Having put on weight and hogging on to junk food, one fine morning in July 2011 I came across Kris Gethin’s 12 weeks transformation program. An inner calling made me commit to it and I started recording my pictorial 12 weeks transformation journey. By September 2011, I had started posting on Orkut about my transformation journey and raising awareness about fitness. By October 2011 I started receiving queries on my transformation. That was the tipping point that made a foreign qualified ACCA turn sails into the winds of health, fitness, supplements and bringing about a change in Pakistan!
2012 - Great Oaks from Little Acorns Grow – The First Steps
Every brand has a beginning…the will to stand against odds, the belief in what you do and perseverance are hallmarks that differentiate between a great brand and one that dies a natural death. Ours started with a belief, grit and an idea to transform the way Pakistanis perceived health and fitness. With USD 10 in pocket, a cupboard that I used as my storage and display cabinet and a desk in my room, I started providing consultations. From that humble start, we grew into one of the country's most trusted fitness brands, never compromising on quality or authenticity all along the way.
The start was anything but glamorous. No store, no team, and no guarantee any of it would work. Supplements sat in a small closet at home, and every order was packed by hand. The handful of customers who trusted us in those early days were not just sales. They were the foundation of everything Jacked Nutrition would become.
What kept us going was never inventory or revenue. It was belief. The belief that Pakistan was ready for a fitness culture built on real knowledge, honest products, and genuine care.
“DO WHAT YOU LOVE, LOVE WHAT YOU DO”….This had been my personal mantra since teen hood and that’s what I set about to pursue despite having a specialized degree in a technical field. At 20 years of age, I started building a community online based on educational content and answering personal transformation journey questions. I went to Denver, USA in Feb 2012 to get certified as a Personal Training Coach through the National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM). On my way back I brought along supplements such as Assault by Muscle Farm & Conc. Creatine. Being a pioneer in introducing these to the Pakistani market and taking care of the supply-chain, the local health and fitness community was given exposure to these international products; perfect time alignment with new product release in USA and their availability in Islamabad.
It was April 2012 when I started pushing the idea of Jacked Nutrition besides the normal educational online content. Converted my personal room into a makeshift office and started giving free consultations….a study desk and a closet in my room were the first display windows for what little inventory I could show.
To start personal trainings at gyms in Islamabad was yet another vertical cliff… but climb I must. Having been rejected by numerous gyms to act as a personal trainer for which I was certified, I was banging my head against brick walls one after the other. But my perseverance and God’s plan led me to an Iranian national residing in Islamabad who was looking after one of the apartment buildings in F-11 Islamabad. He very graciously agreed to let me set up shop as a personal trainer in the apartment building’s gym….and that is how it all started!
The first client’s transformation journey was nothing short of a HIT! A solid drop of 20 Kgs in weight and waist size reduced from 42 to 32! This spread like wildfire in Islamabad…. People started saying that Abbas has his tongue and heart in the same place and he delivers.
Bodybuilding.com was my go to place for inventory purchase….still remember getting a stock of PKR 50,000 back then and taking the next 10 months to off-load it! But word of mouth spread in Islamabad and I started getting a small but loyal customer base who were my biggest advocates and source of marketing.
Despite getting discouraged by close ones on why I was pursuing a fitness and personal trainer career after having completed my ACCA from UK, I remained focused on my goal…. Building Jacked Nutrion as a brand. A singer Abbas Ali Khan met up and encouraged me to formalize on my branding and logo. I turned again to online acquaintances for help. A designer having seen my passion (and dilapidated financial condition) finally made the Jacked Nutrition Logo on September 11, 2012! This day marks the formal birth of Jacked Nutrition Pakistan . “Just for the health of it” followed as our tag line / slogan.
ANECDOTE: My mother was supportive throughout and stood like a rock behind me….however she would often tease me in those days saying, “who on earth would give their daughter’s hand in marriage to a personal trainer? Become an accountant, for which you have qualified from UK, so I can get you married off respectably”.
The story here-on is that of Jacked Nutrition and less of me… you can’t separate the two though!
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