The 'hum fit toh India fit’ movement is a
great initiative and if you look around, it seems as if every other person you
run into is gearing up to run a marathon or on some fancy ass diet. But a lot
of the mushrooming fitness industry seems to be becoming more niche and out of
reach of the common man.
I run and practice yoga. So by most standards, I am fitness
conscious. There is a thin line between that and being a fitness freak. It
began a couple of years ago when I trained and completed my first half-marathon.
When my already bad back started acting up and caved in after I overdid the
running, thinking that it was the solution to all my problems, I took refuge at
the feet of yoga as paying 400 bucks per physiotherapy session was too much of
a beast of burden to bear.
When it comes to being open to new experiences, I am as
flexible as a bhakt who is questioned
about his blind love for all things Hindutva. Not that I had any grand illusions
of doing 108 suryanamaskars or giving Baba Ramdev a complex but yoga made me
realize that my body was even more inflexible than my mind.
Once you hop onto the fitness bandwagon, you will
inevitably run into ultra-fit people who live and breathe fitness. You cannot
help but get inspired and begin to wish that you too can make that kind of
stellar transformation. But as I delved deeper into that world, I realised
something a little disconcerting; in many cases, staying fit, healthy and
robust meant you had to shell a lot of money on fitness and nutrition.
On the prowl for healthy recipes, I began following
numerous purveyors of the healthy life on social media. Just by looking at
their feeds, it seemed to me that these people didn't just take their fitness
seriously, they obsess over it. So much so that many of them curate pictures of their pre and
post-workout snacks before uploading them. Their lives, it seems, leaves no
space for indulgence and normalcy. Everything is measured, organic, healthy, esoteric
and seemingly perfect.
I discovered words like tahini and came to
believe that chia seeds were the elixir to immortality.
Apparently, there are healthier forms of everything from chocolate and nutella
to jams and cookies. And when I get tempted to buy some of them, I see the price
and halt in my tracks.
Urban India, which for many years ate, drank and desk
jobbed itself towards an early grave is now reversing the trend by gorging on
fitness, keto, veganism and GI diets. All of it is good, but it comes at a
steep price. It's as if staying fit is reserved for the elite, those who can
shell good money for a nutritionist, beer yoga, keto variants, protein bars,
24x7 gyms and tempeh.
Anyone sitting on the fence when it comes to getting fitter
may easily resign themselves to the fact that fitness isn't for them. That they
don't have the time to go on a keto diet or the money to shell out for vegan
variants of everything or take time out of their time starved day to prepare a
salad that looks like a rainbow with fancy seasoning to boot.
Staying fit is important, but it doesn't require some
buddha like transformation where you shed your old life and make each and every
moment of your life a fitness masterpiece. If you can't afford that fancy vegan
variant, to run every marathon, buy that protein bar pack or a bottle of whey
protein; if your middle-class upbringing won’t allow you to drop 15k on those
over-priced running shoes or that new-age fitness centre that offers everything
from tai-chi to kickboxing, it doesn't mean fitness and health should remain a
distant dream for you. If you don't have an army of servants to prepare a
healthy lunchbox for your kid so that you can run a 10k before you head for
work and post a photo of your exploits on instagram to tell the whole world
that you're an active mom on the run, it's not a crime. The fitness police are
just an illusion.
My inspirations are a couple of septuagenarian runners
whose half-marathon timings are better than mine. Of course, you can find inspiration
from anywhere as long as you understand that your journey to fitness is yours
alone and not be compared with someone’s instagram feed.
I'm no fitness guru to tell you what to do. If you listen
to your gut (theoretically and metaphorically), my hunch is you will start
making better choices beginning where you are.
But I also do know that getting fit or proving your fitness
levels doesn't mean you need to run an ultra-marathon or switch to an esoteric
diet to make a statement.
Health and fitness is a journey, not a finish line where
you are constantly measuring yourself against the fitness Joneses of the world.
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