Namita Jani - 9 to 5 Fit: A Working Persons Guide to Looking Great and Performing Better!

A working persons guide to looking great and performing better!

T he idea for this book germinated in my mind twenty years ago when I first started my practice as a wellness specialist at Bombay Hospital. Three out of five of my clients were from the corporate arena and it saddened me to see intelligent minds being bogged down by overweight bodies and failing to reach their full potential. It made me realize that though we are born with an engineering marvel of a body, we end up wrecking it as we slowly make our way up in our career, one corporate rung at a time. Soon where there were bones lay adipose; where there were muscles lay flab; and where once there was a heart, lay a time bomb. Ticking away. Faster with every promotion.

A classic caseRajesh Mehta. 36. Senior vice president in a Fortune 100 company. Had it all. An airy apartment in an upscale neighbourhood. An Audi A3. Board meetings all over the globe. A hefty raise every year. Insomnia. Acidity. Weight gain. High levels of cholesterol and blood pressure. In short, a disaster waiting to happen. But what worked in his favour was his will to change it all. Today he is healthier, calmer and of course many kilos lighter!

Offices are minefields of bad diets leading to bad health. If you are strapped to the desk, weight gain and allied problems tend to creep in quietly, making themselves comfortable when and where you arent looking. When you are poring over those balance sheets night after night, they hide in those endless cups of coffee, in the cheese of those office sandwiches, in the buttery glaze of Rajus pav bhaji. In the twenty years of working as a weight management and fitness specialist, I have come across many from the corporate sector who have jumped from a size S to XXL. Being overweight doesnt merely dampen confidence and performance but also creates health risks:

• Heart disease and stroke
• High blood pressure
• Diabetes
• Cancer
• Gall bladder disease and gallstones
• Osteoarthritis
• Gout
• Breathing problems such as sleep apnoea (when a person stops breathing for a short time during sleep)

But theres hope! Its never too late to make simple yet effective lifestyle changes, alter food habits and, most important, your way of thinking. Even modest weight loss can bring about significant health improvements such as lower blood pressure and cholesterol levels. If you are overweight, reducing your weight by 5 to 10 per cent is proven to decrease your chance of developing a heart disease. I know, for I have battled the weight monster myself. I have encountered every low associated with weight gain and understand how tough it is to shed those life-altering extra kilos. But I have emerged triumphant because of that little voice inside me that urged me to keep going and not lose heart. And if I can go down from fat to fit, so can you!

This book is for those of you who have gained weight at the workplace. It is my attempt to leverage all that I have learnt in my personal journey and in my quest to finding non-invasive methods for weight loss. The process did not evolve overnight and entailed poring over a vast body of reference materials that I had collated over the years, repeated trial-and-error exercises and reinventing of techniques until I fully understood how the human body responds to diet and exercise. I am now ready to share these lessons with you, to help you bounce back not just to a slimmer self but a healthier one too.

There will be no starving, I assure you. Just eating well and working within a balanced diet plan. Being a working woman myself, I fully understand the pitfalls of sticking to diets at the workplace. Armed with my knowledge and easy-to-follow guidelines, and your determination and willpower, its a cinch that you will soon be back on the road to good health and improved productivity. So, step forward and gear up for the battle. After all, what do you have to lose... other than those unwanted kilos?

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How Office Makes You Fat

W hen Alpana Nair, 28, first came to me, she was fighting a bad marriage and a lot of uncertainty about her future. She wasnt overweight then; her problem pertained to digestion. Soon she landed a great job and with it, a very busy schedule. When we met again four years later, I couldnt recognize her! She had gone from being a slim woman to an obviously overweight one. Four years at her new job had sucked her into the corporate world so completely that she hadnt noticed the kilos as they crept upon her. She too was perplexed. How did my job make me fat? she wondered.

I have undertaken much research to understand just what leads to weight gain at the workplace. And dealt with almost every cause of weight gain while helping office-goers to lose weight and gain health. The conclusion is simple: Since we spend at least 7 to 8 hours at worka considerable chunk of our day, mind youit is only natural that what we do at work will have an impact on our body.