Consistency, making 'small, smart choices' keys to wellness goals — celebrity habit coach

MANILA, Philippines — It's a new year, and like many who have drafted their resolutions, they might find out that achieving these could only be done through consistency and intentionality. 

Undoubtedly, many New Year's resolutions focus on losing weight after gaining quite a lot of pounds due to binge-eating holiday food. Now that everything has slowed down, it is time to hit the targets, including losing the added weight. 

For celebrity coach Culver Padilla, an effective weight loss journey involves a bespoke and intentional routine that becomes a habit, and eventually a lifestyle. 

Coach Culver or Kel talked to Philstar.com last year at his gym Awaken in MetroWalk Pasig. 

Padilla admitted that when he started his fitness journey in 2010, his aim was to look good for the camera. 

"When I started my fitness journey, the intention was I wanted to be an actor or model or you wanna look the part. That started in 2010," the coach said. 

Padilla said that it would take years more for him to take fitness way more than looking good. It was a health scare that involved his lola that made him realize about how looking good should also be synonymous to feeling good inside.  

"I'm not just a fitness coach, but I'm a habit coach. 'Yung habits kasi ang magdadala sa atin kung anuman man 'yung goal natin. Hindi lang naman 'yung goal natin, but rather kung ano man 'yung habit natin, either nagpapadala o nagpapalayo doon sa goal mo," he shared. 

The coach has had a long fitness journey himself. He started with bodybuilding, got a job at a famous chain of gyms, and even joined the Century Tuna Superbods in 2016. 

This opened many opportunities for him and earned him celebrity clients that include Iza Calzado, Denise Laurel, Ria Atayde and Arjo Atayde. He was even tapped to prepare Jane de Leon for the latter's role on the 2022 series "Darna." 

In the same year, Culver co-founded Awaken Gym in Pasig. It is a holistic center that offers customized training for those who want to lose weight and maintain it for the long run. 

"The system that we do is actually bespoke. This training is very bespoke. It's unanswerable by Google kasi hindi ka naman kilala ni Google. 'Pag in-analyze ko