Fitness and health is quite the hype right now, isn't it? Especially in our country, it is a booming business and trend since 2016 and after(from what I've seen at least) and if we're talking Global, then the fitness and health industry exceeds the billion dollar mark by a lot, which at the moment is around $96 Billion. Even though the pandemic has hit the rate of progression quite hard, leading to a worldwide shut down of fitness centers for quite a long time, it is still making a good recovery at the moment. People are getting back to their old fit and active lifestyle and have started taking good care of themselves again because of the reopening of gyms and other businesses.
Now, despite the fact that everyone is becoming health conscious and are more informed about their daily activities and exercises. I believe we still lack the proper education about diet and food intake, especially here in our country and the countries around us. Because compared to the rest of the world, we do not have a proper balanced diet. We consume a lot of fried, oily foods on the daily and usually overpower most of our meals with carbohydrates(the usual rice, potatoes, beans) it's not like carbs are the enemy, but too much of something is definitely not good, whatever it maybe. What we need is balance, In simple words, a proper meal would have a decent amount of carbs, protein and fats, but if we calculate the macros, carbs take up 70% of our daily diet. Which to me seems like an awful lot, in our country it mostly comes from the plate full of rice we eat 2 to 3 times a day. It would've been quite alright if we mixed it up, there are other sources of carbs too oats, fruits, green veggies and so on. We do include these other sources of carbs to our diets once in a while, but "once in a while" does not get the job done.
Another factor is that most of us think that exercise is the number 1 priority when it comes to being healthy and fit. Well, it's actually the diet that should be number 1, a balanced diet customized for every individual according to their daily lifestyle, health and weight. When it comes to either losing or gaining weight, the first thing that comes to mind are gyms, jogging, treadmills, heavy weights yadayadayada. Whereas food should be our first concern, to put it simply, someone looking to lose weight should eat less by cutting down on calories and someone looking to gain weight should simply start eating more. Because no matter how much you workout, food is going to make the actual difference. After lifting weights, the muscles will need the proper nutritionnutrition to become bigger and stronger, which will lead to weight gain. While cardio and eating less, being on a caloric deficit will make the body use up the extra weight and fat that has built up and lead to weight loss. It's all about adaptability in the world, just as we adopted to a new lifestyle during the pandemic, our bodies do the same, balance is the key.
So, it's all as simple as that for the basics, now this all sounds simple but the deeper you dive in, more complex it gets. Yet, for someone looking to gain a slight bit of weight or to lose a bit, it surely isn't that complex even though it takes time and consistency to get proper and permanent results(and that is the hard part) if you're someone looking to be fit and active, be full of energy then it's actually VERY easy to maintain such a lifestyle. So I suggest you stop thinking and START NOW. The sooner you start the better and you will be thanking yourself for doing so. My life has changed for the better in MANY ways after I started eating properly and working out, more on that on the next one.
That's all from me about the basics, about the do's and don'ts, rights and wrongs. Do stay tuned for the next one, for a deeper dive into fitness and health. Cheers 🥃🍎
¨The groundwork for all happiness is good health.¨ – Leigh Hunt