As a young intern doing a housejob in the cardiology department, she got depressed because she was seeing patients who were almost on their death beds. She decided to do something positive for such people instead of just helping to keep them breathing.
�We could send people to the moon, but not create diets that would effectively help people to lose weight,� Dr. Shikha said of the turning point in her life, when she crossed over from cardiology to nutrition. Today she has a team of about 20 young dieticians and MSc students who she motivates to think differently and come up with creative diets.

�YOU are what you eat,� says Dr. Shikha Sharma, New Delhi�s drop-dead gorgeous fashionable nutritionist. �I started a weight loss centre when, as a doctor, I realised I could give people a higher quality of life by preventing illness rather than curing them in a hospital. I found nutrition was very useful. I could heal people indirectly. It was more possible and practical than general medicine.�

That was in 1998. Today, Dr. Shikha practices what she calls �preventive medicine� from her three hugely successful Clinique de Rejuvenation centres. She treats approximately 175 to 200 patients a month for weight loss and there�s a waiting list of three months for people wanting to join her programmes.

She treats all kinds, from children to mothers, grandparents, politicians, film stars, big business people, captains of industry, but she�s not about to reveal names. Her Clinique de Rejuvenation offers diet, maintenance and yoga programmes, but Dr. Shikha is working on more specific programmes like one for diabetics.

�Initially, three visits a week are necessary while you are tested for your body�s reactions to different two-day food plans. Once I get an idea of what suits you and what you are allergic to, I evolve a diet for you. Thereafter, it�s twice a week that you have to visit the Clinique de Rejuvenation centre,� she said.

This is the same medico who, as a young intern doing a housejob in the cardiology department, got depressed because she was seeing patients who were almost on their death beds. She decided to do something positive for such people instead of just helping to keep them breathing.

�We could send people to the moon, but not create diets that would effectively help people to lose weight,� Dr. Shikha said of the turning point in her life, when she crossed over from cardiology to nutrition. Today she has a team of about 20 young dieticians and MSc students who she motivates to think differently and come up with creative diets.

She says her Clinique de Rejuvenation diet programmes are intelligent and innovative diets formulated by researching, reading and taking into account her patients� constitutions. �I try to understand the personality and the requirement,� she explained.

�People are either extremist, they get it into their hearts that they must lose weight in two months and will do whatever it takes to achieve this. Other are in no hurry. I have to plan diets according to each one�s constitution and habits. I don�t get them to cut out alcohol or stop being non-vegetarian.�

That itself has ensured a high rate of popularity for Dr. Shikha. �I�ve learnt to put the patient as the centre of my focus,� she said. �I don�t force education on them, instead, I used education on them.� That, and a record of the patient�s blood group, haemoglobin, liver/kidney function, dietary likes and dislikes is utilised in her programmes.

�I then try to analyse what each person�s basic ayurveda constitution is. My programmes are based on some Western and some Eastern philosophies. The idea is to make each person healthy keeping in mind their mental and physical make-ups. People come to me expecting magic, but what I do is not magic, it is their effort!�

Indeed, in her new Weight Loss Cookbook written in collaboration with New Delhi�s cookery author Niru Gupta, Dr. Shikha makes weight loss a healthy, hassle-free and enjoyable thing to do.

�Categorised into different chapters, this book will make it easy for you to understand what you are doing before getting to the delicious part of it -- the recipes,� she said.

�Right from understanding the reasons for past failures of weight loss attempts, to having successful diets, maintaining the lost weight, to dealing with symptoms experienced while attempting weight loss and most importantly, the mouth-watering recipes all grouped into plans and menus, this book has it all.�

Dr. Shikha opened her first Clinique de Rejuvenation centre in 1998 at Vasant Vihar in New Delhi, the second one in 2001 at Panchsheel Enclave, and the third in 2002 at Uday Park. She spends two days at each clinic training her dieticians to work the right way, teaching them new concepts, how to look at nutrition. �I am a motivator more than a doctor or a nutritionist,� she smiled. What is the most common complaint she hears from New Delhi�s obese? �I get people saying that they are trying to lose weight, they exercise, they go on diets, they starve themselves, but they lack motivation, they need somebody to work along with them like a support system,� she replied. �These are people in the age group of 25 to 35 but who have got the eating habits of an 18-year-old!�

The people of New Delhi, Dr. Shikha said, eat out a lot. There was a big party circuit that most of her patients belonged to. �I make my diets convenient and easy for them,� she admitted. And what has been the secret of her success? �Success or luck, I don�t know,� the beautiful and very svelte herself Dr. Shikha Sharma said. �This had been foretold to me by an astrologer in 1992, but I laughed off the prediction. But of course, I am satisfied and happy. The results are more than the efforts I have put in.�