“Family is everything,” is the motto of just about every Samoan I know. My journey into the health and fitness life started with my own family. When I was about four years old, my mum used to say, “Eat your vegetables!” As this was not what I wanted, I would only eat them after mum? threatened a backhander on my shoulder or a slap on the back of the head.

I thought at the time my mum had some “serious issues,” forcing me to eat my vegetables. In order to avoid the drama I struggled through it all, eating my carrots, pumpkins, beans and tomatoes, which I very much disliked.

Read more: The Begining

My mum thought at the time that-body building was a waste of energy and time. Little did she know that I was doing it for the girls. My sister was a challenge. When she came home from school she forced me to go to sleep so I could grow taller. Then my mum started to give me a sasa (smack) if she caught me training. However, I had so much passion for building myself as I was literally the smallest kid in our entire level at school and village. I was being bullied due to my stature, yet my mum did not allow me to train. So I worked around these barriers by training in the middle of the day or straight after school before my mum and sister got home. I reasoned that if I could not grow taller I might as well grow stronger and wider so I could stand my ground.

Read more: The Setbacks

Once I discovered my passion for body-building it was so powerful, despite all these setbacks, it didn’t stop me. People said that I was too short to be Mr. Samoa. Others insisted that body building was not for short people. I ignored the naysayers, and methodically went on to become one of the best natural body-builders in Samoa. With all due respect, the record that I have set as a natural body builder based in Samoa at the time will be hard to break, and it not because I am better than anyone but I don't think our People can manage the DIET! We can train hard that's the easy part the hard part is the Diet for a Samoan.

The most important body-building discovery for me has been the importance of holistic health as well as fitness. That is, building-body, balanced nutrition and discipline of the mind provide a healthy, balanced lifestyle. Ten years of training, diet and nutrition have taught me that this is the key to successful body-building. And I am now passionate about sharing my experience with our Samoan and Pacific community who are perhaps the largest ethnic group that are struggling unconsciously with obesity, diabetes and health problems due to their adoption of the worst elements of a Western lifestyle.

Body Building: Mr Samoa and the world

My first “Mr Samoa” competition was at age 18 in 1998. I competed in the junior division, which I won that year, and the next three years. I then pursued university studies for the next two and a half years in Auckland, majoring in Information Technology.

Following my studies, I returned home to Samoa and immediately started training once again. By 2003, the “Mr. Samoa” competition was no longer an annual event. I had mixed emotions, especially since my very good friend Tohill Rokeni won the overall competition the previous year. I was very happy for him, but I also wanted to compete against him. I had beaten him in the past, but he had gotten so much better over the years. And now, he was the man to beat! He was also my dear friend, and these were motivating factors for me to compete against him. However, it never materialized, as he was involved in a serious car accident, and had to retire early.

Read more: Body Building