“I want to be able to have children”
Xem Tiếng Việt 
California Fitness helps 10 people become the person
they’ve always dreamed of being
HCMC, Vietnam; 20 July 2020: California Fitness & Yoga today announced the ten winners of its inaugural Body Transformation Challenge Scholarship program. Each program, valued at 90 million VND, will include a six-month membership and unlimited Private Training sessions to each of the winners.
The BTC scholarship aims to make the dreams of these ten winners come true. The program is potentially life-changing for some of their pressing health challenges, and certainly life-enriching for them all.
“We’re not looking to just transform bodies. We are looking to transform lives,” said Mr. Dane Fort, Chief Executive Officer of FLG Vietnam, the parent company of California Fitness & Yoga. “We saw throughout the applications that people were finding that their dreams were stymied by their weight. Some applicants lacked the confidence to pursue their dream job, some suffered verbal abuse from family and friends and others lived with life impairing conditions resulting from excess weight such polycystic ovaries, diabetes or depression.”
“Hundreds of people reached out to us because they are looking in the mirror every day and not enjoying who they are seeing. They want to be a better version of themselves. Our mission is to help them accomplish that”.
Nhung Tran of California Fitness & Yoga leads the scholarship program and said that there was a focus on empowering people at the brink of severe medical conditions. “Polycystic ovaries – a disease that prevents women from having children; prevention of diabetes which impacts almost six million people in Vietnam of the population and prevention of depression were some of the main aspects we took into considerations when choosing our finalists.”
Ho Chi Minh City resident Ms. Kim Phuong is one such finalist, whose preliminary measurement came up with a dangerously high 40 percent body fat, and who further suffers from hepatitis.
“I want to be a role model for my children. I hate them coming home to an overweight mother, I want them to look at me and see proof that they should live lives based around health and wellness and that they can achieve anything that they put their mind to, no matter how hard it may seem.”
Ms Thu Binh of Hanoi has long nursed a crush on her dream guy, but shyness over her body image has always meant that she is too shy to come forward and share her feelings with him. She hopes that the BTC makes an all new, more confident Binh that walks right on up to him, professes her feelings, and walks away in a new relationship with the man she wants.
Hanoian Ms. Thu Phuong said that she had been overweight her entire life, and that her family encouraged her to enter the Scholarship competition, and her parents are even offering prizes for her results. She has set a target of 25 kilograms to lose over the course of her scholarship.
The most ambitious target belonged to Mr Huy Cuong who weighed in at 110 kilograms with 38% body fat. He has set himself a target weight of 70 kg – a huge 40 kilogram weight loss commitment. Cuong works in a talent management firm where he is surrounded by some of the nation’s most beautiful people, and where the demands of travel and long days are currently proving too taxing for his health and fitness.
Job challenges were also a key motivator for CFY’s only foreign finalist. Frenchman Jean-Jacques whose fluent Vietnamese has made him quite the hit at the quán nhậu of his adopted hometown of Saigon. Long nights at the wrong end of a beer glass have turned into mornings spent nursing a sore head instead of a healthy body. It’s time for him to turn belly-building into body-building.
Often their dreams were quite simple. 75-kilogram Ms. Kieu Phung reports bouts of depression and anxiety over her body image, and dreams only of being able to fit into a beautiful dress, preferably size 8, if she’s able to achieve her 55-kilo target weight.
“What makes California Fitness special is not only our training and facilities but our staff to inspire and motivate people. I usually call our staff ‘Dream-makers’, they help more people every day than I can count,” said Dane. And he’s not afraid of giving a little incentive himself either: “If Phung can hit that target, I’ll take her shopping and buy her that dream-dress myself!”
All of the ten finalists reported years of failed attempts at weight-loss, with their stories including unused gym memberships, medically dangerous appetite suppressant pills, weight-loss shakes that occasionally led to some short-term success, only to see the kilos pile right back on the next month.
“With the BTC we are aiming to give these winners a six-month program that helps them hit their goals and achieve their dreams, but more importantly, establish a series of new habits that stay with them throughout their lives. This, we hope, will create a new – fun and healthy – lifestyle that will last for years to come”, Dane said.
