CHENNAI: Don’t let Priya Rathnakumar’s slight frame, soft voice and mild demeanour fool you. This 23-year-old is a deadlift and free run champ, specialises in sports nutrition and delivers happiness with her mouthwatering healthy snacks.
Be it crunchy granola, delicious protein bars, refreshing Greek yogurt, delectable nut butters, satisfying protein shakes or the crowd favourite chickpea brownies — The Lean Bean has a wide range of healthy snacking options that are guilt-free indulgences. Peanut butter oatmeal cookies and buckwheat muffins will soon be added to the menu.
“All our products are made fresh and contain no preservatives or added sugar. Granola and chickpea brownies are our bestsellers and now Greek yogurt too is in demand because of the heat. While you get granola in the market, most of them have added sugar in some form. Our granola does not last more than two months because we do not add preservatives but most packaged granola can last for longer because of the added preservatives,” says Priya.
Calling her foray into the business ‘accidental,’ she says she stumbled into the world of healthy eating and exercising when she put on 15 kg in a year after eating out extensively.“I realised that I needed to lose the weight and I wanted to start eating healthy. I always liked cooking and baking so I started experimenting with different salad recipes at first and began serving it at home and everyone loved it. Gradually, I started delivering healthy meal options to close friends and family and the response was positive.”
However, providing meals was taxing as it involved getting up as early as 4 am. Since she works out of home and is helped by her sisters and family, it began taking a toll. So, she decided to start with munchies and since then, there’s been no looking back.
Her curiosity coupled with her interest in constantly working on her fitness and the desire to help others get fit and healthy, made her take up sports nutrition. She won the gold medal in the State-level deadlift competition in May 2017, competed in Obstacle Course Racing and was placed third in several of them, became the brand ambassador at f45 Nungambakkam and won the gold in the national speed run in March 2019.
“I want to help others on their journey to get fit. I do online diet counselling and monitoring for people. But I don’t like to call it a weight loss programme. For me, the focus isn’t weight loss but rather to improve fitness levels. As a result of this, weight loss could occur but that’s not the important parameter.”
Juggling different roles comes easy to her, which is also probably why it is likely you’ll see her experimenting with new recipes, doing free run exercises at the parkour setup in the city or quietly motivating and inspiring all those around her to stay committed to eating healthy.
The Lean Bean delivers to most places in the city. Customers can also pick the products up from her residence. Custom orders are available.For more information, you can follow the Instagram account @theleanbean. For diet counselling, you can write to her at priya.tasrathnakumar@gmail.com.