[100 Emerging Women Leaders] From battling PCOS to being healthy, Simrun Chopra wants women to join her fitness journey

For fitness entrepreneur Simrun Chopra, her journey towards better health started with a personal crisis. 

“I had a very difficult pregnancy after a bunch of miscarriages because I had PCOS (Polycystic Ovary Syndrome). Doctors would tell me that I needed a laparoscopy or lose weight, and when I get pregnant, it will become okay. Unfortunately, it [PCOS] does not let you get pregnant; so, it is a vicious cycle,” she tells HerStory.

She’s not alone. Around 4% to 20% of women of reproductive age across the world struggle with PCOS. The disorder can cause symptoms ranging from irregular periods, obesity, and infertility, to miscarriages.

Once Chopra was better, she started gaining weight due to irregular eating habits. “I was doing nothing to take care of myself,” she recalls. 

Three months after giving birth, she collapsed one day while she was taking care of her baby. She did not seek help then, but over the next few weeks, it became difficult for her to even walk properly. She had also gained significant weight, and while she would recover, the recovery would not persist. 

“When my child was 10 months old, I was hospitalised. At that point, they told me that I would have to stop feeding him because the medication I was taking would have affected him as well,” she says.

This was a turning point in her life, which made her realise the perils of ignoring health. “I wish that unlike me, others do not reach or need to reach the point where everything goes wrong. It is so much harder to pick yourself up from the bottom," Chopra shares.

She decided to embark on a journey towards fitness and better health, and also started actively sharing updates on how she was getting fit on social media. 

Chopra received a positive response online, and people even approached her to know her story and shared bits of their journeys.  

A lady once told her that she was referring to online sources and following diets such as keto. Chopra says, “I kept telling her not to follow such diets, but at that time, I didn't have anything to offer her.”

A few months later, she found out that the woman had gotten Bell’s Palsy; one side of her body and face was temporarily paralysed. The doctor told her the condition had resulted from her diet patterns. 

“Along with the larger issue of the lack of affordable healthcare came a lack of awareness,” Chopra notes.

Cognizant of the reality that many women were facing similar problems as her, she wanted to offer them a solution and started a wellness and fitness service, Nourish with Sim, in 2018. 

The company’s philosophy is centered on ‘mindful eating’. It promotes balanced nutritional intake along with regular full-body workout regimes. 

To date, Chopra has worked with over 25,000 people from over 160 countries across the globe through her company, and realised that women face similar gender biases everywhere. 

She has come across questions like, “Do you have it in you to do this? Do you have an entrepreneurial background? Since you are married, is this a side business?”

“It comes to you to be able to hold your ground with much older individuals in this space. Establishing yourself and having clear boundaries is very important,” Chopra adds. 

Advising other women entrepreneurs, she says, it’s important to have a group of mentors and like-minded people who are in the same boat and can serve as your support system. “This cohort becomes a stepping stone with ideas and support.”