Friday 28 September 2018

Some resources on THAC


Dear Reader,

(now we have made a blog that is devoted to THAC: you can visit: www.thaclinks.blogspot.com) 

Me & my family and many friends have been greatly benefitted by THAC (The Health Awareness Center) advice, in specially helping our home become medicine free. My fear of death by illness has also disappeared. I also learnt that wellness from inside is quite different from fitness outside.

Many people keep asking us about THAC. Since THAC has a limited digital presence. I thought it would be worthwhile to collate some useful links:

1.     THAC facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/thacmumbai/

2.     Some blogs written by me on THAC experience:

a.     Nutrition and Wellness - sharing a new awareness journey (this is my own journey on curing skin allergy (Urticaria) in 5 days & learning difference in fitness outside and wellness inside

b.     Nutrition and Wellness - part 2 : This has some concepts that I learnt from THAC

c.     Time to take that leap of faith - my personal experience : This is my family journey – From Dad’s paralytic stroke and mom’s depression – with 10 tablets each to zero medicine since last 36 months

3.     An apt eulogy for Dr. Vijaya Venkat (THAC founder) by Archana Pai Kulkarni (ex editor of New Woman magazine) –  


Here are some stories by some of my buddies who have personally experienced these benefits.

4.     Vineet khandelwal’s story on Diabetes

1st Feb 2017 - 11:30 AM - Random Blood sugar testing in office

Sugar reading: 416

Medical Technician: Sir, this is too high, please get it checked
V: Really! But I feel fine
Medical Technician: Please get it checked properly it should be around 100

4th Feb 2017 - Lab blood test
Fasting Blood Sugar: 235 | HBA1C: 12.1

Still cannot believe the test. Let us get another done. Maybe the report is incorrect

10th Feb 2017 - Lab blood test
Fasting: 210 | Post: 257

Time to take this seriously

13th Feb 2017 - Visit the doctor
Doctor: hmmm. Mom has sugar?
V: Yes
Doctor: hmmm
V: Doctor, what does this mean?
Doctor: Simple, you have type 2 diabetes and your cholesterol is also high. Here are some medicines. You have to take them for life (lifetime!). Brisk walk for 45 minutes daily and eat this low fat diet (a standard printout is provided)

Back home
K: But V, look at all these medicines! they have a ton of side effects! there is no way you are taking these medicines. Diabetes is a lifestyle disease, we must treat it with a diet. Let us talk to a dietician

20th Feb - Dietician
Eat every two hours. Eat one walnuts, one almonds in the morning with oats. Eat roasted channa, makhana, diet khakhadas, salted lassi, multi grain roti. Avoid Mangos/Bananas

7th March Follow up - Dietician
Dietician: How are you feeling?
V: I feel low in energy, bloated all the time, sleepy, thirsty in spite of drinking 7 to 8 glasses of water as prescribed
Dietician: Ok. Let us change the diet a bit. Add sprouts to the breakfast and eat two almonds and two walnuts. Drink skimmed milk. Eat two diet khakhadas at 4 PM. Take 10 to 12 glasses of water a day and drink butter milk in the night. Continue to eat every 2 hours
I feel :(
...
Kavita attends 3 day workshop at THAC in April 2017

K: V, I think you should start eating the THAC way. It will help
V: Sure
The next day starts with fruits and all the goodness that THAC teaches. Mangos, bananas were eaten with no fear. Milk and milk products were dropped, wheat was dropped, refined Sugar was dropped, single grain, salads were adopted. Oil was reduced amongst other things like deactivating etc

19th May 2017 - blood report
Fasting Sugar: 104 :) | Post: 123 :) | HBA1C: 6.9 :)

21st July 2017 - blood report
Fasting Sugar: 88 | Post: 108 | HBA1C: 5.5
Diabetes free!!!!

That status has remained that way until now. I am confident that this will stay like this for life.

There is something to be said about this body of ours. More than 50 years of abuse or ‘eating right’ was fixed in just 3 months. In fact, my weight started coming down within two weeks after THAC and the energy level shot up.

I felt alive once again.  Not only was Diabetes and Cholesterol back at normal levels, my headaches that I used to have frequently is gone. There are various other improvements that I feel internally.

It has been a great journey. I subsequently attended the workshop and learned first hand the workings of this magnificent body and the way to maintain it. I learned that death and disease are not related and that we become what we eat. Proper input is very important to live a medicine free life.

I Don't need to have medicine with food. Food is the medicine my body needs.



5.     Amit Mittal – On diabetes and other things…

What a journey its has been:

Nudging someone usually gets irritating. My journey towards Thac started with a friend of mine Nudging to come & take a session at Thac way back in 2007.

That time (2007) i considered myself as very healthy though was very over weight & a diabetic (insulin, medicines for diabetes). Still no complaints with life.

After repeated persuasion from my friend, i took an appointment & visited Thac just for time pass sake n more so for my friend. I had visited several diet planners before (nudged by several frnds n relatives) but none of the diet plan made sense to me - most of the diet plans were starving me so did not follow any of them as i am a big foodie.

I was counselled by Anju, heard her, had a few questions regarding diet plan which were answered. I found the diet that Anju gave to be very practical & there was no bar of quantity. (I am saying diet plan coz that time i did not know THAC - neither its principles nor what it stands for).

I followed Thac diet & surprisingly within 20-25 days i had to stop My insulin. I followed this Thac plan for 2 months n odd & just stopped following & was back to my old lifestyle & never turned back to Thac. My life was good & thought how can diet make so much of difference.

In January 2015, I fell ill, my Sugar was high (by now i was taking Insulin 2 times a day & 5 tablets for sugar), was diagnosed with High BP. Just within a week i started feeling paralytic - could not feel sensation on my left side if face, could not move my left side hand n legs, no energy, could see my end coming near. I was in regular touch with the best doctors & was on high medications. Sometimes my BP used to shoot up inspite of heavy medicines which made me feel very un-easy & doctors use to suggest day care hospitalisation & sometimes my BP use to drop considerably again landing me in hospitals.

This went on for a month or so. I had given up hopes & thought that i have very limited life left. I was on total bed rest. Just when things were going out of control, dont know how, Anju Venkat came in my mind & i thought let me try this as a last alternative. Somehow manged to get an appt with Anju in bout 10 days time.

Had to take physical support of two person who cud make me get up & take me to Thac. Reached Thac & Anju fired the hell out of me. I cried in front of her & begged her to take charge of me. That was The Day for me. I was asked to stop all medicines (except for diabetes), a detailed plan was given to me for diet, de-activation n more.

I was so scared & requested Anju that i will need their support for me to come out of it.
I started following Thacs advice to the ‘T’. I faced numerous problems in coping up but Thac made me walk through the Journey by holding me & making me cross all the hurdles step by step.

It took 4 months for me to recover & get back to my feet & about 6-7 months for total recovery. For every small thing i use to approach Thac - be it on phone call or on Mail. I was guided like a child by them. From here on there was no looking behind.

I was out of all medicines in sometime (except my sugar ones - offcourse no Insulin). Post my recovery i did my 3 days workshop in 2016 which opened up a new world to me & i realised the true meaning of being healthy, understood my body & the incredible powers of our body.

Never realized or it never occurred that we are embedded with 75 trillion cells apart from organs, blood, etc.  Was fortunate to have attended this workshop with Dr. Vijaya Venkat (Amma) being a part of the same.

In 2016 end, i tore my right leg toe little finger in an accident. My toe fingers were plastered with 7 stitches. This was an emergency measure taken. Post this surgery, doctors gave me a list of medicines right from antibiotics, pain killers, fast healers, etc etc. I wrote to Thac & as usual - No Medicines-

My medicines were substituted by Haldi, Tulsi ginger lemon shots, Onion shots, no cooked meal, more on raw. My family got paranoid saying i being a diabetic my wounds will not heal & specially my toe being injured, i have to take medicines, bla bla bla.

By now i was confident on Thac principles & to a certain extent on my body too. Doc had asked me to go to him after 20 days for follow up & remove stitches. The Doc was surprised seeing my progress & told me see my medicines have worked. I did not tell him that i had not popped a single pill.

Post this incidence, i started trusting my body totally & further understood that when body is given Time, Space & Energy - body can n will do its best to make a Human life Healthy. We just need to Nurture our body & rest will be taken care off.

The above incidents made me realise the power of our body - Mother Natures & Mother Earths best gift to us. Incredible body which works 24x7x365 even without we realising the same. We take our body for granted all the time without understanding our body.

BODY - A Masterpiece creation !!!

I thus always Thank My Body ! Trust My Body !! Love My Body !!!

🙏Self care is Health Care is Earth care🙏


6.     Megha – on asthama, fertility, PCOD, Obesity

I would like to talk about my personal journey with THAC. It started in 2012 and I was fortunate to start my journey with Dr. Venkat. I came to THAC battling with asthma, pcod, obesity. Apart from that I was also trying to conceive and the “experts” were pushing me in the direction of various interventions like IUI, IVF. All Dr. Venkat said was, “Trust Me”. And so I did. And it has been a fantastic ride since then.
  • Lost asthma and the inhaler within a month
  • Was pregnant in 2 months
  • Had a normal delivery at 37 years. Did not take any vitamins, iron, etc during my pregnancy.
  • PCOD: I am sure it is gone
  • Haven’t done any tests in 5 years and counting
  • Lost 17 kgs and counting 😊
  • My daughter is a THAC baby
I don’t want to go in the principles around which THAC works because all of us have gone through the workshops and discussed it to no end.

All I want to focus is on the positives that came about because I trusted the system; learnt to listen to my body and thoughts. The two phrases that have stuck with me are “It is ok” and “Let it go”.

I hope my journey inspires you and helps in your own. I am work in progress and will forever be. I leave this with heartfelt gratitude to THAC and its team; to all of you here who are my support and guide.

My challenges came when my daughter was born. Convincing my family to agree to not give vaccinations, milk, sugar and wheat to her was a struggle.

The biggest challenge was though to overcome my own fear when she fell sick at 2 years. Her fever touched 103+ and she would just wanted to be held through the night. Today I don’t even remember very clearly what I did and how I got through the night. It took a lot of faith in what I had learnt and experienced myself with THAC; and instincts as a mother to let her to heal on her own. It was only couple of hours; the fever gave way and she slept peacefully. Next day she slept a lot, ate/ drank a little and was completely recovered by evening.


7.     Ruchi Maheshwari (my wife) story – Freedom from 20 year pain

When I first visited THAC 3 years ago, I thought I was just tagging along with my husband & his parents who were having specific dis-ease. How could eating fruits and not having dairy disappear the mild pain and soreness I lived with for last 20+ years & the tail bone pain of last 10 years. Those were structural and posture issues…

But I went along anyway – what’s the harm in eating healthier??

In 3 weeks of following all that Dr. Venkat told me, my pain disappeared! I started sleeping throughout the night, every night. My unpredictable menstrual cycle, which had disrupted my life since the age of 13 eased out into a predictable pattern over the next few months.

Waking up every morning with the energy, raring to go was new to me – all my life, I had trouble getting out of bed because I had tossed and turned most of the night. I didn’t know my “normal” health could become so much better. Food becomes structure, Thac tells us – That is so obvious, why didn’t I ever think about it?

Last week, just as I finished my dinner, I started to hiccup. Every 10 seconds, very uncomfortable on a full stomach! I tried holding my breath. I tried sipping exactly 8 sips of water. I tried a cold pack on tummy. I tried deep breathing.

The more I tried to control the spasm in my diaphragm, the more the hiccups continued. Then I remembered a recent discussion with a group of Thac friends on ‘letting go’. So I just lay down and relaxed those stomach muscles I had been clenching. “I surrender to my body” I thought, and the hiccups were gone! This small event taught me to get out of my own way and let my body do what it needs to.



8.     Shabana – from medical emergencies to freedom

My journey from illness to wellness.

My childhood was a series of medical emergencies. My dad had rheumatic heart disease and my mom had kidney problems. There was a constant worry about health and also the worry that these health issues would be passed onto us.

So life was always dont eat this or you may get heart disease dont do that or your kidneys might get affected. Drinking eight glasses of water to eating salt free food all was practiced.

The relationship with my body was of fear and distrust. My self esteem was low.

When i met Dr Vijaya Venkat she explained that all the "issues" i had with my body were actually the body's mechanisms aimed at preservation and management of health. Anju helped me change my position from having no control to being in charge of my health.

I was about to have my first baby. Around this time i picked up Neale Donald Walsh's book Conversations With God. Also for my pregnancy i read a lot of Sheila Kitzinger's books.

These three influences helped me cope with a lot of my challenges. I have come to realise that life will change its routes and frequencies and all i have to do is be prepared to adapt to it to the best of my ability.

I have simplified my life to make work-life balance, i have made awareness my compass and dispensed external compulsions. Awareness demands independence in thought and action to follow it. Dr Vijaya helped me establish this.  I cannot explain the impact this has had on my experiences. This is what i want to hold on to till the end of my days. All is well.


Wednesday 19 September 2018

Handling elephants in the room


Dear Reader,

Since last few months, I have researched on practical ways to embrace criticism, mistakes, failures. Also, on how to stay engaged in a confronting situation without being mad or sad.

We applied the learnings with workshop participants across the world and found very useful results. I am now working on a book on – how to face the elephants in the room.



I am confident you would know what this elephant is. In any relationship, personal or professional, elephants get created when one person checks out or withdraws and does not express his/her opinion. They then harbour resentment inside, leading to drain in energy, strain in relationship, waste of resources. Elephant is that heavy feeling.

If we try to slay the elephant by attacking it, by simply throwing our emotions, perspective or anger on the other person, the elephant multiplies. If we avoid it, it grows.

What I have found is that you need a combination of empathy, assertiveness and respect at the same time to shine light on the elephant and it disappears.

Empathy: Understand other person goals and concerns without judging, acknowledge the grain of truth in the person’s allegation/comments.

Assertiveness: Share your emotions & feelings authentically, instead of acting them out.

Respect: Realise why this connection is important to you, what you admire in the other person and share that.

Have you ever been in a boring conversation? Waiting for it to end? Have you been glad that you received a phone call right then and it gave you a genuine excuse to escape?

A book by Dr. David Burn’s book – feeling good together offers some useful, practical ways.

“I think you are a very interesting, deep person. I would like to know more about the real you. The current discussion feels very boring to me and I am kind of zoning out. Do you also feel that way?”

The conversation quality will change very quickly. Try it for yourself.

You are welcome to share any elephant that you are struggling with in your professional life and it drains you. Maybe we can together find a way to diffuse it.


Warm regards

Rohan