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We often confuse our fitness goals - do we want to lose weight or stay fit? Are they the same thing? Here's an interesting take.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/tescho/7035440467
We often confuse our fitness goals – do we want to lose weight or stay fit? Are they the same thing? Here’s an interesting take.
“How many kilos have you shed? Oh! I just managed to get rid of this flab!”
“I have to lose at least 15 kilos so that I can fit into my gown from college days!”
“I am on a crash diet! I am missing food already!”
“I am not motivated enough to work out!”
The rants never end. And so, never ends the feeling of not feeling good! We live in a world where we want everything – a good job, a good figure, fitness, happiness, and appreciation without working much towards earning them. That said, there has been a surge in the number of people aiming to lose weight rather than staying fit. Discussion forums are flooded with weight loss diets and videos of aerobics and yogic exercises.
The good part is, people love the idea of sporting a good, toned body. The bad part, however, is only concentrating on losing weight to earn that body. Fitness definitions vary from person to person. It is as variable as ‘what is right or wrong’. Many working people (men and women included), enroll in fitness programmes that promote a slim and trim body (with packs for men) rather than the idea of actual fitness, and then starts the difficulty.
First, binging at burger, pizza and fast food joints helps in earning unwanted pounds of flesh. Then, the fitness programs ask you to go on a diet that suddenly curbs your lustful cravings to eat cheese, butter and mayonnaise-loaded foods, and loads you with a lot of greens to eat and exercises to burn the calories settled in the waist and below, to make you sweat! A week passes, and people get back to the routine of binging on whatever was missed during the regimen. Not only does the reckless abuse of the body start, the cravings, instead of being satiated, hit a new high.
Losing weight is not always synonymous with staying fit. Staying fit happens when you build your stamina from the excess carbs that are waiting to burn.
We all love to eat. However, we all dread the word ‘calories’, though we love the same when it sounds like ‘calories burnt’, ‘calories down’ or ‘zero calories’. And, needless to say, we all love the idea of ‘hitting the gym’ (quite a fashion these days). Most importantly, whether or not we follow it, we totally adore the idea of staying fit, with a toned body sans water retention and dark circles.
The idea, when it reaches the stage of implementation, deviates from the idea of staying fit to simply losing weight. Skipping breakfast, killing the desire to satiate the frenzied taste buds, and directly jumping into a crash diet makes people hog on every rich food once the weight loss plan gets over, which is not good.
My parents have this Five point rule for healthy living
I have followed the above rules and it has helped me a lot. Motivation does not come from people around. It comes from within. It does not come by asking people for fitness advice or to give you company in what you have to do to stay fit. It comes from realising the fact: ‘now or never!’. Treat your body with respect. Work towards gaining self control. Make sure, with a healthy body, the mind stays healthy too. And then, you will find that your fitness shall speak for you in ways you wanted.
Pic credit: Tescho (Used under a CC license)
This piece was first published here.
A software engineer in the past, a content writer, an amateur blogger, an avid reader and traveler, an engaging conversationalist, an army wife, a pre school teacher and importantly, an incurable optimist! read more...
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UP Boards Topper Prachi Nigam was trolled on social media for her facial hair; our obsession with appearance is harsh on young minds.
Prachi Nigam’s photo has been doing the rounds on social media for the right reasons. Well, scratch that- I wish the above statement were true. This 15-year-old girl should ideally be revelling in her spectacular achievement of scoring a whopping 98.05% and topping her tenth-grade boards. But oddly enough, along with her marks, it’s something else that garners more attention – her facial hair.
While the trolls are driving themselves giddy by mocking this girl who hasn’t even completed her school yet, the ones who are taking her side are going one step ahead – they are sharing her photoshopped pictures, sans the facial hair, looking nothing less than a celebrity with captions saying – “Prachi Nigam, ten years later”.
Doctors have already diagnosed her with PCOD in their comments, based on photographic evidence. While we have names for people shamed for their weight – body shaming, for their skin colour- racism, for their age- age shaming, for being a female- sexism, this category of shaming where one faces criticism for their appearance has no name. With that, it also has zero shame attached to it.
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