Anshul “Imagine this. Getting up one fine day in your daily humdrum and getting a big hard punch in your face. 

Mid Jan 2014, that is what happened to me. With a little white patch on my thumb, I went in to see a skin doctor and he asked me just one question – Are you diabetic? I nonchalantly and very boldly said ‘Not at all, Never’. He, very calm and composed, told me, let’s get a blood test. I did. And the reports shocked the wits out of me.”

Anshul Punhani came to me with completely out of range reports and obesity. My first focus point was to warn him that it wasn’t going to be easy, but it was a surety that his diseases and weight would disappear. But to do that, I needed his complete, undivided, blind commitment. And I got it.

“I knew I was overweight (I hate the word Fat) but I did not know that with this weight comes a lot of baggage – lipid out of range, LFT totally haywire, type 2 diabetes, fatty liver extreme, Vit D deficiency, Vit B12 deficiency, high cholesterol & triglycerides, eosinophilia, and whatnot. I just could not believe this was happening to me at 39 years of age. Shock and disbelief and a will to get rid of the really nasty numbers out of my life in 3 months and be back in business in 6 drove me to Rachna.”

Through the weeks when I worked with Anshul, I was amazed at his commitment levels. Like the younger brother I never had, he trusted my word and followed it completely. Why it amazed me was because this was not the first time Anshul had tried losing weight. But something had changed to make the commitment levels so high.

“I was never thin through my school life and college, but I wasn’t fat either. I have a broad body structure and heavy bones so I was used to being weighty. In early 2007, I was 113 kilos because of my lifestyle but never had the nasty numbers in my blood reports. That year, I joined a dietician (will not name her) and in 12 months’ time lost 30 kilos. The regime was her diet and a little bit of exercise post 6 months of the diet. But when I really stopped the diet plans, in 3 years’ time, I slowly got the weight back and ended up in Jan 2014 at 115 to 116 kilos. That is also when I got that punch in my face with all my out of range biomarkers.”

“So post joining Rachna, one was the will, the other was the belief in what she was giving me, to blindly follow, and most of all was the endless support of my family to help me tide this over and most important of all the hard taskmaster role & the Wonderful Chef role that my soulmate – Sonia played. All of this really got me going.”

Anshul’s family came together to help him, and while I mostly deal only with my patients, I made an exception and we did conference calls between his wife, him and me. She was keen to help him get healthy. She pestered me for recipes so that he wouldn’t get bored. Anshul’s mother called me, worried about his test reports. His sister, a dear friend of mine, was like a guardian angel in the background.

“Initially the plan did sound offbeat and was little haywire. But post 4 weeks, it clung on to me. What really was working was the diet + walks + said supplements from Day 1 and religiously following them. I started to feel that I was being fortified inside out. It felt as if there was a renewed energy in me. In and out there was a strange freshness and a huge change in me. Yoga walks became so much part of me that I could not skip it any day.”

Anshul’s zeal, his being in touch with me constantly on WhatsApp and email, converted his mission into an obsession. Losing weight and becoming healthy is never only about changing your food habits or exercising. It’s a combination of the right foods eaten scientifically, the right supplements to root out deficiencies that cause cravings and increase bad cholesterol, the right combination of exercises followed with discipline. And for every individual, the plan is different, customized to their age, gender, body, stage of life, and blood reports. A one-size-fits-all approach will never work in successfully reversing diseases and weight loss, and the commitment from the patient is the biggest driver for success.

In 3 months time, Anshul’s reports were all back in range. And today, he’s 30 kilos down and counting.

“Today I have an obsession in a positive way and I have built an addiction for being healthy. If you are not passionate about something from inside and you are not building this like an addiction, you will never be able to do it. Today I can say that this addiction is good for me and the lifestyle that I have chosen now is the right one.”

Today, I have started pushing Anshul to talk to people who were in the same state as him and motivate them not to give up. Often, many of us start giving up when results take time but seeing a real person having succeeded makes our commitment levels come back, and we restart with renewed energy.

“People talk to me now and are curious to know what I have done and how I did it. I share the above and have seen a great change in them. They are on the path of self-reflection and change, and it feels good. This is another benefit: From my body and my soul, it is good to talk to people and get them to really adopt this addiction. This is one great way to be healthy.”

Anshul’s walking the talk. It’s now your turn.