Rinda AngomPregnancy isn’t easy, women go through a lot and when it’s accompanied by Covid, one can imagine the worst situation. Rachel was able to come out of this situation but she too broke down at some point. Rachel Goenka @rachelgoenka is a successful restaurateur, author of an award-winning recipe book- Adventure with Mithai. She speaks to Neha Sood, Brand Head of Rabitat about her experience of getting Covid during her pregnancy, dealing with postpartum blues, her take on work from home & kids’ Covid vaccination and a lot more.
“I had Covid in my 1st trimester, the entire household had it. My son got Covid as well, he had a really high fever for two nights and that was probably my breaking point.”- Rachel Goenka
During this sensitive time, a pregnant woman needs to be cautious of her health and take care of it. And especially during the 1st trimester, the body is dealing with a lot of changes, it can cause nausea, heartburn, anaemia which can make the body even more tired. If proper care is not taken, there can be a miscarriage too. It becomes a lot more stressful when it’s accompanied by Covid as it gets riskier. Rachel admits one whole month when she had Covid was a horrible experience. However, she feels lucky as she got her baby delivered right before the 2nd wave hit. She had friends who were tested positive till about the last date of going to the hospital. Rachel came out of it and the good thing was both she and her baby got antibodies.
One of the impacts of the pandemic was dealing with mental health be it, kids or adults, almost everyone was dealing with it. And it’s too much for a pregnant woman to take it when she is infected at the same time, the fact that there are two lives at risk. After few days of delivery, Rachel immediately started working out and that helped her a lot both mentally and physically.
“Exercise does make you feel better about yourself. All those hormones which make you feel really low and postpartum depression, you can definitely fight that if you are active.”- Neha Sood
Another thing women face postpartum is pregnancy weight, many find it hard to get rid of it. Rachel suggests the right approach to diet throughout a calorie deficit, eating nutritious food, eating home-cooked food as much as one can. And even if one is eating from the restaurant, one has to be smarter while ordering, like going for steamed or grilled food instead of french fries or deep-fried foods. She also recommends weight training as an effective way to shed those extra kilos.
“A lot of people think cardio is so important. Initially, if you want to drop the baby weight so fast, cardio helps but after that you need to get back into weight training. The amount of calories you burn while weight training is a lot more than what you would burn if you were doing just cardio.”- Rachel Goenka
Rachel being an entrepreneur is also particular about time management. Sleeping early and waking up early, keeping a strict schedule for sleeping and waking up at a certain time works for her. She and her husband also get that “me-time” by following this schedule.
“ It’s something as simple as getting a good-night rest because if you are well-rested then you are in a better mind space as well to plan your day better, to get the most out of your day.”- Rachel Goenka
Running a successful business and looking after two kids isn’t easy but Rachel manages it smoothly. Many working moms get mom-guilt trying to juggle between work and kids. They feel guilty about not giving enough time to their kids or for not taking care of them like the way non-working moms have. Rachel prefers to take out the guilt completely. She also admits that initially with her first child, she would have that guilt for just showing up in the office leaving her child at home. Rachel made it work in such a way that she got her son involved in her work. She would take her son to work sometimes even ask his opinion, make him feel he is also involved.
Rachel sure knows how to make everything work and bring balance to her busy life. Apart from being a successful restaurateur, she came up with a recipe book that won the prestigious award- Gourmand Award. She admits that she is able to do it all because of the support system she has got, her family her staff. In the podcast she also shares her take on working from home, on kids’ vaccination, parenting and many more. Watch the full podcast to learn more.
Oh! if you happen to run into one of her restaurants someday, make sure you don’t miss out on the desserts. I’m sure there’s something special about her desserts, after all, her recipe book- Aventures with Mithai must not have won the Gourmand Award just like that.
