Namita Nayyar
Share an insight into your diet routine? Foods you like to eat and supplements you incorporate to stay strong?
Sucheta Pal
Thanks to pregnancy I started to consciously change my eating habits and thankfully have continued. I don’t belive in counting calories but instead I control portion size. I include a good helping of a protein source on my plate be it chicken or eggs, a helping of veggies and rice for carbohydrates and fibre and ofcourse good fat like avocado, ghee etc.
I also realized that no matter what thanks to our hectic schedules we may not get all our nutrients from our daily food intake and supplements are key. So a Vitamin supplement, a fish oil capsule and a protein drink is always included in my daily nutrition routine. And during and after my workouts I will always replenish myself with a good electrolyte drink like Fast & Up or coconut water.
Namita Nayyar
In your #PregnantAndPerfect campaign, your aim was to break some of the biggest myths about pregnancy. You danced all through the ninth month of your pregnancy, came to be known as ‘Zumba mommy’ in the Zumba community. Please throw some light on the same.
Sucheta Pal
Although I was already called a Zumba mommy lovingly by the instructor community of India who I have had the pleasure to coach and train, I truly became one when I got pregnant in 2019. But pregnancy brought in unsolicited advice and I was always surrounded by people telling me not to workout during pregnancy or to take it easy and I knew it was time to really dig deep and break these myths.
After a lot of research and with my doctors encouragement I decided to continue doing what I loved. Travel and teach Zumba. So I had a 7 city tour across India teaching LIVE Zumba sessions in my 2nd Trimester to hundreds of students and followers across Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and even Jaipur. And it was humbling to see the response, especially my women.
I could see that in some small way I had contributed to empower them by walking the talk.Yes the body changes during pregnancy and one needs to be safe but exercise is the best thing we can do for a healthy pregnancy and healthy baby. Its totally safe to continue with our original fitness regime with 30% less intensity and staying hydrated and never out of breath. As long as you have your doctors permission you are good to go.