Project Change started out as a bet between friends at work.

I was walking through City of Dreams in Manila, Philippines. Dom Lau was walking by me, I said hi and told him I had an idea. I would bet him $100usd that I could get in better shape than him during our upcoming break from work. It was going to be 6 weeks until our next event. As we went through the event rehearsal, I told other people what we were doing and tried to recruit more to raise the stakes. Olivier, Ric, Bashir, Ashley and Bo said YES! I knew I was on to something.

Olivier put together a group chat and started an FB page. The enthusiasm grew and people were motivated to start working out. I said when I win, I would give away all the money to charity as a challenge to compete for something greater than myself. Olivier said “me too” and just like that we had a charity raising foundation built around getting into better shape. We started posting about the journey we were about to go on and said other people could join in on the fun. Through the power of social media and the internet, more and more people wanted to join. I knew I needed a place to keep the money. I looked all over the web and settled on a Go Fund Me page.

Just before the challenge started, the country of Laos was hit by a disaster. A small town in southern Laos was destroyed by a flood which happened when a dam burst. I didn’t want to wait until the challenge was over to donate. The funds were badly needed. The group agreed, and I donated $250sgd to a rescue group in Laos. The Vientiane Rescue Team was part of the mission to help the junior Thai soccer team that was stuck in a cave in Thailand. They were on mission in Laos and I thought it would be a cool first donation. The next day I donated $750sgd to the Red Cross for more immediate relief. 100% of all the funds went directly to help the people in need.

One of the members of the group Daniel Fletcher went to help during the Lombok earthquake and I realized it was on his birthday. We were raising more money than I expected and still had the $1000sgd to give to the winner of the contest to donate to a charity of their choice. So I donated another $250sgd to his friend’s Go Fund Me page for his birthday. I thought it was a nice gesture and needed to be recognized. 100% of the funds went to support the people of the Lombok relief.

We were about 2 weeks into the contest and the challenge was in full swing. The support group was so much help. People would rally around each other when one person was down. It really made it easy to stay motivated by hearing about others success and difficulties.

My situation was different from most of the people in the challenge. I just opened a gym and coffee shop with my girlfriend. Everyday I would go to work and create the perfect atmosphere to transform someones body and mind. It became my very own small fitness lab and I love it. It was no surprise that I hit my goal of losing 3 kgs in 2 weeks. This gym has always been a dream of mine and it has came true during this contest.

During this 6 weeks I shared progress photos and advice for the other contestants. I even offered to design programs and diets but no one took me up on the offer other than the people who were already in my online program or actual clients in the gym. Now that this whole thing is over and I seem to take on the admin of this project, I am removing myself as a contestant and act as a host instead to not have any misunderstandings regarding having an unfair advantage with timelines and creation of rules.

Besides I already gave away $1250SGD and that was my goal in the first place. I did pretty well. I dropped 3.5 kgs or 7.7lbs or fat and didn’t drink alcohol for the entire 6 weeks. Now I need your help to pick a winner. Voting will be open until 3am September 19 2018 SG time. To vote for your favorite contestant, find their before pic in the poll below, click their circle and submit your vote by clicking “VOTE”.

Follow our Facebook page (Project change 2018) to find on more about the contest and who wins season 1.

Lets meet the contestants: