Keeping Fit, Trim and Carbs In Your Fitness Diet: The Story of Daryl Ng's Fitness Journey

Ditch your lunchtime mixed rice for Buff Daddy, fitness guru Daryl Ng’s independent bento business which is guaranteed to save your meal preparatory time and be tasty!

In today’s article, we sit down with Daryl Ng, a fitness coach and healthy meal planner to find out his personal fitness and entrepreneurial journey.

Fit and fab, the gentle giant starts off with a self-introduction about himself.

Daryl loves connecting with people and uses fitness as a medium to do so. He focuses on helping busy people regain their fitness sustainably: he allows his clients to eat their favourite foods.

While Daryl recognizes the importance of eating healthily, which is why he founded the healthy bento business Buff Daddy, he admits that he enjoys going out to search for awesome food, his favourite guilty food being durian.

“Well, if you eat in moderation, there’s nothing to be guilty about. But the problem is, I end up eating a few huge boxes of durians.”

Many of us may relate to the similar predicament of eating a few huge boxes of durians at one go, like Daryl.

But many of us, unlike him, have sedentary lifestyles and are best friends with our reclining office armchairs, and would pounce at taking fitness off days if it meant not exercising. Daryl shared that he does take fitness off days, but keeps his fitness week open, he takes rests as and when he feels he needs mental clarity.

Daryl seems to have always been an active figure, which explains his current job as a fitness coach. He shares, “I have always been fascinated by the gym when I was younger, it looked like an adult’s playground at that time.”

Fitness and living in the gym seemed like a distant dream for young Daryl then, but he is now where he wanted to be. It started with a push when he was about 18,19 from his ex-dragon boat coach pushed his team and him to their limits when Daryl started taking his fitness training seriously.

However, only after about 8 years when he was around 26-27, did he start the sustainable method of maintaining his fitness.

Like how the sustainable method of reaching his fitness goals was not something he had expected to be trying, his job as a fitness trainer was also something completely unexpected in his life.

Prior to serving National Service, Daryl had aspired to be a financial advisor and often attended networking dinners in hopes of looking for prospects so that he would have connections to rely on once he entered the industry.

However, struggles and obstacles in life are ever prevalent and Daryl was no stranger. He felt timid whenever he talked to people about insurance, and his gut feeling told him to not pursue finance advisory.

He then realized that whenever he talked to people about fitness, he was passionate and hoped that they would understand and apply his pointers to their lifestyles and workout routines, which led to where he is as a fitness coach today.

As a fitness coach, Daryl is of the view that many of us know what we have to do for self-improvement. We know that we have to jog, exercise etc, but we refuse to.

Daryl tries to focus on self-development first before treading into uncharted waters, that is, exercise, and tries to engage his clients by getting them to work out in groups because they help to motivate one another.

A people-oriented person, it is no wonder that his personality spills into his training style for his clients.

Daryl also goes the extra mile for his clients and tries to imbue his prior financial advisory aspirations into his fitness career. He founded Buff Daddy, a workout meal plan to give his clients and customers the convenience of not having to prepare their own healthy meals, which is typically more tedious.

“Because here at T14, we are not just a gym that works out it is more than that. We talk about finances, dreams, businesses, and aspirations. So one night we were speaking about aspirations, and it sparked an idea for Buff Daddy, hence here we are.”

Daryl elaborates that he tries not to give diet plans because the Buff Daddy meal plan gives clients some allowance of calories for them to consume their favourite food too, and wants to take that hassle of preparing meals for his clients.

Buff Daddy focuses on enhancing one's health, keeping the calories not too high so that clients can't consume their favourite food, and at the same time not compromising the taste of our food.

Daryl’s sincerity for self-improvement and fitness shine where he excels. By starting an affordable meal plan for his clients, where prices start from just $6.90, he includes a time-considerate diet for them, saving them the hassle of preparing their own healthy food. He considers peoples’ tendencies to snack on their favourite food, accounting for it in Buff Daddy’s philosophy as well.

For Daryl, fitness seems to be more than just a job. It is his way of contributing to society by helping those who need help in their fitness journey and achieving his dreams at the same time.