In a world full of imperfections and flaws, if there is one thing that has remained a constant is the IDEA of an IDEAL WOMAN. At the risk of completely ruining my current image, I’d say that for good 28 years of my life, I was the IDEAL WOMAN. I did everything that was asked of me as a woman:
Got married at 22, had a teaching job, had a kid at 26.
Around 3 years ago, my weight kept increasing in an extremely unhealthy fashion but I had more important things to care about that time - my kid, my husband, my in-laws. I was not even my own last priority. Back then, I was not Diksha Chhabra, I was just another of those hundred thousand of Indian home-makers who give up all their ambitions and interests in the name of having an IDEAL family life.
In 2015, I was a working mom and an Army wife with a hectic schedule and family responsibilities. I was detected with Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome and hypothyroidism, leading to massive weight gain. At the age of 29, I weighed 86 kilos and was battling depression.
It was the wake up call I needed.
I bought a treadmill to start with, reduced my calorie intake, started home workout and lost 18 kilos. In the meantime, I was educating myself about weight loss and found strength training to be very believable.
I joined a gym and started lifting weights. It was a gradual process. From not being able to walk even for 2 kilometres, I became someone who could deadlift 100 kilos and squat with 80 kilos.
I have always been a woman of precision. if I get myself into something I give it my 100%. When I took charge of my life, unit by unit, step by step, all the disjointed pieces of life started falling in place and came together to make me what I am today.
My Journey from an Unfit Mom to a Fitness Expert
Today, I am a healthy person with no hormonal problems (I have stopped taking medicine for thyroid), I weigh 61 kilos, and my body fat percentage is 15 %. I lost around 25 kgs in one year.
Today I am:
- Founder, Diksha Chhabra Fitness Consultancy
- Model
- Sports nutritionist and Fitness Trainer
- Fitness expert with Decathalon
- Instagram influencer
- Mrs. India Earth Winner
- Mrs. Body Fit (2017-18)
It hasn’t been easy. My mother in-law was detected with cancer just when I made this career shift. Life was stressful but I had the motivation to keep myself going. Having changed my life 180 degrees just by adapting a healthier lifestyle without any help from steroids or supplements, I want more and more people to know that there is hope at the end of the tunnel and anything can happen if only you dare to dream big and ‘love yourself’.
Flex Your Muscles
Being a woman and particularly one with muscles is extremely threatening to the society. I have got a lot of slack for my un-feminine body-type. Starting from, ‘Look at her muscles, she looks like a man’, to ‘OMG she has a son and see how she puts up pictures in short clothes,' and the list goes on. When I participated in Mrs. India Earth and was working on my body, I overheard many people talking behind my back that I will never make it with my masculine body, but here I am defying the stereotypical contemporary image of a woman and weight-lifting my way to success.
A lesson I learned early on was that you will never be able to please everyone. But in the end what matters are the few people who believe in you, who will always stand by you and help you fulfill your dream.
WOMEN, DO NOT LET LIFE BRING YOU DOWN. I want to inspire each and every such woman who has at least once in her lifetime thought “life would have been so much better, if only I was a man”. I want you to ‘LOVE YOURSELF’ and not sacrifice yourself. Through my nutrition programs I aim to empower women be a more confident and better versions of themselves. But I still feel no external factor/ person can miraculously bring about that change in your life. The needle has to be moved by you.
(Diksha Chhabra, a trusted nutritionist and a fitness trainer She runs the Diksha Chhabra Fitness Consultancy.)
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