Rujuta and the Weight Loss Tamasha

By : Juhi Bansal

If I have to introduce Rujuta Diwekar to you, you are probably on the wrong page! Celebrity Nutritionist, food consultant to the who’s-who of Bollywood and someone who says out loud, “eat! if you want to lose weight”, in a world of crash diets and fad workouts.

Rujuta was in Ahmedabad for the last couple of days doing her bit in educating people (specially parents) on nutrition and the right diet.

I happened to attend one such closed group seminar. While this was more a talk about her journey of “self-discovery” , she did also talk about food! So, here are my key take-aways from her talk for all of you.

With Rujuta and her second book Women & the Weight Loss Tamasha

-She’s had humble beginnings and she credits her success majorly to being true to herself and her nutrition philosophies even when the clients in question were Mr. Anil Ambani and Kareena Kapoor!

-Include as much local and seasonal produce as you can in your diet- peanuts, cashew-nuts, bananas or mangoes rather than imported almonds, apples, kiwis and pears.

-Avoid eating out of packets as much as you can and cook fresh. Apart from the obvious chips and namkeens, chuck muesli, cornflakes and even fibre biscuits and move on to idlis/poha/upma and other home cooked items.

-You need a protein shake even if you do not workout if you are going through any of these-break ups, night-outs, work stress or even sleeping disorders.

-While selecting a protein shake, make sure that each serving has a protein content of 20-25 gms and carbohydrate content of less than 5 gms. Choose whey over soy.

-Everyone needs to workout for at least 2.5 hours per week. Walking is not workout!

-If you feel sleepy or crave sweets or even a coffee right after lunch, you might be Vitamin B-12 deficient. Try ending your lunch with a glass of buttermilk. (you may want to get yourself checked if the craving still persists).

-She busted the widespread myths around green tea helping in loss of weight, milk being calcium rich, dal-protein rich and leafy vegetables-vitamin rich.

Some of it was new to me, some I knew from before, but truth be told-I needed this session. For me, the best part was when she asked all of us to get rid of our weighing scales (I and my scale are practically inseparable) and just concentrate on healthy living and wholesome eating. Weight loss is just a by-product of this and will happen in good time.

My apologies if I could not sum up the session very well. Do write in to me and I’ll be more than happy to share the wisdom I acquired.