Actor Vinu Mohan shares the tale of his fitness journey

While attending the Mazhavil Entertainment award 2022 co-sponsored by AMMA and Mazhavil Manorama Vinu Mohan noticed something baffling. No one was talking to him. And some of them were even ignoring him. But when he learnt the truth, he was ecstatic. When he realised that his hard work had paid off, he decided to make fitness part of his daily life. Vinu Mohan shares how he lost 15 kg in 2 months with Manorama online.

Gruelling fitness regime for two months

When I started I weighed 94 kg. And within 2 months it came down to 79 kg. I mostly did ground exercises. I had a personal trainer called Anoop. All my workouts were under his supervision. Earlier I didn’t do many ground exercises. When I carefully did those ground exercises, results were showing. The workouts were done at a gym at a friend’s flat. I did the workouts continuously for 60 days. I didn’t do any weight training. And the workouts were altered every day. Some days I would do badminton, and some days I would dance, so the idea was to keep working out without getting bored. Right now I am only doing ground exercises. I am thinking of starting weight training. I used to work out for 3 hrs daily.

The first week was tough

The first week was rather tough. I felt I wouldn’t be able to do it. My mind kept pulling me back. But after two weeks, I felt I should do this. But then after a month, it had come to a point when I felt I couldn’t miss a day's workout. Now even if I miss a day’s work out I feel terrible. When you see how these workouts are transforming your body, that’s a huge motivation. It was my wife Vidya who monitored my workouts. So even if I slack a bit, she would be there to motivate me.

Weight gain affected my morale

I eat a lot. And I have absolutely no control if I see my favourite food. That was one reason for my weight gain. I never gave importance to diet.

After Covid, my appetite increased. And weight gain affected me in many ways. I felt tired and lazy. I started avoiding photographs. I started losing confidence in my appearance. Though my mind kept telling me to start working out, I was lazy. But when I got a new film one of the prerequisites for the character was to lose weight. That’s how I decided to lose weight. All I remember was hinting to my friend Shinjo about doing workouts. He immediately entrusted me to a personal trainer. When I look back I think that was a good decision.

My first workout was at the NCC camp

Right from my childhood, I was plump. I never bothered about fitness and ate well. In school, I was at NCC. And I think I had toned down during that period. The camp’s training and trekking were solid workouts. And I used to do yoga during that time. But I went back to square one after that. Before ‘Nivedyam’ I had lost weight for another film. But after coming to films I started eating excessively and became lazy. This is the first time I am doing such strenuous workouts. And I am happy to see the results.

At the Mazhavil Manorama and AMMA show  

When your workouts start showing results, you will start to love the process of workouts. When you do a film, once the character seeps into your mind, you will start loving that character. It is a similar scenario. Now I have kicked off my laziness and feel energized and motivated, especially when others have good things to say about my appearance. Recently when I went to the Mazhavil Manorama-AMMA show not many people recognised me. Many ignored me. They were surprised when they realised that it was me. That’s when I realised that I had changed so much. That is really motivating. Fitness is part of my life now and I have no intention of giving it up.

No dieting

I love food and eat everything I love. I simply work out after that. I remember feeling anxious about eating my favourite food when I gained weight. But now I have no such worries. But I did really cut down on rice, tea, coffee, and sugar intake. If I eat rice heavily, I avoid a lot of food. So I eat all my favourite food but I do that with caution.

Fitness important for wife

My wife Vidya is someone who thinks fitness is an important part of your daily life. She looks after her diet. If she feels she has gained weight, she immediately starts working out. When I gained weight, she kept counselling me. Despite that, I took so much time to take this decision.

Fitness is crucial

I think our food habits have changed a lot. During childhood, I used to play a lot on the ground and junk food wasn’t this common back then. But things are different now. Now kids are consuming a lot of junk food. They rarely go out and play and prefer to sit at home and play video games. That’s really harmful. So everyone should incorporate some form of exercise into their daily life.