“History has demonstrated that the most notable winners usually encountered heart-breaking obstacles before they triumphed. They won because they refused to become discouraged by their defeats.” — B. C. Forbes

The discriminatory behaviours, the name calling, the social stigma, the fat shaming, you face all of it when you are not in a good physical shape, it is for you to decide to sulk in the deep sadness caused by these external factors or take it as a challenge and achieve a great physical transformation. Here is my personal story of how I changed my life by transforming myself from overweight and under confident teen to a healthy and confident individual.

Eventually due to stress of AIEEE and 12th boards, I started overeating as it used to help curbing out stress and I also used to sit for a long period of time studying. I was too lazy to move and interact socially.

Circa December 2011, I clicked this picture myself.

As boards and competitive exams got over, the overeating still continued but then something happened. One day, I woke up and felt dizzy and nauseated and it started happening every day. I used to feel dizzy and heavy headed all the time. On bad days, I couldn't even walk due to this dizziness. I went to the doctors and got my check-up done so as to understand the problem I am facing but nothing came up. During one such test, it banged the sense out of me when I saw my weight in the weighing machine, an astonishing 93 Kgs!

It was then I decided that there has to be something done about this. I finally enrolled myself in Swimming classes and started running every morning 6 AM without fail. For the first month, it felt like hell, I used to feel dizzy even post Jog and Swimming sessions but eventually, things started getting better, I increased the intensity of my workouts and no matter what happened, I never stopped doing these two things- Jogging and Swimming. Gradually, I started to lose weight and became fitter and more confident self. The journey continued and then on August of 2012, I was happy to see my weight to be 68 Kgs.

One thing I realized out of my journey from being that fat kid to now is that in order to achieve anything you have to believe in yourself and you should pay attention to your health as it is a window to honour your body and achieving anything you want to.

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Why is Aditya Birla Group big in your life?- By a student of IIM Kashipur

Aditya Birla Group is one of the biggest Indian conglomerates which is operational in 35 countries (talk about significant impact created worldwide). It has plethora of operations with more than 120000 employees and revenue of INR 3.046 Trillion in year 2018 alone. ABG is not only about making money but also stick to their values of serving the weaker sections of the society and sustainable development. This entails transcending business interests and grappling with the challenges that underserved communities face, and working towards making a difference for them.

ABG’s vision for making a significant change is- "to actively contribute to the social and economic development of the communities in which we operate. In so doing to build a better, sustainable way of life for the weaker sections of society and raise the country's human development index".

We have been associated with ABG day in and day out.

First off, I have a Birla Sun life insurance policy to my name, having a life insurance is of utmost importance and it offers numerous benefits like flexibility and tax benefits, and you will leave something behind for your loved ones, which makes you worry free for the rest of your life.

Secondly, I love dressing up and Van Heusen is my go to place for everything formal, from suits to tie. Moreover, companies like Allen Solly, Peter England and Louis Phillipe are all under the umbrella of Aditya Birla Group and it will be a blatant lie, if I say that an average Joe like me ,studying in a professional college have not been associated with any of these companies.

I still remember the time when our house was in a construction phase (circa 2011), I will see the sacks of Ultratech Cement neatly arranged by the side of a recently built wall. The walls of my home, in a way have been supported by ABG’s Ultratech Cement and I am forever thankful to my dad who made this purchasing decision.

These are the wee bits of things which are seldom ignored as how a conglomerate can impact the life of the consumer like me and now that I realized, I will be forever grateful to ABG.

Srijan Chauhan

Knocked Down but not Knocked Out- Journey of IIM Kashipur student from overweight teen to fit, confident individual