According to a 2018 study, body image is a concern that hits Malaysians since their adolescent years. From their preteen years, Malaysian women with normal BMIs are more likely to perceive themselves as overweight compared to men. In order to pursue the perfect slim body, most women tend to go for meal replacements, miracle fat-loss products and extreme diets.
Sounds like a quick way to look fit, yes? However, TV personality Nana Al-Haleq says that fitness is a lot more than that. Read on to learn more about Nana, the stigmas she’s faced and the tips for fitness and self-love.
TV personality and fitness coach
Nana Al-Haleq is best known as a wellness coach for Hypertrophy, Advanced Hypertrophy and Fat Loss Specialisation from the Australian Strength Performance. She is also a TV host for a number of fitness shows, including Kami Geng FIT on Astro Prima. Nana said that “Fitness is not just about keeping fit, but about eating holistically. Training is not just for weight loss but for overall health.”
Entrepreneurial pursuits
The KL-native is also an entrepreneur for two ventures; Bodylab.co, a supplement company and Fit Sambal by Nana, a healthy sambal business. What’s amazing is that the recipe for her sambal is her own creation!
Nana shared that the sambal business came about when she prepared herself for a competition in 2016. Being a quarter Javanese, she couldn’t live without sambal and was miserable during the competition. Hence, she experimented with some ingredients that she had to make sambal and was caught by surprise when it tasted so good.
At first, she was content with sharing her sambal recipe with the clients she trained. Then around 2018, she started selling them through her online platform.
“Fitness is not just about keeping fit, but about eating holistically. Training is not just for weight loss but for overall health.”
Challenge as an entrepreneur
Nana confessed that she is still learning to be an entrepreneur. It is not an easy job or task to do as she has no experience in running a small business. She agreed that marketing is different when it comes to digital businesses. She shared, “I have to learn to edit videos, speak the digital lingo, look for the right Instagram posts - it is a skill that I am still learning.” She strives to continue giving her best to be a better entrepreneur.
Managing her time
Being a woman, Nana has a lot of responsibilities. She needs to make sure that she spends enough time on herself and for her jobs. Fortunately, for her, she has a manager who helps her out with her media engagement. She is also grateful for her business partner who divides the tasks for her sambal business with her. Her partner does the business operations such as managing and delivering the sambal while and she handles the marketing such as connecting with the consumers.
During the MCO and CMCO, she manages her time by doing work in the mornings and making time for herself in the evenings. She works on bodylab.co, cross-checks for sambal orders and edits content during in the day. After four in the evening, she does yoga, meditation and even some reading. Nana shared that yoga helped ease her past injuries sustained during training.
“I have to learn to edit videos, speak the digital lingo, look for the right Instagram posts - it is a skill that I am still learning.”
Treading the MCO
As a trainer, maintaining her fitness is a round-the-clock job even during the MCO this year. Nana made it a point to do simple stretches in the early mornings and before bedtime. She also shared that it was during the MCO in March this year that she could explore new ways of cooking healthier dishes from local produce like ulam and fish.
As she doesn’t have a mini gym at home, she explored body weight exercises instead. “The MCO was a chance for me to do the things I’ve pushed back a long time ago, like body weight exercises,” she said. Being a trainer with a huge following, she would do those body weight exercises live as a way to encourage her followers to keep fit. She confessed that the exercises were hard and intense so much so that she needed to massage her arms and calves to tend to the sore muscles after.
Doing as much as two live shows a day before the Ramadan season, Nana mentioned that her audience as a trainer - and in extension, as an entrepreneur too - grew bigger during the MCO. Her new followers were eager and enthusiastic for every live session as they wanted to adopt a healthier lifestyle.
Breaking away from the discrimination
Throughout her career as a fitness trainer, there were times when Nana faced discrimination from others. Her first and second year into her career were especially brutal. She was a trainer with a really fit physique – ripped and muscular. Anyone would be impressed but it was otherwise in regards to her. She constantly received hate mails due to her ethnicity.
Nana said, “I would get emails with trans photos from men saying, ‘As a woman you’re not supposed to look like this!’ ” She used to stand firm on her ground by stating that all women come in different shapes and sizes and they can look like whatever they please but the keyboard warriors still persisted with their taunts.
Now, she pays no attention to them and makes use of the settings available on social media to filter out the misogynistic, troll accounts. She makes use of her public social media accounts to project positive content, from her training tips to her businesses.
Tips to be fit
As a trainer, she has come across all kinds of reasons that people want to be fit, from doing it for vanity to exercising simply because they really like fitness. Nana said, “I would always ask my clients; do you want to be skinny to be with a boy or are you doing it for yourself?” She would often see that the latter brings a stronger conviction rather than doing it for another person. Once she and her client reach an understanding, they then map out a proper health plan.
Nana shared that, “Some people just want to lose weight in six weeks - that’s ridiculous!” Keeping fit is a lifetime process and it is important to monitor physical and mental health while doing so. She stressed that there is no one fitness solution catered for everyone. Every step needs to be customized for each person’s fitness and wellbeing.
Advice for new entrepreneurs
Her advice for new entrepreneurs is to attend business classes and learn from the bottom up. Due to the range of social media influencers these days, there are misconceptions popping up that it is easy to do business. Nana shared that managing a business is never easy.
New entrepreneurs must learn the ropes of running a business preferably from different teachers to have a wider business perspective. They can expect long hours to learn all the basics from scratch but it will all be important lessons to take in the long run.
How to love yourself
The journey to love oneself is akin to a trip on the highway - it may take forever but eventually you will reach your destination. Nana used to go through it herself. Growing up, she always felt disheartened about her appearance. “I started putting on makeup when I was 12 and I would force my mother to buy skincare products for me just so I didn’t look ugly,” she said.
It was only later that she learnt true happiness is in the heart and mind. “We are all born beautiful,” she emphasised. She advised that people must eliminate external voices such as advertisements and media portrayals of beauty to be really happy. Having a good support system also helps to give positive affirmations.
She recalled a conversation with a client once who wanted to get fit to get married, but she was scared that her husband would not like it. Nana told her not to question her partner’s love and instead, to put more effort into loving herself. The words of advice she shared with her were, “Love yourself and embrace your imperfections.”
One thing that Nana is grateful for these days is that the new generation of youths understand the importance of mental health and loving oneself. They embrace the idea of keeping fit mentally and physically at the same time. She views that as a hopeful sign for a society that cares for overall health and positive body image perception in the future.
Comments