Actor Parineeti Chopra just released a series of motivational pictures via Instagram, to celebrate her new body and newfound confidence. Our October 2015 cover girl told us she found a diet, workout and attitude that really worked:
“A couple of days ago a journalist said to me, you were known to be this bindaas girl who didn’t really care about her body and now you seem to have succumbed to industry pressure. And it just gave me a perspective on how somebody who doesn’t know me or doesn’t know actors will think.” If she knew Parineeti Chopra, the journalist would see that losing weight was always on the agenda, right from the days of her 2011 debut Ladies Vs Ricky Bahl.
“If you ever go back and read my interviews, you’ll find that I’ve always said, I hate the way I look. I hated that I couldn’t fit into my own favourite clothes, let alone the ones for media appearances. But I was just put into the ‘curvaceous actresses’ slot and that was convenient to report. Then I had this maniacal year (2014, when she had three releases: Hasee Toh Phasee, Daawat-e-Ishq, Kill Dil). I was eating whatever, I didn’t take care of myself and I completely neglected my body. Thankfully, this year I was able to sit back, breathe and do what I really wanted to do.”
Chopra visited an Austrian health centre to get tested for food allergies. “I was eating healthy but I was still putting on weight, so someone recommended this doctor. I spent a couple of days there getting blood tests done to figure out which food I’m allergic to. What they do there is completely cleanse and reboot your system.”
At the centre, Chopra found she was allergic to milk and eggs so she had to make some changes to her diet. “It would have been really easy for me to starve myself and eat bland food to lose weight. But I can’t do that forever, my attention span is very short. What I’m doing now is more long-term. Now I know which foods suit me and which ones are harder to digest (milk, eggs). I plan my meals accordingly. People ask me what I’ve given up and the answer is nothing, I eat everything but I know how to balance it out now.”
“I was obese when I came back from London after college. But when I started working at YRF (Yash Raj Films, where she was in public relations), I began gymming and my body reacted.” Once her career as an actor took off, Chopra found it tough to make time for the gym. So she looked elsewhere for inspiration. “I started doing kalaripayattu with a trainer who would come home. It’s a martial art form and all it requires is an empty room. Once I lost weight, I started going to the gym again because now I feel like it. My workouts are more focused now. I want to achieve a particular shape and tone specific muscles. It’s fun. You feel so much better about yourself and when people react, you feel even better.”
“It is so liberating. I can wear the clothes I want, without worrying about tires showing or photographing badly. It was a huge personal victory and it makes me look good on screen—that feels almost secondary to me.”
Read the complete cover story here: Parineeti Chopra: New body, new confidence
