A Lot to Learn from This Super Mom – Deepti Karthik @ Community Speak

In our Community Speak series, we’ll be featuring our community members who inspire everyone around them to make a change and be the change when it comes to staying fit and healthy.

Meet Deepti Karthik. She has been a part of the Your10MB community (ImStrong’s nutrition brand) since a long time. While her food posts on Instagram are all kinds of goals, she is an inspiration herself. She’s a mom, in fact, a fit mom, a homemaker with a creative streak, and a runner. Let’s hear about her fitness journey, her transformation, and her story straight from her.

Q1: How, when, and why did you get into running?

Deepti: I had been intensively into dancing right from childhood. But post marriage, I had to give it up for various reasons. And like all women do after marriage, I started gaining weight, so I needed some form of physical activity. That’s when my husband suggested that I should try running. Since I had never taken up any kind of sport all my life, he guided me well and we joined a running group. I signed up for a 3-month training program for a distance of 10 km, and after that there has been no looking back.

Q2: What training methods/routine do you follow to be the strong runner that you are?

Deepti: I joined ‘PaceMakers’ in 2014, and have been following our coach, Mr. Kothandapani’s meticulously planned training schedule ever since. He brings out the best in us, and following his training program has made me the confident runner I am today. No distance seems impossible now.

Q3: How do you strike a balance between your everyday life as a mother and training for races?

Deepti: From the day I decided to start running, my family has been extremely supportive of it, be it my husband, parents, or in-laws. They have always been there to babysit my son during my training. So training is a lot more easy for me. My son has grown up seeing me and my husband training for runs and participating in races within the city and outside. He is extremely cooperative and understands that this is our way of life, so as a mother it isn’t as difficult for me.

Q4. “Preparing and eating healthy food at home is hard” — How do you debunk this myth? 

Deepti: Nutrition is always the key aspect to one’s training. But sometimes due to lack of time, or we’re so tired after workout, preparing a meal can be demanding, so we end up eating anything, or packaged food, which does no good in terms of nutritional value. Preparing and eating healthy food at home is hard, no doubt, but thanks to Your10MB, there is enough variety, and recipes don’t take too long to make, so it’s a real boon for us runners. With simple day-to-day ingredients, delicious and nutritious food is ready in no time.

Q5: How do you make time for yourself outside of running and being a mom?

Deepti: All training runs happen early morning between 5 am and 8 am. After which I get back home, get my son ready for school and make breakfast. The rest of the morning I spend by resting for a while, cooking and cleaning up and making sure all my day’s chores are done before he comes back from school, so that I have enough time to spend with him throughout the day, taking care of his studies or just being there for him. I love spending time with my little one by reading him a book or playing with him or just listening to him talk about his day in school.

Q6. What are your three favourite products that you use every day for a healthy lifestyle?

Deepti: Your10MB, Namdhari (because I get all my stock from there), and Fast&Up and Enerzal to fuel me during my workouts.

Q7. Do you have any fitness inspiration? 

Deepti: I look up to all those wonderful people who make a constant effort to be healthy and stay fit. 

Q8: Do you have any advice for women, especially moms who want to eat healthy and get fit but struggle to find time?

Deepti: Always being on the skinnier side as a girl, it was [kind of] easy for me to shake off the extra kilos post pregnancy, but it wasn’t that easy. Eating right and working out go hand in hand. A diet does not mean only living on salads and fruits. A healthy diet is a balanced diet of carbs, protein and fat and including sufficient liquids. A lot of women complain of “not being able to find time”. If you ask me, staying fit should be your priority and a way of life, and not part of your life. It’s never too late to start. If you are healthy, your family will be too.

A lot of key takeaways here that we can all learn from. Deepti strives to make her health and fitness a priority. Do you? Let us know in the comments. And if you’re struggling to take out time to go out for a workout, don’t go out! Register at ImStrong for a quick home workout LIVE with a professional trainer. Lot of workouts to choose from and no frictions to stop you from getting fit.