Dubai expat's journey from an overweight teen to a fitness fan

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Prachi Thakur hopes to inspire her clients, friends and family with her story.- Supplied photo
Prachi Thakur hopes to inspire her clients, friends and family with her story.- Supplied photo

Dubai - The journey to the healthy lifestyle she lives today wasn't an easy one to reach for her.

By Sarwat Nasir

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Published: Tue 20 Nov 2018, 7:00 PM

Last updated: Thu 22 Nov 2018, 10:45 PM

Dubai expat Prachi Thakur wasn't always the biggest fan of fitness. She was overweight during most of her teenage and early adult life and weighed over 100kg. After spending years in depression and low self-esteem, she decided it was time for a change.
This year is her first participation in the Dubai Fitness Challenge and it's an initiative she has proudly partaken in. Her goal is to continue her journey in maintaining a healthy lifestyle, but as part of the fitness challenge, she hopes to inspire many others.
The 23-year-old Indian expat's profession allows her to do just that as she is a personal trainer at a gym - a career she thought she'd never have.
"The Dubai Fitness Challenge is perfect for me because I work at a gym. It's a time where everyone is motivated to get fit and work towards their fitness goals," Thakur said.
"For my own personal goals during this challenge, I'm ensuring I get my usual 45-60 minutes of workout done. However, the key is consistency and that is something this challenge tries to target. Thirty minutes of exercise everyday gives you consistency. My focus is a mix of strength training with cardio."
Thakur may be confident now with her fitness goals, though the journey to the healthy lifestyle she lives today wasn't an easy one to reach for her.
She had been trying to "lose weight" since she was in school. Even though she failed a few times, she continued to motivate herself to reach her target weight and a healthier lifestyle overall.
"I won't say it has been easy, because I remember when I started, I was all weight obsessed and wanted to get my weight down as soon as possible, and therefore I started with crash dieting (crashed to the point that I used to have one apple in the whole day). I was very low on energy, so emotional, so cranky all this while," she said.
"This continued for about 17 days and I lost about 8kg. But eventually I had to come back to normal diet and it took me approximately 2 months to eat like a normal person and all this while I managed to keep the weight off. But then, I realised it was the wrong way, but it gave me motivation that yes I can do it."
Thakur hopes to inspire her clients, friends and family with her story. She also hopes that more people take on the Dubai Fitness Challenge and adopt the exercise routine as a lifestyle, rather than a monthly activity.
Four things to do on November 21
1000Kcal
>What: Burn 1000Kcal with high energy workouts
>Where: D5 Executive Gym, DFC
>Time: Fridays and Saturdays, 9am
>Duration: One hour
Lean Legs
>What: Burn stubborn lower body fat
>Where: D5 Executive Gym, DFC
>Time: 8am, until November 24
>Duration: One hour
Arms Like Arnold
>What: Get arms like Arnold Schwarzenegger
>Where: D5 Executive Gym, DFC
>Time: 11am
>Duration: One hour
Palm Jumeirah Fitness Challenge
>What: Host of different fitness exercises
>Where: Palm Jumeirah Fitness Village, Al Ittihad Park
>Time: 7am, until November 22
>Duration: Until 10pm
sarwat@khaleejtimes.com
 
 


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