Elango Thiyagu is an investor and motivational speaker who helps people conquer their fears to reach their goals as a living. Yet at his heaviest he weighed 125kg, suffered from severe gout and hypertension and was told by his doctor that he was going to DIE. Elango went through a remarkable transformation, losing 43kg in 8 months. To date, he now works out twice a day, has scaled up Mount Kinabalu and has gone through the ACE Personal Trainer course and is awaiting his results !

(F: FIT & E: Elango)

F: When did you realize you were in trouble ( regarding your health )?

E: I have been in all sorts of deep trouble before. I was financially independant by age 23 yet I lost it all by age 24. After that, I threw myself into work and didn’t notice, or pretended not to notice that my weight was ballooning. It was when I couldn’t even walk – it hurt to put one foot in front of the other and my gout was so severe… My doctor told me I was going to die if I didn’t take any action.

F: You are a motivational speaker. So it must have been really easy then, to lose the weight ?

E: I am not going to say that it is easy. What I will say is that change is damn hard. What I did have on my side is that I know how the mind works. I was able to make that hard switch mentally, into believing that I can do it ! I can lose the weight, l can see myself as a fit and healthy person.
I didn’t just blink and became successful at losing weight overnight.
I prepared for losing weight by preparing myself mentally first. I read a lot. I took my time. I didn’t rush into crazy workouts.

F: Did you have a personal trainer to help you in your journey to lose weight ?

E: I am very happy to say that I had the help of many special people – Pui See, Jerome Fong, and Jonathan Tan to name a few.

F: So your success in losing weight is due to them ?

E: Pui See was my first personal trainer and she was truly very motivating and encouraging. However, at the time I engaged her, I was not 100% ready to change my behaviour. I was not 100% ready to adopt exercise and healthy living as a lifestyle. So it is so true to say that if you are not ready and fully committed there is only so much a personal trainer can do. You can pull a horse to water but you can’t make them drink it.

F: How did the other trainers you mentioned help you ?

E: When I met Jerome, I had lost a lot of weight but I was very flabby and had no idea about resistance training. I wanted Jerome to teach me about building muscle. But, I must admit, at that time I believed in so much fitness myths that he had a hard time with me. He was trying to teach me the right way into building muscle but I was more tempted to listen to myths and use shortcuts.
I have made many mistakes in my journey to losing weight. I have now done the ACE PT course and learnt so many facts and the correct way to train. It has made a great difference.
I now attend bootcamp run by Jonathan Tan, and I really benefit from the correct way of training.

F: Why did you take the ACE Personal Trainer course ?

E: To train myself properly ! Also, in my motivational talks, if the talks touch on health and fitness I can now speak facts, and with confidence !

My humble gratitude to all at FIT for providing high quality theory and practical training that is truly applicable. The dedicated trainers and staff makes the experience of learning even more conducive. I truly value the experience and knowledge I have gained.
For example, I met Simran Latif during my ACE PT class, who I heard about how he has helped people get fit. My admiration and respect grew as I attended his class in FIT. He has an interesting, simple and practical ways of teaching and down to earth. Now, I am using the ideas that he shared in the FIT course.

Note:- Pui See and Jerome Fong are both ACE Certified Personal Trainers and running their freelance Personal Training. Meanwhile, Jonathan Tan, who also an ACE certified Personal Trainer & Advanced Health & Fitness Specialist, he runs Sports Toto Fitness & Rebel Bootcamp.

(Just a minute before the blog is about to publish, Elango send FiT Malaysia a Facebook Message: “I couldn’t believe it when Jerican told me I passed. I thought he was just joking before giving me the “real” news. Anyway, glad la. ”
Congratulations to Elango, the newly ACE certified Personal Trainer!

You may Follow Elango via the below channel(s):-

Web site: http://www.AskMeHowNow.com
Add Elango on his Facebook: Elango Thiyagu & Like his Facebook page : Healthy Mind Body Workshop