I was raised to believe that playing a sport and being fit is the way to be. It's healthy, it builds character, improves one's mental tenacity and teaches a child important life-lessons that determine so much about how he/she will choose to handle pressure in the later years of life.
As kids, all of us spent every evening on the tennis court, sweating it out and loving every bit of the intensive training; every summer was spent glued to the TV screen to watch the French Open and make bets about who we thought would win and then spend the next evening trying hard to replicate the shots that had awed us the previous day.
Somewhere along my path to adulthood, I realized how much the world changed, and how suddenly, scrawny toddlers turned into obese teenagers. Obesity is more often than not a lifestyle disease that we bring on to ourselves. It isn't any karmic injustice that's being meted out indiscriminately to folks on the basis of some morbid little genetic lottery. We bring it on to ourselves when we choose fries over salad, TV over exercise, social media over going for walks, internet browsing over heading out for a run.
Being fit is easy if you make some good choices that agree with your body. Choosing to turn to drugs to lose weight is going to ultimately end with you losing part of your mind, sanity and self-esteem.
When I see people all over the internet go ballistic about 'body-shaming' and 'body-positivity' it drives me crazy.
No, it is not okay for you to be unhealthy and unfit. We need to stop equating these things with positive images that society labels with a big loud "OKAY" sign.
We desperately need to promote sports and healthy habits, specially for kids. Stop announcing that it's alright to be comfortable with unhealthy lifestyles. When you pat someone on the back and say very ignorantly that you're proud of them for being content (or complacent) with obesity or anorexia, you have just lent support to diseases. Encourage exercise and good food.
It's great to be in a state of mental acceptance and peace with your body, provided that you know truly that you do the right things, eat the right food, stay away from unhealthy addictions. And in this situation, it hardly matters if you weigh a hundred kilos or fifty, or whether you're obese or anorexic.
Shift your bloody focus from the way your body looks and turn it, instead, to your fitness and happiness levels.
Those are much more effective parameters to go with, and mean a whole lot more.
As kids, all of us spent every evening on the tennis court, sweating it out and loving every bit of the intensive training; every summer was spent glued to the TV screen to watch the French Open and make bets about who we thought would win and then spend the next evening trying hard to replicate the shots that had awed us the previous day.
Somewhere along my path to adulthood, I realized how much the world changed, and how suddenly, scrawny toddlers turned into obese teenagers. Obesity is more often than not a lifestyle disease that we bring on to ourselves. It isn't any karmic injustice that's being meted out indiscriminately to folks on the basis of some morbid little genetic lottery. We bring it on to ourselves when we choose fries over salad, TV over exercise, social media over going for walks, internet browsing over heading out for a run.
Being fit is easy if you make some good choices that agree with your body. Choosing to turn to drugs to lose weight is going to ultimately end with you losing part of your mind, sanity and self-esteem.
When I see people all over the internet go ballistic about 'body-shaming' and 'body-positivity' it drives me crazy.
No, it is not okay for you to be unhealthy and unfit. We need to stop equating these things with positive images that society labels with a big loud "OKAY" sign.
We desperately need to promote sports and healthy habits, specially for kids. Stop announcing that it's alright to be comfortable with unhealthy lifestyles. When you pat someone on the back and say very ignorantly that you're proud of them for being content (or complacent) with obesity or anorexia, you have just lent support to diseases. Encourage exercise and good food.
It's great to be in a state of mental acceptance and peace with your body, provided that you know truly that you do the right things, eat the right food, stay away from unhealthy addictions. And in this situation, it hardly matters if you weigh a hundred kilos or fifty, or whether you're obese or anorexic.
Shift your bloody focus from the way your body looks and turn it, instead, to your fitness and happiness levels.
Those are much more effective parameters to go with, and mean a whole lot more.
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