Mickey Mehta exclusive interview: To lose weight, watch what you eat

Mickey Mehta

One of Mumbai's well-known holistic health and fitness gurus Mickey Mehta is in the business of wellness and fitness since the last 36 years. He is credited with pioneering the concept of equipment-free green workouts in India. Mickey Mehta is a life coach to Mumbai celebrities, Bollywood stars, top supermodels (Miss World/Miss Universe), politicians and members of the Maharashtra Police. In an exclusive chat with mid-day.com, Mickey Mehta talks about his holistic living and creating fun 'yo workouts'.

When and how did you begin martial arts?
In the 1970s and 80s I remember I was in awe of my cousins who were black belts. They would practice Martial Arts and I would watch them and try to emulate it. I would lock myself in a room and sweat it out during my practice. But this was without any proper supervisor or trainer. That's how I got hooked on to Martial Arts. In 1981, I formally began pursuing martial arts. In 1983-84, I earned a black belt and following that I began to teachin it.

How did you get inclined to holistic living?
I guess when you walk the life of righteousness, evolution, self-realisation, then automatically you keep growing. You keep expanding your horizons, your vision, objectives, goals and in the process of doing small things you end up doing something more meaningful. From being a masseur to Martial Arts, swimming, bodybuilding and moving on to nature cure therapies to yoga, meditation, spirituality and now philosophy, it has been a long journey of 37 years. I guess this was probably meant to unfold.

Mickey Mehta

What made you choose Yoga as a form of fitness?
Yoga is the ultimate goal for well-being. If somebody says Yoga is for weight loss, I would say it's a sacrilege. Yoga adds meaning to life, makes you a complete person, translates into personalities and characters being built and shaped. Yoga is about transforming your constitution and transcending your minds. It is how you put all these together in order to make you the absolute, infinite and eternal being.

Tell us something about 360 Wellness Temple?
At 360-Degrees Wellness Temple what we do is yoga in motion. We call it a temple because your body is a temple where your soul resides. We get our nutritional inputs, meditate and pray. Which is why our 360 Degrees Wellness Temple is shoeless. We don't allow shoes inside the temple because we aim at connecting with mother earth first-hand. 360 degree means all-encompassing. We don't leave any single facet of fitness, health, wellness, and well-being unaddressed.

What is the concept of 'Yo workouts'
Yoga had to be introduced to the world and especially to youngsters. They don't take up to yoga very easily because the look of it is very static and stationary. It looks seemingly boring. In order to make it interesting, I kept looking at all the forms of the yoga posture and saw how could I put into sequence into yo workouts under different verticals of yo. So when Yoga becomes poetry, it becomes yo workouts. In yo workouts, we start with warm-ups which is the flow-yo, then stretch yo, then we have ab yo, then strength yo, then we have cardio, cross yo and finally cool yo. These 7 yo's put together orchestrate perfect health and well-being on the platter because they have it all. Within its design it aims to improve your digestion, increase your nervous system functions, improve your faculty function, endocrine function, shape your muscular-skeletal function, improve your energy, strength, stamina and all those frivolities to make you a sound human being.

How is it training with celebrities? Who is your favourite celeb client?
Celebrity training is enjoyable to start with but when you have to wait for long hours and days put together then you don't really enjoy. However, there have been some celebrities who are very disciplined, always ready and gave their 100 per cent. People like Preity Zinta, Aamir Khan were amazing with everything they did. They absorbed everything I taught them.

What is that one fitness tip you swear by?
Exercise every day

What is your fitness mantra?
Recreate every day

What are your tips for people who want to lose weight?
Number one. I tell people to watch what you put in your mouth because that's what going to stay inside for quite some time and we do not know when it comes out. So as long it stays, it should add value. Exercise every single day with proper breathing. Sleep very well, recreate yourself. Have a lot of friends, connect with people, laugh a lot, help a lot of people, reach out to people, love your parents and be nice to all the senior citizens. There is only one single most energy in this world and that is love!

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