MUMBAI: Actor Manasi Varma, who was last seen in the show Private Investigator, has been missing from action since some time now. The actor has been part of shows such as CID Special Bureau (Sony) Kaisa Yeh Pyar Hai (Sony) and Kitni Mast Hai Zindagi (MTV) and says that she got sick of taking up similar work and wanted a break. “I got bored of doing the same things, the same kind of roles over and over again. There was no creative satisfaction so after a while, I took a break. In the meantime, I was given the chance to host a U.S and Canada tour of live events for Sonu Nigam for a month. This was a welcome break and I travelled extensively for it.

I realised there is more to life than just waking up and reporting to the set at 8.30 AM and packing up by 10.30 PM. So, I started taking up more such opportunities to host and anchor events. That is when I got into anchoring corporate events and big fat weddings. I have done huge brand launches for Audi, Versace Homes, Mumbai Indians, Axis Bank to name a few and big fat weddings of people like Mr Lakshmi Mittal’s niece’s wedding in Bali, Adani groups wedding in Udaipur, H’ble Chief Minister Late. Vilasrao Deshmukh’s Son Dheeraj Deshmukh and Mr. Vashu Bhagnani’s Daughter Honey’s high-profile wedding in Mumbai, Mr. GVK Reddy’s Grandson Krishna Reddy’s wedding in Hyderabad,” she says.

However, this excessive travelling led to health issues. “While I was doing such amazing work, I was travelling and was not being able to eat or rest properly. My hormones were going haywire and I got thyroid which is why I ended up putting on a lot of weight. And while that is okay for live events, it wasn’t okay for my acting career. So, when people who knew me and have worked with me saw me at social events, award functions and parties, they noticed that I had put on weight and slowly all the meaty role offers started drying up. I didn’t want to do random roles just for the sake of doing something on TV, so that’s why I didn’t do TV for some time.”

Dealing with thyroid was quite challenging for the actor. “Initially, I didn’t even come to know for some time that I had thyroid. I just thought that maybe I haven’t been regular in my workouts so I must have put on weight. It is only when I was working out like a crazy person for almost 2 hours every day morning and evening and still not losing any weight, that I realised that something was wrong.

I got my blood test done and that’s when I came to know that I have thyroid. I went to an endocrinologist who then put me on medication. While I used to have my thyroid medicine, I tried different kinds of diets and workouts and every time I would lose weight for a short while but it would come back after sometime. I was really frustrated because at such a young age and being in this career, putting on weight meant saying bye to everything.

I had started losing my confidence. I saw that I had slowly started becoming invisible to people. The people who used to find me attractive and offer me roles on a regular basis (Producers/Directors/Channel) had just stopped even noticing me, forget about offering me work,” she says.

The actor adds, “That is when I thought that I wasn’t going to just give up. My mom listens to Dr. Luke Coutino’s live videos almost every day and she told me about the time when he discussed this topic of thyroid and how to cure it naturally. It’s like when you show your willpower and determine to make a change and not give up, even God and the universe is on your side. Help shows up in the most unexpected ways. I started following a few tips that he gave on his show and made some changes in my diet and lifestyle. At the same time, I connected with a childhood friend of mine who I had lost touch with. He was into sports nutrition and I immediately went to him for consultation and he put me on a new diet and a workout plan. This absolutely suited my body and did wonders to me. That’s when I started losing weight and slowly my thyroid also started getting better till a point that I didn’t have to take any medication anymore. My thyroid was cured. I lost 12 kgs and now I am looking pretty close to how I used to look earlier when I started my career.”