Curves are back, the Bips' way

Without crash diets and 'size-zero' aspirations, Bipasha Basu has worked her way to becoming one of the fittest actresses in India
Eisha Sarkar

Posted on Hello Wellness on Sep 23 2010 1:16PM

Eat everything, eat in moderation but work out in excess, is Bipasha Basu's mantra. From being a chubby teenager brought up on an carbohydrate-and-fat-rich Bengali diet, the 31-year-old actress has transformed herself into a style diva and a role model for fitness freaks. And to share the secret of how she got her fabulous body, she has come up with a 25-minute workout video with the help of celebrity fitness trainer Deanne Pandey called Love Yourself.  

In an interview during the launch of the DVD earlier this year, she said, "Six years ago, I was very unhealthy. I was rich, successful and had achieved a lot in life but in spite of being very young, I used to fall ill frequently. I realised I had very bad lifestyle...I was putting in 18 hours of work a day and that is when I decided to start training myself for a healthy body. It worked very well and I also tried a similar regimen on a friend who was very satisfied. That is when I realised that there are millions more who are in a similar position. The first excuse for not following a regimen, which everybody offers, is time constraints, so I decided to launch a 25-minutes-a-day schedule. And you know what? It has got quite a good response."

The only non-sportsperson to endorse Reebok, Bipasha overcome criticism for being overweight, with a combination of weight and cardio training, along with a strict diet plant to achieve a well-toned and sculpted figure. So what can you do to have a body like Bipasha's?

Sweat it out
You need good disciple and strong willpower to follow Bipasha's six-days-a-week, 45 minutes-to-one-hour-at-a-time fitness schedule. Mix up your workout regime by allotting:

• Day 1 for upper body workout                                         
• Day 2 for abdomen workout
• Day 3 for legs and lower body workout
• Day 4 for gluteus maximus (butt) workout
• Day 5 for upper body workout
• Day 6 for abdomen and gluteus maximus workouts

Having injured her knee earlier, Bipasha does not recommend too much of running on the treadmill. If you have to run for long, run on soft ground instead, keeping in mind your body’s and joints’ requirements.
Space out your cardio workouts within a 50 minute session:

•     20 minutes – Treadmill
•     10 minutes – Elliptical Trainer
•     20 minutes – Rowing Machine

You may also aspire to match up to her 108 suryanamaskars everyday.  Bipasha doesn’t train when she is very tired and averages six-and-a-half hours of sleep.

Balance your diet
There's no point in going for crash diets because what you lose one day, you make up for it on the next. Start your day with drinking a glass of hot water with lime; this is followed by a handful of badams that have been soaked overnight and a cup of tea.
 

If you’ve worked out on an empty stomach, like Bipasha, you should eat a large breakfast comprising six egg whites, brown toast and fruits, an hour after you have stopped exercising. Follow it up with a simple, light lunch of sabzi (vegetables) and chapatis cooked in olive oil. Keep the pooris and the parathas for a few occasions. Avoid rice altogether. Instead mix wheat and bajra or wheat and soya flour to make rotis and chapatis for more nutritious meals. Have a light dinner with dal, salad, three vegetables cooked in olive oil, grilled fish or chicken with a miniscule portion of dessert.
 

Get hydrated
To get skin as beautiful as Bipasha’s you need to flush out all the toxins from the body by drinking not less than 10 glasses of water per day. Using good sunscreen and keeping your body hydrated also goes a long way in avoiding any skin problems.

While many of her counterparts have opted for the size zero look, Bipasha has instead gone ahead and popularised curves. Take a leaf out of her book and you will love your body, heart and soul.