`A healthy mind in a healthy body’ sounds like old bromide, a cliché repeated and re-repeated so often that it has lost its punch. But once in a while, a glorious manifestation of this simple truth strikes the senses with the force of a hammer. Or, when you come across someone like IAS officer Sonal Goel.
A fitness freak to the core, Ms Sonal’s exercise photographs and videos on social media are as popular and talked about as the numerous awards she has garnered for her many achievements professionally. Two of the recent awards relate to her recent work in `Beti Bachao Beti Padao’ and `Sukanya Samridhi Yojna’ in Haryana, where she is posted for last few years. A native of Panipat, Haryana, Sonal is otherwise 2008-batch IAS officer from Tripura cadre.
Now here’s an interesting thing about this IAS officer. Her fitness photos, which Sonal regulary puts in her social media pages like Facebook and Twitter, would make it seem as if she is into the strict exercise regimen from long ago. But that’s not the case- and she herself admits the fact candidly. The weight gain she experienced after two pregnancies caused her to look at the situation objectively and deal with it with the best remedy known to mankind: exercise.
In fact, exercise was a pretty late discovery for Sonal Goel. And this should give heart to fairly large number of couch potatoes struck in their respective offices, using “office work’’ as lame excuse for not stretching the muscles at regular interval. Ms Goel has shown that these two functions, the office work and exercises, can be done simultaneously with fantastic results.
Few days ago, Ms Sonal recounted on her social media page the therapeutic journey of her last few years, leading to enhanced performance at several levels. The post reads:
“The Body is your temple; with your own sole responsibility! Just sharing my journey into good health & fitness. Staying healthy is important for all, more so for females. We tend to give ourselves an excuse, especially for weight gain during pregnancy.
“Similar was the case with me; gaining gradual weight since my marriage in 2009 & maximum was when I delivered my 1st child in 2013. The society also makes you accept the weight gain by saying, you have become a mother, little weight gain is natural & Okay!
“Nevertheless, I used to do light exercises, not regular though. But It was in late 2017s-early 2018s during my posting at Jhajjar that I started aerobics, Zumba, yoga & some exercise schedule at home. The results were quite encouraging.
“So in a couple of months, I could lose around 15 kg weight (was required as per BMI Norms) & felt overall more energetic at work & daily life. As I entered my 2nd pregnancy during the latter part of 2018, I kept on doing little yoga & some exercises as recommended by the doctor.
“Post-delivery in 2020, I was determined again to be back to the body I had reached in 2018. So, efforts that started around 8-9 months back have enabled me to reach to the level just near to my pre-pregnancy size. It’s not easy to stick to a schedule despite your office, kids & home responsibility & needs a lot of commitment. But I am happy I could do it! Off late the realization is that everything else can wait; but not health & fitness. Hope my journey into this continues.’’
There are many other fascinating dimensions to Ms Sonal, which we will discuss about later.
