Search This Blog

Saturday, October 29, 2011

Day 302-2011 : Gym Time!

The alarm on my mobile phone rings at 6.00 AM. I open my eyes immediately and manhandle my phone in my attempt to press a button...any button!  Usually it is the 'snooze' button which gets preference and the cycle repeats itself in another 5 minutes.  I have to be careful not to push it, as the lady of the house, is in deep slumber, along with the cubs, and the incessant ringing of the alarm bell might bring her to life!  If that happens, meri to khair nahi...

The idea of the entire exercise above is...well....exercise!  The goal is to be able to reach the gymnasium, which involves a torturous 300 metres walk, by 6.30 AM.  The first thought that comes to my head is, 'Is it Thursday today?', as the gym is closed every Thursday.  The next question that I ask myself is, 'Does any part of my body hurt?  Ankles, back, etc., etc.?'  If so, I surely do not want to aggravate any of it.  That done, I quietly try to find out, if by any chance, the boys are awake.  If so, I can engage them rather than go to the gym! Once I get through this elaborate validation exercise and find no excuse for not going to the gym, I pack my gym bag and walk those 300 metres to the gym.  Getting to the gym is definitely the most difficult part of my exercise regimen, each morning!

I am now a regular at the gym, the regularity gradually increasing over the last few years.  But this year, I have spent the most time in the gym compared to any of the previous ones.  It probably also has to do with the fact that the place is more than a gym, it is a club.  It houses a fully equipped gym, a swimming pool, a steam and a sauna room, a badminton court, a billiards table, a table-tennis table and other assorted board games, including carrom!  This is the Raheja Vihar Club House, where I spend an hour, 5 days a week.  The 6th day, Sunday, is an extended session of 2 hours.
Back to the morning routine.  It is quite interesting, the fact that, throughout my walk to the gym, my workout at the gym and the walk back, I almost always end up seeing the same faces!  On the roads, it is the female group who gossip more than they walk, the uncle group whose discussions range from national politics to....society politics, the young couples who seem to enjoy the company more than the walk, the serious runners preparing for the upcoming marathon with all kinds of jazzy gadgets strapped on, the teenager who seems to be barely awake (probably pushed out of the bed by his parents to go and get some exercise) and the pot-bellied uncle who is always on the mobile phone while he walks!  In the gym, again, the same faces each day.  The frustrated, but narcissistic actor who has a larger ego than his biceps, a middle aged uncle who watches the gym equipment more than using it, a young lady who does the most strenuous routines, the other lady who keeps looking if someone is looking at her, the badminton pro who plays with the men on the court everyday and beats them and a sincere Sardarji who has lost probably more than 10 kgs since I started seeing him in the gym.  It looks like we are all a slave to habits and routines.

My routine is a modest one, the aim being to burn 300 calories in 60 minutes.  The routine includes 18 minutes on the treadmill with the speed changing incrementally every 2.5 minutes, another 17 - 18 minutes on the elliptical / normal cycle with incremental levels of difficulty and 24-25 minutes of stretches and weights.  I tend to change the routine some days and replace the gym workout with 25 laps in the pool.  The result till date: About 4 kgs and one waist size lost in the last 3 months, not bad I would say. 

Problem is, my BMI says I am still 'slightly overweight' and all that has been lost can be back in no time if I lower my guard!  But, I am more than determined not to do so!

This is a battle of will....and it has to be won!

Take care.

Friday, October 28, 2011

Day 301-2011 : Life is like that...

It has been a while since I posted something on this blog.  A month and three days to be precise...

A lot has happened in these 33 days.  When I published my last post, I was looking forward to celebrating my 37th birthday, which was 5 days hence.  I had already decided that the happenings of the day would make a good copy for my next post.  However, life has this peculiar knack of deciding its own course and things do not necessarily pan out like one intends them to. 

In the last one month, so many things have happened.  The economic crisis in Europe has only worsened while Sarkozy now has a daughter from Bruni. Sonia Gandhi is back in the thick of politics after her surgery, probably accelerated even more by the dismal performance of her party in the recent by-elections.  The silken voice of Jagjit Singh has been silenced by fate, sparking a brisk sale of his albums across music stores in the country.  The designing genius of Steve Jobs is no more, just a few days before I am about to own an Apple product for the first time in my life.  The eccentricity of Gaddafi's character has been lost to the global policing of the Americans.  Mumbai Indians have won the Champions League, without anyone from Mumbai actually playing in the eleven, India have paid back England in the ODI series in India and the festive spirit has set in and is in full flow since Navratri and Dussera, followed up by Diwali a couple of days ago.  Also in the meantime, I have subjected myself to the Annual Health Check, prompting me to be at the gym more often and a cricket team has been formed with work colleagues.  I have also been able to visit a couple of friends' places, fulfilling longstanding promises, have picked up a book to read after a break of a couple of months, finished reading it within a week and bought a few more.  But perhaps the most profound happening in these last few days has been my visit to a crematorium for the first time in my life! 


dance
as though no one is watching you,

love
as though you have never been hurt before,

sing
as though no one can hear you,

live
as though heaven is on earth.

- souza 

It is not that I haven't had the time to file a post since the last one; I have just not been able to write.  Call it a 'writer's block' or something else, I just haven't been able to write, in spite of some of the regular readers of this blog prodding me for the next post.  Someone mentioned that it is probably due to a philosophical concept called Smashana Vairagya, which, when it hits you, reveals the impermanence and insignificance of life very clearly!  Probably.  I did realise that day, on the eve of my own birthday, when the body was being cremated, that there will not be another opportunity to say goodbye.  Strangely, it took some time for that feeling to sink in.  I have been told that one gets over the feeling once he gets out of the crematorium and gets going with the duties of this material life.  I however think that, maybe it might be useful to carry little bit of that realisation to our day-to-day lives.  Nothing is permanent in its physical form and nothing is too significant ultimately. 

We might then probably take life a little less seriously.  We might then live life to its fullest!

Take care.