A healthy body = healthy mind.

A healthy body is a result of a healthy mind.

This is a strange observation.

And quite ironical.

For us, exercise isn’t just about moving our body.

The pride attached to activity lies in the name given to the act.

As long as our energy is not converted into something useful to us, it’s considered to be cool.

As long as our action doesn’t result in ending up as a chore, it’s classy.

So, our mindset is such that if we do anything for ourselves, it’s looked down upon.

We all want to eat the best.

Food is what helps us survive.

Food is what we all work for. We want to eat in the best cutlery.

But anything related to eating, like buying vegetables, cooking, doing dishes isn’t what we find pride in doing.

We want maids and cooks.

We want to look the best. But we don’t want to wash our clothes. We don’t want to dry them. We don’t want to iron them.

We want a clean house but we don’t want to mop it clean.

We want a maid to do it.

But we can all move our body and exert enough as long as the end result is all about calories, weight loss, miles covered or steps walked.

We can lift dumbbells with our hands but if the same hand is doing the dishes and keeping the muscles busy, it doesn’t get the same respect.

We can lift weights but if use the same hands to mop the floor of our own house that we ourselves make dirty, it’s a tough job.

We can go jogging for kilometers but we can’t walk even half the distance to buy vegetables or fish from the market and get it home.

Skipping for health is really good and sounds class but washing and putting the clothes for drying using the same hands is so uncool.

We have no problems improving on the number of Pull-ups, Push-ups and Bench press we do but we are not ready to accept that chopping vegetables and making food for ourselves is equally healthy. And respectful.

While we can keep walking on a Treadmill for hours without reaching anywhere, we can definitely go for a long walk and bring home some sweets and happiness instead of ordering it online or ordering the house-help to fetch it from the market.

*This post is gender neutral and I’ve never found doing any of the above mentioned things disgraceful.

P K Anil