Here we’re talking about Sapna Jay Singh Patel, Founder of Health Before Wealth, who has brought a revolution in health and fitness by consulting her patients, giving them a clear vision about how home-cooked meals can be the best diet for Weight Loss, PCOD, Hypothyroidism, Diabetes, and other lifestyle conditions. She provides online consultation to the clients helping them build a balanced lifestyle.
What made you persuade the idea of home-cooked meals resulting in cures of everything?
Coming from a traditional Sindhi family, I have realized that Indians are very much culturally inclined. You would find traditional delicacies and eating styles in every state of our country. Eating healthy home-cooked food per your family culture and tradition is much easier and more sustainable.
Our body has self-healing abilities, and all it requires is the inclusion of the right nutrients and removal of harmful food items along with a healthy lifestyle. Once you know your body’s nutrition requirements, you can continue to have healthy meals for your entire life. I have a strong belief in consuming healthy home-cooked meals, and although this is a bit slow process, once we start getting healthy food cooked at home, our entire family gets to eat healthily, and this helps each and every family member.
I understand there is a lot of time and effort required for this change, but when you see yourself glowing with good health and feeling energetic throughout the day, you will take every decision in a better way.
What have you learned throughout the journey of being a nutritionist?
Over the last nine years of being a professional nutritionist, I have many learnings related to our attitude and approach towards a healthy diet. It starts with improving our lifestyle as the first step.
I have realized that people get influenced very easily by shortcuts. That’s why they adopt crash diets or pills, which may work at the beginning, but are not sustainable in the long term. People want to achieve their weight loss goals quickly, and on top of everything, they do not want to invest time in their health and educate themselves about what they are consuming.
I have also realized that people are very much dependent on ready-to-eat meals and meal replacers available in the market, especially the modern generation. They think the healthy home-cooked meal is bland or boring looking, but it’s never like that! It’s very fresh, tasty, and provides you with all the required nutrients. It is delicious and very different from ready-to-eat meals, which gradually lose their nutrition due to processing.
I advise people not to look for an easy way out and show them the absolute right path towards healthy living. This is a slow process and requires patience and dedication, but the results are long-term and sustainable. You won’t see much impact if you start eating healthy for a week and then go back to eating unhealthy and processed food.
Free diets and tips never work, and absolutely no one can force you to eat healthily. Eating healthy should be a personal decision, which has to come from within. Those who start with a positive attitude always get to see the happy result on their body.
What is the preferred and balanced lifestyle from your point of view?
One should start with following a balanced lifestyle, including regular physical activity for at least 30 minutes. They should find ways to incorporate exercise in their daily routine, like taking the stairs instead of elevators or walking around while talking on the phone.
One should also drink enough water to hydrate their body. If you are not drinking enough water, your body will store the extra water, resulting in bloating of the tummy. This is followed by regulating sleep cycles. I don’t mean sleeping for long hours, but sleeping well throughout the night to stay active and fresh throughout the day.
The other steps are to cut down on salt intake sugar consumption and include fresh raw vegetables in your daily meals. One should also reduce fried foods from their diet, eat more steamed food and consume healthier food options like sprouts or lentils.
If you are traveling to a new destination, never miss the local cuisine but getting back on track is a must; your cheat meal shouldn’t become a cheat day.
How have your clients reviewed your initiative of ‘Ghar ka khana’?
My clients are very educated and aware of preferring home-cooked food over anything else. Many of them are highly dedicated to their health and fitness, but many need an extra push to get started. I have used the ‘Ghar ka khana’ initiative with positive results.
They find it very simple and easy to follow my diets and have improved their health conditions. They have also seen a significant improvement in their skin and hair quality which is always healthy when you take healthy food.
Along with losing weight, people who were facing issues like PCOS/PCOD, hypothyroidism and infertility have seen great improvements in their health conditions. This is the best part of my job—to see people getting their health back with small efforts.
Where do you see yourself in the span of the next three years?
In the next three years, I want to be able to reach out to more than 1 million people online and offline and help them get their health back. I want to conduct various workshops for people who want to start their journey towards a healthy lifestyle. I also want to take my writing career to the next level. I hope to write a book on health, nutrition and lifestyle management, which will help people manage their diet effortlessly.
I also foresee that online training has become extremely popular now, so I plan to conduct corporate wellness workshops and online webinars to spread awareness of the benefits of our desi diet.
