How to Become Fit and Healthy – The Indian Way

In today's times, all thanks to the pandemic we have seen a huge wave of people starting to care about their health, we got to see people paying a lot more attention to what they eat, how many steps they have walked, or what their weight have become. The pandemic has been called an eye-opening experience for many where people could finally have more time to themselves and change what should have been their priority in the first place. We saw an increase in the searches for fitness-related products, diets, and weight loss tips. The main question that was seldom asked was, are fitness and health only for the rich? Can people who have lower incomes not be fit? Are all those products and fancy gyms the only key to success in the world of fitness?

The not-so-popular answer to the not-so-popular answer is NO. Good health and long and happy life is something that we have always had, or at least our ancestors had in the Indian Subcontinent. Then Where did it all go wrong?

I think it went wrong because somewhere in this Modern world that moving towards western ways as fast as ever, we forgot the way our ancestors consumed their food. We have seen that American food chains- may it be McDonald's, KFC, or Dominos have made their mark in almost all countries. I am not against modernization, by no means am I saying things should not have changed. In countries like Japan and South Korea, we also see modernization, but if we have a closer look at their diets, they have not changed as much. As an agrarian economy, we have been blessed to have fresh produce being available to us very easily, but even then I think we have been moving towards packaged and processed foods a lot.

Nowadays we can search almost everywhere about how to get fit and get articles or videos that have millions of views, but in reality, health is not a short-term game. It is something that takes consistency, determination, and grit. It needs to be looked at as a process rather than a goal, and the process needs to be enjoyed thoroughly. When on that journey you would see very small changes in both your physical and mental health.

So what is the Indian way? The Indian way could be looked at as anything that your ancestors did which lead them to live such long and healthy lives

1. Choose millets and Less processed grains

We have seen a whole wave of people nowadays who are moving towards Quinoa and oats, grains that might be much more expensive than what they normally eat, but if we look at in the Indian way, our ancestors have always had Millets, hand Pounded rice, whole Wheat, refines wheat or Maida was the part of the wheat that was thrown out.

2. Indian Balanced Meal

The Indian Balanced meal, or the home-cooked healthy platter that has everything from Proteins, fats, Carbohydrates, and a lot of Vitamins and minerals. A home-cooked plate of Indian Food will always have a source of Carbohydrate – it could be Rice or Chapati( made from Wheat, Jowar, Bajra, or Ragi) these are sources of complex carbohydrates which provide you sustained energy throughout the day with the added benefits of fibers which are very important for a healthy gut. Secondly, It would have a vegetable, anything that is available and in season, fresh and wholesome, generally very light, and having tonnes of vitamins and minerals in it. Third It would have a Dal, a curry made with lentils and water, and some masalas, these acted as a source of vegan or vegetarian protein. Which helps in the wear and tear of muscles and is generally very lower in fats compared to its non-vegetarian counterparts. A lot of Influencers nowadays who promote being vegan talk about Indian meals and diets a lot as it provides tonnes of options when it comes to a clean and healthy vegan meal which is also very flavourful thanks to the wide range of Indian Masalas which do not need a whole lot of cheese butter or salt/sugar to make food taste good. Fresh and homemade food, prepared with love by a family member will never cause any sort of harm to your body, but will rather nourish it.

3. Make Raw fruits and Vegetables your friends

We can see nowadays that many people will not have a whole bunch of fruits, like mango, Sitafal because they have been told they have high sugar but the same people would not mind having a glass of aerated drinks that might have up to 10 times the sugar and none of the nutrition. A berry and Avocado fad has also been very evident, where people will pay 5-6 times the money just to buy berries that have been imported from South America, while not thinking about how those fruits might be up to 2 months old. I am not saying those berries and Avocados are bad, but what I'm saying is, that they are not worth the price and nor are they as fresh as your local produce. In India, we have been blessed to have local fruits and vegetables available to us, and they should definitely be a part of our diet as they are super delicious as well as super healthy

4. Fasting

It is quite ironic that as a food blog we are here talking about fasting, but the truth is, the very reason why we consume food is for health, and we would like to talk about a very important aspect that has always been a part of our culture but somehow we would always discard it as something useless until the west brought it back to us in the form of Intermittent fasting

Fasting has always been a part of the Indian way of life, may it be called Upwas, Roza, or something else. It does not mean loading up on potatoes or fruits or any other fried upwas snacks that you can buy at a regular grocer. Fasting when done on an empty stomach benefits the most. It increases your HGH or growth hormone which helps you in many ways. It regulated blood sugar and also gives your abdomen a break from working on digesting food all the time.