Inching towards fitness

From a ‘not so’ enthusiastic sportsperson in her growing up years, fitness has become synonymous to ‘routine’ for Komal Agarwal, Co-founder and Director (Marketing), Pebble Mobile Accessories. She exhibits an unparalleled drive for both her passion at work and her fitness regime. The young scion believes in incorporating new-age apps and activity trackers to sustain fitness in daily life. An Alumnus of Nanyang Technological University (Singapore) and the IIM-Calcutta, she is an ardent traveller and explains the importance of fitness and its impact on the overall performance at work. Her goals are to trim off the ‘inches’ not just for herself but for her employees too

Health and fitness is something that has to be the most primary practice that we need to figure out in our lives and should focus on it too”, said Komal Agarwal, Co-founder and Director (Marketing) at Pebble Mobile Accessories. She says this with conviction and from her experience of ill-health in the past. From being an amateur lawn tennis player during her late school and early college days, she gradually moved onto academic pursuits and fitness activities thereby took a backseat. Also, her quick transitions from a college graduate into entrepreneurship took a health toll.

Disciplined manoeuvres

Once she realised that health and fitness were not an option, it became second nature to her but, not before she devised a disciplined daily regime. “I have dedicated my first waking hours to fitness between 7 am to 8 am every day-something I have completely dedicated to, whether it is doing yoga, or visiting the gym or even if it is going for a walk or cycling. That one-hour fitness schedule is something I have followed literally every day in the past three years,” said Komal.

Beyond this, her late hours at work does not hamper her intentions to unwind with some form of exercise at the end of the day. “We usually work till 8 pm or 8:30 pm and reach home beyond these hours. So, sometimes I follow a half-an-hour or one-hour of walk or gym work-out post-dinner, whenever possible.”

Her other love being swimming, Komal is consistent with her swim sessions during the summer months till September. To cut out any form of mundane routine, Komal usually variates her exercise routines to match up to her existing fervour of fitness de-pending on the time of the year, the daily grind and her general energy levels.

She has also begun a disciplined dietary pattern, as she does not boast of herself as a foodie at all. “I have always tried to maintain a high protein and low carbohydrate diet and try to stay away from sugar as much as possible, she said. Being a vegetarian gives resolve to her ‘Go Green’ concept of nutrition and the ready availability of organic and non-pesticide based agri-food has made it possible to stick to an eco-friendlier diet too.”

She is also careful on her consumption of coffee or other stimulating beverages saying that “When one is too much in stress, this coffee addiction is something that invariably hap-pens to lot to people and the same happened to me as well. However, I have very consciously tried to keep away from tea and coffee as much as possible and shift to more healthy alternatives”, she said

She believes that the changes she has incorporated in her daily health and diet regime can be followed by anybody and especially a corporate person. Although young, she has had her fair share of workplace stress and making these minor changes has benefitted her immensely. “These are very simple things to follow and it is very easy for us to indulge and get addicted to in our daily life. However, we need to conscious-ly try and curb them (caffeinated beverage) as much as possible,” she said.

“We ensure that everyone consumes the minimum number of glasses of water required for sustaining health and energy levels and use the relevant app or tracker to keep the count”

Digital manoeuvres

While she empathises with corporate employees and their difficulties in making any form of fit ness regime as part of a busy daily schedule, she has tried to incorporate and inculcate some minor fitness hacks that have helped her and her team at the workplace.

She usually wears her ‘Pebble’ fitness watch and is quite serious about one of the functional-ities built into that product, the ‘sedentary’ alert, which is also available with other fitness ‘bits’ in the market. If you are sitting continuously at work, the inbuilt function sets out an alarm that will say ‘sedentary’ and a ‘need to walk or stretch’ instruction. “It is a small measure but has really helped me. Sometimes, you are sitting on the computer for hours and you forget about taking a break but, if you have set an alarm, it reminds you to get up and stretch or walk around for a while. Our fit-ness band and watch both have this facility which is also an in-built option with most good brands available in this product category,” said Komal.

She has thrown in quick-bit challenges for her team too as a part of daily fitness. “We are cur-rently working on structured fitness challenges for the team, but it hasn’t taken off officially. How ever, since most of our team members wear fitness watches, we do fitness challenges in a small way almost every day-like who took the maximum number of steps in the day or whose ‘sedentary alarm’ didn’t ring out-indicating conscious and individual steps into fitness within our work set-up,” said Komal.

They also run informal in-house competitions with token prizes for the winners. “Since we are located in Delhi, drinking water in this kind of toxic environment is very important. We ensure that everyone consumes the minimum number of glasses of water required for sustaining health and energy levels and use the relevant app or tracker to keep the count”, she added.

Tip-bits

“Within the workday, small exercise like stretching can be incorporated which do go a long way in maintaining overall fitness levels. I have seen a lot of my friends and colleagues getting backaches and other ailments entirely sitting on the computer, all day long at their desk. These are small things that definitely should be looked at,” said Komal.

The morning routine: Setting up some form of exercise regime in the first few hours of waking up as there is no guarantee on how the day would pan out, removes any room for excuses. The half or one hour in the morning can make a difference for greater fitness goals.

Lazy morning syndrome: For those uncomfortable with waking up early, the motivation is to engage a professional personal trainer at your doorstep every morning.

Power of stretches and walks: Taking intermit-tent breaks at work to cut out the sedentary hours is a must too. This is beneficial to frequent flyers to incorporate the same at the airport lounge or long-haul flights.

Fun activities: Incorporate fitness-related activities and games that can be followed within the office environment

Shared experience: Sharing personal fitness facts and exercises with colleagues can inspire too.

Work-life balance

When she is not working, Komal is an ardent traveller and has a penchant for seeking offbeat destinations. “I usually try to visit unconventional locations. There might be a bit of camping involved but I do not fancy vigorous trekking-like activities.” Last year, she visited Norway and Iceland. Local resorts and getaways are a must too Kerala, Darjeeling and Goa are her preferred haunts.

Komal does not believe in the ‘work-hard’ weekday norm and ‘play hard’ weekend frenzies. She likes to balance it all every single day. “I try to balance it out such that even on a weekday if I have to work very long hours every day or every other day, I would like to take a break on the third day or work a lesser number of hours on those days. But, I do make sure that my one-hour of fitness routine is not compromised at all-it is non-negotiable for me”, she said.