MAY, 2019 | Th e HEALTH
FITNESS
27
Why health
education is
important
Kevin Zahri’s 5 year plan involves tackling
the root of the issue – Malaysia’s current
fi tness education in schools
A
US certifi ed personal trainer and nutri-
tionist with over 14 years’ worth of
experience, Kevin Zahri has published
over 10 books, written for Men’s Health,
other fi tness and lifestyle magazines,
hosted and appeared on various TV
shows, programs and magazines. We manage to catch
up with the founding creator behind Malaysia’s nation-
wide weight loss program, Jom Kurus and his plans
on developing a healthier nation, one school at a time.
An example of a school’s initiative to provide
healthier meals at Cyril Jackson Primary School,
USA.
Are we aware of what’s
going in our bodies?
How he got into the fi tness scene
“I’m a chemical engineer by profession but I’ve always
been active in sports. I originally started getting fi t
out of passion while I was pursuing my engineering
degree at Northeastern University in Boston, USA. I
enjoyed it so much that I pursued my offi cial American
Fitness Training of Athletics (AFTA) certifi cation.
When I came back to Malaysia, I started to do personal
training coaching and consultations to earn some extra
cash on the side.”
Jom Kurus!
Kevin’s passion for fi tness turned into a full-time career
when he started the Jom Kurus program.
“We launched the Jom Kurus program in Kuala
Lumpur back in 2012 – it was very successful because
of the approach we took,” he explains. “What we did is
we educated and empowered the public to understand
what is fi tness and nutrition, not simply just to train
them into becoming more fi t.”
Th e success of the program in KL then created a
demand from other states like Penang, Johor, Kelantan
and Sabah who actually requested him to bring the
program to them.
“Since the essence of the program comes from us, we
fi gured the public would just need a vehicle that allows
them to jump on board. So we opened up the registra-
tion for team leaders all over the country. Th e response
was overwhelming. Th e fi rst season was in 2014 and
40 to 50 diff erent regions around Malaysia took part.
It has grown to over 200 locations in Malaysia, with
Singapore and Brunei on the list.”
Kevin Zahri is the founding creator behind
Malaysia’s nationwide weight loss program, Jom
Kurus.
School activities in Japan for instance, are more
focused on keeping children healthy and fi t through
daily sports.
Kevin explains that people are aware that it’s important
to be active and that obesity poses dangerous risks.
“I feel the problem for Malaysians is that we are
constantly surrounded by food. Although this doesn’t
just apply to Malaysia specifi cally, we embrace food a lot
more than others. Th erefore we are currently working
on to bringing education tackling topics on fi tness,
weight management and active lifestyle to schools. Th e
rate of obesity among schools in Malaysia is reaching an
alarming rate. We lack a creative form of health educa-
tion so whatever taught to students doesn’t actually
stick to them.”
Kevin also talks about how food made available for
schoolchildren in Malaysia needs to improve.
“My son attends an international school – one of
the ways they learn on sugar is they would have to go
around the school in search for available drinks. Th ey
study the nutrition labels and jot the number of grams
of sugar per serving for a drink. Th ey also do cross
comparisons between diff erent drinks, discuss about
the importance of sugar as an energy source and why
certain drinks contain more sugar. Th e way the problem
is presented is much diff erent so students are interested
and the information is more fun to digest. Rather than
presenting it from a dry, educational perspective.”
“We want to try and instill these health education
with the help of the Ministry of Education and Ministry
of Health. We are currently in a midst of discussion –
it’s going to be a fi ve-year plan to slowly develop these
creative health modules at schools so that the teachers
can adopt them and pass it down to the students.” —
Th e Health