Renuka Bangar has lost 30 kg with Kayapalat. She is an educationist and life skills coach from Mumbai, and for most of her life, she believed the body she has today was meant for other people. Before Kayapalat, she had already worked with the best fitness coaches and dietitians in Mumbai, and the weight had always come back.
She told her story to the community at a recent morning session, with new members listening in. This is that story, kept as close to her own words as we could.
[VIDEO EMBED: Renuka's testimonial, 8 minutes]
Watch Renuka tell her story in her own words.
Everything she had tried before
Renuka did not come to Kayapalat as a beginner. She had tried a bariatric balloon and surgery. She had never cut corners on help either. She hired what she calls "the best of the best" fitness coaches and the top dietitians in Mumbai. None of it lasted.
So when she joined, she made herself a quiet promise: "Now this is my last chance." She decided to give herself to the program completely, without hesitation and without doubting it. When voices from outside told her to slow down or stop, she set them aside and listened to her coaches and captains instead.
"Anything is possible," she says. "I'm a classic example."
The year that could have broken her
Her time in the program was far from smooth. She was in and out of the hospital; she had a fall, and her husband went through surgery while dealing with his own health problems. There were moments she wanted to walk away.
In each of those moments, someone stood beside her. Her coach was there. Nupur was there. Her closest friend Rima, kept saying the same thing over and over: Renuka will do it.
There was a time when Renuka could not get out of bed on her own and could not go to the bathroom and bathe without help. She went from leaning on a walking stick to standing on her own two feet.
What changed in her body
Renuka credits nutrition with giving her the strength to keep going. As her food changed, so did her cravings. The pull toward sweets stopped, and so did the urge for something spicy and tangy between meals.
She also began to follow her circadian rhythm, sleeping on time and waking on time. That, she says, is when "the magic started happening."
Today she has no inflammation and no swelling. She is clear about pace, too. Having just come through surgery, therapy, and rehab, she knows her body responds best at around 2.5 kg a month. "I know my journey. I listen to my body," she says. Her next goal is another 5 kg, and anything past that she will count as a bonus.
88 kg for the first time
Renuka was a heavy child, and she was body-shamed from her teenage years until very recently. She had never weighed as little as 88 kg. She laughs that bingo callers announce 88 as "two fat ladies." For her, it is a number she never expected to see on the scale, and she sees it now.
The bigger shift happened in her head. After a session with coach Prashant, she says she began to love her body and to listen to what it tells her. Every coach and every member's story she hears in the community recharges her from the inside.
"Today I am physically, mentally, emotionally independent," she says. Asked whether this would have happened without Kayapalat, she did not need long to answer. It would not have.
The friends who keep her honest
Rima is the reason Renuka went to her first retreat, and Renuka is quick to say so. Rima was the one who stood by her, and neither of them has left the program since.
Renuka now has a circle of accountability partners in the community. Knowing they are watching keeps her answerable. It works the other way as well, because if they can see her change, she can be the identity shift that helps them believe they can change too.
Her competitive streak helps. She has competed with herself since childhood, and when she saw other members posting their results, her first thought was that it was not fair. "It was a kind of happy jealousy," she says, laughing. It made her more determined to get there herself.
She closed with a public pledge to every new member listening: "I'm not quitting Kayapalat. No matter what anyone says." She admitted she had never dreamed she deserved an ideal body weight. She wants it now, and she is going after it.