A poignant day to write my testimonial for RNT as I just got word this morning that my class mate in Kenya has passed away early this morning. Same age as myself – it just hit home. It brought me back to my big ‘WHY’ on the reason for starting my RNT journey just over a year ago.
Background and Pre RNT:
I am a 51 year young Investment Manager who is married and blessed with an energetic 9 year old daughter. I was introduced to Akash by my physio Rushabh Savla at the back end of 2018. I was seeing Rushabh for an annoying Achilles tendinopathy on my right leg which just did not seem to go away. I have always been sporty throughout my childhood. I played decent squash to a high level through school and for the University team. Throughout my twenties and thirties – I kept really active with golf, squash, running and trekking. I was skinny throughout that period but did have a tendency to appear a bit on the ‘stocky’ side! In my late thirties and mid-forties I really enjoyed long distance running and ran 3 marathons (London in a time of 3 hrs 49 and two Lewa marathons which is a gruelling marathon in Northern Kenya in heat and high altitude) and numerous half marathons.
The mid-forties arrived and the running kind of declined and golf became a big passion and still remains so. I used to go to the gym on a fairly regular basis – but now in hindsight it was purely to do more cardio than anything else. I would use the weight machines but with no real structure or defined plans. The middle age spread had really taken hold and I slowly started putting on weight especially around the belly. I thought I was eating relatively healthy food and whilst I drank alcohol it was not really to excess.
5 years ago I was really trying to control my weight and started doing a large number of HIIT classes in the gym. Part of these exercises involved box jumps. I now realise that these and the excess weight I was carrying would have an effect of weakening my Achilles tendon. One fine summer morning on a school run I skipped to open the door for an old lady and the next thing I heard was a nasty snap and I ruptured my Achilles tendon on my left leg. 6-7 months of physio and recovery and more weight gain.
Not surprisingly a few years later I was put on blood pressure medication. I was blessed with the general Indian family trend of diabetes, elevated cholesterol and blood pressure with both parents’ diabetic and my mother having cardiac issues. It was a huge disappointment for me to be put on blood pressure medication before my 50th birthday. From everything I had heard I was on these for life now. My cholesterol was also on the higher side and my sugars were bordering on the pre-diabetes level.
I started intermittent fasting and also became vegetarian and managed to bring my weight down to around the 73kgs mark. In January 2019 I went for an ultra sound and the radiologist mentioned that I had non-alcoholic fatty liver which is a condition when the body produces too much fat and the liver cannot metabolise it and the excess is then stored in the liver cells. My GP said – not to worry about it as most people who are a bit overweight have it! Reading further into it I realised that this was directly linked to high visceral fat and the inevitability of metabolic syndrome illnesses like elevated sugars, blood pressure and cholesterol.
That was it! I had had enough. From a sporty person I was now someone on blood pressure medication and had elevated cholesterol and high sugars with fatty liver. I decided I did not want to go down the well-trodden route of taking medication to relieve symptoms rather than really treat the root cause of the issues. I spoke with my niece Sakhi Dodhia and her husband Jas who had had an amazing transformation with RNT (see their profile on the website) and following from Rushabh introduction I signed up with RNT in late January 2019. My big WHY was nothing to do with photo shoots or getting a six pack. As a fifty year old I was more concerned about improving my blood markers, losing visceral fat and being healthy enough to keep up with my energetic daughter and to look after my family for the next few decades as opposed to them looking after me.
My RNT journey has been amazing and well beyond my expectations. I could not have done it without the accountability and platform provided by RNT. I have learnt more about health, fitness and nutrition in the last year than I have in the last 30 years.
I feel healthier, leaner and stronger now that I have ever felt and that it’s is me at the young age of 51! The inner confidence and knowledge gained is also having a great impact on other areas of my business and family life.
If one is contemplating a journey of improving your health and ultimately all aspects of your life, the skills you will learn through RNT are going to stand with you forever. The physical really is a vehicle to improve on all aspects of your life. This is not about a short-term solution to losing weight and looking good. Losing weight is just a part of the journey. The psychological aspect to then maintain those habits forever is the hard part. As a company RNT with its expertise in long term body transformations will facilitate that for its members like no one else. Their ultimate aim is for you to achieve self-mastery in all aspects of your overall wellbeing from both a physical and mental side. My results in the last year are only good if I can maintain that over the next decade and more. I am confident that with my ‘rewiring’ of mindset and habits I can maintain and actually improve on what I have achieved.
RNT’s results speak for themselves of which I am just one of many. I am hoping my journey can inspire others to make a focused investment in themselves to improve their overall well-being. A huge thanks to the RNT team who have created an amazing platform to truly transform people’s lives.
