Aruna Paramasivam: Mover and Shaker

You wouldn't think it when looking at her bikini-perfect physique, but fitness model and competitor, Aruna Paramasivam was a chubby kid. "My whole life I'd been overweight," she says. "As a baby, I really didn't start walking until I was two or three. My mom always tells me this story: She thought there was something wrong with her child and she took me to the doctors. They told her, 'Your child is too chubby and can't support her weight on her legs.'"

As Paramasivam grew up, she continued to struggle with her weight. By the time she graduated from college, she was ready to make a major change. She recalls, "I felt that motivation inside that I wasn't going to stop until I reached my goal. I was very dedicated. I actually stuck to the programs, I ate very well, I didn't indulge here and there as I'd done in the past [and] I joined a gym. It probably took me a year to get off 30 pounds. It was a hard year — I won't lie — it was very tough."

After shedding the weight, Paramasivam says, "I hovered at a normal size where I was considered lean, but with no muscle or anything. I just looked like everybody else. I hovered there for a year or two and that's when I discovered that I wanted to take it to another level. I discovered that I need a little more excitement in life and I like challenge. I reached my weight-loss goal, and there didn't seem to be a ton more to do. I wasn't happy going to the gym without any goals, so I looked around and I just so happened to discover a group of women and men who competed."

Aruna Paramasivam

Getting into fitness competitions helped Paramasivam fill a void. She says, "I was just tired of waking up every morning to the status quo. I didn't feel really passionate about anything. I had a good life, work was good, I had a lot of friends, everything was fine, but nothing was exceptional. I really wanted to push myself…. It's very out-of-the-box for me, but that's what I was looking for — something different than the life I was leading. One thing led to another, I started eating better, I started pushing myself more at the gym, working out a little differently and within a year, I was on stage. I did four different shows in 2007. It was really a life-changing experience. I met a lot of different women, women who were very inspirational to me and different from the women I normally meet in my regular career: These were moms — older women who really found the time in their lives to devote themselves to fitness and make themselves better in terms of physique. They showed me that just because you had twins or you had four kids did not mean that you had to give up on yourself and I found that very motivating.... I also met a lot of photographers and other industry trendsetters, which led me into fitness modeling and doing more in the industry from hosting shows to doing photo shoots as well as continuing with competing."

This dramatic transformation came as a surprise to friends and family. "When it first started, I think people thought I was off my rocker," chuckles Paramasivam. "When you're turning down social opportunities, when you're not drinking anymore, when you're sort of changing who you are or how they've always perceived you [it takes some getting used to]. I think the first year-and-a-half was tough for my friends, they were like, 'Who is this person and what cult have you joined?' Now that they've seen the pictures and everything that I've been able to do, there is a lot more respect and understanding for it."

Her dedication paid off in more ways than one. "I think I have a lot more confidence in general. I feel great about myself physically and mentally. When I look in the mirror I'm happy with what I see, and I think that translates to the other aspects of my life. I have more energy as well. I think after you push yourself to go to new levels, you really don't think that there's a lot you can't do anymore."

That attitude helped Paramasivam to take on a new adventure with a leadership role in NetIP, the Network of Indian Professionals. Paramasivam shares, "I really wanted to get in touch with my roots. I'm obviously of Indian descent, but I grew up in Singapore and I came to the United States for college. I didn't really feel in touch with who I was and I came across this organization. It's a great way to meet others of the same culture and heritage, especially [in my age group], so I started going to their events and I went to an annual conference. I was really inspired by what I saw over a three-day event and decided that I wanted to be a part of their leadership so I signed up with the local chapter and did that for one year. As I said, I wanted to escalate my involvement to a national level, so five years later I'm the president. I've been the president for two years and it's been a great ride. So far I've had two of my own conferences — one was in Boston and the one that just passed was in Toronto, which is huge for us. To take it across the border to Toronto was definitely different and something new for the organization and those are the kinds of changes I wanted to bring…. I've put in a lot of work — I've learned about leading, managing, representing a brand, changing a brand."

That included trying to change perception for some that NetIP is a "meat market" for singles. "That was one of my challenges in rebranding the organization. Any organization that attracts a lot of single people gets that branding, whether it’s the Young Mathematicians Club or the Chess Club. With Indian professionals, where marriage and family is such an important value in our cultural system, I think even more so we get branded with that. That was one of my challenges because I thought the organization had so much more to offer. That's what I worked on, and I feel rather successfully, over the two years. Content at our conferences has really elevated to new levels. We have industries, leaders and top speakers approaching us. We have a lot of top sponsors coming to us because they feel our audience is so much more than just the regular guy or girl. While we still do have that social aspect which makes any organization fun, we also focus a lot on community service. We just partnered with the Grameen Foundation; last year we worked with the Aids Initiative of the Clinton Foundation. We've partnered up with a lot of organizations to really become a community leader in the nonprofit world."

Paramasivam says that her success in the fitness world has aided her in her role at NetIP and the professional organization has given her an advantage as a fitness competitor. "Those platforms have been great for me to exude confidence,” she says, “The fitness modeling and fitness competing has given me a lot of stage-presence and that is very handy in NetIP — I feel like I can speak to a thousand people with no preparation and be able to put on a good show. Vice versa, I feel that being able to speak well and handle so much and know that I'm more than just a physique or a body when I'm on stage with the other girls makes me feel confident on the Fitness America platform. Both aspects have helped me be a better package overall because I'm not just a gym rat and I'm not just a nerd."

For more information on NetIP, check out www.netip.org

Elaine G. Flores is a New York-based writer and editor, who specializes in covering beauty, style and entertainment.