A certified nutritionist and a fitness guru, Veronica Kumra, started her journey as a fitness enthusiast in 2014–striving for “sustainability”. Today, she propagates a balanced approach towards fitness to various people of different age groups through VeronicaKFit™️.
Veronica Kumra is one of the few fitness gurus who practices what they preach. She has learnt from her personal experiences and has embraced all setbacks which came along the way while striving for her health goal. “Right when I realized my inclination towards counselling,” she explains, “I decided to pursue Holistic Nutrition & Lifestyle Coaching as my profession to help the ones struggling discover a happy spot of sustainability. A spot where you are at peace with your body, have a healthy relationship with food & a body of your dreams, now & forever.
You have emphasized on having a sustainable diet plans throughout. How does sustainability work even when it comes to our food?
If a nutrition plan is alien to your lifestyle, does not have meals as per your liking & does not incorporate foods you love, the probability of you following it for a long time is very low. The reason why typical dietitians promise quick results is because they are aware of this harsh truth. 95% of people gain back all the weight they lost and the remaining 5% start undereating out of fear of gaining back the weight once they are off the program. As a by-product people become victims of wrecked metabolism, imbalanced hormones & inflamed digestion.
To make a nutrition plan sustainable:
1. It should not feel like a “diet”
2. It should become a part of your lifestyle
And when the nutrition plan is sustainable, you are more likely to follow it for a long time. If the plan you’re currently on is making you feel restricted, deprived, starved & think about food all the time, you will not have a successful transformation journey. Your nutrition plan should be such that once you’re off the program, your subconscious mind is automatically trained to eat the way you used to when you were on the program. You should be able to make the same food decisions you did keeping in mind which foods work for you & against you. This way, you will not only continue to make progress in your transformation journey but even make your journey enjoyable.
What makes VeronicaKFit™️ different than the others in this industry?
Let me first highlight a few things I don’t do as a nutritionist:
1. I DO NOT provide generic diets
2. I DO NOT promise quick results
I am a Certified Holistic Nutritionist and specialize in hormone healing & gut health. My approach towards nutrition coaching is very scientific & clinical. I believe once your foundation is strong the progress you will make during the course of the program will become permanent and not bounce back once you have successfully completed my program and started eating without a set plan.
I provide Customized Sustainable Nutrition Programs to each one of my clients keeping their goals, concerns & lifestyle in mind. My clients will never have the same meal plan as every individual is different and there is no-one-size-fits-all approach in nutrition & health. I take a limited number of clients on board after critically examining their profiles because I like to give each one of them my close attention to share my knowledge & provide them solutions, tools & techniques along the way that they can build upon the rest of their life.
I stand strongly by my “No Diet, Diet” formula and use food as medicine to my advantage. I have worked with at least 20 clients of diverse age groups across the globe in the last year itself who have suffered with either Autoimmune Diseases (like IBD, Lupus, Diabetes), Chronic Diseases (like Cholesterol, Thyroid, Insulin Resistance), Digestive Disorders (like IBS, Hemorrhoids, Acid Reflux/GERD) or Hormone Imbalances (like PCOS, Menopause & Amenorrhea being the most common amongst women). With solely food, I have reversed or treated their health problems and even made them achieve their individual goals.
I help my clients create a lifestyle that is convenient, balanced, doesn’t create a mindset of restriction or added stress, all while making them accomplish their goals.
My goal is to make their transformation journey impactful & enjoyable.
What kind of challenges would you say you face as a nutritionist?
The no.1 challenge I face as a nutritionist is to answer and establish a belief when my clients question why they need to eat so much food if their goal is fat loss.
It is unfortunate that we all have been trained to think by our dietitians, fitness coaches, family & friends and the false information we consume from the internet & social media that to lose weight we must eat less. However, the truth is to lose weight we must meet our body’s daily caloric requirement for optimal functioning and not consume in excess. Your meals should be based around good sources of protein, carbs, fat & fiber. You should eat more whole foods & less processed foods. You should eat at least 3-4 meals a day to speed up your metabolism and live an active lifestyle.
In general, I break a lot of myths on daily basis. Some common ones are:
1. Carbs make you fat
2. Carrots are high in sugar
3. “Today is my rest day so should I eat less”
4. “I ate pizza so I will workout double tomorrow”
5. “What are the timings for each meal?”
6. “Do I need to eat all my meals before sunset?”
7. Keto, Intermittent Fasting, and all the Fad diet trends
What aspects of nutrition do you feel are most important to address when consulting with clients?
The most important aspect we all nutritionists should address is digging deep down into the underlying causes of our client’s health to help them build a strong foundation instead of merely addressing the consequence & providing them with quick short-term results. Addressing underlying causes like chronic diseases (such as cholesterol, thyroid, diabetes, high blood sugar, insulin resistance), hormonal imbalances, digestive disturbances, food allergies & intolerances (if any) which usually are the reasons of stalled progress, will not only bring a significant improvement in their health but make their progress stay with them for longer.
Personally, what is your fitness philosophy?
After all the various workout regimes I’ve followed in the past, my best advice to you is- choose a physical activity you enjoy and will look forward to doing every day. A physical activity that will make you jump off the couch.
It is not a specific exercise or a workout that makes you burn fat, build muscle or be healthy/fit, it is the consistency in your physical activity paired with smart food choices that will give you the results you desire.
Lastly, any word of advice for aspiring nutritionists/dieticians?
Discourage your clients from asking for quick results by going to extremes with diet restrictions & deprivation. Encourage them to make health their long-term goal and their short-term goals like fat loss/muscle gain will just be the by-product of their journey. Shift their focus from restriction to nourishment. Help them build a healthy relationship with food & their body. Help them breakthrough food fears and make them mindful of the foods that work for them & their goals and foods that don’t. Together, let’s break this vicious cycle of restrictive eating and bless our clients with food freedom. It’s time we make a positive impact in our community.
