Today you open any app of social media, whether it’s a post, YouTube shorts, Instagram or just a website. You will see content on ONE thing only;

HOW TO LOSE WEIGHT. HOW TO BUILD MUSCLE. HOW TO EAT MORE PROTEIN. And zillions of infos and videos on the right way to exercise, run, yoga, train well.

Not to mention the super foods or fit athletes showing a day in their life eating colourful foods and meals healthy and nutritious and skin glowing. And yet..

And yet look around you, seriously look around you, almost everyone is ‘overweight’ ranging from 5 kilos overweight to obesity to morbid obesity and if you think I am talking about Americans, no way! It’s here to stay in India. Much more in Urban lazy India.

I live in an area where it’s considered one of the most expensive real estate because it’s THE HUB for information technology companies.

Think swanky buildings, walkways, pubs, roads that makes people gasp and ask, is this India? ( that so called poor exploitative tourism India is long gone) then there is my vast leafy green colony with a small park and lots of trees.

Morning it bustles to life while by evening it’s tranquil, serene and secure. And it’s here when I do my daily walks, chores I see ‘shapes and sizes’ regardless of gender and age around me. NOT ONE, and I mean NOT one is a healthy fit person. And I ask why?

With all the information and knowledge about foods to eat, foods to avoid, gyms galore, specialised gyms that today a middle class income person can go to, with personal trainers at your doorstep, what is still going wrong?

Yes, lots of them are hitting the gym, in their gear, in their sneakers, cool yoga clothes, walking back with a triumph post a workout and then diving right into an oily dosa/ puri/ followed by 3-4 cups of chai and then snacking through the day until it’s after work drinks with some starters followed by dinner!

Or thinking one ‘magic’ ingredient from chia seeds, to eating millets to healthy smoothies will solve it all.

I do know this blog is worlds apart from what I have written so far. Yet I had to. Somehow, people think that doing all the above is ok and they will get away with it.

The generation in their 20s think their metabolism will go on forever. The ones in the 30s think we can extend this a bit further and the ones in the 40s suddenly wake up to a mid life crisis and start running 5 kilometres to races to keep running marathons to ultra races to what not so much that they drop dead like that. And it’s more so with men.

With their testosterone dropping after 30( yes, as early as post 30s thanks to their lifestyle) they suddenly take up running to every physical activity.

And it would be good if only they did this slowly and gradually. But in today’s times of instant gratification and ‘fame of likes on insta, WhatsApp groups’ they jump from walking a 5k to running a 10k in a few months to actually doing a 21 kms or 42 kms at the end of the year!

Not even considering that they were couch potatoes till they started this and they have to give time for the heart and body to adjust. Always extreme. Noone considers the lifestyle they had in the past.

Rome wasn’t built in a day but all it took was a few days to destroy the whole Roman Empire and we humans forget that time and again.

Fat doesn’t build in a day, it keeps piling on, accepting every junk you put in your mouth, expanding the stomach like a rubber band, to every bit of alcohol you binged, to every sleepless night spent partying till wee hours, to over eating stress away at work or in your personal life.

Building it brick by brick. Creating your own pool of fat, and then one day you realise you are low, feeling low, looking at the size you were before to now, you don’t like it. Now you want to workout, do something. Then two things happen.

With all the enthusiasm you sign up for sessions that promises you will lose so and so kgs in months. Imagine this, this fat build up which has made it home in your body for years can go away in months?

Yet you believe it will. You want it to magically disappear. Maybe you will push hard, give it all your go, not even thinking what it’s doing to your heart which has been used to sluggishness. It’s in shock.

Either you will give up after some time because ‘where is the result’ that didn’t happen in months, or keep pushing until YES you drop dead. For every ‘SUCCESS’ story of losing weight on social media, there lies behind lakhs of utter failures. All because of misinformation and going with the trend.

When people post covid started dropping dead, they blamed the vaccine as usual. Not one idiot had the common sense to read or understand that research and evidence had shown that the side effects of the vaccine leading to a coronary attack or clots were rare and if it happened it was because there were pre existing conditions in the body before Covid.

It doesn’t matter that our country produced local vaccines in record time while other vaccines like Pfizer were proven far more ineffective. We have a habit of dissing our own always doesn’t it? It’s a solid Indian desi habit, no accountability of the self just pass on the blame on everything else.

And please don’t say GENETICS!! Oh I am obese because of my genes, I am diabetic only because of my genes, PCOD because of my genes. Ask any health expert and I mean qualified experienced doctors and not YouTube/ insta experts, they will tell you 95% is LIFESTYLE and just 5% is genetics. YES.

And if you haven’t heard of EPIGENETICS. Let me describe this to you in a simple sentence. If you have a 5% chance of getting something from your family gene, it’s the ENVIRONMENT that plays a big factor in your genes and not VICE VERSA.

So in the end what does really matter? YOU! YES YOU! As I tell my Yoga clients, there is no middle path anymore. Absolutely not.

When it comes to your body and health, you cannot and must not compromise. No soft love, no it’s ok, you ate 4 slices pizza or a biryani post beer at night, no super hot pickles to eating fried food. It’s bullshit.

Look at yourself in the mirror and think if in 20 years time, will I be able to stand like this or be filled with diseases. Living a life with medicines and constant doctor visits, that ain’t no life.

THE no 1 cause for cancer is Obesity, in fact most of the diseases starts from gut and that means being overweight.

And let me tell you on your face, we are living the best of times ever. The lifestyle, the facilities, everything. And if anyone says I cannot do it, you are writing your own suicide note, it’s slow poison.

So if you ask me, ‘what should I do’?

I will say this, ‘“CONTROL YOUR MOUTH, USE IT TO FEED NUTRITIOUS FOOD, WORKOUT SLOW AND STEADY”. And most important,

Reduce postings of YOUR DAILY ROUTINES, WORKOUTS OR YOUR LIFE ON SOCIAL MEDIA’

80% of your battle is won right there. The lesser you advertise yourself, the more you will focus within on a deeper level.

And most importantly SHUT UP AND GET MOVING, consciously.

Life is running away from you faster than you think.