Co-explorer Story. Saee’s Journey.

I have been into health and fitness from childhood. In fact, I was a national level swimmer in my school and college days. But 10 years of an IT job with mindless movement and bad posture took a toll on my spinal health. 

In 2011, I was detected with a disc bulge in L3-L4 and L4-L5 in my spinal cord and advised to take complete bed rest. 

Thankfully, this was when I met my Iyengar yoga teacher. She helped me strengthen my back with yoga postures. Since then, I have been a student of Iyengar yoga and a big advocate of mindful movement.

Being open to all types of yoga styles and choosing what suits you mindfully, I completed the 500 hours TTC (Teacher’s Training Course) from Yoga Alliance under the guidance of my teacher Regeesh Vettakandy. This learning equipped me with tools and techniques to help people from various backgrounds, medical conditions, habits and body types.

I have now been a yoga teacher since 2008. 

My back is no longer a deterrent to my aspirations. Yoga also helped me get back to swimming and indulge other passions such as running.

However, I was missing other aspects of health. Even though my family ate home cooked food most times and avoided fried and junk food, our health was not optimal.

I would tire by 7 pm with no energy to spend quality time with the family. My husband and I got diagnosed with borderline cholesterol and the only solution given by the doctors was to start on a lifelong pill. Knowing the side effects associated with these meds, we were both unwilling to adopt that path.

We had many aspirations such as running marathons, participating in a triathlon, farming and growing our own vegetables. But our health was not supporting us.

The Universe played its move again when I met a nutritionist at a marathon. She was a first-time marathon runner who completed the marathon in a very impressive time. When she revealed her secret of Clean Eating, it opened up a whole new possibility.

Hungry to know more about it, I attended sessions from top people in the field, researched the topic deeply, and went on to complete my certification in nutrition from Cornell University. 

There started my transition to this amazing lifestyle of eating clean. Since 2014, my family has been following clean eating at home and the results are significant.

After switching to a whole food plant-based diet (WFPBD), I wanted to test the assumption that not getting enough protein would impede my performance as an athlete. Within 6 months of switching to WFPBD, I ran a half-marathon. I completed it successfully and without any undue fatigue or muscle strain. 

I am part of these half marathons in Pondicherry now. The dirt track is scenic, injuries to weight bearing joints are less on the terrain and you can really ‘run for the joy of running’ as the tagline of that event says.

Being in the correct environment and with people with similar interests keeps you motivated, and you learn many things from them. I participate in the Masters Nationals Swimming competitions with my mother once a year, although the word competition lost its importance a long time ago for me.

My husband and I run marathons together now. We even completed our first sprint distance triathlon in 2018.

The next exploration was sourcing and producing quality food. We started by renting a farm plot near our house where we enjoyed working on weekends. Now we both grow vegetables in an empty plot next to our house. Working in the mud, water under the natural sunlight is a part of our daily routine. I feel extremely grateful to have access to this space. 

When one is working extensively in the area of “food” to better one’s health, there is a risk of getting obsessed with the food alone and forgetting the role of other subtler elements that play an even more potent role in sustainable and natural health.

I wanted to understand the bigger picture. A Nature Cure workshop with Dr Arun Sharma ji opened my eyes to a whole new possibility of holistic health by aligning the self to the 5 elements in nature.

This motivated me to take my first steps towards becoming a holistic health coach.

I used to suffer from sleep deprivation whenever I was tense about work or major life changes – speeded up thoughts in the mind is the definition of stress in yoga. I also experienced the benefits of acupressure therapy during this period.

Then I realized the importance of working on the mind, decluttering the mind, catching drama and resolving it daily till the clarity of purpose emerges. Many mentors guided me in this journey of self-discovery, and it continues to date.

After I started helping friends, family and yoga students with lifestyle changes around holistic nutrition and mindful movement, I also experienced challenges. People were not able to understand the importance of clean food. Near and dear ones were suffering from physical illnesses but not willing to change their lifestyle. Initially I used to feel dejected, frustrated with these episodes but then again teachings from my mentors helped me focus my energy on people who were willing to receive the knowledge.

I am fascinated with the aspect of being rational in every action and thought – something I learned in a Pure Nature Cure Workshop by Kalyan Sarkar.

I am fortunate to have interned with Dr Gauri Rokkam.

Dr Gauri Rokkam, PhD (Yoga & Life Sciences), M.Sc. (Food & Nutrition), is a well-known Holistic Nutritionist who believes true health needs education, awareness and a will to change wrong habits rather than just diets and treatments. 

She has helped me:

– understand medical nutrition fundamentals (what happens inside our body when we consume food),

– analyze diverse symptoms and test reports to decipher root causes ranging from stress to bad habits, and

– experience the benefits of holistic nutrition that go beyond what we put in our mouths.

Being a Holistic Nutrition Health Coach and Yoga Therapist is a journey of self-discovery through service to others. Each interaction with my student or client, every opportunity to  sync with nature drives me to unlearn, relearn and do better the next time.

I am grateful for the opportunity to help my students, friends and family members change their diet and improve their health. 

CEwithSaee is the personal brand that I started in 2016. Under this brand I offered various hand holding programs including a 7-Day Kickstart Clean Eating program and a 21-Day Back to Health program. I met Deepali through the program and she joined the team, offering her cooking expertise through whole plant based cooking workshops and demos.

Monica is my dear friend since I started my yoga teaching journey. She has helped me throughout with her digital marketing and content writing expertise. She has witnessed my journey closely and is responsible for making me a more balanced person. 

With Monica and Deepali’s rock solid support and contribution I feel completely ready to expand my horizons. It’s a journey from Me to We. 

Now CEwithSaee brand is merged with Poshak Life as it’s not about Saee and not only about clean eating anymore.

Poshak (पोषक) means nourishing and Poshak Life is nourishing life. In the presence of two of my friends Monica and Deepali, I feel nourished and supported. I hope with the Poshak Life brand, three of us will be able to help many more people achieve their optimal health.