As Chief Operating Officer (COO) at Steps Drama Learning Development Pvt. Ltd, Pune, that very uniquely brings in the power and impact of drama-based training to businesses, meet Vaishnavi Deshpande, an enthusiastic sportsperson who maintains poise between staying fit and her love for food in equal proportions. For someone who is always on her toes literally, being fit is definitely not an option. In an inspired chat with Corporate Citizen, she reveals the need for a balanced approach to life that can help get the best out of everyone. If a 7-km to 8-km stretch be a walkathon for many, to Vaishnavi, it is a regular routine that adds a ‘zing’ to her ‘fitness’ fun
Your career, your work is definitely important, but treat it only as a part of your life and not life itself!” said Vaishnavi Deshpande, COO, Steps Drama, a learning and development organization with facilitators across Mumbai, Pune, New Delhi, Bangalore, Kolkata and Hyderabad. For Vaishnavi, fitness has been an integral part of her childhood. “You name it, I have played almost all sports. My parents were also into fitness; and even today I might skip my regime once a while but I cannot not be doing anything (sporty). Being fit is important and more so even today to help combat the lifestyle that we lead in modern times,” she said.
Her childhood environment at home and at school provided the much-needed exposure to athletics, swimming, lawn tennis and table tennis. A state and national level badminton player, she has also represented her school in the zonal competitions. A swimmer since age 4, she attributes this sporting base to her parents and the ecosystem she grew up in.
“My day starts at 5.30 am and by 6 am, I get into whatever physical activity that I like for that day. I dedicate one to one-and-a-half hours daily to a proper workout, and focus it on whatever exercise regime that I choose to do at that point in time.
In addition, sometimes, I might go for a walk in the evening. I have been planning to join a dance class too. I go for about 7-8 km walks on some days. I cannot run for 8 km but do sporadic jogging and walking for 8 or 9 km which is over and above the daily workouts.”
“When travelling, I obviously do not get the luxury of working out for an hour but I do manage a 30-minute to 40-minute regime. I often look for hotels with gymnasium or book at hotels with swimming pools. The important thing is that I don’t miss out on my workouts during my travels. It is important that your body be mobile and enable blood circulation when you are constantly on your toes. Whatever is my situation and wherever I am on my travels, I make sure that I work out before I start my day at 7.30 am or 8.00 am when outstation…”
The primary factor is on how one can basically keep one’s body fit. “I think there is no job on this earth which works without taking any pressure, so do a good jog in the morning or a relaxing walk in the evening or, any form of workout, basically something which is actually your stress buster and makes you feel good,” said Vaishnavi.
Fitness is not an option for her but an important element to balance work-related stress. “It is important for me to be fit” said Vaishnavi. “Fitness helps a lot because I stand for a very long time, if travelling, I have to walk as our feet are constantly under pressure and the need is to be agile all the time”
“In fact, only the other day as I shared my agonies on intermittent aches and pain with my mother, her advice was to change my workout pattern.”
Step has a small in-house team of seven that works with 30 to 40 external professional actors. Our Director is based in Pune but, we work very closely and are in constant touch with each other.”
While they do not officially have any pre-programmed health workshops or health workout routine for their employees at the moment, she herself is an inspiration. However, she gives credit to some of her colleagues who have worked wonders health-wise individually and here ‘word of mouth’ becomes the defining factor for fitness at work.
“But, we are toying with the idea of starting some yoga session in the office.” On women’s health and maternity breaks, Vaishnavi said, “All we need to do is give them (women) support and make them see value, and instill confidence within the women workforce when they come back. They should also take the effort to be healthy, get back and see that they do not have to trade their work life.”
“Sometimes, I go for an 8-km walk instead of a high-intensity workout or yoga that enables me to balance my physical and mental challenges alike, and I can recommend this for all. I sometimes do compensate over the weekend for lost workout days by going for a 75-minute walk with my mother instead!”
Vaishnavi considers her cycle of parents, husband and self as her motivators for being fit. Married to Tushar Deshpande, Sous-chef of Indigo Delicatessen (Deli), she said, “My husband does the majority of the motivation”
“It is not like I don’t like working out or keeping healthy but there are times when you are really down and feeling really tired, he then becomes the external force of sorts that motivates me to doing it (workouts)… I have a string of support systems around me which keeps reminding me that work is just a part of your life and that it should not consume you.”
She feels that besides a supportive system of family members or other social circles, the idea is to imbibe some form of a downtime that helps one to “switch off” and “detach” oneself from day-to-day stress or relieve oneself from the burden of a ‘to-do’ list that is often constantly running at “the back of your head”
“Sometimes, I go for an 8-km walk instead of a high intensity workout or yoga that enables me to balance my physical and mental challenges alike, and I can recommend this for all. I sometimes do compensate over the weekend for lost workout days by going for a 75-minute walk with my mother instead!”
“I do have my cheat days as I am not perfect either. There are times that I take my stress home. But, because I have a very strong support system, it helps me a lot. As far as my time with my family members is concerned, I am very particular about that. Because if we don’t follow that as a family, then we won’t have time for each other at all.”
“My one conclusion is that you always have to balance your life even with food. After much experimentation with different diet forms, I have decided to try and maintain balance with all food groups, the types that I love, but I strictly follow the portion that I wish to consume.”
I like to keep a balance of what I want to eat, when I want to eat and how much I want to eat. I eat everything from carbs to protein to non-vegetarian but I try to keep it as natural and as homemade as possible!”
By Sangeeta Ghosh Dastidar
