1 on 1: Filming with Daniel

I nearly fell off my chair when Daniel showed me his transformation picture. He professed to be fat before, but I never really believed him till he showed me his before picture. It took him years of determination to get fit – running was an intuitive sport to get into, seeing that you only need a pair of trainers to start. And then he started running marathons, and the pounds trickled off. He was also more careful with his diet.

Daniel is 6’4″ tall and affectionately known as T-Rex to his friends because of his height and his love for red meat.

When I first met Daniel, he was just getting into the marathons more seriously. He was lean and very tall, but nowhere as strong as he is now. He gave himself a goal to run a marathon a month, despite a demanding full-time job. He trained hard and signed up for a marathon wherever he could and this eventually took him to a few cities in Asia Pacific covering miles and miles. Frequently, he would return with a sprained foot or loss of toenails, or a bad flu but he soldiered on. I would look forward to his signature trophy picture comprising his Finish Medal and a can of local beer.

About 2 years ago, Daniel started his gym routine and bulking up muscles. We exchanged lots of fitness tips and diet ideas. When I told him about my new show to advocate for women’s health, he was very supportive.

It was a joy filming with this big guy. He was outrageously funny, and we had bellies full of laughs during the shoot. Many times, we were in tears trying to choke out words. Daniel brought in a lot of humour you see in the episode, in fact, he inspired the foundation of humour moving forward. He reminded me about the humour I wanted to impart on the show as I was too anal being technical.

Daniel, being on a Keto diet also inspired the recipe for the show. A sugarless pavlova sounds almost impossible but anything is possible with sweeteners. We brainstormed on the types of tropical fruit to use that would be low on carbs. Making desserts is not his forte (steaks are, as you can tell), so he was a bit uneasy in that department but again, took instructions very well with whipping and creaming (maybe it’s a guy thing?), haha.

Again, I had to get Daniel to return to reshoot and just managed to get him for 2 hours before he flew back to Tokyo, a couple of days before the show goes on air. I have been fortunate with the timing and again, can’t thank this big fellow enough for gifting me his precious time.

You can find Daniel’s fitness adventure on IG as @fit_Trex or anything on fitness Japan on www.fitjapan.com