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Lee and Leanne Tandem: Dangerous Temptations

I started with Lee and Leanne Tandem. They live with their son, Adam, and six-month-old daughter, Maisy, near Pontypridd in the Rhondda Valley of Wales. Lee works full-time, while Leanne is currently on maternity leave. Both are in their thirties and both are worried about their health. Like the majority of us, they try to eat well. But the combination of a hard-working, busy lifestyle and the temptations of fast food and convenience foods is strong.

“Leanne and I met in a weight-loss group,” Lee said. “We were both doing really, really well. I’d lost almost 30 pounds, and Leanne had lost more than 40. And then we got together, and we got too comfortable, with cozy nights in with carryout and chocolate in front of movies. Well, as for me, I’ve put it all back on and more. We’re both to blame, really,” he admitted. “We’d both be slim now if we hadn’t met, probably!”

Leanne agrees. “You know how it is. You start feeling a bit comfortable with each other. We started eating more fast food and not really sticking to plan. It kind of escalated from there, really. Our lifestyle isn’t very good. To be fair, we could probably do with a bit more exercise.”

“I’ve got a very bad relationship with food,” Lee admits. “Food is something I’ve enjoyed very much—maybe too much—from quite a young age. I suppose food was my first love.”

It’s not that the Tandems can’t cook. They can, and they do rustle up whole meals from scratch. (I watched Lee make some delicious looking egg salad sandwiches.) It’s just that, like so many of us, they regularly fall back on the easier options.

Pulling out items from the Tandem’s freezer, Lee showed me a few of the processed foods they buy. “Hash Browns, Turkey drumsticks, ice cream bars… We eat a lot of processed foods—not proud of it. I like processed food, don’t get me wrong, but it’s not good, and I don’t like giving it to the kids. I like to . . .” and here he had to stop and take a breath. “I’m a bit out of breath just from bending over and wrestling with the packaging. It’s not good.”

Leanne and Lee can cook, but like many of us, life often gets in the way of a healthy diet. Their story definitely spurred me on my journey of discovery. Lee also confided that health problems run in his family. “My father’s side of the family, there’s diabetes, and my dad suffers from angina, on top of a ton of other things. My mom’s had two heart attacks over the last 10 years. I just feel like I could be a bit of a ticking time bomb. I could have a heart attack any day, and I really need to do something to make sure I don’t. My lifestyle has to change.”