Find out how Shyam- a full-time trader, broke the loop of gaining & losing weight !!

Hi friends, welcome to one more transformation testimonial. So Sham is one of my mentees who did the transformation last year and he lost around 15 kgs. And not only that, it's actually helped him in a lot other areas in his life. So let's get started. Uh, Sham, welcome to the interview. Thank you for your time. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you for inviting me for this.

Yeah, so the main motto of this is to share your own experience over on program and so that it will actually help some other people who wants to onboard under the Hapit under my guidance. So let's begin the interview, Sham. So can you quickly give your introduction before we get into the interview?

Hi, I'm from Chennai. So I'm into full-time trading for the past 2 years.

And yeah, so what, what was your main pain points? I know, I know you for a long, and we have been, we've been met by trading. So I know the challenges which used to face previously. During the challenge, especially with the mindset and emotions. And I know that you also mentioned that you had a previous experience, but you always had a challenge to lose the weight. But what were your main challenges? How was your fitness background? And if you can, previous experience.

So yeah, yeah, but initially, initially when I've been doing fitness for past 6-8 years probably, So when I started, when I used to do gym, my assumption was, you know, do weights, do workouts, diet doesn't matter, right? And when people talk about diet, okay, I thought, okay, I need to be diet, and then I went on to crash diet, you know, and then it led to also— so the full concept of working out, the full concept of dieting was totally wrong. And that is what I was doing, uh, knowingly or unknowingly, right? So you continue to do gym and you come eat whatever you want, yeah, you'll add weight. Then you go on the crash diet, you reduce, you continue to do gym. And what happens over a period of time, you know, you lose interest in gym, right? So what am I doing? And, uh, whatever you're doing, you're gonna gain weight. So you just lose interest. You're not, uh, you have a goal You achieve it and then, you know, probably again you need, you land. So it's like a cycle, right?

Yeah, it's a vicious cycle. You lose, you gain, you gain.

Yeah, it's a never-ending cycle. So these are the main misconceptions. People think that, you know, only crash diet you lose weight and only if you do heavy weights, you know, go to weights. You don't focus on diet, you just do weights. These are the misconceptions which I had, and once I started with Tarun, you know, I understood, okay, that is wrong. Yeah, the way you are, the way I approached fitness itself is totally wrong. Yeah, it's not about, uh, it's not about even workout. You do workout, don't do workout, it's all about food, right? That's some, it's like eye-opener for me, uh, which, you know, I didn't know. It's like a lot of people doesn't know, actually. Even if you go to gym, people doesn't tell about, you know, dieting. Everywhere you go, it's about crash dieting. So you want to lose X amount of weight and then you focus on only that. But is it sustainable or not, something which we don't think about.

Yeah, and I do remember, I think you used to face a lot of challenges. How exactly the fitness was so important to you as a trader? I think you do remember that Yes, yes, yes. So mood swings because of that, and you are not able to succeed in your trading.

Yes, see, when, when you go to focus, do focus workouts for one number, one and a half hours, what happens is you, you deviate your mind from whatever. See, if you sit, especially for trading, trading is more of a psychological— when you always think about trading. But when you go to gym or when you do any sort of workout, what happens is unless and until you focus, you cannot do the work. Yeah, so let's say I lift a 10 kg dumbbell and I'm doing shoulder press, I cannot think about the trading at the time. Yeah, obviously my focus will be on counting it. So what happens is totally, you will never ever think about, you know, the trading at all. That 1.5 hours, you know, you totally, uh, it's like you are switching off from the world. Yeah, right.

It was like a stress buster, I can say.

Yeah, it was like a stress buster. You don't even think about it. And then you come back also, what happens is you're already tired, you want to, you know, you have, you know, for you after, you know, and then you go take a bath, you know, it's like 2 hours, 2 and a half hours will go, and then you have some sort of, I don't know, I cannot explain it, you have some sort of, you know, freshness, you have this energy, you have, you don't feel like, you know, even though you go through big drawdowns in trading, you know, it doesn't, it doesn't affect you. And somewhat day in, day out, the next day you go for gym, you again— that one and a half hours, 2 hours become a very, very important part of me. Like, yeah, because it helped me.

That was the main point you were missing before we started this journey.

Yes, correct, correct. And I, I didn't know this important, right? See, when you do workout, uh, see, yeah, it was like when initially I used to do with my partners, it was fun, right? But I didn't have this impact on me, you know. My professional life, right? So it was just fun and you do, go do it, come. But once I started doing properly with dieting, I can see a lot of changes energy-wise. I don't feel tired. I can— I still remember me and my old gym partner went for a running and initially used to run more than me. And at the time I'm going for 4 rounds and he's doing only 2 rounds. So I can see those changes, right? This fitness and diet especially comes into the picture. You can see those changes.

And I do remember, I think when we started, especially when I spoke about writing down a goal, you said, is it that important? So I told that, you know, your mindset is everything. Can you just tell me, I do remember that I asked you, I forced you to write a goal and send me a snap.

Yes, I remember. I remember because, see, yeah, that is very important because unless and until you know what you are doing, why you are doing it, it's again like before, how you used to do. It's like a cycle. You want to reduce weight, you add weight. You reduce weight, you add weight. But it's not like something which is sustainable. And if it has to be sustainable, you have to have something focused where you have to achieve that, and then it has to, you know, you have to keep doing, right? So you have definitely something which You know, every day you just, you have it in front of your wall, you know, and every day it's like you wake up, you see that why you are doing it, right? Why? That why part is very important because I think that clarity I didn't have. I was not a goal-oriented person in terms of gym. For me, it was like, you see, I'm doing it for fitness. You go to gym and come, so you're doing fitness. But that is not the case, right? You just for the name's sake, you go to gym and come. It's not like, it's not a fit. You should have a specific goal and why you're doing it and where you want to be in probably next 6 months or 1 year. That is something very important. See, what happened for me is initially I had some sort of health issue. Why? In terms of, you know, I've been always fit. I used to go to gym and, you know, it is an irregular I don't do it regularly. I take a break. And during this lockdown, what happened? Suddenly my cholesterol level increased, you know. And it is a surprise for me because I always think that I'm fit. I don't have anything. Suddenly when you see that, you know, and I want to do gym, but even when I start, I'm unable to do it because I don't have good— even though I have some issue, I'm unable to do. Yeah, especially having this goal, right? And then you have someone to mentor you, right? How to do, why to do. Yeah. And then there is push. You are— you're already accountable to someone.

Yes.

You know, you always speak with the— you know, you have to send your daily workout tracker, everything to Arvind, and you are accountable also. So if you're not doing one day, you feel guilty that, yo, you have to— you have a goal to do and you're not doing this. Yeah, right. So goal is something very important, and definitely That is also something where it helped me to achieve what I want.

Yes, and I think anyhow I'll come back to you about the goal part. I think you made that as now you use that in all part of your life. I will come back to you. Okay, tell me how was the overall journey? And I know we created a plan which is more aligned to your schedule and we simplified into very simple steps. So how did you I know you mentioned that you followed a lot of previous diets, so what was the big difference you saw and why you are able to sustain it now?

So when Aravind introduced me to this Quantified Nutrition, yeah, I was thinking, hey, what, it's very difficult to do, we cannot do it, how is it even possible? So something which is very Even though I thought this very challenging, you cannot be that, but something very interesting was you're not restricting yourself.

Yeah.

So all these years, whatever diet I have been, it's like morning eat only 2 chapatis.

Yeah.

Afternoon have only little bit rice and then you have whey protein or what. See, there is a lot of restriction, right? And when someone comes and say that you can have whatever you want, but it should be within your calorie limit. It should be, you should have a calorie deficit. And I'm thinking, can I do it? But yeah, that there was initially there was challenges, you know, you have to pay your food, all this thing. But one thing which was promising was you can eat whatever you want.

Yeah.

So I thought, okay, fine, why don't we try? Because I can eat whatever I want, but I need to have it within my calorie level. And so that is something was, you know, very— but because you don't know anything about what to eat. How do you quantify food? How do you— because I had a lot of questions with regards to, you know, can I able to do it? Is it sustainable? What my family members will think? How do I convince them? These are a lot of questions I think for initial 1 or 2 weeks I was asking Aravind. Aravind was handholding me. I think even daily we used to have call even for weighing the food and asking me, how do you weigh this food? How do I weigh this food, right? So it was like—

I think I also do remember you had initially challenged family to cooking and we worked out a model that house on—

yes, correct, correct.

I think after that it made your whole journey, it was very easy.

Yes, right, right. And moreover, it's not like— see, when I used to be in diet, it's like I would be in a separate food. Yeah, I would be having only this.

Yeah.

When I started quantifying nutrition, it's not like— see, they will cook, for example, they will cook pongal. I love pongal, but still I will— I, I— it will be within my limit. I'll quantify it and then I'll have. It's not like— so they were somewhat okay with, uh, you know I'm not deviating from what normally is. Like, you do chapati for me, you have something. It was like that. It was not like that. But when I want to weigh the food, it was initially, it was very struggling, right? They're saying, what you're doing? What were they? It took a little bit of time for me to convince him. But if once you do 2 or 3 months, you'll have all the data because you will not keep changing, right? One day we'll have pizza. It's not like that, right? We, in the house, almost, you know, Every month, whatever we cook, almost we will cover everything. So once you do it for 2-3 months, I had the data, then it was not a challenging thing. But yeah, of course, only with Aravind's help I could able to do it, because if you want to start alone, it will be difficult. And especially the weighing, there is a method to weigh it. Yeah, that is something, you know, Aravind helped me to do.

And also, I do remember, yeah, I think there is one challenge also we faced during our journey is you went for a travel and you had to go away from the diet.

Yes.

Share that experience, um, about your progress.

Yeah, yeah, actually I went on a trip for 4 days. Yeah, I still remember before I leaving, I weighed myself. To see, you know. I'm sure, you know, I'm not taking weighing scale. I said, okay, 4 days I can't, I'm just going to go on a break. And I'm sure, you know, you're going out, you cannot be so restrictive, and you cannot go and search for food, and then you cannot weigh it as well. I'm, I'm not doing that. I told Arun, for 4 days, he said, okay, no, it's okay, fine, go, but when you come back, you just come back to the normal. Yeah, I, I still remember I weighed before I left. I think when I came back, I I gained around some 2, 2.5, I guess, 4 days. And when you're not in diet, right, you go on eating spree. I went, I had whatever I want to eat, I had everything, you know, I was not restricted at all. I just had everything and I didn't even track also. 4 days I thought, okay, I'll take a break. And when I came back, again I fallen back to the old method.

Yeah, I remember when you came back and you said I gained 2.5 kgs. I told about, don't worry about weight. Mostly what happens is because of consuming more food and sodium levels high, you, you gain a lot of water weight. I think I remember after 3 or 4 days it came back to normal.

Yeah, it came back to normal. That was surprising, right? You gained 2.5 kgs. Normally it takes so much time for you. I thought, okay, what is this? I did everything for 2 months and in 4 days I gained 2.5 kgs. I was like thinking, oh, so See, I should have maintained the diet. I was thinking all these things were going through my mind. And moreover, I was also not doing any workouts, right? Workout plus diet, I was losing weight. And there are 4 days I didn't do anything at all. I added— I just kept eating whatever I want. And then for my surprise, yeah, 3-4 days it came back to previous weight, whatever before I went to the trip. I came back to that. And then after that, you know, it was just keep going, you know. I was reducing, still I was continuing to reduce weight. So the good part is it's like, it's like on/off button, right? So you want, you can do that and you can come back. Always you can come back to where you want.

Yeah, this is one thing I think you were, you just followed whatever the program and whatever I was telling.

Yes.

And I know most of the times what happens is people just because of this 4 days, they leave everything. So yes, this is kind of a journey, right? During a journey, always find obstacles, but We just need to, uh, come back to the plan. So rather than doing inventions and going and doing aggressively workout. So these are some of the mistakes, but I think I'm glad that—

yeah, yeah, even, even—

yeah, you just followed the guidance to the core, and that's why you got the best. And you've been very consistent even though you had a lot of distractions. I'm really—

yes, yes, that's, that's cool. That's, that's all because of your help and motivation. Probably if I was alone, if I had gained 2.5 kgs, I wouldn't have gone back to the previous weight. And if I have gained, let me eat better, I would have got ready. So it's all there, the motivation level.

And also tell me, yeah, I think you lost around 15 kgs.

Yes, correct.

And you've been maintaining consistently from— I think we finished our coaching 6 to 8 months back and you still maintain it. And what are the other benefits other than weight you are facing and how exactly it has helped you in your own trading? I do remember that you told me that, you know, I'm, I'm being much better in trading and I've been much more focused. Can you just give a little—

so once you lost weight, somewhere you get this confidence, yeah, somewhat, which, which was not there before. That confidence will reflect everywhere, from work, from whatever you do. Yeah. When you are— so when I was overweight and you had this some sort of issues and You think that, oh my God, I'm not doing this. I mean, you have all this negativity around it, right? And once you lost weight, you have this confidence. You have done something, right? And that confidence has reflected in my trading, even my, you know, personal life, right? You're confident about yourself. You're confident about your trades, whatever you take. You're confident. You are not self-doubting yourself. Yeah, and, uh, another part is, uh, I felt so lighter. I, I, uh, I can just keep running for like 10-15 minutes without even—

initially your energy levels were much higher.

Yeah, my energy levels were much, much higher than what it was. Yeah, even though I was having less food, right? But my energy levels were, you know, at somewhere. And, uh, these are the experience which you have to experience. I can, I can tell you that, that I think even Arvind, when he was doing fitness, used to tell, this is what is— I was thinking, okay, okay, okay, okay, it was like that. But once I experienced, I came to know, okay, there is some sort of, you know, difference in between fitness and it takes you, takes your mind, body to next level, definitely.

And I do also remember, I think you never— some of the mindset practices and morning meditations which be reduced. And I think that also helped you, um, not just fitness. I think, uh, I think initially I told you about, um, the fitness, uh, fitness and your mindset both are really important and they go hand in hand. And that will actually give you a lot of— can you just tell me like how your mindset helped? And also you do— you, you told me recently that you written some goal on your trading and How did you— I think you hit that goal and then you told me that whatever. Can you just share that experience on your—

Yes, see, mindset, as you said, when— well, I think Arun is the one who introduced me to mindset and workout, right? See, I was thinking workout is all about fitness, right? It's not— I was not connecting both mindset and goal. But once he spoke about goals, once he had this goal, obviously what will happen is you already visualize yourself as being a fitter person, going to gym regularly. I don't insist on, before going to gym, do your workouts at home, visualize it. And these things helped me work out. I could able to achieve what I want. In turn, that turned into my, even my professional life training. I had set of goals which I want to achieve. So since I was doing it for my work, I was doing it for my training also. So that thing, you know, what happened, training, I had a goal, I had written it, everything. And last year, whatever I want to do with my training, I achieved that as well. So slowly from fitness it started and then it moved to professional life and, you know, something, it's amazing, right?

Yeah, I think, yeah. So, uh, one thing, uh, what I always say is, um, whatever you want to achieve, every single person has immense potential. The problem is, uh, it's all there in our, our hands and our brain. So the moment we actually start programming, that's where, uh, we're gonna achieve it. So that's how we actually achieved a fitness goal. But I'm glad that, you know, you're using another part of life, uh, and you are I do remember you saying that you have now every year goal you set in your profession.

Yes, yes.

So keep continuing that, and I wish you all the best for all your goals to come true. And is there anything else you want to tell to our clients about the program, or is there anything you wanted to share with them?

See, thanks to Aravind, see, whatever I am today, you know, in terms of my fitness, it's all because of Aravind and all his guidance, right? And anyone who want to, you know, do fitness, definitely Aravind is the right guy to, you know, go for. And he is so much committed that, you know, he will not leave you. Even if you are not committed, he is committed to make you fit, and he will be always on your back. And I'm sure that he is on a mission to transform more than 10 lakh people, and I'm sure that you will achieve it. And I want you to achieve it. I want to create more Sharps like me. And please do, if you want to be fit, in body as well as his mind, I'm sure Aravind is the right guy for you guys. Please take it up.

Yeah, and, uh, thank you so much, uh, Shyam. I think that's a great, uh, it's just, that's what makes more happy is, uh, when someone follows and get the result. Now that gives a bit more of the happiness, and it's all about, uh, what we strongly believe is, uh, teach what you learn. And first you do it and, uh, get the result, and the same result you can pass on to anyone. And that will actually— that's how we grow in life. And what is your next goal on your fitness level and all your career level?

So for my fitness, right now I have kept a goal for next 3 years. Yeah. So I want to become lean, lean, muscular That is something which I'm working on. I've become fit right now. So the goal is for next 3 years, be consistent, right? Be consistent, go to gym. Okay. So right now what my goal is, 4 days I'm doing workouts, 3 to 4 days I'm doing cycling. Cycling is something which is added recently. Again, because of fitness, all these things, cycling is something that is added. So that is something. So now what I understood is keeping a longer goals, you just keep working on it day in, day out. Just go to gym. I'm not too much focused. Initially it was like, what I'm going to have today, what is going to do, you know, what, what was I'm going to do. I was more obsessed with it. Right now my goal is for next 3 years, my 3 years goal is to become lean and muscular.

Okay, thank you, Sham. It's a pleasure talking to you and I'm really proud of your journey and I really enjoyed, uh, the throughout the journey and and you've been one of the most consistent mentees, I can say. So keep it up.

Thank you.

All the best, and I wish you to reach all your goals and keep using the mindset practices and goals in every part of your life.

Definitely, definitely.

We'll connect it again. So I want you to achieve much, much bigger results.

Thank you. Thank you. Definitely, Aravind is not only my fitness coach, but he is also my mindset mentor. Thank you, thank you, thank you. All the very best for your goals as well. Yes. Okay, keep going.

Thank you. And again, take care. Have a great day.