Bring on the food, says Rujuta Diwekar

Building on her four principles of eating right from her first book "Don`t lose your Mind, Lose your weight," Rujuta goes on to share her four strategies (nutrition, exercise, sleep and relationships) for every phase in a women`s life in her recent book "The Weight Loss Tamasha."

Food is not about calories but about feelings, emotions, romance, enriching and rewarding and central to human existence, she points out.

"Don`t think in terms of reducing weight - 5 kgs or 10 kgs or whatever.. instead focus on getting fitter, stronger, healthier. When your body is healthy and mind is calm - body weight comes at an optimum level, not more, not less," advices Rujuta.

Speaking about the vegetable peas, she says, "Everytime somebody dismisses peas as having high calories. I am heartbroken because peas are rich in potassium, vitamins, apart from calcium, selenium, zinc, iron, enzymes, natural fibers and sugars."

Teaching aerobics part time during her graduation in Mumbai where she studied industrial chemistry was her first brush with the fitness scene in India, one that was filled with tacky advertisements about Russian blondes and pictures of weightlifters.

"When I made a choice to enter this very little known field of fitness and nutrition, very little was known. But now not just filmstars but even ordinary people are beginning to realise the importance of a healthy body," Rujuta told PTI in an interview.

From aerobics classes to being a personal nutritionist to people like Kareena, Anil Ambani, Saif Ali Khan and Konkona Sen Sharma, Rujuta says she has finetuned her methods to the real issues facing urban Indians.