She can pick her 20-kg suitcase off an airport conveyor belt without
flinching. At the end of a hard day, she still has energy left to cook,
play with her dog, even go for a movie. And if ever she needs to run for
her life, she'll do a 3-km dash without even thinking about it. It's
all thanks to fitness, says Gul Panag. She's been at it for 19 years-she
should know.
Getting There
At 15, Gul was at an international school in Zambia. A tall, slim teenager in shorts and figure-accentuating T-shirts, she received more than her fair share of attention from the boys. So much, in fact, that her fauji father noticed it. He joked that if she wanted to continue to get that kind of attention, she needed to start exercising. Like any teenager, Gul resisted. "Even at that age I had absorbed the false information that you only need to exercise to lose weight. But he insisted I start running and make exercise a part of my daily life," says the former Miss India and Bollywood actress. So every evening Gul and her father ran 5 km. "For the first six months, I hated it. But then I began to notice that I felt a rush of happiness when I got back from the run. The endorphins would make me feel happy and I would finish my studies really quickly because it was like a rush of adrenaline. I earned this reputation as a hot girl who's also very fit.
Then running became my thing. I still run but I have added more elements to my fitness programme," she says. In fact, for Gul, fitness isn't restricted to the gym-she's quite the outdoorsy type, learning to bike when she was in her late teens. "I think the first time she rode a motorbike was when she was 16 or 17," says her brother, Sherbir Panag. "It was our cousin's Royal Enfield. After that there has been no looking back. Right now I am using her Royal Enfield Electra 350." Avoiding wedding clichés, he suggested she chuck "the limo thing and do the bike thing". When Gul got married, the newly-wed couple zipped away on a bike with an attached sidecar. In Step Along with running 3 km around her Mumbai home she has incorporated strength endurance and flexibility training into her four-days-aweek, 45-minutes-a-session fitness routine. "I do two days of high-intensity interval training or a 20-minute cardio routine which helps quicken my heart rate. This allows you to burn fat even after the training is over. I don't think you can get fit in four days a week because it also depends on what you eat. But four days is an achievable workout target." Through trial and error, she has developed little tricks to figure out what works for her. For instance, packing her gym bag first thing in the morning and always having it in the car with her has ensured that she keeps to the schedule. It helps greatly that her husband is also enormously fit. Gul acknowledges that it keeps her going on days when she might be tempted to cheat or is feeling too lazy to get going. "I would say a lot of my current fitness is thanks to having a workout partner in my husband. We keep each other motivated," says Gul, who admits to loving beer (she allows herself that one indulgence over the weekend).
The Fitness Look
Consistency, discipline, experimentation and an athletic frame have resulted in a hot bod, one that Gul loves to show off. She says, "I will only wear outfits where you can see I have an hour-glass body. I am very fit and I like my clothes to reflect that. I don't feel the need to keep up with trends. I am blessed that I don't have any problem areas to hide. At home I am usually in shorts and T-shirts." Some things change in life, for the better. "For a long time, I was obsessed with being 52 kg, maybe because I was that weight when I was 16," she says. Now she has abandoned that fixation, though she is 58 kg. "I am the same size now as I was at 16 but I have more muscle. I don't climb onto the weighing machine." She simply goes by the fit of her jeans.
Best Beauty Of her beauty regimen she says: "I used to have a skincare routine until I was 27, using a series of day creams, night creams, toners, this cream, that cream. Now I only use one day cream and one night cream. A workout is my fundamental beauty routine. Your pores open up; you sweat it out. Sugar is the worst thing for your skin-it has ageing properties and makes your blood sugar levels fluctuate." Another change in her life is the paring down of her make-up kit. Gone are the days of multiple luxury brand lipsticks and eyeliners. Today, Gul's minimalist make-up consists of a mascara, eyeliner, cheek tint and lip colour. She keeps it pared down so as to avoid wastage, given the short shelf life of make-up products. "The moment the smell changes, it's time to chuck it. My make-up bag has shrunk over the years, because otherwise you just end up throwing stuff," she says, quite pragmatically.
A New Phase
Gul wanted to be a Miss India ever since she was 8 or 9. In 1999, she achieved it, winning Miss Beautiful Smile too. "I wanted to be a movie star too. I have checked those two boxes." Now, she hopes to write a book and be a lawyer too. She's waiting for the release of her movie Ab Tak Chhapan 2 and is simultaneously working on a book that chronicles her learning and experience with food and fitness. "I am starting my Ph.D. soon, so I will be a doctor!" Her drinking buddy and director of Turning 30, Alankrita Srivastava, talks of her well-rounded personality, "I feel she is a sincere and earnest kind of actor. Even though we were sometimes working double shifts, she would always work out and come to the set. She's really fun to hang out with. We both love chatting about politics and world affairs." Though her journey began in the glam space, today, Gul is a woman of many colours, interests, passions and projects. She believes that acting has become a means to an end. "I am glad I am able to use that to do bigger things in life. Of course one has to sustain that reach with one or two good films in order to reach out beyond and to do other things in this world. Today, I get paid to have fun with cars, bikes and adventure sports, but that's because I am an actor. I am doing all the stuff I want to do," she says.
What's In Her Bag?
Gul organises the contents of her bag in a pouch, so she simply transfers this from one bag to the other when she switches.
1. A box of nuts
2. A packet of jerky
3. Hand sanitiser
4. Mints
5. Two phones (one for data; one to make calls)
6. A to-do diary
7. House keys
8. Moisturiser
9. A Swiss knife
Gul Supports
1. The Colonel Shamsher Singh Foundation: An NGO set up to take forward the work begun by her granddad in Punjab. "We work for gender issues such as a drive against sex determination tests.
2. Bikerni: A group of women bikers that she supports in spirit. It's a part of her concern about gender justice. "I use many platforms and forums to push that message across."
3. Pinkathon: "I am the brand ambassador for this women's running event to spread breast cancer awareness. Next up is Pune on November 17, then Mumbai. It aims to bring all women into the fitness fold."
Daily Diet
"Figure out what is an indulgence and what's a necessity. Then decide how often you want to indulge, depending on the goals you have set," says Gul. "So at times when I want to get lean, I allow myself only one day of an indulgence a week, when I will either have a beer or a dessert." PRE-BREAKFAST: Wake up with tea and 5-7 almonds or 5-7 walnuts. Up to 20 almonds a day is fine, as long as you space them out. BREAKFAST: "If my lunch is going to be at home, I have two eggs with yolk, a small bowl of cooked oats or home-made muesli; one cube of cheese and maybe some salami." LUNCH: A bowl of dal or meat, a bowl of vegetables, a handful of rice or a very small chapatti AFTERNOON SNACK: Tea/coffee and nuts DINNER: Same as lunch. If she has to go out, she eats 60 per cent of her dinner at home before she steps out.
Getting There
At 15, Gul was at an international school in Zambia. A tall, slim teenager in shorts and figure-accentuating T-shirts, she received more than her fair share of attention from the boys. So much, in fact, that her fauji father noticed it. He joked that if she wanted to continue to get that kind of attention, she needed to start exercising. Like any teenager, Gul resisted. "Even at that age I had absorbed the false information that you only need to exercise to lose weight. But he insisted I start running and make exercise a part of my daily life," says the former Miss India and Bollywood actress. So every evening Gul and her father ran 5 km. "For the first six months, I hated it. But then I began to notice that I felt a rush of happiness when I got back from the run. The endorphins would make me feel happy and I would finish my studies really quickly because it was like a rush of adrenaline. I earned this reputation as a hot girl who's also very fit.
Then running became my thing. I still run but I have added more elements to my fitness programme," she says. In fact, for Gul, fitness isn't restricted to the gym-she's quite the outdoorsy type, learning to bike when she was in her late teens. "I think the first time she rode a motorbike was when she was 16 or 17," says her brother, Sherbir Panag. "It was our cousin's Royal Enfield. After that there has been no looking back. Right now I am using her Royal Enfield Electra 350." Avoiding wedding clichés, he suggested she chuck "the limo thing and do the bike thing". When Gul got married, the newly-wed couple zipped away on a bike with an attached sidecar. In Step Along with running 3 km around her Mumbai home she has incorporated strength endurance and flexibility training into her four-days-aweek, 45-minutes-a-session fitness routine. "I do two days of high-intensity interval training or a 20-minute cardio routine which helps quicken my heart rate. This allows you to burn fat even after the training is over. I don't think you can get fit in four days a week because it also depends on what you eat. But four days is an achievable workout target." Through trial and error, she has developed little tricks to figure out what works for her. For instance, packing her gym bag first thing in the morning and always having it in the car with her has ensured that she keeps to the schedule. It helps greatly that her husband is also enormously fit. Gul acknowledges that it keeps her going on days when she might be tempted to cheat or is feeling too lazy to get going. "I would say a lot of my current fitness is thanks to having a workout partner in my husband. We keep each other motivated," says Gul, who admits to loving beer (she allows herself that one indulgence over the weekend).
Consistency, discipline, experimentation and an athletic frame have resulted in a hot bod, one that Gul loves to show off. She says, "I will only wear outfits where you can see I have an hour-glass body. I am very fit and I like my clothes to reflect that. I don't feel the need to keep up with trends. I am blessed that I don't have any problem areas to hide. At home I am usually in shorts and T-shirts." Some things change in life, for the better. "For a long time, I was obsessed with being 52 kg, maybe because I was that weight when I was 16," she says. Now she has abandoned that fixation, though she is 58 kg. "I am the same size now as I was at 16 but I have more muscle. I don't climb onto the weighing machine." She simply goes by the fit of her jeans.
Best Beauty Of her beauty regimen she says: "I used to have a skincare routine until I was 27, using a series of day creams, night creams, toners, this cream, that cream. Now I only use one day cream and one night cream. A workout is my fundamental beauty routine. Your pores open up; you sweat it out. Sugar is the worst thing for your skin-it has ageing properties and makes your blood sugar levels fluctuate." Another change in her life is the paring down of her make-up kit. Gone are the days of multiple luxury brand lipsticks and eyeliners. Today, Gul's minimalist make-up consists of a mascara, eyeliner, cheek tint and lip colour. She keeps it pared down so as to avoid wastage, given the short shelf life of make-up products. "The moment the smell changes, it's time to chuck it. My make-up bag has shrunk over the years, because otherwise you just end up throwing stuff," she says, quite pragmatically.
A New Phase
Gul wanted to be a Miss India ever since she was 8 or 9. In 1999, she achieved it, winning Miss Beautiful Smile too. "I wanted to be a movie star too. I have checked those two boxes." Now, she hopes to write a book and be a lawyer too. She's waiting for the release of her movie Ab Tak Chhapan 2 and is simultaneously working on a book that chronicles her learning and experience with food and fitness. "I am starting my Ph.D. soon, so I will be a doctor!" Her drinking buddy and director of Turning 30, Alankrita Srivastava, talks of her well-rounded personality, "I feel she is a sincere and earnest kind of actor. Even though we were sometimes working double shifts, she would always work out and come to the set. She's really fun to hang out with. We both love chatting about politics and world affairs." Though her journey began in the glam space, today, Gul is a woman of many colours, interests, passions and projects. She believes that acting has become a means to an end. "I am glad I am able to use that to do bigger things in life. Of course one has to sustain that reach with one or two good films in order to reach out beyond and to do other things in this world. Today, I get paid to have fun with cars, bikes and adventure sports, but that's because I am an actor. I am doing all the stuff I want to do," she says.
Gul organises the contents of her bag in a pouch, so she simply transfers this from one bag to the other when she switches.
1. A box of nuts
2. A packet of jerky
3. Hand sanitiser
4. Mints
5. Two phones (one for data; one to make calls)
6. A to-do diary
7. House keys
8. Moisturiser
9. A Swiss knife
Gul Supports
1. The Colonel Shamsher Singh Foundation: An NGO set up to take forward the work begun by her granddad in Punjab. "We work for gender issues such as a drive against sex determination tests.
2. Bikerni: A group of women bikers that she supports in spirit. It's a part of her concern about gender justice. "I use many platforms and forums to push that message across."
3. Pinkathon: "I am the brand ambassador for this women's running event to spread breast cancer awareness. Next up is Pune on November 17, then Mumbai. It aims to bring all women into the fitness fold."
Daily Diet
"Figure out what is an indulgence and what's a necessity. Then decide how often you want to indulge, depending on the goals you have set," says Gul. "So at times when I want to get lean, I allow myself only one day of an indulgence a week, when I will either have a beer or a dessert." PRE-BREAKFAST: Wake up with tea and 5-7 almonds or 5-7 walnuts. Up to 20 almonds a day is fine, as long as you space them out. BREAKFAST: "If my lunch is going to be at home, I have two eggs with yolk, a small bowl of cooked oats or home-made muesli; one cube of cheese and maybe some salami." LUNCH: A bowl of dal or meat, a bowl of vegetables, a handful of rice or a very small chapatti AFTERNOON SNACK: Tea/coffee and nuts DINNER: Same as lunch. If she has to go out, she eats 60 per cent of her dinner at home before she steps out.
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