The dream is free but the hustle is sold separately! What does it take to make it on your own and achieve breakthrough success? In The DEN (Dynamic Entrepreneurial Network) is a series focused on getting up-close and personal with entrepreneurs of today! These entrepreneurs have proved the naysayers wrong! This gives us an opportunity to understand their journey and learn from it.
Mental and physical healths are like heads and tails: two sides of the same coin! We all recognize the importance of wellness for optimum productivity. A formalized and measured program aimed at eating right is the key to maximum impact. Who better to talk to than Kirti Yadav, Founder KuKClean (EatRight, Holistic approach towards health) She believes in Eat simple, Eat local and Eat seasonal. We were super excited to pick her brain ask her the #questionsthatmatter!
What is kukclean?
KuKClean is a holistic and sustainable approach towards healthy living. Inspired by ‘Eat Right India’ mission; KuKclean focuses on Eat Mantra towards a healthy life.
How is kukclean making a difference in empowering the everyday women?
Kukclean aims at spreading awareness about Plant-based Diet, thereby empowering women in the following ways:
- KuKClean runs a Facebook group where Members (especially women) are motivated to follow a plant based diet and lose weight as well as lead a healthy lifestyle.
- KuKClean Open House initiative empowers women by earning from their passion of cooking. Any open house helps a woman (host) to earn around 6000 -8000 from serving an authentic, local and seasonal plant based meals to the guests.
- KuKClean Marketplace allows verified sellers (Women in food business) to showcase, reach out to the members and sell their products.
- Kukclean also provides home chefs and women to associate symbiotically with healthy and clean food brands for their product launch, and any other social media campaign as we believe they are the real influencers and decision-makers when it comes to health and eating
Hence we are working at the root level to bring a complete change in a woman’s life be it their health or providing an avenue to earn money.
What is your motto and how is it in line with the Government’s eat healthy campaign?
KuKClean’s mission is completely in line with Govt of India’s ‘EatRight India’ mission. The mission focuses on a healthy India which is conscious about eating and being physically active. It also promotes the consumption of less salt, sugar and oil. The mission aims to make India trans-fat free by 2022.
KuKclean focuses on ‘Plant-based Diet’ which is inspired by the Indian Kitchen. Simple inspiration of eating raw salads, detoxing your body by fasting and being on liquid diet, focusing on the usage of local and seasonal ingredients are few of the steps which are aligned toward EatRight India mission.
How did you connect to like-minded people?
Presently we have an active KuKclean facebook group where members add like-minded people (men and women) from their friends circle. It’s basically word of mouth marketing.
Open houses and corporate wellness programs, healthy talks and sessions in schools and colleges conducted by KuKClean across India inspire people to connect and finally start their healthy eating journey.
What do you see as a challenge in this space?
Making people accept plant based diet:onvincing people about adopting a plant-based diet and making them understand its benefits is challenging. There is a common misconception that eating plant based is eating boring salads and hence people find it challenging to try. But when they see the benefits of eating whole unprocessed food, locally and seasonally sourced ingredients and how tasty it can be, they accept the concept.
Entry into Working sector and Educational sector: Reaching out to Corporate, schools and colleges is another challenge as most of the wellness program are focused on physical aspects (Yoga/ exercise) and least or no focus has been given till now to the eating aspect. (Education on how to eat right, what to eat and how diet plays a major role in healthy living is far beyond temporary fitness)
What is the opportunity that you see for your business?
As Said earlier, most of the corporate wellness programs are focused on physical aspect when it comes to employee’s health and well being, KuKclean sees that as the opportunity as we are focused on right eating.
This also applies to individuals who want to live a healthy lifestyle but as there is a trend on physical exertion aspect, they do focus on exercise (Thanks to international yoga day, Gyms etc) which has taken care of one aspect of the spectrum. KuKclean focuses on Eat Mantra, how eating can change YOU.
What is the model that you adopt to scale your business to cater to volume and bigger contracts?
Right now, we are based out of Bangalore and our focus is to educate and spread awareness about clean eating across the city. Going forward KukClean plans to hire local people across the cities and bring them to follow the philosophy of KuKclean and then spread the message.
An initiative like Open house, Workshops and health talks across Cities are already helping us to grow and our brand being noticed.
What is the driving force behind your business?
My Team!! We are a group of urban women who have left their high paying jobs due to family responsibilities especially after accepting motherhood.
My core team sits across India and few outside India too but they are able to drive the show as they are highly motivated.
Another driving force to keep running the business is Like-minded people who believe and want to bring a change within themselves and their family’s lives.
Anyone who is passionate about clean cooking and want to make a career refresh can be a part of the group and start contributing.
What is the one lesson behind your success?
Kirti, Keepgoing, Hey that’s my instagram. Setbacks failures, thinking over and again are part and parcel of a startup. There are days when I am clueless about what I am actually doing but Kirti just keeps going. One step at a time towards my defined goal has helped me. When I started there was a simple idea of KuKClean and sharing how I lost weight by eating right but slowly over a period of 6 months, KuKClean has become inspiration for many. So KirtiKeepGoing
How do you generate the awareness of healthy eating amongst the public?
Go to the Public and Show!! Simple talks sometimes doesn’t excite people, So in my workshops or sessions, I make them taste one dish( wherever possible) and when they see that a healthy dish can be tasty too, there is a positive response towards healthy eating.
Through social media, Go live sessions we talk and share recipes which inspire others, KuKClean Open houses is another initiative to let people know that healthy can be tasty too!
There are enough resources on ‘what is eating right’ but how to Cook right and Clean which also suits the palate and excites a normal urban person is what we try to teach and share on the platform.
What according to you is healthy eating?
Healthy Eating to me is “Sit, Relax and eat the right food which has combination of all major components like carbs, proteins, fats, minerals and vitamins. According to me Healthy eating is not just about eating organic food or eating super foods (which are the trending fad now) or following one particular component diet.
Food should only be eaten when you are really hungry. It is also about the choices that we make, for example if you travel you have two options, one is eating simply local like fresh fruits, vegetables or simple foods like idli, dosa, dalia, chapati, rice and dal in India. If you are abroad, find local dishes which are simple to eat (if you can’t find anything, fruits and vegetables are in abundance on earth and you will surely find them)
Cooking too long with too many spices also changes the real composition of the food. For ex: Homemade Curry which is loaded with spices and cooked for hours has lost its nutrients. Hence the concept of healthy eating starts with KuKClean (Cooking Clean)
The current mindset of fast food is only applicable to junk, can that mindset be changed to utilize healthy eating and still be easy and quick to make. If so how?
The accessibility of junk food is easy and quick and Of Course, in fact making a junk food like chips and sodas are more complicated , it’s just that we get in packs, it appears quick to consume.
Healthy eating is always quick to make and very easy on your body. It’s just that we have forgotten to make simple food; we complicate things first and then try to find the solution to simplify it.
Plant based meal or to that matter raw meal requires no cooking or minimal cooking and is healthy ,filling and at the same time meets your daily nutritional requirement. Healthy eating needs conscious and planned way of doing things. For ex:making dosa,sambar and chutney may be laborious but if you make the batter in advance and use it, topped with some dry fruits powder or superfoods,veggies, it is edible and healthy quick fix if you are running short of time. If you can eat a banana then enjoy by just peeling it and eating it rather than making a milkshake, adding 100 ingredients, over processing and finally searching for the healthy nutrients. Eat simple, Eat local and Eat seasonal.
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