Before I discuss this topic, I need to make clear couple of things close to fitness and nutrition:
We need to know, that there’s a difference between nutrition & fitness for general population, health & longevity; & competitive sports. Less than lower than 1% of overall population plays skilled sports.
Therefore, after we speak about nutrition or fitness or every other aspect related to health, the goal population should be clear.
Sports nutrition and training is extreme, and is only to do with performance, not health and longevity. It’s to do with achievement of their sports, by whatever means possible. Andover 99% of the people on the planet cannot and mustn’t be going to that extreme. In most cases, such extreme practices are detrimental to health.
We are going to consider the fitness and nutrition aspect for the whole population, not sportsmen.
Till almost 18yrs of age, I had hardly travelled. I actually never got the possibility. But by then I had done couple of treks within the Himalayas, which became so memorable that I still cherish those times. But then Air Force happened, and in the subsequent decade or so, I virtually travelled the whole country. Eventually abroad too. But this literally modified my outlook towards life.
Travelling is one of the best option to broaden your horizons. It’s one of the best option to get out of the ‘frog in a well’ mentality. A frog contained in the well starts considering that, the well is the whole world, and there may be nothing outside it. It’s perspective and overall considering gets limited to the partitions of the well, and lightweight coming from above, till sooner or later, when it jumps out and explores the surface world, and finds that there may be a whole unexplored universe on the market, and the way tiny his considering had been for all these years.
The same happens with individuals who haven’t seen anything beyond their day after day lives. We as human beings usually are not born to only undergo life and die sooner or later. We are made to grow through life, and explore the unknown. That’s why, a whole lot of explorers, over centuries, took the danger and showed the courage to explore the undiscovered corners of the world, and eventually united the whole world.
When we discuss about health and fitness, we’d like to know that, people, through the years, have developed a really narrow way of considering. First, major issue is what we discussed above, i.e. people get confused with eating and exercise for health & longevity, and for sports performance. And, the whole world eats for health & longevity.
Now, while you travel, you will notice & meet people from various cultures, traditions, living in several regions of the world. Their eating pattern and lifestyle is so diverse and involves a lot history, that’s it’s virtually unimaginable to explore all of it. A straightforward dish may be made in hundreds of how, different households, due to use of various methods of cooking, and the various ingredients used.
For e.g. if we wish to cook potato, are you able to even guess, what number of varieties of potato dishes are relished world wide? Every country, every state, every city & town, and each house in that town may have a distinct way of cooking potatoes. The end dish will taste absolutely different, in several households, despite of the proven fact that the bottom ingredient is potato.
That’s how diverse and exquisite the world is. Now, imagine a dietician or trainer, prescribing a eating regimen to their clients, totally devoid of taste, variety and absolutely alien to their culture, traditions and taste buds.
Imagine a trainer forcing an Indian client to eat keto eating regimen, GM or Blood Group eating regimen, not because its needed, but because its trending, and it would show short-term & temporary, but a bit faster results. Imagine the quantity of stress on the clients mind, especially once they are already under massive pressure from various other features of their lives, be it financial, family or work, or could also be an illness of a member of the family, or a disease they’re themselves affected by.
That’s one reason, I query so many so-called nutritionists and trainers, on the premise of the eating regimen they prescribe or recommend to their clients. Not one single person has ever been in a position to answer those questions, because they don’t have a solution. The amazing world of fitness & nutrition has been bought to a level where its plagued with confusion and chaos. The sole motive for many of those individuals, who’re liable for such clients, is pure profits.
Now let me ask you couple of questions, which in turn you must ask your dietician or trainer, to light their brains up a bit:
- There are hundreds of traditions and cultures world wide, and hundreds of thousands of how to eat and eat food. Please tell me which cultural way of eating, are you able to term as bad?
Mind you, I’m talking about cultural & traditional way of eating, not industrial foods or processed packaged foods available in the market.
- If all of the cultures have their diverse way of eating and consuming foods, then, population of which culture is sick or obese, or affected by lifestyle diseases, because they’re consuming their traditional foods? Are Japanese unhealthy, or are Koreans & Chinese Obese, or are Indians sick? Are Americans obese, Europeans sick, or Australians dying more?
- If the reply for the above query is NO, then why the hell suddenly most dieticians and fitness coaches, alienated themselves from traditional way of eating, and prescribing essentially the most weirdest and blandest of the foods to their clients?
Why chicken breast and never whole chicken or chicken broth? Why egg whites and never whole eggs? Why tofu and never paneer or vice versa? Why brown bread and never roti? Why gluten free? Why keto? Why broccoli and never all vegetables?
- Now, in terms of fitness, how do people world wide train or remain fit? Is everyone following single body part bodybuilding workouts? Most importantly, how do you define fitness? Is the aim or goal of each individual same, in terms of fitness?
That’s why I tell those who if you desire to learn the true meaning of fitness and nutrition, then travel. See, how the world’s healthiest and longest living people stay and live. How they eat, how they work, and the way they’ve a completely satisfied and positive attitude towards life.
Nutrition books teach you the whole lot about nutrition science, but nobody book can ever teach you the way in which the world consumes food. People who try to follow extremely scientific way of eating, by calculating each calorie they put of their mouths, are essentially the most miserable & unhappy people.
Not that calorie counting is a difficulty. It’s an ideal option to get a hang of the amount of food consumed. But in the long term, you possibly can’t live every moment of your life with a calculator in hand.
Travel and see how food is the pleasure of life and the way it gives satisfaction and happiness to the individuals who relish it. Travel and see, why calorie counting is at all times approximate, never accurate, as there are hundreds of thousands of alternative ways to arrange food.
People who advice their clients to hold a weight machine in every single place to measure food, and a calculator to count calories wherever they go, have only studied formulas, but never understood nutrition or eating as an entire.
I at all times say one thing, and I’ll say it again: fitness is a component of life, and never the whole life, unless your aim is particular like being a competitive sportsmen. when you cannot follow a eating regimen for all times, and never having fun with what you’re eating, then you definately are only on a brief adventure.
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