, you will most likely put the weight on fairly quickly too.
Any weight-loss tips?
DC: To stay healthy, we need to stick with a health program. My recommendation is to take it easy on yourself if you slip from the regular schedule and just get back into it without punishing yourself. Set realistic goals with realistic timelines.
IL: I think it’s about making a choice, starting something that brings you closer to your goal and being consistent. If you choose to become a healthier person, start by writing down the goals you want to achieve, like exercising again or eating five servings of vegetables and two servings of fruits a day. Then start an exercise that you enjoy, preferably with an exercise partner. You need to constantly remind yourself why you want to live a healthy life. It might be hard to make the change, but you will love the way you feel and look.
Do you have any tips for sticking to your exercise routine?
IL: I discovered a fun way to exercise on the weekend, and it is really cheap! It's called Heyrobics, and I have been going for months in Chaoyang Park. It is a form of aerobics from Sweden and it is so much more fun than traditional aerobics! It combines strength, sprints and agility exercises. In the winter, there are indoor locations in Chaoyang Gymnasium and in Renmin University.
DC: Make sure that your gym is close to you. My gym is not a five-star one, but it is close to my home so that going to the gym is not an inconvenience – it’s just part of my life.
Do you encourage people to take dietary supplements?
DC: Supplements bridge the nutrition gap of what our bodies are missing in our modern diet. In a busy city, many people are not eating a nutritious diet, and also, modern food does not perform as well as it did before. Tomatoes, for example, often taste watery and weak due to quick ripening techniques that encourage picking from the vine before maturing so that they last longer on supermarket shelves. Some studies in the West indicate that the nutrients in bananas have decreased by as much as 85 percent. So in today’s world, it is widely recommended to take some kind of supplement even if you have a perfect diet, as the raw ingredient in itself is not as robust as in the past.
How can you convince people to eat healthy when unhealthy food is so appetizing?
DC: There are appetizing healthy meals out there, especially in the Chinese diet. Steamed dishes instead of deep-fried, tofu instead of red meat, deep-green leafy vegetables instead of oily noodles and starchy white rice. It is doable. You just need to be committed to putting your health first.
Some people may dismiss raw food as unappetizing. However, our raw food chef, Jennifer McClelland, creates raw food recipes that are bountiful with health and taste. She has cultivated a following of raw foodies who have prioritized their health without sacrificing taste.
What’s your favorite product at WHS? What’s the weirdest weight loss trick you’ve ever heard about?
DC: I tried a technique that required consuming 25 fish oil pills a day. The rationale was that by overloading the system with Omega-3 fatty acids, you would get rid of the bad fat. It didn’t work and I ended up with fish oil breath for the day.IL: A weird trick that may actually work for some people is eating with your non-dominant hand – it should really slow you down when eating. It takes about 20 minutes for your stomach to tell your brain that it’s full – so when you slow down, you give it that time to recognize you’ve actually taken in some calories.
What is the most unusual product customers will find at WHS?
IL: The new Tanita Inner Scan. It uses bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) technology to scan for body fat percentage, bone mass, muscle mass, and your metabolic age, among others. This scan is now available for testing in both stores.
Where do you go to reward yourselves for always being so good?
DC & IL: For an indulgent night, there is no place like L’Isola. For a “zen” night, Pure Lotus is our top choice, and Q Bar’s outdoor patio has a great atmosphere and relatively smoke-free air. For massages, Kocoon Spa and Dragonfly are the best choices. Always clean and beautiful, they bring you an immediate sense of peace
Heyrobics See www.heyrobics.com
L’Isola 益顺客 Daily 11.30am-2.30pm, 6-11pm. 201, 2/F, Pacific Century Place, 2A Gongti Beilu, Chaoyang District (6539 3773) 朝阳区工体北路甲2号盈科中心2层201
Pure Lotus Daily 11am-11pm. Tongguang Bldg, 12 Nongzhanguan Nanlu, Chaoyang District (6592 3627, 8703 6669) 朝阳区农展馆南路12号(通广大厦内)
Q Bar Daily 5pm-2am. Top floor of Eastern Inn Hotel, 6 Baijiazhuang Lu (the south end of Sanlitun Nanlu), Chaoyang District (6595 9239) 朝阳区百家庄6号（朝阳门医院北门东100米）三里屯南路逸羽连锁酒店顶楼 www.qbareijing.com
Kocoon Spa Tue-Sun 11am-9.30pm (last appointment). Rm C301,3/F, North Bldg, Nali Patio, 81 Sanlitun Beijie (west side), Chaoyang District (5208 6068) 朝阳区三里屯北街西侧81号那里花园北楼3层C301室www.kocoonspalounge.com
Dragonfly 1) Daily 10am-1am. B1/F, Eastern Hotel, Nansanlitun Nanlu, Chaoyang District (6593 6066) 朝阳区朝阳区三里屯南路逸羽酒店1层 2) Daily 10am-1am. 1/F, Grand Summit Plaza, 19 Dongfang Donglu (100m north of Lufthansa Center), Chaoyang District (8532 3122) 朝阳区朝阳区燕莎桥东方东路19号外交会所1层（燕莎中心路北100米）3) Daily 10am-1am. 60 Donghuamen Ave (near The Peninsula Hotel and Oriental Plaza), Dongcheng District (6527 9368) 东城区东城区东华门大街60号(近王府饭店和东方广场)
World Health Store 1) Mon–Fri 10.30am-8pm, Sat-Sun 10am–7.30pm. Rm 2152, 1st Floor, Section A, North Tower, Soho Shangdu, 8 Dongdaqiao Lu, Chaoyang District (5900 2209, info@worldhealthstore.com.cn) 朝阳区东大桥路8号SOHO尚都北塔A座一层2152 2) Mon-Thur 10am-8pm, Fri and Sat 10.30am.8.30pm, Sun 10.30am-8pm. R09A, LB1, Euro Plaza, 99 Yuxiang Lu, Tianzhu Zhen, Shunyi District (8046 2524, info@worldhealthstore.com.cn) 顺义区天竺镇裕翔路99号欧陆广场地下一层09A www.worldhealthstore.com.cn
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