Last quarter, Fitness First partnered with a couple of bloggers to award to a lucky few engaged-couples, deemed to have shared the best stories, a chance to try its exclusive weight loss program, Lose It!—which helps individuals lose up to 10lbs. in 4 weeks. Gianna and Carsten are among two couples who have since completed the program, which can help members stay healthy, be more energized, or fit into that ideal dress size just in time for their most special day.
Even with wedding day being around the corner, every couple has different motivation triggers. “Fitness and health has always been part of our lifestyle,” said Gianna. Since becoming a couple around two years ago, they’ve seemingly never stopped going through first-time experiences together. Having each other to draw encouragement from, they have gone swimming with Donsol’s whale sharks; surfing Baler’s waves; hiking Mount Pinatubo in Zambales, Mount Kanlaon in Negros Oriental, and the Wohushan Great Wall in Beijing.
With that kind of love for the great outdoors, the couple welcomed the opportunity to kick their usual exercise regimen up a notch with Fitness First’s program and facilities—similarly drawing inspiration from each other throughout. “We really enjoyed working out at Fitness First because its facilities are clean and well-maintained; it has more exercise equipment and strength-training machines than our previous gym; and its trainers knew exactly what they were doing and were very helpful,” said Gianna. “Equally important was how we were able to go through Lose It! together. While the program especially helps with losing the last stubborn inches or pounds, having each other there and our choice of adventurous lifestyle—demanding us to be fit!—served to be our bigger push which, for us, helped take the focus off the numbers. Being skinny does not necessarily equate to being fit after all, and so we made sure to go to Fitness First at least four times weekly for four weeks and are very happy with our resulting BMIs.”
Said Mark Ellis, Fitness First Country Manager, “The Lose It! Program was designed by Dave Nuku—Fitness First Regional Fitness Manager and one-time Blue Team trainer for The Biggest Loser Asia contestants—to be flexible and customized, based on an individual’s weight-management goals and frequency of gym visits. This way, one ‘sees the finish line’ and is reminded that fitness is a personal decision, backed by commitment and putting in the work. At the end of four weeks, participants would have not only reached their desired fitness level but use what they have learned to maintain it.”
By example, Gianna and Carsten can only inspire other couples to make that lifelong commitment to fitness. “Even when we’re flying to Bangkok for my best friend’s wedding, or driving 1,300km through the Gobi Desert, or taking a 30 hour trans-Mongolian train from Beijing to Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia—all these, seizing life’s opportunities, require stamina! If life is a so-called endurance sport, we’d like to be up for it. So you could say fitness and adventure simply go hand-in-hand for us. It does look like seeing new places and doing new things are what our married life is going to be like so we want to always be fit and ready at a moment’s notice,” said Gianna.
Another engaged couple—Madz Malaki and Ferdie King—happened to already be Fitness First members upon being awarded, via this blogger promotion, the Lose It! program. Asked about how they got engaged, Madz described how Ferdie secretly orchestrated a champagne dinner on a sandbar at El Nido in Palawan. Adding to the romance were actual fireworks accompanying his popping the question!
That same kind of thoughtful planning is evident in their concern for each other’s state of health and fitness. Lose It! complemented their existing gym membership in helping ease the ongoing transition to new roles and accompanying expectations. Said Madz, “It’s good to know where one is headed, and that rings equally true when one is in a gym and confronted with a wide selection of exercise classes and fitness equipment. And so being enlisted in this weight-loss program did put the target in our line of sight, gave us that extra kick to stick with the plan. At the same time, that plan had the flexibility to accommodate trainer-assisted routine switches to keep us fully engaged.”
Madz added that showing up regularly for exercise helped clear her head on personal goals, and cut out the stress-eating that used to be part of her workdays. “It was never really just about shedding the extra inches or pounds for me which, happily, the program already took care of. More than wanting to fit better into clothes or be in the best shape possible in time for my wedding, my bigger motivation was to be physically and mentally ready for the new chapter in my life.”
For these couples, it’s about putting in the work to be fit for the journey, both literally and figuratively speaking. Short-term goals—weight-management related or not—serve the lifelong commitment to take on life as partners, and on their own terms.
