Calisthenics requires no fancy equipment — just a few pull-up bars, and parallel bars, to perform the moves using just your body weight. Pearl Monteiro, mother of a five-and-a-half-year-old and a fitmom says, “Don’t limit your challenges, challenge your limits.”
Pearl Monteiro is a fitness instructor. She is fit and she promotes fitness to all women around her.
Women Fitness President, Namita Nayyar catches up with the fitmom, Pearl Monteiro to share her fitness journey. Go check it out,
Namita Nayyar:
Initially, you started your fitness journey to lose your pregnancy belly weight (2017), with a lot of running and diet, but there was a frequent dropout. Can you share reasons for the same?
According to you why do women find it hard to lose belly fat?
Pearl Monteiro:
In 2017 august when I started running, I didn’t really focus on diet and a lot of inconsistency, but that happened because my daughter was 9 months and my husband was doing a 9-5 so I had to focus more on her.
Namita Nayyar:
You started your Calisthenic journey in 2018 December and there has been no looking back since then. Can you throw insight into how calisthenics changed your life and fitness level? visible health benefits you have felt since you started training?
Pearl Monteiro:
Losing belly fat depends on a lot of things, from your genetics to your nutrition it’s all interlinked some women tend to lose it faster than others, every woman is different and so is their body. Well, that’s true because calisthenics made me the fitmom that I’m called or known as today. It has changed a lot in me as a person and got me more focused in life unlike what I used to, it taught me that nothing is impossible if you work for it.
Visible health benefits would be
- I feel strong.
- I feel confident with my body.
Namita Nayyar:
Share initial hurdles you faced while training and how you overcome them.
Pearl Monteiro:
Initially, I self-doubted myself way too much someday I do it even now, but at that time looking at people do things would make me feel a little intimidated but the only way to overcome this was to work hard in those training and gain as much knowledge to be or perform better the next day.
Namita Nayyar:
Share your daily fitness routine. How do you like to kick start your day?
Pearl Monteiro:
I start my day at 5.30 am with 2 cups of coffee and I start my training at 8 am and it could go up to 2-4 hours depending on the workout.
Namita Nayyar:
Diet plays an instrumental role in a good physique. Share input on the kind of diet you follow.
Pearl Monteiro:
Well firstly I did say this, to correct myself too, it’s not dieting it’s nutrition.
Being a vegan since august 2019 I’ve followed veganism by choice, my food can be repetitive and boring, but that’s the thing with good food, it’s not supposed to be tasty or masale daar but it’s supposed to meet your nutrition requirements.
Namita Nayyar:
What was your husband’s response to the 360-degree change in your physique? How has the change contributed to family health?
Pearl Monteiro:
My husband was the one who has pushed me to go for this, he’s been more than supportive towards this journey of mine In fact when our daughter was about 1.5 years or so that’s when my actual journey started and without him, I don’t think I would be able to manage my workouts and home, he feels super proud of the way I’ve carved myself and honestly, he was about 105 kgs but today he himself weighs around 83-85kgs so it definitely has an impact and is glad I could bring that change.
Namita Nayyar:
On your Instagram handle, you have shared videos of working out on pull-up bars. Any specific reason for the same? Tips or exercises for a beginner to gain strength to work on a pull-up bar?
Pearl Monteiro:
Well pull up is one of my most favorites workouts undoubtedly, It took me quite some time to get them right I use to struggle to do even 1 pull up but today I know I can touch 30 with struggle and maybe 20+ without struggle.
Tips are simple, you can start with putting up a bar in your home if u can’t afford to pay for a gym or due to hectic work schedules, start with jump negatives, you can also use resistance bands, and gradually move to get that first pull up. Most important is consistency and hard work while learning anything in calisthenics.
Namita Nayyar:
Your daily skin & hair care routine?
Pearl Monteiro:
I genuinely don’t really have anything much I just eat well, being a vegan means I eat a lot of lentils, veggies, and fruits keeping it simple.
Namita Nayyar:
5 tips for a healthy physique for women over 30 who do not have access to a gym?
Pearl Monteiro:
My 5 tips would be
- Stay active
- Get an hour for yourself in the 24 hours we’ve got.
- Nutrition & sleep is important.
- Any kind of activity from running, walking, and jogging is fine just start.
- And my most fav is to work hard and stay consistent, you won’t see the changes easily but in time you will be proud of yourself.
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