Pia Trivedi

Pia Trivedi: “I lived on protein shakes”

The transition from model to bikini model goes like this. “The first time (for the Kingfisher calendar) I only got three months to prepare. So I worked out twice a day,” says Pia. “Since I needed to lose weight, I focused on cardio and restricted my diet, which was very tough on me. Giving up food was mental torture, because food is a very important part of my life. I had to live only on boiled vegetables, fruits and salads.”

In spite of that, Pia wasn’t satisfied with her body. “I thought I looked fat in the calendar. My stomach and thighs sucked! Also, since I was very new in modeling, I had no clue about camera angles, so I Atul Kasbekar, the photographer, fired me many times.”

The next time round therefore, for the Kingfisher Calendar 2005, Pia made her fitness regimen tougher. “I stopped eating for three months before the shoot, which is the worst thing to do,” she says. “I almost lived on protein shakes. And as a result, my ribs showed. I went to the extreme and I don’t recommend it to anyone.”

The first thing she did after the shoot was demand butter chicken and rumali rotis. But since then, she hasn’t been so extreme.

“I don’t follow any diet and it’s been really long since I last worked out,” she confesses. “I tend to let go and then, before an important shoot, go in for drastic measures to get fit. Otherwise, I gorge on anything that is Mughlai and Punjabi, tubs full of ice-cream and glasses of cold coffee.”

Sounds like sacrilege…