Welcome to our continuing series Glocal Fitness Mavericks, where we get up close and personal with some of the industry’s shining stars responsible for the ongoing transformation of the Health & Fitness Industry across Asia. Main Image: Jason Yeo
Join Dr. Alan Cheung of International Orthopaedic Clinic in Singapore as he goes in for a no-holds-barred discussion with James Yeo, Sports Nutritionist and Head of Education in Dexafit Asia.
As a sports nutritionist, James primarily works with two groups of individuals in a consultation setting.
- Helping Business Executives get fit to maximise their performance, without missing out on business dinners.
- Helping Athletes perform better and recover faster, whilst having a social life.
A large part of what James does is providing clients with evidence-based practice while simultaneously rebuilding their relationship with food, and returning ownership to them with empowerment to take better care of themselves. After all, given his clientele is paying for a solution when they sign up to work with him – James is respectful of this fact, and purposefully delivers personalised formulas which ensures care of both their current and future needs.
The first consultation session is usually spent focussed around understanding their nutrition, exercise, and lifestyle – and then piecing them together in a data-centric manner. This allows both the client and James to understand where their current situation is at.
From there, they both look at their current trend analysis (whether in terms of weight or performance) and consider possible key opportunities to engender appropriate forward movement. These stepping-stones for progress include; exercise practices which may be required, lifestyle changes which need to be considered, or quantity and quality of food and diet which may need to be altered and adapted to.
James’ remarks: “Unfortunately, data doesn’t account for the more human aspects of things, so I would often also consider physiological and psychological areas we may need to manage from the get-go. This includes how their work, family, or lifestyle habits can affect things like; the way they treat their relationship with food, the indirect effect to their meals, or even the impact of stress and sleep on their overall results.”
“We don’t always end up managing all of them due to the lack of direct control (Eg. Telling a client to reduce their stress might mean them losing their job altogether), but we will discuss how the different factors can or will affect their process and look for ways to work around it. The idea is not to perfect their plan, but to help them find opportunities to do better while still being able to enjoy themselves.”
While others see the end result as the reward, what’s most rewarding in James’ books – is the process of helping a client build a workable system well-suited for his/her lifestyle. At the end of the day, it’s true that every individual is an athlete of their own right – with a set of challenges only they face.
Aside from running consultations, James also provides talks and presentations to corporate companies. The topics touched on during such sessions can vary from performance nutrition for specific sports groups like running or basketball – to corporate related workshops in correlation to building a relationship with food, nutritional sciences, and corporate wellness for their staff.
James has also had the honour to do ad hoc jobs for international companies like Precision Nutrition, where he played the role of a subject review expert, and additionally assisted with the technical development of Institute of Performance Nutrition, where he played a contributory role in building their nutrition calculator.
Bouncing the discussion over to what James handles for Dexafit Asia (DA) – his roles include education, staff training, daily operations, PR, marketing and business development with their Regional General Manager, Jimmy. Dexafit Asia is a testing facility which provides medical grade physiological tests like the Dexa Scan, Resting Metabolic Rate Test, and VO2max test, for their clients.
DA’s clientele comprises of varying groups; mainly coming from individuals starting out on their fitness journey, but also active individuals curious about their progress, and high-performance athletes wanting to discover more about themselves.
How do they begin their journey? James elaborates; “The clients at DA usually kick-start the road ahead either with myself or a Fitness Specialist – so we can understand what test they are doing, and the fitness goals they carry. We keep their goals in mind as we run the test with them. This allows us to personalise their post-test consultation along with their results, with allowance for them to receive better, and more concentrated directions.”
James goes on to say that he’s enjoyed a great many successes and experienced many things he never thought he could. This includes being part of the subject review team for Precison Nutrition, invited to be part of talks and launches for major brands like Adidas, Garmin and Asics, getting interviewed by international brands like the PTDC and Online Training Academy, building strong partnerships with both local and international brands, and receiving PR exposure from multiple major media outlets.
However, James’ most noteworthy achievement to date happens to be his first year entering into business. Interestingly enough, this has to do with hindsight reflection of having come from a background (at that time) where he only understood sports science and nutrition, with little to no experience in business nor setting up a professional practice. Therefore, taking the first step to even enter business was definitely a steep learning curve and a huge challenge for James. In comparison to when he was an employee, the world was far riskier – where one literally must stand accountable for all given actions.
There’s still plenty of hope for all aspiring business entrepreneurs out there. James offers experiential encouragement; “I wouldn’t have had it any other way though. What made the experience special was I’d started Sports Nutritionist James (at that time, Fitsiology) with literally 30 cents, and grew myself up learning every aspect of Business from lead generation all the way to sales. The first step was the scariest – but also most valuable achievement of my professional and personal life.”
Based on his own learnings and experiences, James goes on to touch upon some essential qualities which he believes to have supported the abundance of success in his professional life and multi-faceted career so far. He lines them up in an organised, sequential order of information (giving us a peek into his data-centric manner of consultation!) as shared in the following list below:
- Academic Education: “The pre-requisite to consider working in either of my roles is to be academically educated.” This means getting a proper degree in the relevant fields (Sports Nutrition & Sports Science/ Sports Physiology). One would want to make sure the evidence is understood well, plus awareness is needed to know how to research the relevant field when required. “As an added bonus, you can consider continuous education – it’s less of a business decision, but more of a personal responsibility.”
- People Skills: “People related skills are next in line.” When you work in a health and fitness role, you will interact with people a lot, and thus soft skills related towards working with people is very important. “In a field where people are literally looking to you for directions, they need to know that you actually care about them on an individual basis; and they’re not just another customer.”
- Business-related Skillsets: “After that, understanding and applying business-related skillsets will be the next most important thing to consider.” Not only does this allow one to consider what are the needs of the client, but also what companies and its people need – giving one a fuller picture to therefore gel well amongst everyone you come across and work with.
- Healthy Motivation: “Being in the field for about a decade now, it is safe to say that money – while important and with the right business skills can make your work successful – should not be your main motivation.”
An excellent roll-up of pointers by James! Spot-lighting the fourth essential quality noted on his list for a closing quip from our team: It’s a fantastic reminder to take an inner look at what is truly important to us and to the circle of humanity we belong to, and by doing so, reflect on what motivates each of us to want to make a meaningful life at large – especially by ensuring more purposeful intentions of ‘healthy motivation’ is attached to the core of how we go about chasing our passions and fulfilling our dreams!
About Dr Alan Cheung of International Orthopaedic Clinic
A keen athlete, Dr. Alan Cheung Orthopaedic Surgeon and Director at International Orthopaedic Clinic trains in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ) at Evolve Mixed Martial Arts.
Says Dr Cheung, “As a sportsman who has played a variety of sports and recovered from bilateral shoulder dislocations, and various knee and ankle injuries, I can understand where my patients are coming from. This helps me empathise and build trust, and I can discuss injury management and recovery in an intelligent way.”
He regularly competes in BJJ and has won gold in tournaments in Singapore and Japan. When he’s not practicing martial arts, Dr Cheung enjoys golf, cycling and skiing.
