The Unseen Climb

Sheetal Bagaria

Self-Love Is Not Selfish

There are moments that don’t just change a life. They divide it into two parts: before and after.

For Supriti Sureka, that moment arrived without warning. Her husband suffered a massive heart attack before her eyes. Within moments, the life they had built together was gone. She was in her early forties, left to raise two teenage children, care for her elderly mother-in-law, and face a future shadowed not only by loss, but by loans.

Grief filled every corner of her home. There were days when the pain was so overwhelming that she no longer wished to live. The future felt impossible.

But two children were still looking up to her. An elderly mother-in-law depended on her. The responsibilities were real, and they weren’t going away.

Before she could rebuild her life, she realised she first had to rebuild herself.

At 93 kilos, she was carrying far more than excess weight. She was carrying grief, fear, loneliness and the enormous responsibility of holding her family together. She chose to begin with herself, not out of selfishness, but because she knew she couldn’t pour from an empty cup.

She started with small, almost invisible changes. Better food. Daily walks. Simple exercise. One disciplined day after another.

Slowly, the woman in the mirror began to change.

She lost over 33 kilos. More importantly, she regained her belief in herself.

What began as a deeply personal transformation gradually became her life’s work. She trained in nutrition and health coaching, and today she supports people not only in building healthier bodies, but also in finding the strength to move forward after personal setbacks and loss. Having rebuilt her own life from the ground up, she understands that true transformation begins from within. She has also completed marathons, a reminder that the woman who once struggled under the weight of her life now runs towards it with purpose. Today, she shares her journey to help others find their own strength. She can be reached at supritisureka1@gmail.com.
The world sees the marathon medals, the transformation photographs and the confident coach.
What it doesn’t see is the widow who quietly rebuilt herself, one choice at a time.

The hardest climb was never the marathon. It was the journey back to herself. That is the unseen climb.