“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.

Fast forward to age 14, I had, by then, dare I say it, developed a strange appreciation for vegetables, thanks to my mum’s persistence. Funny how their taste had improved. They were not as bad as when I first started eating them, and my mum did not have to supervise me anymore. I was free to eat whatever. Ironically this is when I discovered my passion for body-building, which meant weight training, eating vegetables, salads, and very few sweets. When I discovered how important nutritious food was to body-building, I remembered what my mum did for me, and I was grateful that she taught me to eat vegetables. Perhaps she was not a “mad woman” after all, but smart and loved me so much.

Wow! How great is my mum? My first dietician and nutritionist.

My older brother Alfred had a backyard bench press with weights from truck engine parts, such as camshaft, large engine parts; much heavier than a 20 kilogram weight plate. I saw my brother’s body change after two years of training. His Flex and Musclemag magazines taught me how to train.

It took me a little while to get into it but at 14 and I hit training running. My friends began to notice subtle changes. As I persisted with my training day in and day out, something else happened. My confidence g r e w! One day, I realized I might become Mr. Samoa one day.

I loved competitive sports, especially rugby, the main sport in Samoa. I played halfback in intermediate, but I hated 2:00 PM training in humid 33 degree heat and dust on the dirty rugby field. I enjoyed the outdoors, but training under the hot Samoan sun was a “no go” for me. When I realized that I could do body-building indoors anytime, the gym became my second home.

Mr Samoa 1998-2000

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