When I was young, I suffered from severe sinusitis and was not the healthiest kid. I had no sense of smell and a very bland sense of taste until I was 8 years old. I became that kid who was always at home, never going out and always sleeping. My mom told me I would be suffocating during the night and that I would wake up 12-16 times screaming.
After being stuck at home continuously, I realised the importance of taking care of my body. That I should look after what I eat, how much I exercise and how I should treat my body. Realising this, I started working with my parents to sustain a new supplement program. I began to eat better, exercising a lot more and started to really take good care of my body.
After more than a year of persistence, my sinusitis started clearing up. Til this day, I still remember the moment when I could gradually smell, it was an unforgettable night for both me and my mum.
On that fateful night, my mum had made sweet and sour pork and for the first time ever I was able to smell something good. I told her it tasted out of this world and my mum instantly broke into tears. For me, this is where it all began. This is when I became fascinated with health-based science which would eventually play a big role in my life.
This connection to health and science along with my own personal story led me to Sydney University, where I studied Science majoring in Nutrition and Physiology. I really wanted to analyse the human body and I wanted to know how it works from the inside out not outside in. I also pursued my personal training career by becoming a fully qualified PT and instructor, teaching around Sydney.
Shortly after I was qualified, I started Healthy Playbook, a blog which seeks to help people with their health, lifestyle and training. I wanted to help train and coach people on their fitness journey. That’s when I came up with my health based philosophy of Health Mastery. My tagline for the Healthy Playbook is to ‘conquer your health’.
With most people, their health is such a battle and to conquer it is to deflate it completely and be on top of it. I began to apply this to my clients and nothing makes me happier when results actually began to show. After developing an array of success with clients, it is evident that the key to Health Mastery is the individual. I discovered that I can only provide people with advice, it is up to the individual to take control and work on it.
In terms of our understanding and perspective to our health, most of us are one-directional. What we do is we get sick, take medicine and antibiotics thinking it will help us out. While medication work, I think we should be open to a two-directional approach. Instead of waiting to be sick, we should be doing something to reduce our chances of getting sick in the first place. That’s my philosophy, that prevention is more important from a long term perspective and this has to be established through a lifestyle.
I want to let the readers of ECX to ask themselves, how’s my health today? A lot of us don’t want to admit we have problems and a lot of us think we are invincible. But do you know how your health’s going to be in 5, 10, 15 or 20 years time? The question for you guys is what you are doing about it? Are you eating properly, supplementing properly, exercising properly, and eating properly.
What are you doing to look after yourself? A lot of us sacrifice our health to gain wealth, but at the end of the day, without your health, you can’t enjoy your wealth. So I want to leave you guys with one thing before we finish off today. How much do you value your health and what do you really want to do today to make sure you are in control of your health.
Words by Allen Fu
Allen Fu started The Healthy Playbook to inspire others to make correct decisions on their health backed by evidence-based research. Be sure to follow Allen’s journey on ECX in building the philosophy of Health Mastery and his new venture Hustle Nation.
Journo for ECX Magazine
