July 17, 2003

With increasing awareness of the necessity and benefits of physical fitness, more and more people are working out or are at least making a concerted effort to make it a part of their lives. As a result, parks are crowded and gyms are packed.

There are different reasons which act as ‘motivating factors’ for these fitness conscious folk. Some suffer from medical conditions so their doctors have prescribed exercise as part of their treatment.

Others follow unhealthy lifestyles whether that comprises alcohol, drugs, nicotine or caffeine and they believe these can be offset and compensated for by working out.

Some are obsessed with their bodies; this goes for both men and women. For some going to the gym also serves as a place where they can hang out with buddies. And last but not least there are those who simply workout for the love of it — who simply cannot get enough of those endorphins (chemical stuff) which give you a happy high.

Regardless of which category you may find yourself in, it seems that some face apprehensions about working out. There is so much emphasis on the gear and level of fitness.

Seriously though, at times when you look around a gym you wonder who/where the unfit are? While you’re struggling to maintain what you consider a reasonable pace on the treadmill — all the while perspiring profusely, barely able to breathe, wondering why you’re doing this to yourself — someone next to you (in shorts and a fitted T-shirt) is running effortlessly and holding a conversation as well.

Even coaches and trainers and ‘well-wishers’ above all can sometimes push you too hard and that makes the whole thing incredibly challenging and frustrating. It cannot be denied, however, that sometimes you need that extra push — which will shake you out of your state of lethargy and make you realize that despite the problems that obstruct your way to fitness, it is not an unattainable goal.

Venturing into fitness programmes for those who really need them and find them hard to maintain is a fairly common phenomenon.

Really, one doesn’t want to talk about it but there are plenty out there who would give anything to get into shape and feel good about themselves. Unfortunately wishing without working towards it doesn’t make it happen. And no one can make it happen, except for you.

Quite often those who may be overweight suffer from psychiatric disorders, like food disorders and depression. One such eating disorder is known as binge eating.

Some “bingers” either nibble throughout the day or more commonly they gorge themselves on certain foods which they may be dependent on or hooked to. Sometimes this is also referred to as comfort eating.

These foods can take the form of junk food, desserts (anything sweet) or more specifically chocolate, in other words they are ‘chocoholics’. Many food scientists have reported chocolate to be the single most craved food. Some researchers have even argued that chocolate is addictive.

Bingers are caught in a vicious cycle: on the one hand they may be miserable about their appearance, but are unable to control or check their eating habits. They feel guilty about the way they look and in order to feel better they turn to food, for comfort.

It sounds absurd and there seems to be no rationale in such an argument. If you’re fat and feeling lousy about it, how is devouring bags of chips and litres of ice cream going to make you feel better?

But the fact is that people caught in this mess do believe that food will change their psychological state. That state may be elated for the duration of say the time it takes for them to binge, but afterwards they find themselves back in a depressive state.

This so-called lifestyle which lays so much emphasis on monitoring what is consumed and how it’s burned has, as its intrinsic objective, none other than self-esteem, morale, confidence. Certainly the way one looks and feels does to a great extent serve as a measure of one’s self-regard. Perhaps for most it means a fundamental feature of one’s self-perception.

Having said that, it deserves to be mentioned that self-esteem is really about your persona — which has numerous components some of which are corporeal while others aren’t.

A person’s mental, psychological, spiritual and emotional state plays a large part in the sort of morale one has, just as academic and professional performance greatly determines the level of confidence.

There is a strong mind-body relationship at work and unless the two are in synch, well then it can amount to a fairly destructive/torrid affair. It seems self-esteem is a difficult thing to have and to hold (a little like chocolate), yet who doesn’t want it?

To end on a happy note, here’s a little pep talk: perhaps we need to stop being so hard on ourselves and if for just one moment we were to consider how well we’re doing — despite all the odds stacked against us — we may just find ourselves a little closer to that self-esteem we so crave.

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