At BrilliantRead Media, we always strive to bring meaningful and powerful stories from India and around the world to empower and motivate our growing community. As part of this endeavour, we invited Paroma Gulati for an exclusive interview with us. She is a Nutritionist, Wellness Consultant, Counsellor and Influencer. Let’s learn more about her incredible journey, background and advice for our growing community!
Excerpts from our exclusive interview with Paroma:
We are aware of your contributions to the ecosystem; talk us through your background and your journey, please.
My graduation is in a completely technical field. I have done B.Tech & M.Tech in Computer Engineering. But like many other Indian families, that was a prerequisite set by the family.
My passion always was to be healthy and fit but growing up in the 90s and 2000s, there were not many credible avenues to pursue this. Once I got to a turning point in my life where I knew I had to pursue this systematically.
So I got myself enrolled and studied to become a certified Nutrition counsellor at the age of 34. I worked in hospitals dealing with kidney patients, diabetic patients and counselled patients post-bariatric surgery.
I am currently pursuing advanced certification in sports nutrition and wellness consulting. Steadily my client base has expanded to all over India and also abroad in the USA, UK, UAE, Australia, Ireland, Singapore and Canada.
How did you discover your passion as a ‘Nutritionist’?
Eating food should be a fun activity, not a guilt-inducing one. When people body shame you into losing weight, that should be counted as a big fat red flag.
I had difficult pregnancy where I had rapidly gained weight and hit a triple-digit. There was no one I could turn to during my pregnancy and post-delivery who would not only formulate a diet I would enjoy, but also empathize with the change in body, shape and mood.
This is the time I realized that the best solution was to study this field of nutrition science myself. While studying I realized that a weight loss diet chart can be easily downloaded from the internet, what was needed was for the client to be “heard”. Their reasons to binge, their likes and dislikes should be paid heed to instead of bulldozing them with what I think they should eat.
That is the core philosophy I practice, that everyone is made different, has to be attended to differently and the results will only show when we work together as a team rather than imposing something on them they will not be comfortable with.
How do you manage to keep going despite the challenges? What drives you?
My Son. He gives me a sense of purpose. I want him to be proud of what his mother does and how she helps people. I want him to understand that a mother irrespective of being a homemaker or a working person loves her child and vilifying anyone them is unacceptable.
My biggest drive comes from the change I see I bring into the lives of many of my clients and sometimes challenges force you to think out of the box and improve your craft, so in a way they are blessings in disguise.
Who do you believe has been the biggest source of motivation in your daily life?
My family of course. My parents have inculcated an ‘I am enough’ belief in me where I feel I can pursue and excel in anything I put my heart into. They have taught me that there is no age bar on learning and the quest for knowledge.
They live by age is just a number philosophy, impeccably devoted to an active lifestyle and healthy eating habits and at the risk of sounding cliché, are my true role models.
My husband, who is my anchor, safe place and my biggest cheerleader. When I decided I wanted to pursue studies right after having a baby, he had my back and supported me with full gusto. Every feedback, achievement and even difficulties I deal with at my work, he is the first one I call up to share any news and ask for some sane advice.
My son, for whom I want to set an example is that a woman can have more identities than being only his mom and that choice is also hers to make.
What are some of the strategies that you believe have helped you grow as a person?
Being open to learning. We often set an age limit to learn new things. Perhaps by trying out different things one can recognize what they enjoy doing and pursue that as a passion or even a career.
Reading, as underrated as it sounds, reading is probably the biggest game changer in a person’s life. Access to information is very easy with google, but I am talking about authentic tic information from credible sources and reading about it thoroughly rather than skimming information from a website.
Taking care of myself, physically and mentally. We often think that keeping oneself in shape and well-groomed is superficial. But that is far from the truth.
Physical well-being incorporates a sense of self-confidence which is reflected in our daily lives in the way we do things and deal with people. Mental well-being entails doing certain things each day which I enjoy and also making an allowance to let go of things which don’t align with my values anymore.
In your opinion what are the keys to success?
Persistence. No one gets it right on the first go. Every skill has to be honed and that happens when we are persistent about it. Waking up every single day with the purpose to better one’s skill set.
Aiming for excellence instead of success. If you focus on being the best at what you do, success will be a byproduct. Not doing something to earn money but genuinely believing in doing your best.
Being your authentic self. This means not seeking validation from outside, rather introspecting your strengths and weaknesses on your own and of course listening to your gut.
What advice would you give to our readers?
Nutrition Science is still at a nascent stage. People look towards a cure to their problems rather than adopting a healthy lifestyle and food habits and prevent this problem from cropping up in the first place.
A healthy lifestyle is much more than what you put on your plate and any nutritionist who is not guiding you to put in activity or movement in your day should be avoided.
So, if you have any specific health concern you want to deal with, consult a person who you can trust and who empathizes with you. If anyone body shames you into losing weight, take my advice..run far away. Being skinny is Not being healthy.
If you feel good, feel light, feel active and your health parameters are in range, that is a sure shot sign that you are going the right way.
Last but not least, what about your journey makes it satisfying/exciting?
The change I see in people, especially ones who thought they were beyond redemption. A lot of clients come in halfhearted to make any changes or have been nudged by a family member to lose weight.
In their head, they have already decided that they cannot change. Once they embark on a health-positive journey and start making progress, the motivation starts coming from within and my need to push them reduces.
The physical change goes hand in hand with improvement in their mental well-being and that is in turn reflected in their quality of work at the office and their relationship with friends and family.
A small step taken to improve their health spills over so positively in all other aspects of their life and this is the most exciting part of the journey.
BrilliantRead is committed to bringing stories from the startup ecosystem, stories that reshape our perspective, add value to our community and be a constant source of motivation not just for our community but also for the whole ecosystem of entrepreneurs and aspiring individuals.
Note: If you have a similar story to share with our audience and would like to be featured on our online magazine, then please write to us at [email protected], we will review your story and extend an invitation to feature if it is worth publishing.
