By Kaamna Jain

In our adult life, we face a number of challenges; keeping our body fit is a major one. Nothing can give pleasure in life if we do not have a healthy body to enjoy it.

Have you ever seen kids playing in the parks or colonies in the evening, they spend hours – talking, laughing, running. It all seems so meaningless or maybe there is meaning. While it is okay to spend time like this in our childhood and well into our teens, we adults think it’s a luxury we can’t afford. Especially in this age of whatsapp, facebook and twitter any free time has to be spent judiciously and thus missing the point of chilling out stress free, like those kids in the park. The stress free time the kids spend helps them keep healthy mentally as well as physically.  

Why is it so difficult to keep fit as we grow older? Simple enough question though but it’s been troubling me for years. Here’s a couple of answers I guess makes sense to me now.

·         The metabolic rate slows down as we grow older which means that body burns fat at a lower rate than it did earlier

·         Lifestyle: desk jobs and sedentary routines

What works for me and will probably work for anyone is – Allocate some time for yourself every single day. Choose an activity that you can do daily, is practical and is something that you enjoy. If you target going for swimming to a pool that is 5 kilometres away from house every day or a gym in a far-off location chance of your sticking to the routine are limited.

Choose your fitness regimen, there are a number of options to choose from:

Walking – which is the simplest and most effective fitness regimen…it does not require much investment except buying a pair of good quality shoes and can be done anywhere.

Yoga –  I’ll recommend joining a Yoga class or getting home visits from a registered Yoga practitioner so that consistency in practice is maintained as well as you don’t end up hurting yourself during asana practice.

Gym –  This one is a no-brainer.

Dance – You get to move your body and have fun galore.

Running – Even if you don’t run the marathon, you will be surprised how running increases your stamina and strength if done regularly. You wouldn’t mind the weight loss as well.

Sports – Pick up a game – any game like Badminton/basketball. The only thing is that you will need like-minded people to play with you.

The key is habit or regularity. Practice till it becomes your second nature and your day isn’t complete if you missed your daily dose of physical action.

Taking care of our bodies is one of our prime responsibilities…After all our body is the only place we have to live in.