#TheRealHealthTalk: Meet Vandana Sharma: An inspiring health-wellness blogger & fitness trainer!

Hi everyone,  

Excited to share another interview post for series, “The Real health Talk”. The series is an exclusive interview series with some renowned and leading health bloggers/nutritionist/ youtubers of the digital health and wellness industry.      

Read Vasantha Vivek’s interview for the series here. 

In today’s post, I am excited to welcome an amazing health and wellness blogger and fitness trainer Vandana Sharma to my blog.  

Vadana has been into health and fitness industry for almost 8 years. She is a business analyst by profession and a health and wellness blogger by passion. She has started her fitness journey in the year 2014 and lost 15 kgs with a normal Indian diet plan. That’s why she has decided to help other people in their journey. She has also done a course on health and nutrition and worked as a fitness trainer for quite some time where she helped many people in achieving their fitness goals. 

 You can also start your journey to a healthy lifestyle with her. 

 Visit her Blog  energeticreads.com  

And check out Instagram page https://www.instagram.com/vandanaa.sharmaa.3/ to know more! 

Personally, I love reading Vandana ‘s informative blogs. She always shares useful and practical information on health, diet and nutrition topics.  

I am so thrilled to have her on my blog. Read the post to know about this “The Real Health Talk” conversation. 

Interview with Vandana Sharma: An inspiring health-wellness blogger & fitness trainer! 

Q. 1 Tell us something about your personal weight loss journey. I had read on your blog, “It’s not a diet, it’s a lifestyle change”. Please explain this mantra more in detail for my readers?  

A.1 I started my weight loss journey in the year 2014 and lost more than 15kgs. My mindset about losing weight or transforming my body has changed a lot. I have realized that any transformation journey needs the right mindset, to begin with. Also, maintaining weight is more challenging than losing weight. You can shed a few kgs in weeks or months or a year but maintaining weight and building healthy habits is a challenge. That’s why I believe “It’s not a diet, it’s a lifestyle change”. Once you start making changes in your diet and lifestyle, weight loss or any other transformation becomes easy.  

Q. 2 Nowadays diet culture (Keto, paleo etc.) are in demand. Being a qualified nutritionist, what are your thoughts on it? Do you think it should be promoted or not?  

A. 2 Keto or paleo diet can help you lose weight, there’s no doubt, but how long can you live that way is the next question. These diets put restrictions on certain food groups, for example, the keto diet is a very low carb and high-fat diet which many times compromises nutrition. However, if a person really wants to try their hands on this, it is recommended that they consult their doctors and also keep a check on their micro and macronutrients to make sure they don’t suffer from any health problem due to deficiency. I only promote them if the person can take care of their nutritional requirements, follow these plans in the long term and stay fit.  

Q. 3 This is the beginning of the new year and everyone is committed to making “new fitness and wellness goals” for the new year. What is one strong piece of advice you will offer as a nutrition expert that will help my readers to stay on track and achieve their “health and fitness goals” in the year 2022?    

A.3 To achieve health and fitness goals, I would recommend that you start slowly, don’t get too aggressive with your workouts, and make small changes in your eating habits. Doing so much one day and nothing another day, will not help in reaching health goals. So, to not get caught in this cycle of weight loss and weight gain, always make small changes, and eventually, you will reach your health goals. These baby steps will help you stay on track and treat yourself well. Reward yourself and stay active.  

Q. 4 Please share some tips on making healthy food choices on a budget?  

A. 4 It is always seen that healthy food is costlier than junk food and other healthy stuff in the market. So, most of us believe that healthy food is always costly. To solve this problem, I would recommend every person to look for the healthy stuff available locally. For example, Amaranth grain is grown at many places in India and is available at a comparatively low price. Also, there are so many options they’re not just branded. That’s why their real value is not recognized. Cooking at home with healthy ingredients can also make a difference in the overall calorie intake.  

Q. 5 Please share some advice for busy individuals who want to adopt healthy lifestyle habits in their routine life, but did not have a lot of time due to hectic schedule?  

A.5 This one is my favorite because I have seen my friends complaining about this and my advice to them is to find an opportunity to stay active. Try to squeeze some time out from the busy schedule and exercise for a minimum of 15-30 minutes. If your work demands long sitting hours, put an alarm on your phone to get up and stretch or walk every 30 minutes. Walk while attending calls, keep healthy snacks with you to manage cravings during the day, and walk to your workplace if possible. This will allow you to fit some healthy habits into your hectic schedule without even realizing it.  

Q. 6 Nowadays our life is highly influenced by social media and digital technology. By following the trend, people admire and follow their “online wellness gurus” religiously and take their advice seriously.  As a trained dietician, what are your thoughts on it? How do you feel this trend (following wellness gurus online) affecting or improving the wellbeing of normal people? 

A. 6 Some of those wellness gurus are genuinely nice and offer some great advice. But I would always recommend you people to google things out or consult your doctor or dietician if you have any underlying medical condition. Blindly following any person is not at all acceptable when you have everything at just a click. So, use the internet, search and cross-check before making changes. Not everything you hear or see is true, so be smart and think wisely. 

Q. 7 What is your favorite mantra or quote that inspires you every day for working hard with firm dedication and constant motivation?   

A.7 I have a slightly different view here, as I am someone who doesn’t believe in external motivation. But I would share one quote: A positive mindset brings positive things. Don’t only think about losing weight or fitting into your favorite jeans, try to build healthy habits. It might be any transformation journey.: weight loss, weight gain, bodybuilding, anything, just make sure you stay positive. You’ll not notice changes in a day or a month(sometimes) but the transformation journey will teach you so many things in life. Stay positive, go slow, enjoy the process, live a healthy happy life.  

I had a great learning experience with this interview. Thank you so much to Vandana Sharma for taking out time and being a part of this initiative.   

What are your thoughts? Please share with me!     

If you are a health/wellness blogger/Youtuber/ Nutritionists /health book author/ digital content creator in health and wellness industry with some inspiring works to share on, then I would love to feature you in this series.      

Drop a mail at ritu,prapanna@gmail.com with your details (blog/book/YouTube channel link with recognized work details)   

Read Also: Vasundhara Agrawal’s interview