Daily Times

You are a renowned dietician, fitness expert, entrepreneur and nutritionist. Above and among all, a thorough professional. Tell us about how much at length did you study your current field of work before venturing into it?

First of all, I thank you for the above accolades. I’m much honoured to be chosen as one of the 50 most influential people of Pakistan. I have a very interesting story to tell. I worked as a civil servant as a deputy commissioner in IRS for 14 years. I faced a lot of health challenges after I had multiple miscarriages and one still born baby. Consequently, I gained a lot of weight and went from 65 kilogrammes to 103 kg and my blood sugar went haywire. I was on insulin for two years at the age of 36! I had been an athlete in my college days and was always super fit so this new change in my body was unacceptable to me. It not only hurt my self-esteem but also my medical health. I didn’t want to suffer for the rest of my life so I looked up some ideas to regain my fitness. And what I learnt baffled me! ‘Let food be your medicine’ had never rung so true before. I went from one dietetics course to another and finally ended up doing my degree and certification from Tufts University, USA. This was something I was so passionate about that all the other degrees I had received earlier came to nothing compared to this one! Studying Dietetics and Nutrition saved my life literally! I lost my excess weight, came to a normal 70 kg, defeated diabetes successfully Alhamdulilah and regained my confidence and love for myself! That’s when I started Diet by Design 10 years ago and quit my much esteemed bureaucracy position to help other people struggling with the health issues the way I did! And I’m proud to tell you that Diet by Design has been running successfully not only in Pakistan but in Canada as well and we have clients in more than 37 countries all over the world! I am a member of the American Society of Nutrition and a speaker at their conferences and a part of many of their research programmes!

How do you deal with unhappy clients if any?

There is no service in which one can have a 100 percent satisfied clients ratio. We also have our share of clients who are sometimes not ‘happy’ with the results. We try to make sure that we can help them with their health issues by alternative treatments and complimentary diet plans and meals. I am proud to tell you that our list of dissatisfied clients is very small and they mostly have medical issues which need medical help. So we refer them to expert doctors for that. Many of them do come back to us later on and try our services again.

What’s the best and the worst part of your job?

This is a question very close to my heart! I love what I do, making people healthy and I thank Allah to have given me this opportunity to be of service to others and for letting me impact the global issues of health by presenting my ideas on international forums. The worst part is when I see people rushing with treatments and expecting overnight miracles and quit sooner than they should. I try to explain to them to be patient and keep going! And I know in my heart that we could have helped them if they just gave themselves some more time.

Being a dietitian, nutritionist and fitness expert, have you ever felt the pressure of looking good and slim even at time when you feel like eating whatever you want and just letting yourself go?

Interesting question! I have been through it all, different weights, sizes and looks! I tell this to my clients as well. It’s every one’s own peculiar journey and the only person we are competing with is ourselves! So I ask them to keep their photo from 10 years ago as their inspiration! And since they have been that way once, they can achieve it again. The purpose is to be healthy and fit and happy in your own body! There are times when we lose track but then always try to come back to it and try to stay consistent.

What are you currently working on?

I’m very excited to be developing some new herbal supplements for anxiety and skin care. I work with herbalists in Hong Kong and we have made some very potent new formulations!

Diet by Design is a very witty name for your business. How did it come around?

My brother in law was visiting from the States around the time I was planning the business idea and he suggested it. We all loved it instantly since we design diets. So that’s how it came about!

Do you cook or bake? Are all the recipes for Diet by Design your own?

Yes, we use different mediums for cooking. Mostly they are baked and grilled, sometimes steamed. This preserves the natural micronutrients in the food. Yes, all the recipes are developed by me over time. We do a trial of three months before adding any new dish to the menu. Until now we have approximately 145 dishes including sugar free desserts!

How fitness and health conscious is your own family? How have you influenced them and your own circle of friends to be healthy?

My family has become more fitness conscious since I became so! Many of my immediate family members take DBD meals as their staple every day food. A big circle of my friends are also DBD clients! They love our herbal supplements too!

You are one of the top influential people of Pakistan. Growing up, who influenced you the most to be healthy, fit and active?

As a child I always remember my dad working out first thing in the morning before dropping us to school and going for his miles long brisk walks in the evenings. My mom is a doctor and dad was in Pakistan Air Force so fitness and sports were ingrained in our minds. I was a sports person myself, the captain of many of my school and college teams! Competitiveness and love for fitness were in my blood as a child.

Do you think people can lose weight just by dieting and not exercising?

Yes, for sure but losing weight and being fit are two different things. One can lose weight due to a disease or stress as well. Muscle and bone loss will also result in weight loss. So weight loss has to be achieved mindfully and purposefully. When we gain muscle mass, our weight goes up the scale and that’s healthy weight gain. But then it metabolizes fats faster and we lose the bad weight, making us fit and healthy. Our purpose at Diet by Design is to make the body fit enough so it goes back to its ideal weight and stays there. That is done through body assessments at the clinic and weekly appointments with clients.

Which celebrity in Pakistan according to you is the healthiest and fittest?

We have a lot of them as clients from Reema Khan to Ayesha Omar to Noman Ijaz to Imran Abbas and the list goes on. But I’d just like to say that all of them are so humble and down to earth and such beautiful human beings and to me the most fit amongst them are the ones who are the most happy with themselves and comfortable in their own skin!