Michael Bolalin(Mikel Bolalin)
27 Years Old, Registered Nutritionist-Dietitian(RND)/Professor
Weight Change – 182.6 lbs to 161.9 lbs

Before you proceed further, I would like to acknowledge that this is my most treasured and most humbling experience since I started The Architect. This is a story of humility, resilience and respect.

What made this experience different from the rest is the fact that Michael here is a Registered Nutritionist-Dietitian(RND). He was consumed by his job that he sacrificed his health for the sake of it. I couldn’t count how many times did he fail to update me because it’s either he’s in a seminar, checking papers, grading students or preparing study materials. There was even a time when Michael gained back a few pounds and was in the brink of giving up on his nutrition plan altogether. We had hours worth of discussion and compromises regarding his struggles just to get him back on track, but you know what? He did pull through and he’s striving to be better every day. This, is resilience in its purest.

People might be quick to judge at this point, “He’s an RND, why would he need help?”, “How can he teach nutrition if he himself fails to embody it?” Well, you know what? Like you and I, he’s just human and that’s okay. What makes him special from the rest is that he didn’t let his ego get in the way of improvement and of added knowledge. How many of you can say the same? That my friend is humility.

Staying true to his trait of being selfless, what I enjoyed most about this engagement is the fact that we would spend hours talking about nutrition and sharing knowledge every so often. As you all know, my diploma is on sports nutrition. It might not seem like it but there are differences between personal nutrition and sports nutrition in a lot of aspects, and Michael was kind enough to enlighten me about things I didn’t know and believe me I learned a lot from him, to the point that I had to ask myself if I should be the one paying him a monthly fee.

If there’s one word to summarize this, it would be respect. He trusted me and this is the result of that.