not going to explode, so the worst thing that
can happen is that you’ll be in pain.’” And in
pain she was—initially. “The first 10 minutes
were agony, but I have to say that once I got
going it was fine.”
Surviving the ordeal made Sabrina even
more convinced by her coach’s belief in the
power of the mind over the body. “Whether
you’re an athlete, a mother or an executive
at a company,” says the Harvard graduate,
“it’s that same philosophy you need to apply.”
Sabrina’s analytical mind finds Coach AC’s
teaching more engaging than that of trainers
she has worked with in the past, as he explains
the benefits of each move before having
her execute them. Coach AC is also a purist:
listening to music or watching TV in the gym
are strictly forbidden. Sabrina generally works
out in silence, though motivational speeches
by athletes are allowed over the speakers—
Michael Jordan, whose portraits and quotes
adorn the walls of the gym, being a particular
favourite of Coach AC.
As well as guiding her exercise regime,
Coach AC also manages Sabrina’s diet. She
has a set of precise rules to eat by, and every
so often, when she is trying to achieve a
particular fitness goal, she will live off meal
boxes prepared by her coach that come in at
just 800 calories a day. “My intake is definitely
lower than my output,” she says matter-of-
factly as I boggle at how she is still standing
let alone about to tackle three hours of cardio.
Each gym session starts with a weigh-in, and
if Sabrina is even 0.1kg above where she is
meant to be, Coach AC will not allow her
to leave until she has shed the extra weight,
whatever intensity of exercise it takes.
When we meet for lunch, Sabrina is on
a meal-plan week and therefore unable to
sample the delights of the Landmark Atrium
cafe. Back when she started her regime, she
avoided such mealtime socialising on meal-
plan weeks, but today I marvel as she asks the
waiter to heat and plate the food in a little
plastic box she pulls from her immaculate
Delvaux handbag while simultaneously
ordering a bottle of red wine. “At first I went
through a soul-searching stage but now I’vebut it’s actually quite difficult to execute.”
Given that Sabrina has a demanding job as
managing director of the retail arm of the
Fung Group as well as being mother to three
children under 11, one imagines “difficult” to
be an understatement. “If you keep letting
meetings, lunches and other engagements take
priority, you will never get the workout done.
So, once I have one booked in, it doesn’t change
unless I have a board meeting. My secretary
knows now that nothing is more important
than my training.”
And just as other engagements are no
excuse, so too is a lack of equipment. Sabrina
can train anywhere, using anything. “If it’s a
hot day, for example, I will take advantage of
the weather, put on three layers of clothes and
run home. Actually, I did that twice yesterday.”
If she’s staying in a hotel with no gym, Sabrina
will select a bottle of wine from the minibar—
not for refreshment but to use as a weight
substitute for an in-room workout. On long
plane journeys, you will find her doing planks
on her seat, “and in the bathroom I’ll do little
lunges or dips, or I will put one of those rubber
bands around my ankles and pulse while I’m
watching a movie.”
The no excuses mantra has led to some
workouts so brutal they border on bonkers.
The toughest to date? “I’d say it was the run
I had to do right after I got stitches on both
my shins.” This came 40 hours after a plastic
surgeon had operated to repair bone-deep
lacerations sustained in a mishap while she was
jumping up metre-high steps during a workout.
“I then had to climb 1,800 steps up a mountain
in the driving rain in the New Territories.”
The doctor, while not forbidding it, was
disapproving, as was her driver—“he’s seen
me doing some pretty hardcore exercise but
that day he was worried.” She let her husband,
Kevin, think she was simply going to receive
treatment for her cuts. “I told him afterwards
but he would just have thought I was crazy,”
she laughs.
So what compelled her up that mountain?
“It was in the schedule. And this is typical
Coach. He said, ‘You know that your feet are
still attached to your body and the stitches are“At first I went through a soul-searching stage but
now I’ve found the balance. I drink two or three
glasses of wine a day, and when I’m not on a
meal-plan week, I eat everything”
174 hong kong tatler. september 2017