Fitness Choices

(This is a commercial post for "NESTLÉ a+ Slim")

A true blue Bong, “fitness” is not a word that could keep me away from the restaurant menu card or the glass showcase at the sweetmeat shop. Fitness could not contest fun and flavor. At least, for a long time. In a short term. We were younger and stronger. Fearless. Myopic.

I wish we could stay that way, always. Could not, but.

After a certain number of candles on your birthday cake, after a certain number of yet another person in friends and family struggling with high diabetes, cardiac emergencies, and worse, the ‘bad news’, it was time for reality check. It was then that it came afloat in front of eyes. That, it is not just about the common suspects – roadside fries or dollops of ghee. It is more inconspicuous than that. It is the “hidden fat” in more everyday food, the usual non-suspects, that make up for a large part of it.

Watch out is what I have started to tell myself, more recently. Watch out, we must. Because without a fit body, the machine simply will not run!

My past in terms of its fitness quotient has been complex and elusive. I skipped breakfast systematically, and a cup of tea found its way to me to kill the hunger pangs while rushing to work, in meetings, at my busy work-desks. Lunches cooked at office neither matched any fitness recommendation nor the taste-bud preferences, and the evening snacks breaks were uncertain and seldom. A heavy dinner, theonly timee at home, was a lengthy affair, and the rush to bed soon afterward did not help the cause either. But among this, the worst bit was this – that, I did not even stop to notice that it was not alright. Years went on, and the damages piled up. I had wanted to believe that all is well, despite the signs my body gave me, first more softly and then louder and louder. But after a breaking-point, I could not. Not anymore. I had to hand myself over to doctors.

My race against my unfit past, since then, has been a long drawn road. But, long story cut short, the most recent and most effective measure came not out of my regular visits to a gastroenterologist, medicine, neurologist, orthopedic or any such. In fact, strangely enough, it came from a visit to a dietician.

No, I did not ask her how to look curvy and fit into that little black dress. I could not care less about it. Not in my teens, in my twenties and not now, even. My question was different. What do I do, I asked her, to become fit?

And, as you can guess, it did come down to food habits. Timely eating, right portions, balanced proportions. That is all I needed. That is all I thought I never had time for.

And now? My resolution is to tell myself – I will have time for this. I will make time for this. I will.

And what, you ask?

Well. I am aware of the new products that are hitting the market, designed carefully keeping in mind the needs and requirements of the deficiency we as a generation have come to land up at. One such product is a largely fat-free milk diet, which I came across very recently. This could be a way to achieve the balance many of us are prescribed and so, sure enough, I’d give that a try indeed.

The other day while I was typing away at my manuscript with a stab of vengeance, a phone call caught me off-guard. An invitation, an event. From one of the web magazines I am an author with. Now, to be frank, I have been keeping away from these functions for a while given the sparing timelines on my calendar and the soaring mercury levels, that too. But this day, this occasion – it spoke to me. A dialogue with Nutritionist and a Physiotherapist, it said, along with few other luring carrots. I consented, after all. And reached. And how I regret not!

It was just the wake-up call I needed, for I too – despite the newfound realization and wisdom – had indeed slipped up on my resolutions. I was again back to my own sweet little vicious cycle, eating away to glory, little work-outs, seldom exercises. Well, okay, let’s be honest there. No workout, no exercises. Not even the ones that just need you to sway your neck from one side to another. No.

The gathering handed me out quite a few good things, of which the main was motivation. I am back on my feet, socks pulled up. I will, I will.

And how, you ask?

From the past food habits, my taste-bud always ranked above my real health needs and which is exactly where all my past fitness resolutions found a crack to slip through. However, just like new products, new recipes are also finding their ways to us promising taste alongside health. While I am personally far from being a kitchen expert, these interesting recipes do look luring. In the treasure hunt for fitness and health, I’d most surely like to learn and explore a few new recipes. What more? I’ll tell you too how they come out to be.

Hungry, are you? So, watch out!

Tags: NESTLÉ a+ Slim