Exclusive! Embracing and accepting yourselves is important: Punya Elizabeth on her weight-loss journey and body positivity

Change is afoot in the fashion industry. Earlier, the industry had a certain notion about women being flawless, picture-perfect and size zero to shine. But not anymore! It’s 2020 and people are becoming more confident in their own skin and they are not shying away from flaunting their so-called ‘flaws’. Mollywood’s latest addition, Punya Elizabeth, who has two movies including the recent ‘Gauthamante Radham’ to her credit, talks about her body positivity journey.In an exclusive chat with ETimes, the gorgeous actress opens up about her weight-loss journey and also how she began embracing herself.
“We should change the way we perceive things. I think then people will also start accepting the way you are. Embracing and accepting yourself is important,” Punya Elizabeth says, describing how reluctant she was to wear a sleeveless dress because she had stretch marks.
“We were in Dubai earlier. Food there is often high in calories. So, there was this possibility of gaining weight, no matter what you eat. When we came back to Kerala, Palakkad I weighed 72-75 kgs. Children of my age were quite thin. Everybody used to think that I was older than them. Things changed when I went to Pune for graduation. People there were so cool. But while seeing some outfits I used to think, ‘Oh! Only if I were able to pull that off!’ So I think that was the motivation,” Punya said talking about the beginning of her weight-loss journey.
It wasn’t peer pressure, but the instinct within which inspired Punya to lose weight. Revealing about her weight-loss regime Punya added, “So I joined the gym. But unfortunately it turned out to be a disaster. However, I used to dance. I am not a trained dancer, but I like to dance. So dance and some flexibility moves helped me in the journey.”
Punya’s Instagram handle is full of her stunning pictures and the actress, who is also pursuing a career in modeling, revealed that she was very reluctant wearing sleeveless outfits. “I was always shy to wear sleeveless outfits, because I had stretch marks. But later I realized that people won’t notice those details unless we lose our confidence. So I went to shoot for a commercial for Kerala Tourism and they asked me if I was okay with wearing sleeveless outfits. I always denied that. But for some reason, I thought I will wear it. We shot for three days and I was majorly wearing sleeveless outfits. We were filming the whole day and they didn’t even notice my stretch marks. I was actually surprised by the fact. That’s when I realized that most of us are not confident about ourselves. Things will change once we accept ourselves,” Punya concluded.