Ahh, the things we do for love … but of course, love takes many forms, sometimes with astonishing results.
Just a month ago, we brought to you the story of the amazing cosplay diet that had the Japanese internet buzzing. Now, there’s another young lady who achieved equally incredible results dieting — motivated by her love for a manga comic, no less. And we have to say our hats were off to her when we learned how she shed off the weight.
Nineteen year-old Mina Itabashi certainly attracted a good amount of attention across Japan when she appeared on national television last month, not just because she’s beautiful, but also because at one time she used to be 32-33kg (70-73lb) heavier — and amazingly enough, she says she lost all that weight by practicing her tennis swing!
The secret behind her weight loss? None other than the popular manga Tenisu no Ōjisama (“The Prince of Tennis”), which as you can guess from the title, features a cast of ridiculously good-looking young men playing tennis. Mina simply fell in love with the manga, so much so that she took up tennis and began a daily exercise routine of doing 300 practice swings each with both her right and left hand. Just imagine, 600 swings every day — now, that takes some serious dedication and perseverance!
As a result of the all hard practice, Mina’s weight, which was 76kg (168lb) when she started, dwindled to around 44kg (97lb). Now an undergraduate student at Nihon University’s College of Law, Mina actually also holds the distinction of being crowned last year’s Miss Nihon University (College of Law Division). Yup, she’s a bona fide college beauty queen!
Amazing what a little love of manga (or maybe in this case, loads of it) can motivate a girl to do, huh? All I can say is, she really must have loved the mange to stick to that training regimen long enough to lose 33kg. (And believe me, we girls know how much blood and sweat it takes to lose even just 1kg, much less 33kg.)
One thing’s for sure — she looks fantastic in these recent pictures:
photo: Miss Colle website
photo: Miss Colle website
photo: Miss Colle website
photo: Miss of Miss Campus Queen Contest 2012 blog
photo: Miss of Miss Campus Queen Contest 2012 blog
Looking at these pictures, it’s really not surprising that internet users have been impressed with Mina’s story and are commenting that she’s an inspiration to anyone trying to slim down — because if Mina was able to stay to motivated by her love for a comic and successfully lose weight using just a tennis racket, then the rest of us can hope too, right? The trick just may be finding something you love enough to keep up your motivation, since the hardest part of dieting is probably sticking to the regimen day after day. After all, that’s the power of love!
Source: My Game News Flash@JIN (Japanese)
Rakuhen (Japanese)
Top Image: Miss Colle website
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