Loke Chee Chun is 52. He is one of the people who runs Hing Loong Taiwanese Noodle in Melaka, which means his day is kitchen operations and cooking: long hours on his feet, in the heat, carrying things.
His body had been telling him something for a while and he had been reading it as age. His sleep was poor. His thinking felt cloudy. Then came the part that is harder to explain away. If someone poked him lightly on the back, just a few taps with their fingers, it hurt. Both hands would go numb. He would be holding something and, for no reason he could name, his hand would let go and the thing would drop.
Everything is difficult at the beginning. If you do not dare to take the first step, you will achieve nothing.
Loke Chee Chun
He had already tried to fix the weight. At close to 80kg he went on the keto diet and used meal replacement products, and the number came down. So did almost all of his muscle. He did not have the proper knowledge, he says, so he lost muscle and fat at the same time. The result, in his words, was not ideal. He looked worn out.
The dropping was the line. At that point he realised he had to make a change, because the alternative was that it kept getting worse. That was the day he decided to train.
By the third month, he says, the inflammation and the pain were gone, his sleep had improved and his appetite had come back. The change was visible enough that people commented. Friends who had not seen him in a while asked, only half joking, whether this was really the person they knew.
What he wants people his age to hear is the part about muscle. Building it, he argues, matters more than the cardio most people default to, and it matters most for older adults. He now tells people older than him to start strength training.
His advice is shorter than his story. Everything is difficult at the beginning. If you do not dare to take the first step you will achieve nothing, and only after taking it will you find out whether it was the right one. If he can change his health through fitness, he asks, why not give it a try and earn the life you deserve?
