Like most of her peers, she starved herself, carried self-cooked food to dinner parties and worked out rigorously. But even after all this, chronic eating disorder and mental fears related to health came as a shock to Yana Gupta. “It was a feeling that I can’t describe in words. I was puzzled, sad and was wondering about what went wrong.
I thought I was fit and doing everything right,” says model and actor Yana Gupta. It was then that she started reading a lot on health and nutrition and discovered some facts that not only helped her pull herself out of the negativity but start her fitness regimen afresh.
“The knowledge on my platter was too much and I realised that there must be many out there like me suffering with the same problems. So I thought it’s better to write about it. That’s how the idea of, How to Love Your Body and Have the Body You Love (Penguin) occurred to me,” informs Yana adding that writing was always one of her passions, besides fitness.
“This book is more like a personal account and I have shared my own experiences with people who run after myths and often torture their body, under an impression that they are leading a healthy life,” says Yana and agrees that the pressure of staying fit, as a part of the glamorous industry often pushes people like her to follow regimens that are “unhealthy and do not suit your body.” Moreover, she feels that while we run after fitness we often ignore the nutritional value of food.
“I tried every diet, worked out constantly but the fears remained. In How to Love Your Body, I have written about how I got the balance back in my life and learnt to love myself. I have chalked out an easy to follow eating advice and the real lowdown on food from the right portions to eat to being healthy on the go. There are some great tips too — how to understand the nutrition labels, the great dabba trick and the best snack to eat when you get a late-night,” she informs.
She adds that when she was facing a lot of trouble it was one of her teachers who helped her discover the right kind of food for her body and the first lesson that he taught was to love your body the way it is. “I was frustrated. There are ample amount of books that are available in bookstores today, all talking about different aspects of fitness. But unfortunately, none of them offers a complete solution.
They just tell you to do this and not to eat this, they do not tell what suits your body. So the best thing to do — as also mentioned in the book, is to try out different things for some days as nobody knows your body better than you do. See what makes your body fit. Do not follow friends’ advice or any printed health regime blindly. You need to chalk out your own strategy. Even in my book, I just lay down basic principles, I am not telling people to follow it religiously.
Health books are just there to guide you and not to make you lose weight miraculously within few days,” explains Yana and stresses that “one should try and develop a healthy relationship with food they eat.”
Yana rubbishes what most women believe — size is an indicator of health. “I always thought that I have the perfect body but when I started facing problems I realised that I was wrong.
Size is not related to health at all. According to people I was perfect and had a best figure then, but I knew that I was not feeling healthy. So this is another aspect that the book covers. Judge what makes you feel healthy,” she says.
The model and actress is known for being a fitness freak and she confesses that she “was crazy after work out.” But after reading a lot of text and case studies she realised that work out and exercises should not just be for weight loss and to stay healthy, they should be taken as a medium to destress yourself.
“You need to feel happy about your work out sessions and not exert your body. I know women who are so desperate to lose weight that they do work out even when they are unwell. Isn’t it like tormenting your body?” she says and adds that it is not necessary that you should do an exercise that’s suggested to you by your trainer. You should opt for something that helps you burn the calories in the positive manner.
“It can be yoga, aerobics, jogging or even dance. Work out is a sort of spiritual experience and it works to distress your body,” she adds.
In the end, she reminds again, that the purpose of writing a fitness guide book was not to offer suggestions. “Do not blindly follow everything that you are told to, don’t be harsh on yourself and just accept your body as it is,” concludes Yana.
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