Welcome to the Episode!
Yasmin Karachiwala, a fitness icon and Pilates pioneer, joins us to discuss the untold truths behind celebrity fitness routines, the rise of Pilates in India, and practical strategies for staying fit and healthy at any stage of life. This episode dives deep into Yasmin’s journey, her philosophy on fitness, and the importance of personalized wellness.

Ryan:You've got Deepika Padukone and Katrina Kaif. How does their work out?

Yasmin:Their needs are different. When Katrina had to do Chikni Chameli, the dance, and she said, Yas, if anything jiggles, I'll go on national TV and say you're not a good instructor. It was bloody difficult.

Ryan:Yasmin, I wanted to know what were some of the

Yasmin:One day, the instructor was unwell.

She called me up and she said, Can you teach my class today? And I was shocked. Did everything wrong. At the end of the class, I was so embarrassed. Started researching on the internet. Out came the word Pilates. Which I was like, what is this

Ryan:Pilates? Why does a common man always have this excuse, Oh, unke paas paisa hai.

Is it about money or is it a mindset? Every

Yasmin:person is a celebrity. You need to take that effort. To make that decision for yourself that I'm going to invest in you.

Ryan:Do you feel your 30 years of experience is enough?

Yasmin:My 30 years of experience is not ended. It's still

Ryan:ongoing. What are the common mistakes that people make?

Yasmin:People watch the internet now and Instagram. Like, they're seeing people doing these fancy Pilates moves and they come to class and they show their instructor and they say

Ryan:I'm excited to share this new podcast with Yasmin Karachiwala, the trailblazer who introduced Pilates to the Indian fitness industry and now trains Bollywood stars like Deepika Padukone, Katrina Kaif and Alia Bhatt. We dive into her incredible story from hating physical activity to now becoming a fitness icon.

And her recent work with Alia Bhatt during her pregnancy was phenomenal. Yasmin shares her nutritional tips for clients, advice for those who are just beginning their fitness journeys, and the importance of understanding individual bodies to choose the right exercises. We also explore her personal challenges.

Multitasking as a family woman and her philosophy. I like

Yasmin:gambling with

Ryan:health. This is an episode filled with inspiration, insight and practical advice that you absolutely can't miss.

Yasmin, it's a pleasure to have you today. And I want to dig deep into your journey in the fitness world. Welcome to my podcast and thank you for coming all the way here.

Yasmin:Thank you so much, Ryan, for having me and I'm super excited to be here.

Ryan:I heard you just caught a flight in from Bhopal and landed in.

Right. So what's happening in Bhopal, Yasmin Karachiwala in Bhopal?

Yasmin:Yes, we're starting a Pilates studio in Bhopal and we're partnering with them and yesterday was the soft launch of that.

Ryan:Your journey has been extensive. Did you start off as a Pilates instructor? What was your story? And because it's many years in the making of your empire.

Yasmin:So it's a really different story. I was a very different person as a teenager. I was super lazy. I never worked out. I hated the idea of moving physically. I would watch TV and eat samosas and bhajiyas and vada pavs. Once again,

Ryan:you would eat samosas, vada pavs and all of that junk food. And pizzas.

And like,

Yasmin:I could eat a full pizza just by myself. What was the switch? There wasn't really a switch that happened when I was around 17, my best friend, 18, my best friend fell in love and she wanted to look good and lose a little bit of weight and we just had this new health spa that had opened in our city in, in Bandra, where I live called 10, the health spa, which had a sauna, steam, and they had a, a very unique membership in like I'm talking about, late 1980s, where they said two for the price of one, and we weren't college, we couldn't afford.

So your bestie and you went

Ryan:for it.

Yasmin:No, she forced me. I had no intention of going. She was like, because she didn't want to pay the full price. She was like, there's this amazing, you know, why don't you join with me? I said, exercise me, not happening. She said, Come on, you, you eat more than all the boys we know.

You don't move at all. I think you should come with me. And if you're my best friend, and you love me, you'll do this. So there I went, you know, emotionally back blackmailed my best friend, went into the studio. She knew exactly what she wanted to do. She went into the weight section, started doing some leg extension.

I didn't even know what those machines were. I was walking around. I saw this studio where people were dancing. It said aerobics. And as a teenager, I thought I was a great dancer. Mm hmm. I walked in thinking I've totally got this, went and stood right in front, entered late, went and stood right in front, in front of the mirror because I wanted to check myself out, did everything wrong because I realized that I had no coordination skills that are required for aerobics, probably kicked a few people or ba ba bumped into a few people finished the class.

And they all gave me the dirtiest look and they were like, you don't belong here. What are you doing here? I was so embarrassed and disappointed in myself that I kept going back to that class because I wanted to prove to myself that I can't be so bad at something. And one day the instructor was unwell.

She called me up. And in those days we had phones at home, right? No mobile. She called me up and she said, can you teach my class today? I'm not feeling well. And I was shocked. I said, what do you mean teach your class? I don't know how to teach aerobics. And she said, there are cassettes. This was the cassette age.

Just play any cassette you like and do whatever comes to your mind. I said, okay. I went, I put in a cassette. I said, hey guys, I'm teaching the class today. And they all laughed and they said, Yeah, right. Like we're now going to do rubbish. I put the cassette and to my astonishment and the people who I was teaching, I knew the entire 10 song routine.

Like every song, every beat, I could even instruct them because in my memory, subconscious, I had heard the teacher so many times that I was giving instructions. At the end of the class, I think more than the class. People being surprised. I was surprised that I could teach the full class and they said, when did you learn?

And I said, I didn't. She said, that was the start

Ryan:of your journey.

Yasmin:That was the start of my journey. Not really. After that, the instructor actually, the instructor was pregnant. That's why she couldn't make it. And she was teaching an afternoon class. So she said, after college, would you like to come and teach this class?

I'll pay you said, okay. And yeah, that that's how it started. So I would go to college. I would come back on this. Okay. And then after I completed graduation and then I got hooked, I would go to that class every day, you know, show off. And when I was going to the U. S. after I completed graduation for I was working at, we had something called Camp America, where Indians would go to America and work in summer camps and you'd get paid.

So I was going there and she said, why don't you go do a course because in those days, nobody was certified in India. And of course, my confidence always took the better of me. I said, yeah, I could teach a class without being trained. I can go do a course. How difficult can it be? It was bloody difficult, if I can say.

So I failed. Because your passing percentage. is 75 plus and we are used to 35 percent and this

Ryan:this is the Pilates.

Yasmin:No, this is aerobic instructor training. So

Ryan:even aerobic instructor training in the U. S. is a 75 percent pass.

Yasmin:Yes. The first time you took it little

Ryan:lightly.

Yasmin:Yeah, I took it very lightly and you needed to know anatomy.

I was a art student at graduated in economics. I knew I know nothing about the gastrocnemius. It took me three days to say the word and I love saying it now because I had to practice true gastro gastro. So it was it was really funny. But I went back and read the exam and of course got certified came back.

My dream was to be a school teacher to teach little kids. I love toddlers. So I came back. I did my early childhood care and education. I teach in a school in the morning and run aerobic classes in the evening till I had my own children. And then I realized that I used up all the patients that I had in my school, that when I came home, I didn't have enough for my older son.

I had only one then and I would be impatient and I said, okay, this is not fair. So I stopped teaching and then I did a personal training course. So I thought, okay, I'll go to people's houses and do personal training. And then in the evenings, I would do my aerobic class. So then I did a personal training course, became a personal trainer, did that for about eight years, and then I had my second, in that time, had my second son, had this little abdominal fat that I did a hundred crunches, I did a thousand crunches, I could never get rid of, started researching on the internet, what can I do to get rid of my abdominal And then I saw Flab and out came the word Pilates, which was like, what is this pilots?

And then I did research, which are the best studios, how do I do teachers training, found the studio in the US. So this was

Ryan:first for you personally? Of course. Okay.

Yasmin:Everything is always first for me.

Ryan:Okay.

Yasmin:I come on top of the pyramid. And then I found Pilates and I called up the school. First I saw the word Pilates and then saw who in India teaches Pilates and nobody did.

Then I found a school in America and I said, I want to become a Pilates instructor. It was in California. And they said, Oh, great. How many years of practice do you have? And I said zero and they said the prerequisite is that you have to be, you have to be practicing Pilates for a year before you can come and do

Ryan:the course,

Yasmin:the course.

And I said, nobody in India teaches Pilates. So they send me some DVDs and they said, watch this practice for, you know, a few months at least I saw it. The roll up looked like a sit up, the chest lift looked like a crunch. And I called them. I said, I do all of this. Why are you telling me to practice this?

You know, I'm from India. I do yoga. I teach, you know, I'm a personal trainer. By then I was a personal trainer for about 15 years.

Ryan:Where was this in the US?

Yasmin:California in Orange County.

Ryan:Ah, okay.

Yasmin:Yeah. So I packed my bags. They said, listen, we want to just warn you it's tough. And how long was the first course?

The moment someone says tough to me, something lights up like there's a light bulb that goes up saying, I've got this. If someone says tough means I have to prove that I can do it even more. How long was it? Well, I went to do mat Pilates because I didn't even know what equipment Pilates meant or what equipment was.

So I signed up for mat Pilates, which was six weeks.

Ryan:So Yasmin, for the uninitiated out there, what is mat Pilates and what is equipment Pilates? And is there any other Pilates?

Yasmin:So mat Pilates is Pilates on a mat. You don't require any props. You can just do Pilates like you do yoga on a mat, unless you're doing Ayangar or, you know, something else.

It's just the mat and you, which is what I went to do. Pilates in itself is the perfect combination of strength and stretch. Equipment Pilates is Pilates done on an equipment. The equipment is what you have to import. from all over from the US right now, basically. And you do it on different equipments, which were made by Joseph Pilatus, who was the founder of Pilatus.

Ryan:So there was a person who founded Pilatus and his name was Joseph Pilatus. Is it true? I read somewhere that it was designed for patients and hospitals.

Yasmin:It was designed during world war one.

Ryan:Okay.

Yasmin:When Joseph Pilatus was. In an internment camp, he was working with injured soldiers, and there were these soldiers after the war without a limb, without two limbs, and he started developing this program for them to keep, just keep healthy, keep fit, build their immunity, so they would be on their beds, and he would use the springs of the beds to make them do exercises and rehab, and that's how the machines came in, and if you look at the machines, All our machines, Pilates machines are spring base.

Like in that time they had bed springs.

Ryan:Very interesting.

Yasmin:So it was developed by a man for men.

Ryan:And you were in California, orange County learning the mat Pilates.

Yasmin:I was, I went there to learn the mat Pilates, a six week course. My kids were, that was in 2006. They were six and eight. So my in-laws came in to live with them while I went to do this.

And when I went. The first day I was jet lagged. I went, I did my course, went back and slept. The second day I was a little more alert. I went, I did. So it was the first half of the day that they did the math training. And then after that they were doing the equipment training. The second day I stayed back to see what are they doing when I go home.

And I saw the equipment and I fell in love. I was like, I have to bring this back to my country. And so I went and met the teacher and I said, I want to do this. He said, well, you've just signed up. for Matt and you've already missed two days of equipment. I said, I'll make it up. I'll do extra classes and whatever.

So he said, but the equipment training is 12 weeks. I had already booked my tickets. So I called up my in laws and I said, I want to do this training and the instructors allowed me to break it up. Six weeks now, six weeks come back after six months. And so they said, and that's when you have supportive, you know, family and they said beta, whatever you want to do, you do.

You go back and do it.

Ryan:That was so beautiful.

Yasmin:Yeah, so that's how my journey began for Pilates.

Ryan:So when you said that you saw the equipment, and you said you have to bring this back to the country, what was clicking in your head at that time? Is it that you were already a personal trainer, you'd done aerobic classes, taught aerobic classes, and you saw something, because today you have many studios.

You have many people have trained under you, but at that moment as an entrepreneur, I don't think you were an entrepreneur. Were you an entrepreneur at that time? No. But then you said I had to bring it back to India. So why? What was the trigger? The thing

Yasmin:with me Ryan is when I like something or when I love something and I see something different and when I use it and I know how effective it is, I want to share it with people.

Ryan:In which year was this? 2006. And at that time Pilates was unknown in India.

Yasmin:Nobody knew what it was. So it was, it was actually a gamble. But I like gambling. I like gambling with health.

Ryan:And did you import the first Pilates reformer? What did the customs say to you when they got that equipment? Did they pass it through?

It

Yasmin:was, yeah, you had to just pay custom duty.

Ryan:Now I'm thinking they were like, why was this lady importing this bed which springs into India? No,

Yasmin:so the thing is, I actually acquired an import export license. to import this machine. The machine, anyway, is expensive in America, but by the time it comes to India, it's double the cost.

So I told them which is the cheapest reformer that I can import. The customer doesn't care. If you're paying your duties, you can get in whatever, but you have to be willing to. So I imported one machine, which was a combination of the reformer and the Cadillac, and I imported the Wounder chair. So I bought these three things because I had to also go back to do my exam to do the rest of the course.

I was like, if I come back to India, how will I practice what I've learned? Because when you do the second half, you have to give an exam so that they know that you've, you know, done. You've learned successfully before you indulge in the advance. So I had to bring it back. I had to practice on myself. We had teacher training hours that we had to put in where you practice on different bodies and you know, you'd learn how to train because we have a two fold examination.

One is a written threefold. One is a written one is they tell you exercises and you perform them and one is a whole hour where you're teaching somebody else and they observe you teaching them. So it's not

Ryan:an easy exam to pass.

Yasmin:Not at all.

Ryan:Yeah. Not at all. Are there different levels in pilates to become an instructor?

That's a basic level. And so what are those? So

Yasmin:the first level is mat pilates, which is really, really important for you to do, because that is like your foundation, right? So your foundation has to be super strong for you to construct a building. And then you do reformer. After reformer, you do chair. After chair, you do Cadillac, and then you do the barrels.

And once you've done this all, you give an examination and you become a comprehensive trainer, but you can also be different levels of trainer. So now that I'm a teacher's I'm a, I'm a master instructor where I train my trainers. I only do math with some people who don't have the luxury of having equipment.

So they do only maths. Then with maths, we add props. So you can do mats with a ball, you can do it with thera bands, you can do it with thera loops, and then you do reformer. So there are different levels where you train people. Even in mat, we have mat 1, 2, 3. So if you just want to start out your Pilates career, you do mat 1, you start teaching, you get the experience, you come back, you do mat 2.

Ryan:And are these examinations conducted now in India? Yes. You conduct these examinations.

Yasmin:And right now

Ryan:I'm actually, is there any paper leaking happening in this examinations or not? No. So how good do you have to be to become a Pilates instructor? So the thing is the

Yasmin:paper leaking, sorry to cut you, but the paper leaking can, it's an open book exam.

Ryan:Ah, it's an open book exam. It's an open

Yasmin:book exam. The theory is something else. But you're practical. How are you going to cheat?

Ryan:So the reason I went in that direction is because there are two people that need to hear this. One is, I want to become a fitness instructor. And the other is, I want to be trained by a fitness instructor.

So, a lot of women, you're very inspirational to a lot of women. Two children, two boys, you went to the US, your family support is there. But a lot of women do not take care of their bodies. And doing workouts is one great asset in my opinion that a woman can give back to her body, which is the time for herself to take care of her body and the workout is one.

So for those who are getting inspired by you, I want to know what were some of the early challenges you talked about, you know, traveling jet lag and all, but those are maybe logistical challenges. What are the other challenges you faced as a woman? Was money difficult? Was time difficult? Was people's comment difficult?

Was like, Oh, you know, how can you take care of two children and go for classes? Did you face some of these issues?

Yasmin:So I think the biggest challenge comes from your spouse sometimes because he says you have no time to do this and you have no time to do that. But as women, we are gifted with being multitaskers.

Right. We manage our time. So from an early age, I knew that I wanted to give my kids quality instead of quantity. I was never that mother who woke up and dropped them to school to feel that importance or who would want to hear when I'm abroad that my kids are missing me. You know, I've always made my boys independent and come to me when you have problems and you need me.

I'm always there. So even when I started working, I worked my schedule around them. I would be home. When they left for school, I would be home when they came back from school. So the first studio that I started was in my house, in my living, in my

Ryan:guest room. So that's a pivotal moment in your life. Yes.

Just adapting everything. Your desire to be a career woman and at the same time be a family woman. You had them kind of.

Yasmin:So I would like to say Ryan to this that my career goals were being a teacher. They were not being an instructor, right? My whole, like, from the time I remember what I wanted to do was teach children.

And that's what I gave up when I had my own children. Because I felt like I was not giving my children quality. Because when I came home, I didn't have patience. But I had patience for other people's children, right? And then I decided, okay, now that I'm home, let me become a personal trainer. Because fitness is a second choice that I've made.

And that became my career. Because as I went and you know, this being a, you know, nutritionist being into the health space, the more you go into health, there's so much you need to learn. There's so much you need to try and test. There's so it's not about, okay, I've done this course. Now I can train people, right?

It's not like you can do a certification and then you know everything and you can be there as people change as people have different needs. You have to constantly evolve. You have to constantly dive deeper into what you know. So I'm constantly finding out what it is that will help the current body in front of me.

Ryan:Is there a difference when you say, you know, you have to constantly certify yourself or healthcare is a deep dive pit because you learn something and then something else is a deeper part of that science. Is there a difference between just being a fitness Pilates instructor teaching one on one on a class?

And is there a difference between being a teacher?

Yasmin:Definitely. So we have this, when, when I did this certification course by Fletcher we learned Who is

Ryan:Fletcher?

Yasmin:Fletcher is a school of Pilates. Ah, so Ron Fletcher was a pupil of Joseph Pilates. Okay. And he started his own school. And he said, I mean, when I was doing the Fletcher Arts teacher training, my instructor there, my teacher there said, you first start out as a trainer.

You teach what you look. Right. Like in the circus, you train the animals, you're training, whatever, you know, then you become an instructor. So from a trainer, you've become an instructor. Now, you know, the instructions you're giving have to make sense to people. So from the knowledge that, you know, now you've, you've taught that, taught that, taught that.

Now you're going to start instructing differently. And then you become a teacher. After you become an instructor for a period of time. Now, you become a teacher when now you're an instructor. Sharing your knowledge with other people like now I'm a teacher. So I share my knowledge with other trainers to become instructors and then teachers.

So it's constantly evolving.

Ryan:So sharing knowledge. We know that you live in Bombay. Bollywood comes to you. We see your Instagram profile with the who's who of Bollywood is coming to you. Take us back in time where you got your first celebrity.

Yasmin:I think I was teaching aerobics then, though I always say it was Kareena Kapoor, but now when I recall, she was my first personal training celebrity client.

But when I used to do aerobic classes, which was step aerobic classes, and I had 20 25 people, and I, I can't remember the first per, I think it, no, it was Anita Raj.

Ryan:Okay.

Yasmin:Anita Raj was my first celebrity.

Ryan:And she was sweating in your aerobic class.

Yasmin:In my aerobic class and she had come out with a yoga DVD.

Because she, and then I remember thinking, Oh my God, she has her own DVD and she's come to work out with me. And it was a, it was a super high for me that I'm going to now train. So that was one of your first high. That was my first high. Like, Oh my God, Anita Raj is coming to work out with me. We're very good friends today, but yes, she was the first celebrity that came and then.

Of course, after that, I had a lot of them coming in, but

Ryan:obviously, you know, the celebrities have this mindset that my body is the most expensive real estate and they invest in their food, their diet and nutrition, the trainers, the Masios, even the doctors in the group of Bollywood, who do you think?

has the most expensive real estate, not the land that they buy in Bombay. But who do you think really spends and invest their time, effort, mental grit into getting that great, great asset of a body?

Yasmin:I think we have a lot of them right now. There's no one person.

Ryan:And why do all of them have that Yasmeen?

And why does a common man always have this excuse? Is it about money or is it is a mindset?

Yasmin:So. It is a mindset which needs to be supported with money.

Ryan:Wise words.

Yasmin:Right? So, it is, so, to those people that say hai, I say, all of us who are health professionals, who have these people coming, also have a parallel line on our YouTube, which is free.

Ryan:Huh.

Yasmin:Right? Like you have your podcast. You're not charging people to watch your podcast. It's there for you to learn your online videos. I have my online videos. I have my YouTube videos that I take a lot of time and effort to make for the common man. So I'm like we are coming to you, but you have to make that effort to come to us.

You cannot say, like, of course, we get trolled on our Instagram by saying, Haan, haan, paisa hai, isliye log aate hain, aur celebrities koi train. I say, no, every person is a celebrity in their own right. And for me, you are, but you need to take that effort to make that decision for yourself that I'm going to invest in my health.

And it's not a monetary investment always. Because people like you and me, who are true believers in our, in our work. We are there for the common man as well free of cost they need to make that step towards us

Ryan:So I think it's a mind shift and speaking of investments and mind shift in the wellness industry As a pilates trainer, when was the investment or the aha moment?

You said that I'm gonna start making this as a business and I'm gonna start making it bigger or scale up Do you remember any specific timelines? It just organically, organically happened.

Yasmin:So for me, my aha moment actually was the day I started a studio in my terrace.

Ryan:You first said you started in the bedroom, right?

Yasmin:No, in my guest room. In the guest room. So I'll tell you, this is a really interesting journey that I had. I became a personal trainer after my boys were born, right? So I said, okay, now I can work at my own time. So I used to go to people's houses to train them. This was Back in the early 2000, and I would go to people's houses to train them and come home and then go to somebody else's house and train them and come home.

What I realized was people weren't serious about me going to them. Because your personal trainer is just an extension of your chauffeur or your dhobi that you're paying a lot more, but they have to work at your time. So if you could get a relief, I was training men and they got a really important call.

I had to wait for them while they finish their call. If I was training women and the sabziwala came or the dhobi came or the driver came, I had to wait for them till they finish their conversation. It wasn't like, okay, this is my one hour that this individual has come to train me that I need to give them my focus time, right?

And I hated that feeling. They didn't value my time. So I told my husband, we had just moved into our own flat, our nuclear family flat. And we had a guest room. I said, do you mind if I call people home instead of me going to their house? Because now they are coming to me. I can set the rules, right? I'll have to say for one hour, please put your phone on silent and respect my time.

And he was like, are you crazy? What are you going to now call people to our house? And I said, you know, the kids are so little and I'll always be home for them. And that was. The clincher that yeah, that was the so he was like, of course, yeah, I think that's a great idea. So I invested in a few equipment, I turned my guest room into a studio, I was always home, the boys were very little, then they were two and four, literally two and four.

So I was always that stay at home mom, doing my own business, people would come in if they needed me. And that's when I grew. And then I said, Okay, you know what, we have a terrace flat. My dream is to have a studio on my terrace flat, which I knew the builder, you know, And I told him this is what I want to do.

And he said, give me a few years to work it out for you. In about two years, I got this terrace and that was my dream. That was my aha moment.

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Yasmin:So Ryan, you've been asking me all these questions about myself, but I also have a few questions of my own to ask you. What was your journey like?

Ryan:Well, my journey has just been very simple. I always sold nutritional supplements as a scientist, as a food scientist, as a nutritionist.

Okay. And when we sold these nutritional products people said, So I always had this team of dietitians with me. So I had more dietitians and salespeople and over a period of time I realized, hmm, people are actually willing to pay for the knowledge on how to construct their food, which they have learned to eat out of love and culture from their parents.

And now they want a little science to come into it because they go to the gym, they're going to people like you, they're working out like crazy, but then they're going back and eating whatever culturally has been assigned to them. And sometimes that's not working in an aggressive program. where you want your body to behave in a certain way.

Whether it's fat loss, it's muscle building, or you have diabetes, hypertension. People work out, they say exercise helps a medical condition or a lifestyle resolution. But then the diet is really like not keeping pace with the times. So I started my chain of co audition clinics and that's where I got started in terms of scientific practice with sports people first.

So some of my first athletes were a similar aerobic instructor like you by the name of Dinaz who did the Guinness World Record of non stop aerobics of 26 hours. So I was a person that Actually wrote down her entire nutrition plan for a year because you've got to prepare the body. You can't suddenly turn up as a personal trainer or in a fitness class.

Do very, very heavy loads and intensity without having your nutrition backing you. And that's the subject of sports nutrition.

Yasmin:How long back was that

Ryan:was about 2006 when we did the Guinness World Record of non stop aerobics. And then 2008, I won an Olympic medal with Sushil Kumar. I did his diet plan for the bronze medal at Beijing.

And we followed that up in the next Olympics with a silver medal at the London Olympics. So the trainers. Would be taking the nutrition plan for me or they would be the trainers to the Olympic level superstars or athletes. So they knew that Ryan Fernando would be prescribing the diet, would be balancing out the blood test, the genetic test the food allergy test.

And then Ryan would also look at the supplement strategy, the nutritional supplementation. So over a period of time, the film stars would also work out with these supremely gifted trainers. Because they are the best in the industry, right? And they knew that they needed to get a sports nutrition diet and they knew that they would come to Ryan Fernando So my journey started with a lot of the Bollywood and the superstar celebrity athletes Calling me up saying that we need your nutrition plan and it was pure word of mouth.

So people always ask me Oh, you're a you're a celebrity nutritionist And I always go back and say, the famous people knew me, but the rest of India did not know about it. And I think the reason behind this was that the price that astute people, wise people, people that are chasing their dreams and goals, they put a certain value to what they put into their body.

And they realize that what they've been taught in society may not be the right version of food to enter the body. And so they start hunting. Who's this person we need to go to change the way we eat and that's how half of them Land up at our clinics and then we start writing a nutrition plan

Yasmin:on that note I also want to ask you I was seeing your podcast on protein powders And Zahan and I share my son and I share the same protein powder and I've been telling him I find it too sweet I cannot have it and I've been looking for a Non sweetened like a natural because I said, you know I want to get a protein powder and put some peanut butter in it to make it tasty But I don't want these flavored protein powders and just then I read I saw your podcast on it And it was everything that I was feeling But not being able to express because I'm not, you know, a nutritionist and that was really interesting.

Ryan:So Yasmin, the simplest thing that you did was understand your qua. Qua in Latin means incapacity of. So you were taking this protein powder, which is commercially designed, standardized label, sweetener, flavors and all. There's nothing wrong with that. Maybe for an Olympic level athlete, but when you are a lifestyle person, When you're going to take a product day in and day out, right?

You want the best nutrition going into you do not want the best flavor Artificial flavor or the artificial sweetener entering your body So I'm glad you discovered this because this concept and every woman should understand this there's a bio Individual response in each one of us especially in women why women?

because of your hormones. So that's where, you know, this whole thing starts about wherein if we can get women to understand their blood biochemistry, their hormonal chemistry, their menstruation cycle, and then what life cycle they are at. College girl, first job, just married, trying to get pregnant, pregnant, first, second, third trimester.

Child is born, breastfeeding, then weight loss post pregnancy, and then the rest of your life in terms of you're having an active menstruation cycle, then menopause, then menopause, and then post menopause. Right. So, there are all of these life cycles with women which are highly challenging and inter relatable with your food.

But if you meet most Indian women, their diet remains same as when it was in college. So I think that's where awareness needs to get to the next level. And I'm really grateful for trainers like you, because what happens is in your class, you get to meet your client every day and you're constantly telling them, what are you eating?

What did you eat today? So you, you said, you're not a nutritionist, but you're an honorary nutritionist by just asking that question and putting a kida in your client's head is. There's something that you need to change about the way you eat and that's scientific

Yasmin:on that note This is what I felt about myself because like you said just now very truly you eat kind of the same thing, right?

So being a fitness instructor and I'm very particular about what goes in my body. I don't eat packaged foods I don't eat sugar. I don't have dairy. I don't have gluten And I'll tell you why about that later how I discovered that But I eat the same way And suddenly after menopause, I feel like I cannot eat the same way because that eating the same way is not working for me.

And because I'm not a nutritionist, I don't know how I can eat better. So just recently, in fact, earlier in June, I contacted somebody and said, Hey, you know what? I need to eat differently. And everyone said, what's wrong with you? How can you eat better than what you eat? And I said, no, my body's needs a bit different.

And I need to know because I cannot read a blood report. And I don't know what my body requires. Right. And I need that help. So I've actually contacted somebody who I know to get that for me in Bombay. And I know it's making a difference. Right. And and coming to pregnancy. I know that you counseled Anushka during her pregnancy.

Please tell me a little bit about that and also on that note later about Virat and Shahid being vegetarians and how they get their protein. So

Ryan:basically I mean, Virat obviously is one of the best batsmen in the world. And he wanted to up his game, the diet game. Like he's a brilliant eater. He's already vegetarian.

He already knew how to eat correctly. So this is self interest, right? Because you already know that when you eat correctly, your focus, your concentration, your performance, your fat percentage, your sprinting ability, everything is tied into the way you train, the way you sleep, and the way you eat. So obviously when Virat contacted me, this was around the pandemic time, they were isolated, and he wanted to step up on his game with nutrition and we worked for many months on the diet plans.

There's no rocket science. You understand a player. You understand their fat percentage, muscle percentage, their blood biochemistry, their genetic test. If you're lucky you can get a stool analysis which is the poop test and read the microbiome. Now once you get that a person like me becomes Sherlock Holmes.

We integrate blood tests, fat percentage, performance metrics, and all of those things. And during this journey obviously, Virat researches a lot. And he looked at our website and realized that at a quantitation clinics, I have teams of medical dietitians also. And they happened. To be expecting their first child and he said, can you frame the nutrition plan?

Now, what people don't understand is they think that you just have to double calories. So today women are getting wiser because of access to information. So you can Google up what is a diet for conception? What is a diet for the first trimester when you're puking your guts out? So obviously the people who are astute have the means will go and find an expert.

So they asked me, can you handle the trimesters nutrition plan? And we did that very successfully. And speaking of pregnancy, I customize nutrition plans. I was looking at one of your Instagram posts where you were earlier, but I think, so do you also really customize your Pilates workouts, your fitness workouts for each and every client.

So like nutrition is bio individual. Is it the same for fitness? And with Alia, what was the journey like? Because, you know, I get pregnant women coming to us for nutrition plan and they're like, can you give me a an exercise plan? And I'm like, I'm not the expert. You need to contact an expert. And they're like.

But what do we do? Who should we go to? What is it done? So, tell us a little bit more about Alia's journey. So,

Yasmin:definitely, like nutrition with exercise, you have to be very, very to the point for the trimester that they are at when they're pregnant. If they're not, we learn, and that's what I learned with Pilates, and that's why, for me, Pilates is my Bible.

We train the body in front of us. Everybody has different needs, limitations strengths, and we understand that, and then we train them. With pregnancy, I have, I have an obsession. So I'm constantly doing more and more training with my instructors, different experts on pregnancy to know more because there is so much that you cannot know in one training, right?

So I put my instructors through. With Ali, it was really funny. And beautiful because she comes to me and she's like, yes, I'm pregnant, but I need to exercise. So we customized exercises and we have to make it interesting because now Ali is a person who works out every day. Right. And she doesn't want to be limited with her body or the condition that she is in.

So we develop exercises on the football and the Swiss ball on the reformer. I kept changing it because Ali has a very short attention span as well. So she can, if I do like 20 repetitions, I know I've lost her at eight. So I make it very crisp. Her workouts are very crisp. You have to move before she starts.

Her thoughts go somewhere else.

Ryan:Oh, I thought I only, I did that in my workouts because I actually switch off in my workout. And so that's the job of the trainer to pull you back. To know,

Yasmin:to know each individual's personality, right? There are some people who will benefit from repetitions because they're not, their first four reps are not.

Not even counted. It takes them five repetitions to understand the exercise. There are some people who switch off after eight repetitions. So you have to change it before their mind can switch off.

Ryan:So this is actually where the personalization happens. I just understood it. A trainer can have all the knowledge about the dumbbell, the reformer bed, Zumba, Boomba, whatever it is, and they can be like great with anatomy, but if they don't understand the personality of the client, then there's something missing.

Yasmin:But I think this is also because of the, like I said, I love doing training courses, right? I love learning more. And every time I learn, I learn something new. Like, I remember the first Pilates Training I did, I had met other instructors. It was their second or third training from a different school.

And the Pilates training is one of the toughest trainings I've done.

Ryan:I've done a diet plans for a few of the Pilates students who go for these and you know, the timing of what has been given to your guys in terms of practice and study and performing is brutal and intense. Both on the mind and the muscle.

So

Yasmin:I would meet these people who had done that. They won the third. Instruction course, you know, be like, why would you do this again? Like this first one, but now after having been certified by three different schools of Pilates, I understand the why. It's because you learn something completely different from every school of Pilates.

And now that I'm writing my own Pilates manuals, I'm using all three schools. something which is unique.

Ryan:Do you feel your 30 years of experience is enough or would you like to go back in time and ask for more experience?

Yasmin:My 30 years of experience is not ended. It's still ongoing. So no. So you're

Ryan:saying that even as a teacher, you have to keep learning.

Yasmin:I love to learn. There's so much that I still don't know.

Ryan:And when you're learning or practicing or teaching Do you get ideas for your pupils or students on the spot?

Yasmin:Of course, I would be doing one machine and then suddenly I'm like, like sometimes when I'm making them do an exercise, I feel like it's not working.

Like something's not working and I need to switch it. It could be a well researched exercise that I do day in and day out. But at that point, that body is not reacting to me. And that's what makes me change it. Like, say I was training you and I was making you do feet and straps, which is an exercise you do beautifully.

And you've done it for maybe the last 10 sessions. But on that particular day, maybe because you've not slept well, maybe because you just come back from a trip, your body's not reacting to it. For various, you're feeling a bit under the weather. I'm seeing how your body's moving. And I know that, okay, this exercise today is not working for you and I have to change it.

Ryan:So 30 years plus of experience, family support, they're your backbone. Were your parents instrumental in your fitness journey? And do they walk the walk and talk the talk or this was self inspired?

Yasmin:My parents influenced me subconsciously because my dad used to live at Haji Ali in Bombay, which is close to the race course.

And my dad was an avid walker in the race course, and sometimes he would try to, like I said, I was a lazy kid, so he would try to take me. And I had to run to keep up to his walking because he was such a fast walker and I hated it. So my dad, every day come rain, shine, whatever. Even in the

Ryan:rain?

Yasmin:Even in the rain.

He would be at the Mahalakshmi race course walking two rounds, which is like some seven, eight kilometers. And then as he grew older, he would walk 10 kilometers. My mom used to do yoga. We lived in Hachiali and in those days we had one car. So dad would take the car to office. Mom would take a bus and go to Chowpatty and do yoga there.

And I thought my parents were crazy. Like, I couldn't understand why they were making such a big deal about exercising. They both look pretty good. But I think that kind of discipline is what came down the jeans, which was a great thing because now I understand that I get it from them. Subconsciously, they were my role models and They always told me do something my mom would constantly while I was growing up say do something move Exercise go down and play go down and play.

Ryan:So speaking of our beloved mothers I constantly try and tell my mom mom. I bought her a set of dumbbells recently and mom You've got to strength train your advice to all the mothers out there especially the mothers our mothers who are of the older generation. They don't work out. What is Yasmin's advice to all the moms out there?

Yasmin:That every decade, like, you know, and I'm sure you're telling your mom, we lose bone density. The only thing that protect protects us is our muscle. And you need to do some sort of exercise. And especially in today's generation and age where we have sedentary lifestyles where we're not moving like our mothers.

Mothers did a lot of work. They used to do housework. They would go to the well to get water. They would milk the cows.

Ryan:I remember the grinding stone that my granny used to go on 45 minutes.

Yasmin:You know, so our mother's mothers did a lot of work, like physical work. Our mothers don't because of course the luxuries have come in in our generation and there's much later.

They need to move. My mom is 76. My mother in law is 82 and they both do Pilates. They need to find a very, you know, yoga. We are the, we are the What's the word? Pioneers. Pioneers. Not the birthplace of yoga. Yoga births it in India, right? And yoga is something that all our mothers can do. And if you have the opportunity, you can do pilates, which is so gentle on your bones.

And my mother at 76, my mother in law at 82 do pilates and they look fabulous. And they feel really good. They're energetic. They're moving around. And also, I don't know if you know Helen Kahn. She started Pilates at the age of 85. 85. 85.

Ryan:So what is the core component for all the ladies watching in about Pilates?

What is the core component or how do they understand?

Yasmin:Why do you have diets for people, right? Why do you have nutrition plans to nourish the body? Pilates nourishes your body in terms of physical activity.

Ryan:Okay. And so between yoga and Pilates, I know this is a loaded question. And a lady came to you. I'm this old lady.

And I was like, Yasmin, what exercise should I do? I can only do yoga or I have time only for Pilates. Only one of them. Which one should I do?

Yasmin:I would tell them, why don't you do both? See which one you love to do and stick to that.

Ryan:That's sagely advice. Because it's about if you love it, you'll, you'll turn up, you'll turn up more often and then you make it a lifestyle.

Yasmin:Because you have to look forward to exercising also. It can't be a burden and a chore. So maybe instead of giving your mom dumbbells, if you take her to a yoga class or get somebody home to do yoga or a little bit of movement or just some theraband exercises, she might enjoy that more.

Ryan:Mom, if you're listening in, I'm calling up the best yoga instructor and go and getting a class for you.

So don't grumble. Madam

Yasmin:Yasmin just some freestyle like calisthenics. You have to try different things to see which one she enjoys.

Ryan:But most of the old people hit back to us saying, Oh, we're too old now. This is not meant for us. If we had to do it, we should have done it in our younger years.

Yasmin:You're never too old to take care of yourself.

Ryan:What are the common mistakes that people make when starting a fitness journey that you have seen?

Yasmin:Doing something because it's said to be good for you. Not finding out what you enjoy to do and what's really good for you.

Ryan:But we're telling people to do Pilates, do yoga, so then they turn up for it. But what are the, what are the things that they could expect that could, that could discourage them?

Yasmin:To do too much too fast. Like people watch the internet now and Instagram, like, they're seeing people doing these fancy Pilates moves and they come to class and they show the instructor and they say, Aaj mujhe yeh karna hai. But is your body ready for it? Is your foundation strong enough? Like I said, Matt Pilates is foundation.

Do you have the foundation to do that exercise? That's what's important. Don't see exercises on the internet because people have mastered that and then they're showing it off.

Ryan:You know, I have a confession over here. I do karate. I've been doing it for many, many years and I started a new style and I found one of India's best martial arts instructor.

He handles the Indian team. And I wanted to do something known as a kata, which is a preformed style or dance. And he's like, that is for a black belt. You are only an orange belt. You cannot learn that right now. And it struck me at that moment. If weight training, fitness, yoga, Pilates had colored gradation belts in it, we could take people on a journey slow and steady where they knew they had to earn the next belt.

But speaking speaking of earning their belts, we've got the celebrity superstars who are black belts in their life. You've got Deepika Padukone, Katrina Kaif. How does their workout differ from a normal person's workout or is it the same?

Yasmin:It's the same. It's just that their needs are different

Ryan:like how

Yasmin:like if like when Katrina had to do chicken chamele the dance and She was doing this vigorous dance movement where her no fat could jiggle and she said yes if anything jiggles I'll go on national TV and say you're not a good instructor Well, then the workout gets customized to make sure that because people also troll you for silly things not realizing I got trolled yesterday with a picture I put with some video I put up and they were like, Oh, you also have a stomach.

How can you be a Pilates? How can you be an instructor? I was like, everyone has

Ryan:it's like my hair stylist is bald and I still go to him because he's the best in the world. So we all

Yasmin:have bodies and I just want to say that what you see on Instagram is not reality. Most of the time we put our best foot forward, obviously we want to look good, we don't want to show, and why would you put up your worst foot on a social media platform, right?

But, to troll is just something which we've learned to do without thinking of consequences. So, when an actor goes on a film set and has to look a particular way, they work really, really hard and we customize everything for them to look that way.

Ryan:For the people who envy our film stars who come to us, they don't see the background.

What's an average number of minutes that a person puts in every day for their fitness regime?

Yasmin:I would say an actor or a superstar, whether it's an athlete or an actor, they put in 24 hours into their day to give you what you what you're getting, right? Because it's not just their workout, it's their workout, it's their lifestyle, it's their nutrition, it all needs to go hand in glove, just one thing on its own will collapse.

It's like all these pillars. have to be strong for them to be on the top. So they, what, what you don't see is the kind of work they put in. They've had a 14 hour shift where they're shooting and they still come to work out, you know, after that shift, you have to customize their workout according to what kind of a day they've had.

They are on set the whole day. How are they managing their nutrition? Which you know, it's, it's not easy. But they do it because that's the investment that they've made in themselves. So those are the things you don't see. What you see is them on screen looking their glamorous self or you're trying to catch them outside a beauty parlor or the airport and you know things like that.

Even that has become stressful for them now.

Ryan:And that was a, that was a famous role. And for her to have no fat jiggling anywhere was a testament to your Ability to train her. Can you share some secrets about that workout that were really brutally intense? Or was it a cakewalk for her?

Yasmin:It wasn't a cakewalk for sure.

I'm just trying to recollect because it was so many years back, but it was very, we used to work out every day an hour of workout. We used to put in cardio after that. The food was very disciplined. We never did the same workout every day. We were doing a lot of functional training. which needed to change every day because Katrina gets bored really easily also.

So we, I never do the same workout every day with my clients. So I had to come up with new ways to do the same thing. You know, if you know what I mean. And also it was making sure that if she was shooting, how do I put in those hours of training with her? without it hampering her performance at work. On days when she would have had a long shoot, we would just do Pilates.

But it would be active Pilates. But while she was shooting the song, we would do passive Pilates. So it was more about rebalancing herself. So you were

Ryan:taking the calorie balance, like the expenditure was aggressive at a movie set, then she came back and rejuvenated by training with you. And if it was a day off, you would go into intense hardcore workouts.

I would love to be a circuit inside your brain right now because you customize and design these workouts like a, like a computer, right? You've got all of the experience and it's a code. Exactly

Yasmin:like you, wouldn't you say, Ryan?

Ryan:Yeah, so it is, it is what we do, but it will be very interesting to pick notes with somebody on how they do it, because sometimes I'm just thinking, okay, Shahid Kapoor gets up at 4.

30 in the morning and then starts his workout, come rain or sunshine. And you see that discipline in people who are very, very driven. And then he's finished his meditation, his prayer, his workout, everything before his kids get up. And then he dresses them up to school and stuff like that. So when you look at how you have to manage that you have to write down your notes and put things together.

So it's a lot of manual practice, creating a diet plan or an exercise plan. Now in today's world, AI is coming. So I've been seeing that AI has been begun to help me research dishes that I never knew about, right? Has AI changed your mindset? What do you feel about it providing customized workouts for people?

And look, you and I are craftsmen of our trade. And a lot of people are saying, but I can now get an AI diet plan and AI exercise plan. Where are you in this world right now?

Yasmin:So at, like I said earlier, Ryan, I'm constantly learning and I'm always eager to learn. And at 50 for today, what I've learned from you is how to use AI.

So I'm going to now start exploring the world of AI, which I haven't yet because I didn't know how to. But yeah, I mean, it sounds what whatever you've shown me today before we started this podcast has really Got my mind ticking as to how I can now work even more efficiently.

Ryan:I think that's a key word work more efficiently because Somebody asked me this question the other days that do you think you know, I can just get an AI driven diet chart But I think the motivational part of your instructor teacher guru nutritionist or fitness instructor whoever that person is the presence of a person the guidance by that person the motivation by that person I think it'll be quite a few number of years before AI can actually take over that part of our lives.

Yasmin:It's also like I said earlier, you, you sense the energy that the person is giving you, right? Sometimes you don't know the energy that you're giving out, but your instructor can feel that energy and then modifies the workout according to that. You'd literally have to have a robot AI present with sensitivities to feel that for you.

Ryan:You as a trainer, I've seen some of your videos, you talk highly about nutrition. You're one of the few trainers that I've looked at and you've said nutrition is of primary importance. You can't, you know, you can't out train a bad diet. So what are some of the nutrition tips that you guide your celebrity clients with?

What are the basics that you give over there?

Yasmin:One thing I like to tell everyone is to not have sugar, refined sugar, because I've learned this my dad had, my dad was discovered with cancer about 11 years back, and we took him to Mexico to this health hospital Oasis of Good Hope. Because we didn't want to do chemo with him.

He was stage 3 lung cancer and we wanted to change and get him better. And they promised that through nutrition, they would change your lifestyle. And give you a good quality of life. They don't tell you, we'll take your cancer away. But the life that you have left, they promise you will be good quality.

And that's what happened with him. And the doctor there said that, well, sugar is poison to your body. And when you go for a PET scan, they put in an injection. And that's glucose. Which tells your cancer cells. It's time to party and they light up so that you can capture that image on the machine. And that's the one thing that's stuck in my head.

My dad lived for about 18 months after that. It was good quality of life, but he didn't go out, you know, pain. And, you know, he accepted that I have that much time left. He was so that's the one thing for me, which is poison, which is sugar. And that's what I tell my clients. And the next thing is Eat foods that are alive because you're going to feel alive, right?

So your fruits, your vegetables you eat a packaged food which has preservative. It's dead. It's going to make you feel dead. Who can say they had a packet of Doritos or potato chips and fell?

Ryan:Before we wrap up, one piece of advice you would give to my audience out there if they were going to start on their fitness journey.

Yasmin:Take baby steps. Find out what exercise works for your body, what exercise you enjoy, build a really strong foundation and then take it upwards.

Ryan:When you say baby steps, are you meaning the intensity of that one day workout or planning it for the whole year and go slow and steady for the whole year?

Yasmin:No, I mean, if you're a person who's never exercised and you're starting off on a journey, don't suddenly say, okay, now I'm going to exercise four times a week, an hour. Say, I'll exercise twice a week for half an hour. Get used to it. Get that into your routine. Build on that. Once you start enjoying it, once you start seeing results, then take a little more.

And we're both available on the internet. If you don't have money, find us, you know. Follow the right exercise routine. Don't try to suddenly from zero, try to go to 50. And say, okay, now I'll start with squats, lunges. Leg presses, deadlifts, you know, Bill, get your body ready for it. So that's pretty much what I'd like to say to people who want to start out that planet takes big baby steps.

Right. But one for you now, Ryan supplements, people say, Oh, I don't take any supplements. I recently have discovered the importance of supplements. Can you share your thoughts on that?

Ryan:So. Supplements. I always say this are a nutritional convenience for your nutritional indiscipline. Now, your indiscipline could be genuine.

That is your body stops absorbing because you're aging or you have a genetic back foot to not absorb that. Like I have a calcium deficiency absorption gene, so my body doesn't absorb calcium, so I need to take a supplement. And on the other hand, the indiscipline could be because you do not know how to eat correctly or you're abusing your body.

So supplements are good. Provided they're taken under medical advice in conjunction with a genetic test and a blood test to know where you lie. Taking excess amount of any micronutrient, be it a plant compound, vitamin or mineral, research has shown that sometimes it can activate centers of growth, including cancer.

So you might be aiming for muscle growth, beautiful skin growth, but could you also activate anomalies inside of your body? So, this whole concept today where startups have come and left, right and center, people have supplement companies and people are prescribing supplements and with due respect to anybody who's influencing or advertising supplements out there, you are not qualified to understand how that supplement would interact in your client's body.

In fact, doctors do not study about nutrition in medical college and therefore, their training on drugs is wrong. paramount in medicine, but it's not nutraceuticals. And therefore, their idea of vitamins, minerals, amino acids is trained in later years by the pharmaceutical industry who approaches them for the general range of nutraceuticals, multivitamins, which is why you see doctors saying, okay, you can take this product of nutraceutical origin, but only for two or three weeks, then stop.

But what if there's a condition that requires you to take a nutraceutical supplement? Life long. You only come to know this with repeated blood biochemistry tests, working with a qualified medical dietician or medical nutritionist, and they're tracking you over a period of time and not giving you mega doses of supplementation.

A lot of nutritional companies, like in protein powders, they say you need to take two grams per kg body weight, but not everyone's a bodybuilder. So why would you take two grams per kg body weight every day? But if you're taking only 30 grams of protein a day in your entire diet and you need 70 grams, then you need a supplement.

So it's kind of, when you drive a car, the road is open, you'll press the accelerator. But when there's traffic, you're not pressing the accelerator. So you need to understand or determine the conditions inside your body. And this, I advise people to seek professional medical help. before they start supplementation.

And a lot of people now are supplementing because of longevity. Things like resveratrol, NADH, NMN you know, astaxanthin, one of my favorite molecules. When you're kind of, it's like, you know, imagine people, everyone says, I know how to cook. Then you go to the kitchen and you put this masala, that masala, because all masalas are good.

Right. You're not even tasting your dish, so you're not even doing the blood test. You're just putting masalas inside of your body. Masala meaning supplements. The dish is going to turn out not so good at some point of time. Gastritis you know, digestive disorders, high BP. I've had a client once who began taking a fat burner, simple fat burner called L carnitine, but did not know it had an interaction with the thyroid.

And the day they turned up in my clinic, they showed the data and everything and I looked at it and it says you're taking a nutritional supplement that you're not supposed to take. It's like, how do you know? We didn't even tell it to you. It's like, it's clearly indicated in your blood test. So, Sherlock Holmes is there in your blood test.

So, don't take a nutritional supplement without having data on hand.

Yasmin:On L carnitine, I quickly want to ask you, what is your take on Monjaro and Ozempic?

Ryan:These drugs are designed by the pharmaceutical industry. To help medical patients who are at the last mile of literally hopelessness. And this is a savior for them.

Now when you produce something, you gotta find a market for it. So you go to all the fat people on the planet and say, You know what? We know you can't work out. You know what? We know you can't follow Ryan Fernando's diet. You know what? You're a failure. So you know what? Take this drug. I've been through about four cycles of marketing of different drugs.

As a student as working for supplement companies and then starting my own business and what I observe is that these are fads that last till you get sufficient clinical data coming out by the real life population saying there are amazing side effects. And when I say amazing, amazing meaning. Thappad as I say in my Instagram, people are getting side effects that are taking them to hospital.

So I'm not a huge fan of any of these products because they are not found in nature. But if you tell me, dalchini, cinnamon, L carnitine, which is found in the human body, vitamin B complex, which is found in the human body. I'm a little bit okay about giving a little extra of this because the side effect.

You will see it in your body and it's reversible. What is the side effect? Hyperactivity, little acidity. So like, okay, pimples, acne. Okay, don't take this supplement for you. But when it comes to these drugs, people are not taking it on doctor's prescription and they're getting side effects. And even if your doctor prescribes it, I would say to the doctors, could you explore diet and exercise aggressively by your patient?

First,

Yasmin:we want people to live healthy lifestyles. And this is so And you and I both being in this profession, we know losing one and a half kilos a week by not doing anything just by it curbing your appetite and I don't know what else, what other harm. So if you're losing that kind of weight without doing what you and I prescribe, imagine the amount of harm it's doing to your insides.

Ryan:I think people should explore and doctors should explore these drugs. Once you've put the client through the regime of. 300 workouts in a 365 day and you've done three meals a day into 300 days, 900 meals a year on bang. And then if you're not getting a result, explode drugs. Otherwise, simple sleep, simple exercise, simple diet is the perfect cure, the perfect medicine to maintaining a healthier lifestyle.

So simple exercise, simple exercise you wrote a book on the 10 minute workout. What was the idea over there?

Yasmin:The idea was to get everyone 10 minutes a day. The idea was to tap into the population that says, I have no time to work out. The idea was to not give them an excuse saying. I can't read this exercise and do it, so now we have a QR code where you scan the QR code and you go to a video library where you're doing the 10 minute workouts with me.

I'm doing them with you, explaining to you. I have the timer. Everything is set. All you have to do is put on, scan the QR code, watch the video and follow me.

Ryan:So if somebody wants to reach out to you and wants to do this 10 minute workout or get your advice or watch your YouTube videos or Instagram, how do we find you?

Yasmin:Yasmine Karachi Valla on Instagram or YouTube.

Ryan:Awesome. It was great meeting you today.

Yasmin:You too, Ryan. Thanks for having me over.

Ryan:Thank you so much for being here. Thank you. Thank you for watching this far. It's been an amazing episode and I'm so grateful to have you till the end. If you like this video, please share this video with your loved ones.

Better still. Give me a subscribe, a like, or even a comment, and we'll come back to you.

Key Quotes

• "Fitness is not about being thin; it’s about being strong and feeling good in your body."

  • Yasmin on redefining beauty standards through fitness.

• "Food is fuel—if you eat alive, you’ll feel alive."

  • On the importance of fresh, whole foods for energy and vitality.

Mentioned Tools and Techniques

• Pilates Equipment: Essential for building strength and improving flexibility.

• Personalized Nutrition Plans: Tailored to individual needs and life stages.

• Online Fitness Classes: Free content to make fitness more accessible.

Resources

• Yasmin Karachiwala’s Fitness Academy: Offering Pilates training, workshops, and online classes.

• Tips and workouts available on her social media platforms.

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