By Lee-Lim Ai Ping, WBC Coach

 

The mood at Studio 1 of PenangPac that Saturday morning was encouraging, cheery, and full of energy, as participants of Warrior’s Operation Transformation 3.0 streamed in for their final weigh-ins. The dedicated participants took their final body measurements, completed their heart rate and plank hold tests, and capped it off with a final “after” photograph.

            

A total of 22 participants completed Warrior’s third installation of Operation Transformation that ran for 8 weeks from 16 April- 11 June 2016. Through this nutrition and weight management program, they gained an extensive amount of knowledge about proper diet, nutrition, and exercise. There was also a focus on learning the mental skills necessary to change thoughts and behavior, thus leading to a sustainable healthy lifestyle.

 Many participants had realized that they needed a change in their lifestyles, after developing bad eating and sleeping habits due to lack of time and stress. Some had just wanted to learn how to be healthier, and to develop better sports performance. A few participants had thought that they already knew the right foods to eat, yet were not seeing any results from going on traditional “diets”. After the program, they realized that proper nutrition also included factors such as cutting down alcohol consumption, portion control, and eating many small meals in a day, instead of using calorie restriction and starving themselves like they were used to. The benefit of this was that during the program, the participants did not constantly feel hungry or have any cravings because their bodies were well-nourished.

 Operation Transformation 3.0 was the perfect example of how the Warrior motto “Commit, Focus, Believe, Achieve” was put into action.

Commit: One of the participants travelled all the way to Penang island from Butterworth several times a week to attend Warrior training and to participate in this program. Her exemplary commitment to bringing about change to her life was also mirrored by the other participants who committed to the full 8 weeks of the program.

Focus: The participants were made to focus on obtaining the proper nutrition by completing a food diary which was personally followed-up with by a coach. The support of the group was also instrumental in keeping everyone in check, and many delicious healthy recipes were shared among everyone. These recipes became so popular that they are now being compiled into a Warrior Recipe Book! (Submissions welcome!)   

Believe: During the final plank hold test, one of the participants was brought to tears after managing to achieve a previously impossible 2-minute plank. That morning itself at the Warrior Fitness Assessment, she had only managed a 1 minute 20 second plank (thus not being able to qualify for the orange band), but with the encouragement and support of Coach Kelvin, this time she managed to hit the 2-minute mark. Later on, during a group challenge to hold a 3-minute plank, she could be heard passing on this motivation to the other participants, urging them to “hold their cores tight”. It was this kind of support, motivation, and camaraderie that most participants cited as the main factor for success in achieving their goals.

                 

Achieve: Almost of all the participants achieved their individual goals, be it to lose weight or to run faster. Besides the great physical results, there was also a great shift in everyone’s mental strength and resilience. Over the course of the program, they cultivated new healthy eating, sleeping, and exercising habits, thus leading to more balanced and happier lifestyles.

 

A big kudos to all the participants and their tremendous efforts! It was inspiring to see how far everyone had come in just 8 weeks. Most of all, as big thank you to all the coaches who invested their time and effort into personally coaching and advising the participants.

               

Operation Transformation 4.0 will be starting this October, so if you are looking for a change in your life, watch this space!

 

Commit, Focus, Believe, Achieve!