[am1m]

Some positive things though. The aim overall is a healthy/ier population and that doesn't mean everyone has to have visible abs or becomes ultra marathoners. So small, key things like improved public spaces go a long way towards that. There's been a welcome trend, at least in Bangalore, where neglected neighborhood parks have been reclaimed and spruced up over the past decade or so. I'm seeing neighborhood parks that were truly scary places to venture into when I was growing up, now being used by families and people from all sections of society. That truly democratizes public space and access to simple forms of exercise, that otherwise is the preserve of those like us who can afford it. Keeping traffic out during the morning hours and on weekends in bigger parks like Cubbon Park and also having a Metro station nearby make it more accessible to a broader section of society. I've seen a park in my (very mixed-income) neighborhood transform over the past 20 years. It was a public space, but was a cesspit of sewage, dumped building rubble and garbage. There is a lot of work to be done, but over the years it has become a walking space for so many families, older folk and the general population to get some exercise before and after work, in an otherwise very crowded area.

With successive governments indicating that national spending on healthcare is set to increase, some spending now towards simple measures to ensure a healthier population (and it should be broad-based- not just for people with cars who can drive to a fancy gym class, or to the outskirts for yet another corporate-organized trail run), will pay off towards lowering the bigger costs of those programs in the future.

[RunGaDa]

Originally Posted by amol4184

Unbelievable. This stigma and wild ideas on "enjoying life" is our downfall.

There is no cure for ignorance.
There is also no cure for following myths, idolizing wrong people and not trying to understand health, nutrition and fitness by studying by themselves.

[RunGaDa]

Originally Posted by DCEite

Its not about non-veg food.

The problem is about the preparation of non-veg food that is mostly consumed in India.

Exactly. There are 9 calories per gram in oil. One must use it very carefully or keep the cardiac doctor on speed dial.

[Ad_J]

Most of us Indians are unhealthy because we can't be bothered to go in for regular check-ups unless the symptoms manifest themselves, which when they do eventually, reverting them is knotty.

One of the biggest tragedy of youth is that it makes a person think that he/she can keep doing the same things for their whole life. That's why we often neglect our health in our prime.

And most of us who are conscious of our health are severely under-informed and ignorant in some cases. Some people take the fitness to a whole another level without any proper knowledge about their bodies and workouts in itself.

I am sure most of you have read about people dropping dead in gyms. I am sorry to disagree with few of the members here, I don't think except for small distances, cycling in 35°C heat is a good idea either. The reason I say this is because, for instance, some people do not compensate (or they don't know about) for the lost electrolytes after sweating. I am also kind of in greyish area about protein supplements. And not to downplay someone's hardwork, I am not a fan of chiseled 6 Abs body because there is no co-relation whatsoever between the number of abs and health of a person. They look great though. Similarly, I don't endorse the idea that people often use to justify their daily alcohol consumption, 'in small quantities alcohol acts like a medicine'. AFAIK there is no published study to prove this hypothesis.

No two people are the same, different workouts/medicines works differently on everyone. It's surprising to see people blindly following their favourite influencers' workout regimens, diets and supplements without having any regards for their body or what they might need/need not actually.

Along with eating hygienic, nutritious food and exercising one should go in for regular check-ups. Why to wait for the day of our tryst with insulin? Why can't we try to prevent it altogether in the first place by making changes in our lifestyle?

And, I believe it's also understood how important is our emotional health which we often ignore like sunroof in our car - Nice to think about it now and then, but most of the time while driving we don't even care if it's there .

If you have made it till here, then I would like to suggest a basic book on preventive health care. It is an easy read and enjoyable one indeed. It has been published in 2023, so it's quite latest.

Outlive by Dr Peter Attia

This book can be perfectly summed up in the lines of the Legendary Rajesh Khanna from the movie Anand - Babumoshai, zindagi badi honi chahiye, lambi nahi

(Life should be great, not long)

In the context of this book, we should focus on living healthy, not long. There is little point in living upto 90 if we spend our last decade or two in bed, not even being able to remember our childrens' name and not being able to wipe our own bum)

[deathwalkr]

Is fitness and health an elitist thing? Something that the privileged amongst us can do? We have time to spare for our daily fitness routines, we have the luxury to buy foods that are healthy and cook them in fancy oils and follow fancy diets.

We have the knowledge to go for regular check ups and meet good doctors.

Of course there will be people who are well off but still choose not to be fit/healthy. It's their choice I guess.

Would the majority of people in our country be the ones who don't have a choice?

Just random musings...

[BullettuPaandi]

Originally Posted by amol4184

There is not only general lack of awareness about exercise, eating healthy etc. but there is also a strange negative outlook towards grown men in good jobs/businesses doing activities like cycling or going to gym and building muscles.

This might sound like I'm excusing/condoning, but kindly understand that I don't and am only trying to reason; or at least hypothesise. The 'strange negative outlook' comes from the same lack of awareness/understanding & differences in what different individuals find appealing.

Where I'm from, people would use words like 'nalla tadiccha aalu' to identify/refer to/speak of someone who's huge. The words literally only mean 'well thick person' (in order), with no regard to whether it is from muscle or fat. It doesn't matter, because subtly what it also means is basically someone who is 'well off'; as only those who were could manage to get so. So, there was and still is an appeal to being 'thick', because of the lifestyle that they might find appealing.

Problem is that this lifestyle also includes the sedentary, unhealthy one; as the nuances of 'muscle good, fat bad' came much later, chronologically, than the 'huge good', which still prevails due to various socio-economic factors.

[PreludeSH]

I think our doctors should do more than just provide medicine for problems/symptoms. I do think that generally some younger doctors ask you to look at physical activity, food intake - salt/sugar, its not that widely practiced.

The physical activity classes with the drills we all had were a joke. Its a missed chance to inculcate healthy habits in students.

[Ad_J]

Originally Posted by deathwalkr

Is fitness and health an elitist thing? Something that the privileged amongst us can do? We have time to spare for our daily fitness routines, we have the luxury to buy foods that are healthy and cook them in fancy oils and follow fancy diets.

We have the knowledge to go for regular check ups and meet good doctors.

Of course there will be people who are well off but still choose not to be fit/healthy. It's their choice I guess.

Would the majority of people in our country be the ones who don't have a choice?

Just random musings...

Some great contemplating

Of course it is us, the privileged that have the time and luxury to be healthy. Similarly it's the elites like Warren Buffett and Bill Gates who have the ultra-luxury of going in for cutting edge and expensive tests which can detect diseases like cancer at a very early stage and it's prognosis.

Low income households have their basic needs to meet and they can't afford to worry about their health.

Think of it this way, if we keep ourselves healthy, take preventive measures and try not to land in hospitals because of the diseases such as diabetes, obesity, myopia, hypertension, lungs and liver problems which can be easily cured and/or can be kept in check with exercise, behavioural and diet modifications, the resources of the healthcare system can be better utilised for the treatment of the poor, which otherwise would have been spent on us.

This way, we can give a chance to the majority of people who don't have a choice.

Our being healthy, means other can receive the treatments to be healthy.

[kd_r16]

I am in my late 20's I can confirm people from my generation understand the importance of healthy lifestyle but fail to act upon it, the biggest reason for inaction is tryst to be perfect and joining best of the places for workout, social media has the biggest influence on this type of thinking and like it has been discussed activities like walking in a park or around locality is considered downright tacky. My friends would rather drive for hours to enjoy few drinks with friends instead of going for hike.
One has to be extremely focused and determined to lead a healthy lifestyle.

[Nitish.arnold]

Originally Posted by Samurai

BTW, I don't run at all. I walk, do strength training, and follow IF (16-8) everyday.

Sir, Some more information of your IF routine please.

[DudeWithaFiat]

Originally Posted by PreludeSH

I think our doctors should do more than just provide medicine for problems/symptoms. I do think that generally some younger doctors ask you to look at physical activity, food intake - salt/sugar, its not that widely practiced.

How many of our doctors themselves are fit? Most of the young doctors I have seen are busy with their work. I haven't seen any fit doctors in a while.

Our apartment building has a gym that sees regular visits from only 12-14 out of the 120+ adult residents. A majority of the residents are in the 30-40 age bracket and whenever that matter of gym/regular walks comes up in our conversations, it is always one of these:

a) I am planning to start gym/walking/cycling after this busy season at work is over.

b) I had started going to gym/walking/cycling couple of months back, but had to take a break and lost that flow. I am planning to resume one day.

c) I used to gym/walking/cycling after the results came back from my last office health check-up, but couldn't continue with it.

d) I will start gym/walking/cycling once the kids grow up and I get some free time.

e) I want to work out at the gym, but with no prior experience I would prefer to get started with a trainer. So one day I`ll join a gym outside and once I am used to all the equipment, I`ll start using our gym.

f) I have tried, but I cannot exercise like others. I had gone for walking/gym last week, but my whole body was aching the next day. Looks like its not for me.

g) When we meet in the elevator or hallway when I am returning from gym, the comment is always "ah you had gone to the gym. I have to start going too one day".

All points out to exercise and eating healthy being at the bottom of the priority list.

[Samurai]

Originally Posted by Nitish.arnold

Sir, Some more information of your IF routine please.

You can read about it here.

[nimbus1]

Originally Posted by IshaanIan

I think it is 3 main factors that cause our populous to be unhealthy.

1. Lack of proper sports programs or facilities in schools; either there aren’t enough facilities for all kids of all age groups and genders to enjoy or even if there are, kids are prevented from playing sports citing reasons like tuition classes or board exams coming up.

2. Poor labor policies; we are under paid and over worked this leads to higher levels of stress leading to higher cortisol and insulin resistance.

3. Even if we find the time and motivation to go out and excercise, we are faced with poor air quality due to unregulated construction practices and lack of proper domestic cooking methods. Also there is hardly any undeveloped land. If it exists it is kabzafied and developed after a decade. So there basically exists no accessible outdoor parks or land for people in cities to use. I for one would not mind cycling within a 5km radius but who would want to walk or cycle with all the potholes in our roads and lack of pavements?

Agree with the second point, as Indians we simply don't have the authority to say "No" to over work at less pay. My counterpart in western countries can easily say "No" to work after 5:00PM, but here there is no end. While it is easy to say that you can always take out 1 hour of your day to workout etc. it is extremely difficult to do this with the stress that occupies your mind. Even if you have an hour. I can bet you will like to spend it sleeping and overthinking. As with extra workload we are also sleep deprived.

[am1m]

Originally Posted by Ad_J

Think of it this way, if we keep ourselves healthy,..., the resources of the healthcare system can be better utilised for the treatment of the poor, which otherwise would have been spent on us.

Probably not. This assumes that the majority of people will have access to the same private hospitals, that are actually beyond the reach of most.

But of course, there are enough good reasons to stay healthy and out of hospital anyway.

[Indraneel Bhat]

We Indians HATE physical labour!! Why do the dishes when I can pay someone to do them? In a poverty ridden country, the "look" of a portly, well-fed, "healthy" looking man became the ideal body-type.

Physical work is looked down upon as the plight of beasts of burden and poor people. Is it any wonder that we are among the world leaders the world in diabetes and heart disease? Sports traditionally were not seen as career options (low ratio even now). So why should the child "waste" his /her time on play and sports? This is the prevalent mindset.

I see hope in a significant population of today's parents where this mindset is changing and hopefully we reverse our opinions on physical labour and sports as necessary for character building and health. So here's hoping for the better!!