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Fitness was perceived as a “necessary burden” to Nadia Suprakash in her youth years. “This was exacerbated by the fact that I was never lean-bodied. Setbacks in my relationships then eroded my self-confidence and fuelled a warped perspective about being fit. Consequently, I became so relentless in trying to lose weight and achieve that ‘perfect body’ that I developed an eating disorder,” said the 31-year-old who is in sales and marketing.

At the age of 17, Nadia fell prey to bulimia – an eating disorder that involves a cycle of binging and purging – that plagued her for the next decade. A toxic relationship where she was often compared to other “hot girls” spiralled her bulimia into a worse state as she foolishly tried to meet his superficial expectations.

When this toxic ex eventually cheated on her, the bouts of emotional and physical damage landed her in hospital. Thankfully she ended the relationship and told herself she would work on her recovery.

Today, everything has changed for the better for Nadia. She joined a HIIT gym and the fast-paced and ever-changing workouts became something she looked forward to doing, not for the sake of losing weight.

“I found a strong and safe mutual support ecosystem at my gym and through my interaction with many like-minded individuals on similar journeys, my perspective on fitness has matured,” she said.

“Now I see it as a lifestyle and not one to please society. I’m more motivated, I eat better, I make smarter and more sustainable lifestyle choices. Moreover, I’ve learnt to love myself and my body. I am cognizant that I am a work in progress. Fitness is a journey for me and I will love, savour and enjoy every moment of it.”

In the past, she used to be impatient and would get upset easily if she did not see results fast enough. “I used to base the success of my fitness journey on the weighing scale instead of overall health. I had many bad days, so it took me a while to incorporate patience and consistency before I was able to not only see, but also feel the results,” she added.

There are easy shortcuts to losing weight but there are no shortcuts in fitness. It is all about consistency and commitment, a lifestyle that you embrace and embed into your daily life.

“There is no definition of fitness and how a fit person should look like. I love my body and I will advocate that everyone is beautiful. As long as you are physically fit and mentally resilient, you are in the best shape and form of your life. Skinny does not equal to being fit!

“My greatest fitness achievement is becoming the best version of myself. It is the ability to look at myself in the mirror every day and love the person I am seeing – loving myself for being physically stronger, mentally more resilient and being that much more self-aware.”

*This #FitForAll series is brought to you by Rock The Naked Truth x HUAWEI, with the objective of promoting inclusivity for fitness. Fitness is for all and fitness looks different on everyone.

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While some people struggle to try and lose weight, others like Noor Ashikin Aziz struggled to gain weight. “At 1.78m, I was a scrawny 50kg at my lightest and never got above 55kg until I reached 39,” said the 50-year-old founder of sports performance wear PURPOSE.

Attributing it to his high metabolic rate, Noor remembers growing up as an outcast because he “just didn’t look cool enough.” He recalls, “Being too thin when I was young put me at a disadvantage, especially for a guy. When I became outcasted, I ended up spending more of my time running and that led to more weight loss, making things worse.”

Although Noor represented his school in athletics – 400m, 800m and 1500m – up to Junior College where he also played rugby, he thought that most of his sporting achievements were attained later in his 20s because he was a late bloomer. In hindsight, he realised it was because he was denied the opportunity to show what he can do when he was younger due to being shunned by others.

He ran for the Police Club in the 5,000m and 10,000m events during National Service and also picked up mountain biking when he first started working, but eventually he stopped sports because he wanted to focus on his career.

For a good part of his working life from his mid-20s to mid-30s, Noor was climbing the corporate ranks – at one point in his role as Executive Creative Director in an advertising agency, he was managing a regional team of 75 people. With his career progressing well, it simply took over his life.

Then somewhere in his late 30s, his love for endurance sports returned when he picked up running again. He also got back to cycling and soon found himself in duathlons and over time, in triathlons where he had to learn how to swim. “I also realised in order to gain weight, I needed to switch my regime to do less of the high endurance stuff and more time in the gym building strength and muscle,” he said.

While he was trying his hand at Ironman 70.3 triathlons, Noor was trying to find apparels that will help his problem of sweating too much during his runs and rides. Seeing this as a weakness that affected his performance, he remembers how uncomfortable he would get when the clothes get soaked in sweat and pulls down on him as he is trying to focus on running or riding.

“That was when I made up my mind to be daring and start my own company PURPOSE to design triathlon, cycling and running apparels that are made to deal with the heat and humidity of Southeast Asia,” he explained.

The PURPOSE community is made up of professional athletes with world records as well as recreational athletes who enjoy pushing their limits. “There is a misconception that when a person does sports, you have to excel very well in it. I think we should be celebrating the fact that you are doing it and daring to do it.”

*This #FitForAll series is brought to you by Rock The Naked Truth x HUAWEI, with the objective of promoting inclusivity for fitness. Fitness is for all and fitness looks different on everyone.

Noor is wearing the latest #HUAWEIWatchFIT that has many features to aid you in your fitness goals – for just $148. Click here for more details!