We often talk and preach about women empowerment, but how many times we have initiated it? This is the story of a woman who is self-made and has established her own brand. She truly defines and portrays the real essence of women empowerment i.e. you don’t just talk; rather you observe, learn, act and conquer! Nirupama S is a nutritionist, fitness blogger, corporate coach and an author. She has written a book “For Moms By Moms” highlighting the significance of nutrition for kids. She has judged various leading beauty pageants, was featured as “Aspiring Women Entrepreneur”in Coffee Table Book 2017 Pune, has earned the title of “Pune’s Fastest Leading Nutritionist” and has marched up the way to mark herself among the “Top 51 Influential Women of Pune” last year.
Nutrition as an option came very late in her life. She has completed her Masters in HR & Marketing and has been familiar and associated with the corporate career for 10-12 long years. But Ms. Nirupama took a career break when she had to take in-charge of following her family’s responsibilities. Being a “family-woman”, one’s priorities change. During this tenure, she gained weight and became lethargic. But she realized that she cannot continue to remain habituated to the same lifestyle and had an ardent desire to undertake a positive control in order to enhance herself. And thus, whenever she used to get some leisure time, she would enroll herself for online nutrition and fitness certificate courses rather than letting it go in vain. We can say that she had an unnoticed inclination towards health, fitness and nutrition since a very long time. She herself was her first client to have undergone a life changing transformation. And this magnified transformation of hers motivated her to remodel her passion for fitness and mould it into her profession.
After deciding to take a stance for herself, she took a step to come out of an unfair marriage and finally resolved to take in hand the reign of her family herself. Her learnings and enthusiasm for nutrition and fitness was the only skill she had. Thus, she took a step and never turned back again; reinvented her career again through fitness. And as stated earlier, this wasn’t a long time ago. At that time, she was Delphic about how to start and where to start. But she had some friends who helped her identify a direction and she created her own online website www.fitlifestyle.in and started giving consultations. She also says that a little credit goes to her luck as well as at that time fitness industry was at boom and this further gave her a good encouraging response.
The real break-through she got was when she was approached by one of India’s most leading I. T. company for conducting a month of “Health Program”. She had gone there for a workshop and instituted a “Flab to Fab in 30 Days Challenge” for all the employees there. Ms. Nirupama S. had started a “Lifestyle Change” concept which further proved to be her USP among the other offerors. Since the concept that she was promoting was a new one in the industry i.e. “Lifestyle Change”, it acted as an added advantage for her. She implemented this strategy as she was well aware of the corporate culture and the problems related to it.
She further associated with many financial institutions, I.T. companies and social communities as well. Altogether, she had transformed more than 3000 lives under the program “Flab to Fab in 30 Days Challenge” in just 5 years. As of today, Ms. Nirupama has clients worldwide. From a home-maker, she reinvented herself to the professionally acclaimed nutritionist in 5 years and achieved that height at which she stands today
Ms. Nirupama has been awarded and recognized as the “Leading Nutritionist of Pune”. She is into social work as well. She continuously conducts sessions and awareness programs in schools and colleges on hygiene and fitness. She runs a Facebook community by the name of “Let’s Make this World a Fit Place” which has 30,000 members altogether worldwide. The main motto of her Facebook community is to prioritise health care and fitness for one and all. “Every time we hear someone talking about women empowerment, but hardly anyone talks about how to reinvent your career after becoming a mother”, says Ms. Nirupama. Along with one partner, she conducted an event and award function “I.N.S.P.I.R.E. Beyond Motherhood” wherein they awarded 27 ladies who revamped their careers in different sectors and profiles after experiencing the beauty of motherhood. They were supposed to host a version 2.0 of the same event this year but had to take a step back due to the Covid-19 scenario.
As a mother, a woman has very limited choices and the preferences change. Companies prefer fresh graduates over professionals with career breaks due to the age factor, lack of awareness with the latest trends and technology and so on. She says that she never faced major difficulties in her journey rather it was always overshadowed by the support she received and the opportunities she identified. She applied her knowledge of marketing in creating her brand “FITLIFESTYLE”. She never considered her competitors to be her threat as every brand is unique in its own and stands apart from the other due to that uniqueness. Initially, her barrier was lack of awareness about the perks of social media, technology and digital marketing. She would have been an influential blogger way back if she was well aware of those concepts. But as it is known, it is never too late and today it can be seen she has emerged as a successful fitness blogger and has helped many to bring a positive change to their lives.
Up till now, Ms. Nirupama has worked with beauty pageant contestants (Miss India, Mrs. India, Miss Maharashtra, Mrs. Maharashtra), different television stars and many models.
In Indian when one talks about female leaders, entrepreneurs and CEOs, they make it up to only 13% of the total. Her journey up till now has been successful and fruitful. In future, she wishes to see herself as an entrepreneur as she wants to set an example that a woman can set-up a good start-up too. At present, she is working on a project of hers which falls in the category of fashion and apparel. Ms. Nirupama S has set an example for not only all the women, but everyone out there who thinks that the door has been closed. She proves that if one door closes, we shall not lose hope but look for another door which might still be open. If you have the skills which cultivates your passion, no one can stop you from converting it into your profession.
So, always depend on yourself for finding that ray of hope to cling on in the darkest of times!
- Team Satyavachan