Sharmilee Patel’s podiatrist had run out of options. A cortisone shot. Custom orthotics. Neither had touched the plantar fasciitis that had already forced her to give up Zumba, barbell classes, yoga and Pilates - everything she used to stay active. Her next suggestion was surgery. No rehab first. No conversation about lifestyle or nutrition. Just surgery.

She wasn’t ready for that.

Start: November 2024 - 63.5kg

Checkpoint: February 2026 - 45kg

18.5kg (40lbs) lost in 15 months

22 Years of the Same 35lbs

Sharmilee had always been the person in her family and friend group known for taking care of herself. Lots of vegetables and fruit. Regular exercise. But after having her first child, she kept 25lbs of her pregnancy weight. 5 years later, after her son was born, she kept 10lbs more. From that point on, for the next 22 years, the number never really moved.

She wasn’t inactive. She did Zumba twice a week, took personal training sessions, went to Les Mills classes, practised yoga and Pilates, hiked when she had the time. She just couldn’t shift the extra 35lbs, no matter what she tried.

“Despite everything that I did, I was active… and no matter what I did, I was never able to move the needle.”

Around 4 years after her son was born, blood work confirmed what her GP had already been watching for: hypothyroidism. Sharmilee filed the stuck weight under that diagnosis and largely made peace with it.

Looking back, Sharmilee is clear about where all those years of effort went wrong. It wasn’t the hypothyroidism. It wasn’t a lack of activity. It was protein.

“I underestimated how much protein is needed… I thought fruits, vegetables, healthy, and as a result I’m all good and I was totally wrong about that.”

Two decades of Zumba, personal training and clean eating, built on a foundation that was never quite right.

The Podiatrist, the Menopause, and the Surgery She Wasn’t Ready For

Everything came to a head once she turned 50. Plantar fasciitis set in, and stopping it meant giving up nearly every form of movement she relied on. At the same time, she went into menopause. Her cholesterol started climbing.

“This was rock bottom, and I just was not ready for the surgery.”

What frustrated her most wasn’t just her own situation, it was that nobody had offered her an alternative before reaching for a scalpel.

“I feel like that’s a flaw in our healthcare system. The overall lifestyle and nutrition is overlooked.”

Three things mattered to her more than anything else at that point: she refused to stop walking, she wasn’t willing to go on cholesterol medication, and she wanted to avoid surgery at all costs. Her daughter had just gotten engaged. Work meant regular travel. She wanted to show up for both - present, capable, not sidelined by her own body.

“As I age, I want to be fit to be able to hike longer, build muscles.”

Starting the Week of Thanksgiving

Friends already on the RNT programme had told her to look into it. She called the team, hoping to start in December once things had calmed down. She was told the next cohort didn’t start until January.

“At this point, I was so desperate and determined… what is the latest I can start in November?”

The answer was Thanksgiving week. The worst possible timing, with family visiting and hosting responsibilities of her own.

“There’s no perfect time to start. I can’t wait for the calendar to be kind to me.”

She started anyway, on 18 November 2024.

Learning the Gym at 50

The first weeks were rough. She was travelling 2 weeks in a row, including weekends, right as her plan rolled out, and never had the time to adjust it to her own taste. The food volume overwhelmed her. And her coach had built a plan around gym equipment - machines Sharmilee had never touched, having only ever done classes.

Her first time in the weights section, in her fifties, was intimidating.

“It felt very uneasy. It was very uncomfortable, but I knew I had to get comfortable with being uncomfortable in order to get the results I needed.”

Her husband, Dharmesh, and mother stepped in on food prep. Dharmesh came to the gym with her, learning the equipment alongside her and sending form videos to her coach, Shwetha, for correction. Once she got past the discomfort, something shifted.

“I love strength training. I would take strength training over cardio any day. I never thought I’d say that, but it’s definitely true today.”

The System That Made Travel Work

Sharmilee’s job in business development keeps her on the road, with long days that start early and run into evening dinners. Rather than let travel derail her, she built a system around it.

“I started to carry my oats, my protein powder, walnuts and chia seeds… I still do that. I travel with one meal anywhere I go.”

When she knew a restaurant in advance, she’d send it to her coach for an exact order. Sleep took priority over workouts during travel weeks, with strength training made up over the weekend. At home, she batch cooked five days at a time.

She’d started the programme pescatarian, but soon found chicken gave her more room in her plan for the fruit she loved, and now eats chicken through most of the week with fish or vegetarian meals at weekends. To keep the food genuinely hers, she leaned into the cooking she already knew - ginger, garlic, Kashmiri red chilli and switched from regular to non-fat yoghurt.

Steps were the one thing she never fully cracked. She names it as her biggest challenge, and is honest about why.

“Sometimes I feel like I may use that as a crutch, because even though I can get more steps in, I just always have too many other things to do instead of getting the steps in.”

50x Better Sleep

Sharmilee describes her insomnia as lifelong, trouble falling asleep, then waking repeatedly through the night, worse again once menopause began. She’d assumed, watching her mother struggle with the same thing her whole life, that it simply wasn’t fixable.

The changes were specific: no screens for one to two hours before bed, replacing scrolling with reading or journaling.

“Journaling really helped. I had never journaled before, and that in itself really worked.”

On her own feedback form, she put numbers to it: before RNT, she was getting under 7 hours of sleep 80% of the time or more. Within the programme, that flipped - at least 7 hours, 70–80% of the time. Her LDL cholesterol dropped 10mg/dL in 5 months.

“The quality of sleep that I’m getting now is probably 50 times better than what I ever have had during my whole lifetime.”

Setting Boundaries, and the Void Shop Weekend

Around 2 or 3 months in, Sharmilee realised the lifestyle she and Dharmesh had built together wasn’t going to be sustainable if she carried on. He liked to party, stay out late, drink. She didn’t want to anymore.

“I have to say, we’re gonna have to change things. You can’t hang out and party all night if you want, but I’m not going to. So for me, those are the boundaries I’m gonna set.”

He was reluctant at first. What shifted things was a weekend away - a Void Shop seminar in New York City that she invited him to almost on a whim, expecting him to say no.

“I was pleasantly surprised that he chose to join me there.”

He wasn’t in the room for the seminar itself, but hearing the stories she brought back afterwards was enough. He came around to the same open, ongoing conversation she’d been asking for.

Choosing Her Daughter’s Wedding Over the Scale

By the time she’d lost significant weight, Sharmilee’s goals had grown. She asked her coach to help her get a six-pack in time for her daughter’s wedding, and to book a photoshoot - a plan she’d opted out of when she first joined.

Then, in December, a month into the programme, her father passed away. Wedding planning ramped up around the same time. She noticed herself getting hangry, short with the people around her, and knew the final push toward a leaner physique wasn’t worth what it was costing her.

“I think it’s time to call it quits. I need to focus on what matters more for me at this point in time and focus on being there for my daughter and my son.”

She chose to hit her checkpoint, do the photoshoot, and move into her next phase - prioritising her family over a number on the scale.

18.5kg Down, and the Sister Comments

Sharmilee lost 18.5kg (40lbs) over 15 months. Her plantar fasciitis has improved substantially — she credits the weight loss directly, though she still feels it after long walks of 14–15km and takes Advil when she does.

At her daughter’s wedding in May, the comments started.

“A lot of my family was surprised to see my new self and I received numerous comments that I looked like I was my daughter’s sister and not her mom. Camera team who had not met me before thought I was her sister as well, and that felt great.”

Her husband, Dharmesh, married to her for 30 years, took to joking about it publicly:

“She is my wife, and we’ve been married for 30 years. She’s not my daughter.”

The ripple effect reached her household. Dharmesh started eating the same salad-and-fruit lunch daily and switched to lower-calorie, non-alcoholic beer. Her mother began taking protein shakes. Friends and family who hadn’t already joined RNT started adopting healthier habits of their own.

Asked directly how the physical has been the vehicle for her, Sharmilee didn’t talk about the scale.

“I show up much more stronger and poised - not only for my professional career, but for my son’s graduation and my daughter’s wedding. I was no longer angry, and that attention was freed up for what matters most to me.”

What’s Next

Sharmilee is now in her investment phase, working with her coach. She admits it’s been harder without a specific number to chase – navigating food chatter without a scale-driven goal has been its own kind of challenge.

Her next targets: continue building muscle, work with her healthcare providers and coach on strengthening and improving flexibility around a decade-old SI joint degeneration diagnosis, and take on a Three Peaks Challenge in the UK.

She’s also just been promoted to VP, Global Business Development, at work - a step she’s been able to show up for with the same presence and poise she talked about finding through the programme.

Asked what she’d tell a woman in her position a year and a half ago, overwhelmed by the idea of changing a way of life she’d lived for 30 years, she didn’t hesitate:

“Think seriously and really look at your lifestyle. Challenge your ways of thinking… If you’re thinking about joining, there’s no perfect time. Don’t wait to make a change in your life. Your physical is everything, and you don’t have to give up your culture or the food that you love. You build the plan that lasts for you - the one that’s built around you.”

“Eating right is not a punishment or a diet you survive on. It’s a gift that you pass on.”

“I came for weight and stayed. For everything else - the sleep, the energy, the strength, and some new goals that I’ve not set for my life.”

🎧 Listen to Sharmilee’s full story on RNT Fitness Radio:
Ep 497 - Hall of Fame | Sharmilee Patel: Beating Insomnia, Menopause, and 20 Years of Stuck Weight