During the past six years of coaching clients one on one, I noticed that a majority of people have this question.
“Why do we need to gym when we have an active life?”,
“Why do we need external supplementation when we have good quality food daily?”
“Why do we need to deviate from the way our ancestors have lived?”
Notice that all of these questions have the same underlying intent. They all arise from a rooted though, a thought that says “Why do we need to be different from what has been followed all this while?”
To answer this question, let’s go down the memory lane.
Exercise and Activity
Back in those days, we didn’t have gyms the way they are everywhere. Life was simple and exercise meant being active, doing things manually, and with minimal automation.
People used to walk long distances (mostly brisk) daily. There were limited elevators (and no escalators) and climbing stairs was common.
Evenings were spent playing with kids or gardening (both low to moderate intensity exercises).
Weekends were spent organising files, cleaning the difficult to reach nooks and crannies of the house. It was common to see people “fixing up stuff” and doing their maintenance tasks. There wasn’t any Urban clap!
Cycling was also common and safe. Incomes were less and so were the cars and bikes.
Morning walks with a lot of socialisation and laughter was a ritual most people used to follow (minus the polluted air)
Food and Kitchen
Food wasn’t as abundantly available as it is today.
Meals were predominantly home-cooked, wholesome and consumed fresh. Most fruits and vegetables were literally organic and devoid of any synthetic preservatives
Watching TV while having meals wasn’t a culture because many didn’t own one. Meals were a family affair and a celebration, rather than another to do on the list.
Sleep and Restfulness
Falling asleep wasn’t trouble, thanks to an active and social life.
Waking up restful also wasn’t a problem because there were no WhatsApp messages to be read and replied to, before sleeping.
They used to follow the body’s natural circadian rhythm, meaning dinner around sunset, sleeping early and waking up with the sunrise.
Healthcare and Medicine
Most people didn’t need much healthcare, except for serious issues. Fatigue, depression and other things didn’t exist the way they do today.
Good quality hospitals were few and most of them were far. Today we have hospitals and clinics all around and most of them are running full house. (No, the population hasn’t grown that fast)
Diabetes and Cardiac problems are “lifestyle” diseases today, and didn’t exist back then. The concept of yearly full body checkups was alien.
What about 2021?
If you’ve read this far, you’d agree with me in saying that things have completely changed now.
We live in a very different world and still lurking on “old ways of doing things”.
We use gadgets and machines for most things. Look closely at your 24 hours and you’ll find technology is now a major part of it (more than family time!).
Many of us have house-helps, maids to perform chores and many of us have started skipping the morning walk owing to the sleep late and wake up late lifestyle.
Gardening? Lol! The apartment culture has downsized the gardens to the size of a matchbox which doesn’t need any “gardening” per se.
We don’t go out for groceries and shopping much because we get it at home, thanks again to technology.
Most of our food has been replaced by calorie-dense, hyper-palatable options which can be consumed on the go.
Nutrition levels in our food are depleted to exorbitant levels and even though many of us have compact kitchen/rooftop gardens, we can’t organically produce all of it.
Most of us, right from kids to adults live in constant stress. The chaotic blizzard of news, notifications and attention-grabbing advertisements around us has shortened our attention span to a mere few seconds. We just can’t focus on one thing for long!
Our life isn’t natural anymore and hence, we should start questioning our “natural ways” of thinking!
We need to question our ways of eating and exercise.
We need to question our ways of thinking about diet and supplements.
We need to question our ways of running for small rewards (weekends).
We need to question our ways of living, for good.
Whenever I work with my coaching clients, I make sure that I pass on at least some (if not the entire) of this mindset to them. That’s all for this post folks, will see you again soon.
Take-Home
The previous generations have lived a life that was well suited for their environments. We need one that suits well to ours!
It’s time to question our ways of living!
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Interested in reading further about weight loss and calorie management? I’d suggest checkout 7 Weight loss tips that actually work. For in-depth information about Fat loss and calories, check out this article.
Dr Vaibhav is a Writer, Coach and Educator based in Jaipur, India. He writes prolifically in the Healthcare, Wellness and Marketing Spaces, and helps businesses grow their influence through his Content and Inbound Marketing services.
Visit his official website to know more.
