Fitness, Food and Foolishness

Everyone has their own opinions and ideas about fitness. For most it’s either a way to quickly loose the extra accumulated pounds or a dream that they wish would come true. 

For me Fitness is Life.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m no skinny looking, gym going, dieting till I die kind of a person.

I am a Fitness trainer.

I was on the healthier side of life since the day I opened my eyes in this world. Belonging to a Pakistani family, it was common for kids my age to be stuffed with baby food by their mothers. To date, a lot of families have the same concept, if your child doesn’t have cheeks till the floor, then you are a major fail as a mother.

Little do they know, obesity at a young age is a major cause of many physical and psychological issues in adulthood.

Growing up I realized how people judged you on basis of weight and eating habits.

Pregnancy and child birth showed me how your life changes with the change in numbers on the weighing scale and my constant effort to stay fit made me fall in love with fitness itself.

What initially started off as a self corrective exercise regime; soon turned into a major hurricane and changed me for good, inside and out. Miraculously, all those hours of playing baseball and taekwondo during school days paid off years after and I decided to take up Fitness Training as a preferred profession.

My definition of fitness isn't to have 6 pack abs or 16 inch waist. If you are able to run around with your kids with ease, do the house chores without back ache or climb stairs without falling down, then you are definitely fit.

Always remember, real women have curves and real men don’t look twice towards sticks.

Fitness is a life style. A way of living, that needs to be adopted and accepted whole heartedly.  The worst you can do to your body is to spoil it with food then deprive it for days at end, only to revert back to old habits.

There is one simple rule you should always bear in mind:

'Bite only what you can chew'

Too much and you will lose interest quickly. Too little and you will most definitely feel de-motivated.

Remember, moderation is the key here.

Our modern lifestyle has made us lazy. Cars have thrown walking habits out the window. Our kids prefer to play games on tablets rather than physically getting tired.

The other day I took my kids out to the park so they could get fresh air and exercise.  My 6 year old, not being used to hot weather got upset because he was sweating.

Though it did make me laugh at his innocence, it also proved to be an eye opener. Spoiling our kids with technology may seem like the best show of love for now, but in the long run we will regret making then physically incapable of facing challenges of youth and age.

My advice is that in order to have a successful fitness regime, you must first analyze your life style and then devise a routine that suits you the best without it turning into a burden in the long run.

We often discuss how our mothers and grandmothers were able to not only produce a dozen kids, but also perform physically challenging tasks with ease. Don’t we all blame our lack of physical strength on artificial and unhealthy foods these days?

In my opinion, this fault finding and blame game is completely unnecessary.  There are always two choices in any situation and one of them is always right.

What we choose to do to our health is in our own hands. The best way to stay fit is to have consistency in your daily life style and a promise to do it not because of what people will say, but because it makes you happy.

In this age of social media we come across various diet plans on a daily basis. Some based on so called chemical (crash) diets while others suggest concoctions of fruits and vegetables.

A very popular line comes to mind here

 ‘Use but don’t abuse’

It’s true that food plays a major role in our well being but when healthy nutrition is replaced with extremely unbalanced diets, the results are most certainly nothing but dangerous.

A balanced diet incorporating all the important food groups along with some form of exercise on a daily basis is the best option to choose for permanent results. 

As we go along on this journey of health and fitness every week, I will share my opinions, strategies and experiences with you. I will also try to correct various fitness misconceptions out there to the best of my capabilities.

Hoping to do some good and inspire motivation in all of you.