The alarm of REVOLUTION vibrated through my veins as I stood frozen in front of the HULK. Not a hulk of boosters but a REAL hulk. The hulk of chronic diseases multiplied by poor eating habits, poor lifestyles, and absolute subtraction of activity. With infinite counts of mutated chronic diseases looming around us and we seem to be losing out battle with the monster. With globalization, the rise of the workforce, extreme survival for the fittest bud early at a young age has made us prisoners in our own body.
As I walk down the memory lane, childhood memories bring untold happiness. It is the best years of life. Memories of going to the jungle to collect berries, shaving off gooseberry bark until our front teeth turn green, cutting clay cakes, collecting objects like bottle lids or empty cute containers which we would proudly display like a precious possession. Green vegetables from our small kitchen garden taught children how to cook, fruits and berries from the jungle or fields were the tastiest, our local cuisines of dry fish chutney and bamboo shoot stew used to be the perfect meal, gooseberries mashed with ginger and a pinch of salt used to be our favorite time pass snack. As children of the hill we loved everything that was local. All these self-made games, toys and snacks have shaped our contextual intelligence and awakened our survival instincts. At the same time loving local food have kept us connected with our roots and helped us maintain good health. If I have to compare, modern day childhood is a tragedy. Today, children hardly have time to awaken their innate potential. The moment the schooling year starts their journey of drudgery begins. They grow in their iron cage of late school hours, homework, tuition adding up to extra-curricular skill training activities. Imagine this child would one day grow up and as an adult how would they be like? Even when they were as young as 5 years old there was no time to liberate their psychic energy from their body, think about as an adult?
To escape from the HULK there is a need for a lifestyle REVOLUTION. A journey of a thousand miles starts with a step. Lifestyle is a holistic approach: from what you drink, eat, use to how you choose to live every day.
1. Walking more than using a vehicle: Have you ever imagined what happens to your body when you walk? Many may not notice but it lowers blood pressure and a better lipid profile which helps your heart health in the long run. While strengthening your bones, muscles and stamina underneath it strengthens your heart muscles too. While walking your brain also gets a positive boost which will help you to escape the hulk of depression. Walking also strengthens the capacity of your lungs. When we breathe harder while walking, our lungs use more oxygen and dispense more carbon dioxide. Walking also improves your eyesight. Globally glaucoma is on the rise and walking reduces the chances of developing glaucoma by 78 percent. After a meal, rest for 20 minutes and if you choose to walk instead of watching TV or use mobile your digestion will improve. Many times, we consider pancreas as a redundant organ of our body. This small organ produces enzymes, hormones, and insulin that break down the food you eat. Walking increases the efficiency of the pancreas so your body’s metabolism and insulin production improve. Thus, you reduce your risks for developing diabetes and other metabolic disorders.
2. Choosing healthy food over unhealthy food: What is healthy food according to you? We tend to confuse healthy food with fancy food. At the same time when we say healthy foods, it appears blunt, boring or tasteless to the palate Eating healthy food is more than eating to satisfy your hunger or food cravings. Eating healthy food is like earning a fortune out of collecting a coin every day for a period of years. Eating healthy food will absolutely give you a bonus of healthy skin, hair, nails, eyes and ectara. It will support your muscles and will keep your immunity strong. Eating healthy food is also like owning a lifeboat in the storm of chronic diseases. Like, lower your heart risk, cancer and type 2 diabetes. Moreover, with the advancement of age, PCOS in women has become very common. Therefore, eating healthy food will support fertility, healthy pregnancy and healthy breast feeding in women. Nevertheless, it will also help you in maintaining a healthy digestive system and balanced weight. Then, what are healthy foods? They are water, locally grown green vegetables, a variety of easily available nuts and fruits, beans, lintels and so on and so on. Water is the best drink for our body. It is the life source of our body. A normal human being is expected to consume at least 2-3 liters of water in a day. Therefore, it is a MUST to add a good amount of water to our diet.
3. Exercises:There is an ocean of benefits and differences between physical activities at home and exercising at the gym.When we are active at home, it also keeps our body active but we tend to use only certain parts of the muscle. At the same time when we choose to exercise at home, our thoughts are occupied with household chores, people, phones and visitors. Unless we are deadly motivated to reach our goals, sometimes we run out of motivation while working alone at home. On the contrary, when we choose to work out at a gym, we are out of our comfort zone yet we meet people with the same goal and motivation. Because everybody is focused, you feel more motivated to keep pedaling, while the home exercise can take longer than it should, because you are pedaling in your own rhythm or you spend time talking to whoever is in the room with you. When we are focused on our goals even that effort plays a role in boosting on reaching our goal. At the same time at the gym with the help of a personal trainer, you will get help to work out according to your body type and goals which will help you to attain your goals faster.
Do not miss out on good health when you can still have it. You may have a lot of wealth but it cannot buy you a sound body, mind and spirit. Your healthy choice alone can only give you good health. Our body is the only HOME that will carry us. Let us build a strong home so that it can carry us through.
Alemrenla Jamir, Educator and Counsellor,
Human Development Analyst,
Co-Founder Wellness 10: 31: Fitness and Counselling Center