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Fit Has the festive season hindered your fitness goals?

The season of cheer – Christmas and New Year – with parties, food and merry making, is a time when fitness and health concerns is the last priority for revellers. When all round the year people slog it out in gyms and fitness centres, come the festive season, their efforts turn futile because they can’t seem to hold back their appetite! And suddenly you find, men and women who’ve been battling obesity - and winning – sliding back.

While it is hard to resist that turkey, plum cake, chocolate fudge and other delights, people should be wary of what and how much they binge on. Fat and weight issues are such that they creep upon you like uninvited visitors. You feel like you are doing well and then one day the scale tips over and you wonder where all the extra weight has come from. If that sounds familiar to you, then you’re a victim of your own negligence. In other words, you are oblivious to the effects of those so called delicacies. Holding back from treating your taste buds at the expense of the rest your body, can be especially difficult if you’re fighting the war of fat.

But that’s not the case if you’re determined to shed those pounds like Mohsin. “I was over a 100 kilos and I’ve brought down my weight drastically over two years. During festive occasions, I make a conscious effort to keep my hunger pangs at bay. This way, I avoid putting piling on the pounds,” says a trim looking Mohsin.

Another group of people for whom alarms start ringing around the festive season, are people with cholesterol, heart problems or diabetes. For them, it is a vital issue.

Says Sekhar, a diabetic: “though I would love to cut loose and hog on my favourite food during times of celebration, my diabetes just doesn’t allow me to.” For people who are normally healthy, with no issues of obesity or otherwise, after a long season of merriment and feasting, it’s just a matter of detoxifying to get back on track. Elucidates Ramesh, a fitness instructor: “for most of my clients who have no weight problems as such, I suggest strong green tea, which is a wonderful detoxifying agent.”

KENNETH DAMARA

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