Name: Minakshi Shekar | Designation: Founder | Company: Regular Fit | Place: Colorado
(June 24, 2023) Does moving abroad on a dependent visa mean having to shelve your career dreams? Not necessarily as Minakshi Shekar proves it. A former journalist and screenwriter, this Hyderabadi stuck to her guns and found new avenues to channel her desire to work by turning a small-business owner when she moved to Colorado, USA. As founder of Regular Fit, this nutrition and fitness coach is working hard to shatter fitness myths one at a time.
Growing up in Hyderabad with a journalist mother, Minakshi too decided to follow in her footsteps and took up a career in journalism after doing her Masters from Asian College of Journalism in Chennai. A couple of years later, after having worked with NDTV Profit, she decided to take her love for writing a notch further and joined the prestigious New York Film Academy for a course in Screenwriting. Following this, she moved back to India to work with animation studios such as DQ Entertainment and Green Gold Animation as script editor.
Minakshi Shekar
After working for over five years, Minakshi moved to the US after her wedding and that’s where things changed. As an H4 visa wife, she couldn’t take up a job. But she wasn’t one to back down. “Moving to the US actually sparked my interest in the nutrition and fitness industry. It’s a huge part of life here and over the course of my own fitness journey, I realised there was a huge gap especially for immigrant women who want to prioritise their health but don’t know how. There is so much misinformation, too many marketing gimmicks and not enough focus on lifestyle and habit changes,” she says, adding, “As a mom of two myself, I know how hard it can be. I have been a nutrition and fitness coach for four years now but only recently decided to do this full time. That’s how I started my own coaching business called Regular Fit that specialises in helping Desi immigrant women prioritise their health without overhauling their life.”
To meet her new goals, Minakshi became a Precision Nutrition Certified Nutrition Coach, an NASM certified personal trainer and a Girls Gone Strong certified Pre and Post Natal Coach.
Currently a one woman show, Minakshi hopes to scale her business and hire more coaches to meet the industry demand. “One of the biggest reasons I started my own venture was because job hunting in today’s economic scenario is rough. Plus I wanted some flexibility and not have a 9-5 job so I could be with my kids. My biggest tip for those moving to the US, don’t chase the Green Card and immigration status just for the sake of it. Life here is hard. And working corporate jobs can suck the life out of you.”
“I am honestly very lucky that my husband (who is in IT himself) has some flexibility to work from home and I could also pursue my passion of helping women like myself,” she says.
On a typical day, Minkashi spends her mornings with her kids before beginning her work day. She usually works from 10 am to 5 pm and draws the line at working after 5 pm. “After that it’s time for family and the kids’ bedtime,” she says, adding, “It has taken some time to learn this, but drawing boundaries is important… with clients, with what I can and cannot take on has helped. I let my clients know that I am available during the week and won’t respond over weekends unless urgent. As an entrepreneur, you want to do everything all the time and be in control of everything but I am learning to delegate so I am not doing everything. I also block time on my calendar so I can actively spend time taking my kids to the park, their activities, etc.”
That apart, Minakshi also loves to run and has recently begun to run marathons. “I was a short distance runner in school but decided to do a long distance race after I had my daughter in 2022. It was just a challenge to myself also because you really build endurance training at an altitude in Colorado. I fell in love with the process and have run two half marathons, one was nine months postpartum. I just signed up for my third half marathon in 2024. For now I am sticking to half marathons but I never want to say never with a full marathon (26.2 miles) and may do that when I turn 40 in 4 years. I love challenging myself physically and long distance running is one of those things that isn’t just a test of physical strength but mental strength as well.”
As a family, Minakshi says that they love doing road trips and spending time outdoors. Road trips to the Rocky Mountains and New Mexico are some of their favourite routes. “Colorado is so vast and we keep finding new things to do here. It is also filled with undiscovered trails. We love the Manitou Incline in Colorado Springs, you gain 2000 feet in elevation in less than a mile. Portland also has some lovely trails and the Seven Falls is particularly beautiful. We’ve also done the entire Pacific Coast from San Francisco to Los Angeles and Las Vegas.”
While the family is happy living in the US for the quality of life it affords them, they do make it a point to instil some of their values in their kids. “We celebrate all major Indian festivals, eat Indian food every single day. If there’s one thing my husband and I miss apart from the comfort of home and family back in India, it is the food… Hyderabadi biryani, roadside chaat and the Indo-Chinese food.”