Health, Wellness & Fitness

Dr. Ridhima Khamesra, Offering the Best Indian Thali, Getting Foodies' Attention and Stepping Outside of the Food Industry

Dietitian & Nutritionist, Diet Clinicudaipur

Dr. Ridhima Khamesra is a Nutritionist, a Health Coach, Researcher and Columnist. She likes to contribute to society in terms of health and holistic development by promoting good diet and food.

Ridhima says her journey has not been easy. After her first daughter was born, she was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis so she was put on steroids due to which she put on a lot of weight and lost her self confidence. Then, her mother recommended her to join nutritional courses rather than being stressed.

Ridhima had good results as her weight loss was visible and she stopped spending any amount on other health activities and focussed on nutrition.

Inspired by her own health gains, Ridhima eventually started studying Nutrition and scored 98 percentile in her first exam. She felt like she had found her calling and she started to get a hack of this subject. And this is where her life changed. She started her clinic in 2014 with an apprehension that whether she will get a response or not but it was a splendid decision. Now, she has around seven clinics in Ahmedabad, Bhilwara, Chittor and Udaipur. She says she met wonderful people who supported and recommended her to their families and friends due to which she has her client base across the globe.

Ridhima was born in Ludhiana, Punjab but raised in Ambala. She says she comes from a very modern family where she shares a very friendly relationship with her mother. She did her schooling from Convent of Jesus and Mary School and studied Engineering from Thapar University, Patiala. Thereafter she did her MBA and doctorate. She did her Nutrition course from IGNOU and a renowned institute of Ahmedabad.

Ridhima suggests that if you are interested in pursuing Nutrition as a career then you need to have Science-Biology in 11th & 12th std otherwise you would not be able to understand the concept of Nutrition. Then you have to dig for a good college or university to pursue that course.

Ridhima says when she got her first job after college, she was paid heavily and got promoted over her team members. She got married into a typical Mewari family but still her husband was her immense supporter to let her work and step out of the house.  But the first challenge she felt as a woman was getting paid less than her male colleagues and that was the first time she thought of doing something on her own.

Talking about her achievements, Ridhima says she was awarded as the ‘Best Nutritionist of North India’ by the Ministry of Health in 2019. In 2020, she was acknowledged by the Nutrition and Natural Health Sciences of India as a ‘Best Covid Nutritionist.’

Ridhima says that the major challenge during the COVID times was to make people understand that immunity is not a magic pill. She came across people thinking that if they diet during those times, they will be more prone to infections. So it became difficult for her to make them understand the logic behind dieting and consuming nutritional food.

Ridhima advises that if you want to be a nutritionist then you should have a good knowledge , you should know what you’re talking about and you should know the right concept because your diet and principles could affect someone’s life. You should ensure that you do not make a negative impact, you have to be positive besides being empathetic.

About role models, Ridhima says everybody who is working hard and trying to give their best are her role models. But specifically her mother is her role model for being extremely extroverted and being nice to people. Her second role model is her father’s sister, who is a celebrity doctor in Ludhiana for commanding respect from people and they simply adore her which motivated Dr. Ridhima to become what she is today. Her third role model is a Nutritionist from Chandigarh for the way she handles people and regularly keeps taking the feedback.

If Ridhima would be given a chance to time travel, she says she is not the kind of a person who will wallow in the past; she would rather go to the future, just enjoy herself, come back and work hard.

Apart from work, she likes painting and traveling along with being an avid reader.