‘Mompreneur’ Finally says YES
It was after four years of waitressing and another four as full-time mom part time fitness instructor when Adelene Tutu finally said YES.
The “mompreneur” is a recipient of the Young Entrepreneur Scheme (YES), a grant of $20000, and has thus launched the first fitness app for Fiji.
Get Lean Fiji operates via a mobile application and delivers meal plans and 35-minute workouts for users across all geographic locations in Fiji.
Users get a free one-week trial after which they can choose to subscribe and take advantage of the 12-week body weight exercise programmes that do not require the use of any equipment and 400 calorie meal plans to supplement the fitness regime.
“I was approached by hopeful clients who wanted to be trained, but I was fully booked. So, you can’t just say here take my card and call me after a couple of months,” said the 27-year-old.
“No matter how much the competition between personal trainers, there is only 24 hours in a day, so you cannot accommodate the whole of Fiji but with an app, yes you can.”
A high school dropout at Year 13, she was reluctant to apply for YES and was equally shocked when it came through.
“At first, I did not think I had what it takes, I had dropped out of Form 7 and all I had was a Certificate level qualification,” she said. “But I knew I had the right values and I was willing to do everything to reach my goals.
“YES assured me. I am a young person with an innovative idea and they invested into that.” Losing her mother to a non-communicable disease (NCD) had been tough on her.
“Only people who have lost their loved ones to an NCD will understand. With a little change in lifestyle, it could have been avoided,” she said.
Her father was against her dropping out of school but seeing that she had a disciplined approach, he began to understand that she was serious about working.
“I was a waitress at Bad Dog Café so I was basically serving people and cleaning up after everyone leaves but I worked my way into promotions in the bar,” she said. “My family was not rich, we were living day to day. I saw that lifestyle and I did not want the same for my family nor for myself.”
After getting married and having two beautiful daughters; Erykah Bryar, 4 years and Kylani Bryar, 2 years, Ms Tutu needed a greater sense of self-fulfillment which pushed her to pursue fitness and start Get Lean Fiji.
She has done a Certificate in Group Fitness Instruction and is currently doing a Certificate in Personal Training at Fit College. “My programmes are all about high-intensity interval training which is performing exercises really fast with short bursts of rest so you can gain strength and burn fat at the same time,” said Ms Tutu.
“Being a mom after two kids, it was hard to feel confident so fitness has helped me regain my self-confidence as well.”
She currently provides personal training to more than 70 people and the numbers are increasing as more people download the Get Lean Fiji app.
“I could not accommodate a lot of people into my schedule before so now it is perfect,” she said. “We needed this, we needed healthy eating alternatives and we needed fitness and health to be more accessible.”
With the successful launch of the app, the second phase of her grant will fund the building of a personal training studio and health-oriented café.