Over the years, Gulshan Devaiah has garnered a huge fan base that often showers him with love and adoration for her versatile performances and chill personality. While he often lets his work speak for himself, he also takes to his social media handles to share glimpses of his life, personal and professional. Recently, he sat down with SpotboyE for an exclusive chat, on the occasion of World Health Day, and opened up about following the Omad diet for the past 5 years and how it has impacted his life.
You recently opened up about embracing a brand new lifestyle, by eating once in 20 hours, can you share something about that?
It’s not really brand new, I have been doing it for 5 years. It’s technically 23 hours. It’s one hour of eating and 23 hours, I don’t want to say fasting, because I do drink tea and coffee with milk and sugar, so technically it’s not fasting. My main meal of the day happens once, apart from which I drink 2-3 cups of tea or coffee a day.
It usually starts with raw foods like fruits and salads, cooked foods like cooked vegetables, eggs and meat, also carbohydrates. I like rice bhakris, jowar bhakri, ragi and sometimes it’s plain biryani. I like eating food. The reason why I do it is so I can eat what I want and my portion will be controlled. I don’t have to worry about controlling my portions or calories. Sometimes I hog on three pizzas or two and a half biryanis, not all the time, so that way I’m able to satisfy my cravings. I also maintain a calorie restriction. In my experience, it has worked really well for me. I don’t know how great it would be for other people.
How did you find out about it?
It was in early 2018, I was watching a YouTube video, it was in Japanese I think with English subtitles. The interviewer was interviewing a Japanese Olympic Gold Medalist Gymnast, who was talking about eating once a day. The gymnast, I can’t remember his name, but he had won a whole bunch of Olympic gold medals and was a national hero figure in Japan, he used to train the entire day and then go home, eat, and go to sleep. He would repeat that every day. Gymnasts usually require a lot of upper body strength, their muscular arms, shoulders, and everything. He said that he was able to maintain that by eating once.
I thought I was very peculiar. After some research, I found out that it’s called Omad, one meal a day. A lot of people including Sadhguru do it. There is a scientist David Sinclaire, who is working on some stuff for anti-ageing. I came across a lot of such experiences and articles on it. I slowly started to follow the same. I was already eating two meals a day, it just became easy for me to reduce it to one meal a day. The first 4-5 days were terrible but after that, it felt like it was normal.
How has your life changed because of it?
I have more time to sleep and to work. Considering that I work in the film industry, so when everybody is doing their lunchtime, I’m sleeping. When everybody is having breakfast, I’m getting ready and taking a nap. I’m feeling more now. I don’t have to eat and my body temperature is lower. I don’t get hot easily. Usually, I’m the one to tell my driver to turn off the AC, he doesn’t like it as it’s hot (chuckles). Even in my vanity van, I keep off my AC or turn it to 25 degrees which bothers my team because they are all sweating it out, and I feel cold. We work in Mumbai, in a hot and humid climate. They say your body temperature is cooler because your stomach is empty, that is an advantage.
What are the exercises or hobbies you indulge in to maintain a healthy physique?
My hobby is sleeping, it is my favourite hobby. Getting really good quality sleep is the most important for both physical and mental health. When you are stressed or anxious about work or ambition and money or anything like relationships, sleep quality is really important. Apart from that, good exercise also helps your physical health, your blood flow, it also helps your mood.
I used to exercise around 6 times a week, but then I reduced it to 3-4 times a week. One of those days I do intense exercise, but then most of the days it’s very moderate. I don’t go to the gym anymore as I’m not trying to maintain a physique. I just want to have a neutral body so I do most of my workouts at home with basic equipment, that I can travel with while going outdoors and fits in my suitcase. I do a lot of body-weighted exercises, I’ll carry a pull-up bar, which helps me do pull-ups. These are a few things that I do, half an hour max. On the days I do intense workouts, that half an hour will be pretty intense.
If you follow one, how does your cheat day look like?
My cheat day would be 3 Kolkata-style biryanis or 3 Neapolitan pizzas, a whole lot of Japanese food, and definitely a lot of sweets. I like Roits chocolate, Mysore Pak, and dudhi ka halwa. Someone I know makes great dudhi ka halwa, it’s to die for. So every time I’m requesting him to ask his wife to make dudhi ka halwa for me. He will bring me one plastic dabba worth of it and I usually polish it off entirely. This is something I have worked on for many years, to reduce the amount of sweets as I had a very unnatural habit of eating a lot of sweets. If I tell you some of the stories you will be shocked, so I will refrain from doing so. I had a major problem that also affected my mental health because the consumption of sugar also causes a lot of mood disorders.
What is your favourite food you would like to eat every day?
Every day if I can it will be Mysore Pak or dudhi ka halwa but it's not really ideal for anybody trying to maintain average health. I would say, I’m an averagely healthy person. I’m not super healthy or unhealthy, I’m somewhere in the middle, and being consistent is important for me. There is a restaurant in Mumbai called Gustoso, their Neapolitan pizza, and Delizia Di Funghi, I can eat every day.
Considering most of the people have desk jobs, how can one take care of themselves?
Practice discipline. These days it is very difficult to find motivation, but if you are disciplined with something then it can become a part of your life. We don’t have to think about brushing our teeth, we wake up and automatically brush our teeth. Some people might not brush their teeth before going to bed, but at least once a day they brush their teeth. There is nothing to think about. You don’t need motivation or discipline, you just go and brush your teeth. With practice a lot of such habits automatically become a part of your life, you don’t have to think much about it. Exercising for 20 minutes, doing sit-ups, or brisk walking for 15 minutes outside or even in your house.
For people who work from home, it really helps to have a designated area of work, like this is where I work and the rest is my house. So that your brain is not confused about where is your workplace. It is better to not work on the bed, one should keep a specific area in the house, where you work. This is where I’ll open my laptop or my phone and work there. It is also necessary to have a designated area to eat so that you know that you will always eat there.
On the occasion of World Health Day, what message would you like to give to the fans?
Think about your health, a lot of us don’t pay much attention to our health. Try and incorporate healthy habits and try to educate yourself. Take it slow, you don’t need to push yourself too much. Give yourself enough time. If you are losing weight or even gaining weight, give yourself 6-8 months, or a year. Do steady mehenat that suits your body. Some people may have some health complications so take it easy. Practice discipline because once you are used to it you don’t really need motivation. Be kind to yourself and don’t be in a hurry to get a six-pack or lose weight. Find something you can do consistently, be it exercise or eating habits.
Can you elaborate on your upcoming projects?
I have a couple of films ready for release. One is Ulajh which is with Janhvi Kapoor and Little Thomas with Rasika Duggal. I’ll have a series on Disney Hotstar which is called Bad Cops, which will probably be released this year, I just wrapped up shooting for it. I’m looking forward to these projects. I will be filming more projects soon.
Image Source: Instagram