Our Philosophy

Our indulgences often lead to a consistent neglect of our most prized assets - body and mind.What we eat has a direct bearing on how we feel and think.

At SSBL, we believe in a diligent adaption and practice of two age old adages - ‘Health is Wealth’ and ‘Prevention is better than Cure’. Together, they perfectly complement to articulate our thinking.

Amidst the hectic lifestyles we lead, most of us are caught between either of the following conundrums.

  • Eating has become a tick mark activity, just necessary to satiate hunger rather than fulfil the nutritional needs that our body craves.
  • ‘Live to eat’ rather than ‘eat to live’- By becoming slaves to our taste buds, we are unable to ‘eat right’ even when aware that we are ‘eating wrong’
  • Crash diets, short term plans help address weight related challenges only temporarily. They reappear after some time
  • Relying on self-study, guidance from friends and family to plan family meals which we believe/think are nutritious and balanced

At SSBL, we encourage respecting food and responsibly consuming it for its manifold virtues. For it is not just food but:

  • A powerful tool to nourish our bodies and mind, making them stronger and sharper
  • A potent weapon to build invaluable immunity to fight infections
  • A holistic solution to hasten recovery from any health challenges being faced
  • An effective catalyst for leading a wholesome, happy, confident and healthy life

We collaborate with you to bridge the gap between where you are and where you want to be in your pursuit of better health and happiness, via food. Our expertise can be tapped via awareness building sessions, workshops, corporate programmes as well as customised diet and nutrition plans for individuals and families.

Our Mission

“Celebrate Life”

Celebration is a manifestation of happiness and wellbeing is its core. This feeling of wellbeing is what you sense when your body and mind are in good health as well as harmony. The resulting strength of emotions and positivity make you feel on ‘top of the world’.

Our Team

Meenakshi Bhalla

Qualified nutritionist, practicing dietician, Yoga
teacher, successful corporate professional,
social worker, wellbeing evangelist
More

Geeta Agarwal

Award winning teacher, experienced
counsellor, excellent problem solver, motivator,
mentor and guide plus proud mother of a
talented autistic child More

Sahebdin Ramprasad Das

Expert Yoga advocate, practitioner, corporate
trainer, Naturopath, faculty at premier
institutes

Dr. Swapna Ajit

Experienced rehabilitation therapist, expertise
in treating neurological and musculoskeletal
conditions

The Beginning

My own experience and learnings have inspired me to start SSBL.

An MBA by qualification, I spent the first two decades of my career in the ever demanding corporate sector within the IT industry with some blue chip names – Wipro, Tata Communication, Gartner, MindTree. I have experienced and closely witnessed the adoption of quick fix measures – pop a pill when feeling sick, grab a smoke or drink to ease stress, skip a meal or over eat as time permits, and the havoc they created in my body over time.

Chronic deficiency of macro and micro nutrients resulted in severe health issues and made the basic need of a good night’s sleep an unattainable luxury. Visits to several doctors and specialists, a battery of diagnostic tests and several rounds of medication followed. But at best they provided intermittent, short term relief while making my body weaker...

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Meenakshi Bhalla

My own experience and learnings have inspired me to start SSBL.

An MBA by qualification, I spent the first two decades of my career in the ever demanding corporate sector within the IT industry at blue chip names – Wipro, Tata Communication, Gartner, and MindTree. I have experienced and closely witnessed the adoption of quick fix measures – pop a pill when feeling sick, grab a smoke or drink to ease stress, skip a meal or overeat as time permits, eat out or order takeaway often, binge on processed food and finally the havoc this creates in our body over time.

Chronic deficiency of macro and micro nutrients in my body resulted in severe health issues and made the basic need of a good night’s sleep an unattainable luxury. Visits to several doctors and specialists, a battery of diagnostic tests and several rounds of medication followed. But at best they provided intermittent, short term relief while making my body weaker.

I was physically and emotionally in turmoil when I finally found my saviour in nutrition as therapy that I got introduced to by an eminent Dietician. A customised, calibrated diet, did wonders to heal my body and mind. My ailments disappeared with time and I also received the gifts of positivity and happiness. My holistic, sustainable healing empowered me to Celebrate Life once again!

This miracle that I experienced inspired me to unravel and share the ‘Power of Nutrition’. Quitting the corporate sector, I indulged headlong in my new passion by acquiring requisite qualifications in this field i.e. M.Sc. in Dietetics and a teacher’s training certification in Yoga.

Working with a leading hospital chain, I engaged with patients suffering from myriad ailments and observed the difference that a nutritive diet made in their recovery. Better the nutrition, faster the recovery and in some cases just the right diet was the medicine.

The mantra to stay happy is very simple - just take a Small Step to nourish your body with nutritious food, enjoy a regular physical activity of choice and keep your mind constructively engaged to for a richer, happier life.

By starting Small Step Big Leap, I am taking a small step to share my experience and learning towards creating awareness about the significance of focusing on ‘self’. I am joined in this endeavour by a team eminent experts. We share the common belief that happiness and wellbeing are two sides of the same coin.

We aspire to help people rediscover happiness and Celebrate Life! Our ‘small step’, we hope, will result in a ‘BIG LEAP’ towards creating a happier society and a healthier nation.

Geeta Agarwal

My name is Geeta Agarwal. I have a post-graduate degree in History with 24+ years’ hands-on experience in teaching across K12. I started teaching way back in 1993 as a History teacher and have risen to the role of a Vice-Principal today, at one of the most reputed schools in Navi Mumbai and I would attribute the reason for this ascend only to my passion and dedication for my subject, my profession, and most importantly- the children.

I was awarded the "Most Outstanding Teacher" in Avalon Heights 2008-2009. In recognition of my innovative and out of the box practices, I have been awarded as the best teacher in Innovation in Pedagogy for the Academic Year 2018-19. I have also spearheaded the International School Awards by British Council as the Coordinator for the year 2015-17 and as Vice Principal for 2018-21. I have also been awarded as The Best Teacher on two other occasions. I believe that my biggest forte is my ability to manage people. I am an excellent problem-solver and I know how to get my people to love their work. For students, I love being a mentor and guide. I have been dealing with children with special needs for the last 17 years and I am a part of several autistic forums as well. My experience has been used and documented as effective strategies for research and development of alternative methods of instruction to manage differently-abled children.

My professional life has been extraordinarily enriching, but alongside, my journey as a mother of a son with autism has been even more rewarding and deeply transformative. I can attribute all that I have learned and become solely to my son. My time with him has taught me invaluable skills of empathy and how to listen deeply. He has shown me what it means to have courage, patience, and faith. My son’s transformation today into an independent (financially too!), self-motivated, reliant, hardworking, healthy, and enterprising young man has been my most prized, my most significant accolade so far.

Being active on various autistic platforms, moreover, has helped me motivate and counsel parents with special-needs children. At work, and otherwise, my personal experiences have facilitated me to assist, enable, and empower parents with children at various levels and means.

My son has been the cynosure of my life; my guiding star. I am not only awestruck by his grit and determination to do better and be better, but I’m also inspired to pay it forward by way of this noble path of counselling. My chair as a Vice-Principal and teacher already affords me a wonderful platform to offer counsel to students and parents, alike. I have also witnessed, several times so, the magic of loving attention, a listening and empathetic ear, along with timely counsel and the wonders it is capable of working in transforming lives.

Just as Oprah Winfrey says, “There is no greater gift you can give or receive than to honour your calling. It’s why you were born and how you become most truly alive.” I am convinced that this is my life’s calling: to offer and share with families all that I have learned from years of experience as the mother of a child with autism. I am eager to show parents with special-needs’ children that it is truly a blessing, through and through, in no disguise whatsoever. I wish to become that medium through which the miracle of transformation can be enkindled in the lives of people who need that loving, compassionate, nurturing, and motherly touch. I don’t want to remain as someone who shows the silver-lining but be the one who shows them and walks with them to the light.