Fitter, happier, healthier
Three of India’s most celebrated health and wellness professionals come together to talk fitness, bust myths and help you live your happiest life ever!
A misprint in a health magazine can cost you your life.
Believing that no fitness trainer or nutritionist you employ can ever be as effective as your own resolve, I meet integrative wellness expert Luke Coutinho, 42, with some apprehension. The venue is The Chambers, the members-only club of the Taj Hotels, and I am conducting a Q&A for a select audience. Midway into my questioning, I hear a silent sob. Seated in the audience is a former client whom Luke helped fight cancer.
“I was in Bombay a few years ago and got a call at 2 am,” Luke Coutinho tells us about one of his first cases. “The call was from a big industrialist family, and they said, ‘listen, we are sending a car to pick you up. There is someone dying of cancer’. “When I met the patient, I saw that he had a metastatic cancer. The doctors had given him about a week to live.
“As I went through his reports,” continued Luke, “I realised that no one had looked at this guy’s immunity. They had given him chemo, radiation, everything! But his immune factors had always been low. Now, you cannot put a cancer into remission if the immune system is not worked upon.
“So, I set up a plan for him and left. Two weeks later, they called and said, ‘he’s still living. He’s feeling better.’ His immune factor was going up. So, I went back. He was looking better, with higher energy levels, he was sitting up. I started to work on his nutrition, and he went on to live for another five and a half years.”
The stories of our other two fitness trainers are no less inspiring.
In the face of stiff challenges, Deepesh Bhatt, 39, or Shivohaam as he is popularly known, returned to India to set up Crossfit, dismissed by many as just another fad, and became one of the most sought-after trainers in the country. “One thing I implement in my life is being true to yourself… because if you love something truly, you will never be able to give anyone wrong advice in that regard,” he declares. As per reports, Shivohaam is set to train
P
—Anon actor Ranbir Kapoor for his next physiqueintensive role.
Sohrab Khushrushahi, 39, aka Sohfit, HT Brunch columnist and the current favourite of Bollywood stars, has a story that’s even more dramatic. Until a few years ago, he was a high-flying corporate lawyer in Singapore, working in a profession he had nurtured for over a decade. “But it wasn’t until the managing partner of my firm told me that I was going to be the next capital markets’ partner, that something clicked,” says Sohrab. “At this point, I started to think about what I was doing with my life,” he continues. “When I made this switch, there was no business plan, no massive
P
Never think you have achieved it all, look at yourself as a constant work-in-progress SOHRAB KHUSHRUSHAHI,
Celebrity fitness trainer
Anxiety is real. Don’t try to resist it. It’s a human survival mechanism. And it’s good!
LUKE COUTINHO,
Integrative lifestyle medicine expert
idea. It was just me following my passion and working really hard, hoping things would fall into place.”
It’s true. A misprint in a health magazine can affect your life. But just one bit of the many pieces of great advice in this story could also change your life.
On sleep as medicine
Luke Coutinho: Sleep is my lynchpin. Because sleep is medicine. You wake up fresh, your hormones are working in balance, you’ve detoxified automatically, and sleep controls all the hormones that get us through the day. People who are emotional eaters don’t understand that sleep plays a huge role. If you haven’t slept well, you’re low on productivity and creativity, you miss your workout because you’re tired, and then you are cranky and irritable. For me, everything is planned around sleep: my flights, my patient calls—unless there’s a huge emergency. My socialising is planned around my sleep as well!
On keeping at it Sohrab Khushrushahi:
The one learning I’ve implemented my entire life, not just my time as a fitness professional, is consistency. Nothing is achieved overnight, nothing worthwhile comes easy or without a consistent amount of hard work over a period of time. That’s the one learning I’m going to implement my entire life.
On the power of why
Shivohaam: The most valuable information or advice I have given to anyone is that first and foremost, whenever you want to do something, whether it is training or following a diet, ask yourself why you want to do it. You will automatically get the answer, and you cannot lie to yourself. Understanding why is always the first step in doing anything in life.
On anxiety
Humans are becoming slaves to technology. Our minds and bodies are the most intelligent gadgets that will ever be. SHIVOHAAM, Fitness trainer & founder of India’s first Crossfit studio
Luke: Anxiety is real. Don’t try to resist it. It’s a human survival mechanism. And it’s good. It warns us about some threat or something that’s happening. So, whenever anxiety hits you, ask yourself: what is the problem, and what can I do to fix it? If there is something you can do, do it. If there is nothing that you can do, let go. There is no point getting more and more anxious trying to control something that you cannot control. But if there is an action to take—no matter how little or how big— take it.
On fitness fads and marketing
Sohrab: I am not a fan of fads. Whether it’s diets or exercise routines, I believe that you need to keep things simple. You need to work consistently over a period of time, and if you do both these things, you will see the results you want to see. I wouldn’t call them fads… they’re different concepts or different philosophies that work over a short period of time. But in the long run, they don’t always balance themselves out. Shivohaam: When people told me that Crossfit was just a fad, I stuck by it. The reason it is what it is today is that I stuck with it.
On fitness wearables
Shivohaam: Technology is very helpful. But we must all understand that as tech is increasing, we humans are becoming slaves to technology. Our minds and bodies are the strongest and most intelligent gadgets that will ever be. Trying to be conscious of your own fitness is all you need. Luke: Machines are great to give you some amount of advice, but you should never lose focus of the intuition that you have. The problem with gadgets is that they are moving us away from our gut instinct. We don’t need an app to tell us how much food we are eating. Our body tells us when we have eaten enough when we feel full. So, we should inculcate mindfulness instead. We have to use our own body: our body is the best wearable as it tells us everything we need to know at any given point of time. We just have to listen!
On being a work-inprogress... forever!
Sohrab: I was brought up to never think you have achieved it all; to look at yourself as a constant work in progress. And that’s what I tell people I train when they get too excited about their results: that we are a work in progress, and we should keep working towards the person we want to be five years from now. Keep changing your goals and try to be one per cent better every single day. There is no competition with the rest of the world, you are competing with yourself. Don’t try and look like someone else, don’t try and be as fit as someone else. Try and be better than you were yesterday. If you do that consistently over a period of time… you’ll be fine!