About Me
Hi! My name is Irina Nikashina, I am a nutritionist, dietitian, anti-age manager.
Anti age is a direction in medicine that studies how to improve the quality of life and prolong youth. There is a huge number of training courses available, both long and short term. Thanks to them, I do not stop developing, I’ve been following with interest the changes in the world of nutrition that happen all the time, even at the moment when you are reading this book, and they are colossal. But we’ll talk about that later.
My first education is an entrepreneurship technology and business planning. In 2003, after graduating from university, I went to work in a new brand fitness club that was opened in the city of Samara. I wanted to work with a young active team, develop and learn. I got this opportunity. The club was found under the patronage of a large Moscow company, where we studied fitness from “A" and “Z", nutrition science and the basics of fitness for instructors of different directions. We’ve been raised as “generalists". There I got a great experience and just a year later I started to travel regularly to Moscow to study for managers, and after a couple of years became the club’s Executive Director.
I got a job in another fitness club as a Commercial Director and at the same time started training for competing in the fitness bikini category.
There was a month left before the competition, by that time I strictly kept the regime of “fat burning" and ate handfuls of sports food. As a result, my pancreas could not stand it and due to the exacerbation of pancreatitis I had to refuse to participate in the competition.
Needless to say, the motivation immediately dropped. I started turning into a fat, unhappy woman dissatisfied with her life. No, I didn’t give up training, but I had zero wishes. A year later, I got pregnant with my second son. That’s how my sports career ended.
Every time when I was pregnant, I put on 12 kilos. It didn’t scare me because I’ve implemented a lot of feeding programs for women and athletes. Therefore, I thought that I was highly-competent in matters of healthy nutrition (hereinafter – HN). I was also sure that the obesity would never catch up with me. Unfortunately it did!
After giving birth, I was actively involved in my business and gained 8 kilograms in the first year. I stopped noticing what and when I was eating. I was completely involved in the development of a new business and there was nothing else for me: I could stay up all night working on my computer, I ate a lot of flour, I had regular snacks, and Ieasily drank a liter of beer to relax in the evening.
Two years of weight hovered seasonally within the range of 72 – 76kg and hoodies became my main clothes. I stopped taking pictures and looked away when saw myself in the mirror. I couldn’t believe that it was me, because I felt as if my weight was 60 kilograms and even less!
I was shocked with those few pictures in which I appeared. I immediately drove unpleasant thoughts, made excuses to myself that I had recently given birth. Well, three years ago! Now it is important to devote myself to work, to invest in my own business, and I will always find time to lose weight. I know how to do it! However, this wonderful moment did not come; it was only postponed because new cases and challenges were emerging.
In 2014, I went to Italy in the company of girls. It was an unforgettable trip: the beauty of Italian cities, lots of food, wine, communication and unrestrained shopping!
I experienced the first troubling sign when we were driving from Rome airport to a rented apartment and a friend asked: “Ira, are you pregnant?! Do you need help with your suitcase?"
It was painful, but I am grateful to her for that situation. Can you imagine what size my belly was?! At least sixth month of pregnancy!
Then we visited Florence and the beautiful Max Mara store, where the girls tried on summer trousers that sat on them like gloves. I was the fattest in our company. I also wanted trousers, but I could not put them on, they weren’t buttoned on me. I was standing in the dressing room and crying …
In the evening we went to dinner. The girls, who become dear to me since that trip, dressed up in new clothes. It was pleasant to look at them. I was the only one in usual robe. That’s when I said to myself, I am done with this! The next day, without waiting of returning home, I called my fitness instructor with whom I worked before pregnancy. I was confident that in five days upon arrival from Italy I immediately go to the gym. So I did.
During two years I’ve been training regularly, three or four times a week, and I’ve following HN. As a result, I’ve lost eight kilos in the first year, and not one kilo in the second. I must say, I have a malleable muscle mass. Thanks to fitness training, my muscle mass is built-up easily, and due to muscular constitution I will never be thin as a twig. I would rather refer myself to a category of “meat breed" (there is such an expression) people. For an athlete with a high percent of muscle mass, 67-69 kilograms is a normal weight. This seemed acceptable. I was almost happy with myself, but I didn’t succeed in HN, I often caved. And yes, I wanted to improve my weight more!
In 2017, I decided that it was time to change something again. I began to study new trends in dietology. At that time, the HN was at the head of the principles of a healthy lifestyle. There was little mention of low-carb nutrition, only in connection with “fat burning", which has an extremely negative impact on health. As an athlete and a person, who constantly monitors recent dietary and fitness trends, I knew that new they are coming from America and Europe. I went deeper into this market and heard about keto diet for the first time. Hereafter I will also use such terms as keto diet, keto nutrition or keto.
Having examined the information superficially, I decided to try it on myself. “I have a lot of experience. I can do it myself!" – I thought. However, it turned out to be not so easy. Before this knowledge began to work for me, I attended lots of seminars, courses, read a huge number of articles with the opinions of foreign nutritionists and sports medicine doctors. During six months, 11 kilograms have finally gone. For the first time ever in 15 years, my weight dropped to 56.5 kg.
Right now, my clients are doing this much faster, sometimes just in two months. This is due to the fact that I personally tried different approaches on myself within the framework of keto diet concept.
With the help of this knowledge, I built a system and formulated my own principles of losing weight based on a low-carb diet without any harm to health.
For a definite reason I remembered that fateful trip to Italy. Those girls unintentionally pushed me to change my life. Soon I realized myself in a new role.
