In this episode of Magical Mornings, we featured a professional dietician, Mitun De Sarkar. She is having 11 years of post qualification experience in in Dietetics. She is the founder of Simply Healthy and also she helps with so many healthy tasty recipes to make dieting fun and long lasting experience for all of us. She has a wide understanding of different cuisines from Parvic, Indian, Pakistani, to Continental. She is also a Musician ad also a lifestyle influencer as well. She has been so diverse in her career.
Here’s the interview of Mitun De Sarkar with UnitePod.
Q. You have gone extremely diverse in your career. Can you please tell us about your
journey briefly? How did it start and how were you molding it?
Mitun: It’s been a long journey, very revolting and sometimes a bit exhausting too. I started working in the field of Dietetics in 2000. The field was not as main stream as it is today and internet was also just coming to every home and office in India. So after 3-4 years of being in India and practicing as a dietician, in 2004, I came to Dubai with my husband. He got a job in Dubai and decided to move here. I was always keen on continuing my career in this chosen field. So I was free-lancing for days. It was then that I realized that it was a huge opportunity for nutrition and healthy food and diet. I was lucky to have found a client who was very passionate about fitness and was ready to start the concept of simply healthy with me. I was so excited. Those were the years when my career has taken off in Dubai. I started planning knee plans and getting them prepared in a simply healthy facility itself. And the whole system of knee plan delivering services for weight loss started back in 2005. Now in 2008 my son Ranvir was born and this was also the time when business is around the world but not performing well due to financial crisis. And unfortunately I had to shut it. And then for two years, I took a break from working to a proper sabbatical. Then since somewhere in January 2011, I restarted my company at this time completely under my ownership. In 2013, I realized that now I am looking steady, my career has taken off well. In 2013, I decided that my passion and talent for music must not die. So I decided to start my musical journey and formed our band Raga Factory with my very good friend Rohit as a partner. I know him through my Bengali roots and we were quiet keen on musical collaboration and that’s what led to Raga Factory. And it has recently completed its 7 years. During these years we have had the good fortune I would say of performing in very local venues of Dubai, and opening for some of the most renowned acts like Shankar Ehsaan Loy, Amit Trivedi. And the highlight was to perform in front of the stadium when the honorable PM of India Mr. Narendra Modi visited UAE. Along with this, I am also a wellness columnist in magazines and newspapers, a public speaker for health and awareness, a lifestyle influencer and I make time for many more things. So as far as molding my career and diversity are concerned, I can only say that one has to be passionate and patient at the same time. There will be ups and downs in every chosen career path but sometimes it will seem that it’s uphill all the way. That is when you keep reminding yourself your choices and why you choose that in the first place.
Q. So what are the best resources that have helped you along your way?
Mitun: My best resource if you ask me is my family which is one of the best resources that I can tap into. My family has provided me with my routine and they also calm my mind at times to be honest. Dubai, UAE has been my home for the last 16 years now and I firmly believe that the opportunities that are available here have been quiet important to my growth as an individual and as a business woman. Also I give a lot of importance to self care, my mental health, my physical health which often times get ignored due to career goals. So you forget the importance of staying fit, staying healthy and happy which is not good for your mental health. So I ensure that I look after these things as well which helps me succeed and has helped me in my chosen career.
Q. What’s the one common myth about your field or profession that you want to debunk?
Mitun: The most common myth about my profession is that the most people think that to lose weight there got to be some magic or some shortcut to regain your health. Now I say health because the goal of being in the optimum weight range and health marker range is to get back to good health. The way you look will be a complimentary side of it. But your aim should be to get your body in good health. I strongly believe in that.
Q. What’s your secret and how do you manage all the stress piling up on you and what does your daily day look like?
Mitun: I meditate every morning. I do breathing exercise and meditate every morning when I wake up. In the evening sometimes I read. I listen to music. I love comedy so if I get a chance I watch comedies. In fact I watch a lot of news. All these are my way of coming out of the stress. I spent a lot of time with my pets. My dogs are my stress busters. I spend time with my son. I get to know about his whole day about what happened in school, what he did. And all this things makes me happy. I also spend time with my husband when he is around. And I also love to relive stress with my good friends. I love to catch up with my friends on a cup of tea or coffee and chit chat. This makes me happy.
Q. It seems that you go along with the brands very well and have been an active part in their growth, so would you like to name some of them and what’s the most exciting part about it?
Mitun: Yes, I have been very fortunate to be able to collaborate with many big brands. But my most recent and proudest affiliation has been with Costa Coffee. So I am the brand ambassador for Costa Coffee. Their intention was to bring about awareness because there is a need for nutritious healthy food among the health conscious people in the region. And the driving force was to make healthy eating easier for anyone and everyone right from if you are in a mall or below your office tower and are driving pass and want a quick grab and go, even when you are travelling or at the airport. Costa intention was to ensure that you can get easy, healthy snacks, breakfast box, salads and anything you want easily. And I was fortunate enough to be given this opportunity to design it and give my stamp of approval for all of these menus. It was a wonderful experience actually to see myself on the billboard of the Costa and in their outlets videos was running. I really enjoyed that experience. And the best part was all my idea, ingredients were carefully combined and as a team with Chef Peter we came up with some really delicious recipes that was not only health, low in calories but in each recipes we incorporated some super food that have tremendous nutrition and healing benefits along with good taste. So everyone go and try them out. So even if you are at a coffee shop, you have a choice of taking up healthy.
Q. So finally, what message do you have for our listeners and where can they connect with you online?
Mitun: I would like to tell my listeners that you can achieve whatever you want in your life if you are passionate about it but with better time management because if you manage your time well, if you manage yourself well then follow your passion where your heart leads to. The rest will be your hard work, your hustle and patience and commitment. So career growth is a marathon it’s not as straight. If you realize these things, anything is possible. You can be in touch with me on my social media handles. On Instagram it is @mitunds and I also have one account called @simplyhealthydiets.
That’s such a beautiful message. Thank you so much for being here today. You gave us so many advices on our health and diet, mental health. It was such a great experience talking with you, and now you know where to follow her on all her social media platforms. Again thank you so much for being here. We really enjoyed it.
Mitun: Thank you so much for having me here. Thank you for the opportunity to share my journey and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Thank you once again.
That’s a wrap of another episode of Magical Mornings featuring Mitun De Sarkar who is very versatile in her career and touched fields like Dietetics, music, wellness columnist and lifestyle influencer. Her company ‘Simply Healthy’ not only encourages people to regain their health but also makes the process of losing weight fun through different delicious recipes.
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