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Lately there has been a lot of buzz around fitness especially with celebrity endorsement of luxurious gyms, Yoga, Zumba, fitness diets, low calorie and fat free foods and even magical mythical ornaments, and apparel that can reduce one’s weight.
I hereby try to decode a few things by means of this article that revolve around this fitness fad.
Fitness and weight loss are two very different terms. Fitness revolves around a fit bod , plump or skinny depending on one’s natural shape and body form. Fitness means physical and mental well being of our body and its ability to perform activities and tasks. Exercising , balanced healthy diet form basic building block of fitness. While a few might gain weight to become fit others might need to lose weight to gain fitness. Weight loss is only a subset of fitness where obese people with high BMI tend to reduce their calories ,exercise and eat low calories, fat free food to reduce weight and avoid health risks that can occur due to obesity.
In India fitness was always considered to be a routine but blended in day today activities. The older generations walked or cycled to their destinations in their daily lives. Women tended to the household chores , including usage of hand operated grind mill, mopping floor by hand, washing clothes by hand etc which provided complete exercise for the body. Machine usage was minimal owing to the low economy, less consumerization, less spending power of people and lesser awareness of the need of automation of daily tasks. With growing economy and GDP and more job generation, corporate presence, life became more and more busy and thus we Indians gradually became addicted to machines.
In the present scenario cabs have eaten away our desire to walk even 100 meters, cell phones and malls have taken away garden day outs where family sports and outings were a casual way to boost outdoor activities. Busy schedules have deprived us of housekeeping tasks. In such a changing scenario along with wrong eating habits fitness levels have deteriorated among our generation. We cannot go back to our old methods with changing lifestyles. But we can surely adapt to better resolutions that suit our current times.
The first thing is taking it as a routine, one that is incumbent and follow it sincerely. Be it solo activities like swimming, walking , running or group activities like sports, they need to be timed, paced and kept track of.
Indulging in any kind of sport is the best relaxation, mental and physical and helps gaining fitness too. Community or corporate teams could hustle up for at least 3 day week sessions of any game, be it football, tennis, volleyball, basketball or cricket. There are various housing societies that have regular game sessions and even internal team tournaments to promote social bonding and help people get fit.
The other way could be taking up organized forms like gyms, aerobics, kick boxing, Pilates, Zumba, Yoga and various other group classes which provide compact prefixed work out routines.
One can keep track of activities using various apps that help in keeping a track of daily physical endeavours along with a probable calorie count that it helped burn. Apart from this eating healthy foods comprised of balanced nutritional value ,drinking water regularly also play a very important part in fitness.
Fitness is not just physical but also mental well being so being happy and positive in life is a big part of being fit. A fit person might not be skinny or thin or have x pack of abs but might definitely have a positive personality and relaxed soul. Looking good or glowing skin do come as a part of long term effects of staying fit but need not be the criteria for judging fitness. Short lived goals of shredding or gaining weight faster or using artificial catalysts only leads to an unfit body. Long term goals of slow, steady and disciplined routines give stress free life, relax one’s mind and body and provide a lasting fit mind, body and soul.
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