“I quit obsessing about my weight and started running and playing. I made fitness a habit, and naturally started looking, feeling and functioning better.”

“Govindaaaaa Siva sivaaaaaaaa” Walk outside The Quad’s Adyar centre on any Tuesday, Thursday or Saturday around 6:40am and you'll hear these words being yelled out. You won't find any temples or processions nearby. But if you walk deep into our class, you'll find Anusha! You'll find her in all her spirits training, inspiring and emoting. Walk closer and you'll hear her grunt her way out of a deep squat or a heavy press before she calls out to the Gods. Why? Because that's how she rolls. She doesn't care about who is around her. She gives her workouts her all. She doesn't worry about being loud when she trains. She just goes with the flow. And she totally doesn't give a crap about what people think. She simply does her thing. That's just how she rolls. Anusha joined us back in 2014 and was looking for what most of us look for - weight loss. And with this came obsession, guilt, overdoing and frustration. But along the way she realised something - That weight loss is not the result but a side effect of an active and healthy lifestyle. After a few days of denial and resistance, she started looking at her weight loss goal differently. Instead of looking for a quick way to lose weight, she started looking for fun ways to stay fit. She understood that there was no such thing as quick and healthy weight loss and that if she could have fun with fitness, weight loss would happen automatically. So what happened? Did she lose weight? Did she get stronger? Did she become fitter? Yes, yes and YES! From constantly thinking about just calories and weight loss and comparing herself to how much weight others around her were losing, she went on to enjoying movement, filling her mornings with activity, building a small group of like minded folks and picking up a sport! Slowly but surely, things started to change. As she forgot the scale and started chasing strength, she found herself enjoying her training more than ever. As she quit obsessing about her weight and started running and playing, she found herself enjoying her body more than ever. And as she made fitness a habit, she naturally started looking, feeling and functioning better. Today, Anusha is now one of the strongest women at The Quad. She squats 40kg, presses 28kg and rows 32kg which are things not many women can do. What about outside The Quad? Well, equally impressive. She runs or plays Ultimate Frisbee on days she doesn't train at The Quad and just completed her first half-marathon with flying colours! But more than any of this Anusha is special for one other reason - her infectious enthusiasm. You can't help but notice her. You can't stop yourself from being enthused when you're with her. And you just can't resist being inspired by her.