FITNESS

FITNESS

   November 21, 2020       Ankur Jangra

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Make a workout routine, eat healthy, make sure you are adding breathing exercises too, take adequate amount of sleep and most importantly, stick to the plan.

"Physical fitness is a state of health and well-being, and more specifically, the ability to perform aspects of sports, occupations, and daily activities." Well, that's how a Wikipedia definition looks like. But, fitness is not just about physical well-being, but also more about mental and emotional fitness, which we usually tend to ignore. It's a complete package which we need to pay attention to. 

What does it take to keep yourself fit? Good food + Good sleep + Good Workout. Trust me, each component has equal weightage. 

• Good Food: A food which is apt in nutritional value which means adequate consumption of Carbohydrates, Proteins, fats, minerals and vitamins.

• Good Sleep: Averagely 7 to 8 hours of sleep 

• Good Workout: Atleast an hour of physical activity(anything which you love to).

Some Facts:

A World Health Organization study says that every 1 in 4 people in the world do not workout on daily basis and parallely Mintel agency report states that 64% of indians too do not workout on daily basis. These are alarmingly dangerous figures. 

Myths and False assumptions over Indian diet:

I have heard many people blaming our so called "desi" diet as a faulty one. Trust me, 5 years back, I too believed the same.  But later on, I realised that it's not actually our diet which is faulty but our lifestyle which has been degraded over the years. I have a grandmother who is in her 80s now. She can still wash her clothes, manage her food, work with the plants in the garden, eat anything I offer her and still stay fit. If you observe, you will definitely find many similarities in our grandparent's diet. Well how is it? Did they eat something different than what we call the typical "desi diet"? No. The only difference is that they used to work hard the whole day, either it was the farm or any household chore. So why do we blame the same diet? Have you ever given a thought to our current lifestyle? Thanks to internet, everything is just a click away. If we ponder a little, we will realise that it's the amount of physical activity we lack to put in. 

Workout doesn't mean that it's mandatory to get to a gym and start lifting heavy weights. Nope. A workout has to be something which you enjoy. It can be either gym, any sport say football, volleyball, badminton, running or cycling(and many more). Options are as many as you like. It also varies as per individual's age, body type, metabolism, etc. You cannot expect a person in fifties to exercise like the one in twenties. All that changes is the type and numbers of hours one trains. 

FITNESS DURING CORONA & SOME LEARNINGS:

 

Since the world has been struck by the novel coronavirus, things have changed, and so has the definition and importance of fitness. During the early days of lockdown, it was difficult for most of us to adjust to the new normal. May it be irregular sleep cycles, eating habits, or our fitness routine, everything was disturbed. Well, I also went through the same. So one day, I gave a thought to what was going wrong and came to a conclusion that, everything was near about the same except for the fact that my workout was missing. It was just a couple of days since I resumed my workout, I started to feel good. I was able to sleep well, eat well, did not have a bloated stomach, and the most important thing, I felt lively.

I have had the same experiences before as well. I have observed that the days I am working out, I am a very different individual. My personality is different, my decision making is smart, I am able to concentrate more on my studies, my health is good and most importantly, I am able to sleep as good as a kid. I remember when we were kids, we used to play a lot, well we could play the whole day to be frank. And that's something what we need to recollect. We need to get back that kid who used to wait for 5 pm in the watch to set out and play the best games of his/her life. A daily workout not only gives you a good physical outlook but also gives you an implicit confidence that you carry with your personality.

Today, the world is aging, the climate is getting changed drastically, the pollution levels are continuously increasing, the mean sea levels are on rise and health problems are growing on daily basis. We need to take a pause and think about it now. They said 2020 was a bad year and fortunately it's about to end. Now is the right time to start preparing for our new year resolutions which we can't afford to lose this time. Make a workout routine, eat healthy, make sure you are adding breathing exercises too, take a good sleep and most importantly, stick to the plan. Remember one thing that it's a slow and gradual process, and quitting won't speed it up.  

Rest, the quote sums it all.