There are times I feel that I am pushing hard in an sisyphean uphill struggle without moving forward an inch. Each succeeding step is an almighty effort & surviving the ordeal itself represents progress. It's probably unfair to complain though since treadmills are supposed to work that way.
One among many sick cosmic jokes is that not too long ago I used to eat 2-3 times as much & used to weigh about 2/3rd of what I do now. I can only surmise that all that I ate then took the guerrilla option of hiding out till a day the most damage could be inflicted on my system & evidently the decision has been reached that the time is now. Every day I grow as a person - unfortunately most of it is sideways. The mirror does not lie but I wish it would be a tad more diplomatic & it's hard to escape the conclusion that it's time for some downsizing. Its apparent that the only way left is up - all the way to the society gym on the 8th floor.
My affair with regular exercise is now just over a year old & it's seen more ups than down. This is a matter of some slight concern as the objective was for the reverse to be true as far as my weight was concerned. Three days a week a trainer coaxes & cajoles me through a series of muscle wrenching contortions involving lifting, pushing & pulling weights of various shapes & sizes attached to machines, bars & all by themselves. Despite the obviously enervating nature of the effort this is ironically called "Strength training". The theory being that this builds muscle which in turn does away with fat. I am inclined to believe that the muscle building part of this is working as evidenced by the aches & pains I feel in muscles that I clearly did not posses before. As far as I can see the fat seems to have found a way to peacefully co-exist with the muscle though. This may mean that I need to rejig my thrice weekly leisurely stroll around the area while taking in the early morning sights or what I call "Cardio". I have tried this on the treadmill but somehow I seem to prefer the scenery moving when I do.
In the end though what seems to be most difficult to do & yet the most effective is controlling the food intake. Over time I have wound my way through many of the fad diets of the day General Motors, Modified Atkins, South Beach & the like & most seem to work for me. This is obviously a tragedy for someone who loves to eat out as much as I do. Things have come to such a pass that I dread the moment when I will see an item in the menu & my brain will supply the amount of exercise I will need to do to work that off (a single 50 gm samosa = approx. 120 cals = 15 mins on the treadmill).
The options, thus, are either eat less or exercise more. In either case the outlook is bleak. Obviously the fat's in the fire but it's not burning.
Loved this one. It is simply superb..
ReplyDeleteThis is harsh reality for many of us, including me :(
ReplyDeleteVery well described
Thank you Sunu.
ReplyDeleteAparna - I guess all we can do is keep pushing !
very nice. loved reading it.
ReplyDeleteThank you Rashma.
ReplyDeleteSanju nice article. As some one who tries to be in the gym at least three or four times a week I have seen more to the Gym than just fitness and muscles. There is lot of philosophy that one can pick up from a gym.
ReplyDeleteFor one like the adage goes ' you can take the horse to the water but you cant make it drink'. It takes great will power to wake up early shake off lethargy reach gym and then undergo all the weight training and cardio. They call it " resistance training" here. For most peole its resistance to training.
The interesting thing about weight training is no matter how many reps you do its the incremental reps that give you the returns.True in life too I guess its not just effort its probably the incremental effort that creates success and successful people.
Some thing which most people tell in the Gym to keep going is " theres no gain with out pain". My friend says Arnorld Sivasankaran ( actually Schwarzenegger) apparently keeps saying this. So the gym community considers pain as part of progress and growth. I keep telling the same to myself during tough times in business.
Cheating is a word that you keep hearing in the Gym. It can be either doing things the easy way or just stopping before it gets difficult. Does'nt help either in life or in Gym I guess especially in the sales profession that I am in. You can cheat but the result will easily make it evident.
Last thing you should do in a Gym is to compare. Some one taking 80 lbs dumbell may make you feel a little inept when you struggle with 25. Or some one having better calf or biceps. So the best thing to do as in life is to give 100 % with out cheating at some point one would grow to those aspirational levels.
At 41 you think whether you need to push so hard. Then you look around and take inspiration from all sorts of sources the Sharukhs,Amirs of the world. Well the fact is clock has to move forward but its not necessary that I should feel the same. The fact is I dont. So the idea is to keep pushing as long as one enjoys it, with out looking at the clock.
Whether good or bad you see true socialism only in a gym. Socialism says wealth has to be distributed based on how much he contributes as opposed to how much capital he holds. No matter how much of wealth you have it does not cut much ice in the gym. You are all socially equal once you step into it. After 50 push ups you even forget your existance.
All said and done it still is tough going to the gym religiously. But its worth it both physically and philosophically.
Shyam - very interesting take on the parallels between exercise & life / career. I guess when you really peel back the layers life has lessons everywhere & it's up to us how we absorb them.
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