Should I lose a couple of kilos?

I overheard this nice lady tell her friend at the gym yesterday that she was 0.3 points overweight on the BMI index. Seriously woman!! 0.3 points? That left me wondering when losing weight, looking good and keeping in shape started being counted in fractions. I am definitely an advocate of physical exercise and try not to miss my gym sessions during the week. Physical exercise, in addition to regulating metabolism and blood circulation, keeping a check on weight and generally keeping immunity levels high also helps in de-stressing. It is like listening to music. The only thing that matters is the activity you are engrossed in, be it the volley of the tennis ball, the rhythm of your jog, the laps you are swimming or the reps you are doing with the weights. In addition to all this, it boosts your confidence in social places. One need not always aim for a six pack, unless one is a movie star or a ramp model where going topless in required. Otherwise, a well toned body is all that is necessary. Anybody who says that they don’t relish that second glance of admiration from people because they are in good shape are without doubt lying through their teeth!

However, pretty recently the need to maintain oneself in shape has crossed the boundary to an obsession with calorie counts, competing on phone apps, checking one’s BMI every other hour etcetera. There is a word for that in simple English, paranoia. With the onset of this paranoia sprouted the evolution of conventional modes of keeping fit. Calorie charts started crowding fridge doors so much that every time you approach the machine you are reminded how many calories you are going to stuff on your girth each time you pick something out from the fridge. Yoga that the forefathers developed as a discipline of physical, mental and spiritual balance gave way to new forms which border on the wacky...Power yoga, Rave Yoga, Doga, Aerial Yoga, Paddleboard Yoga and Karaoke Yoga to name a few. It is like cross-breeding a tiger with a giraffe because you want a strong cat which is 10 feet tall for a pet! In the recent past, I came across a chap in the locker room of the gym who looked like he had lost his kidneys in the town fair and was about to go into a cardiac arrest. When I asked him if he needed help, he said he forgot his bottle of protein supplements back home that day! Therefore, health consciousness has evolved from necessity to discipline to compulsion to fashion to craze.

My trainer, a gentle man of few words, once told me “Eat and drink anything you want, but don’t overdo anything, including exercise”. Those words have stuck with me since. He was explaining to me how some of the patrons buff up to look like shawarma meat towers but fall ill and go out of action with one little change in weather.

We have been carved out to experience everything that comes our way and our bodies are meant to endure a little bit of beating in the process. So we will not be doing ourself any favour by denying ourselves those experiences. Therefore live life to its fullest, eat, drink and make merry, however in the right doses. Keep your body healthy by giving it the right amount of exercise so that you look good and feel good.

As for the Body Mass Index scale, I fully agree with the guy who said “Dude, considering my weight, on the BMI scale, I need to be anywhere between 8 to 9 feet tall!”