Like finishing in the first five, most of us have exercised at least once in our lives. But like education, exercise too shows long-term benefits if one goes about it regularly, diligently. They say genius is 99 per cent perspiration. Fitness demands 100 per cent exercising effort and a complementary, committed lifestyle before you pluck the fruits of fitness.
Some time ago, we met a fitness freak.. If the description suggests a woman who exercises all day long, forget it. She is a compulsive reader of fitness. Books, pamphlets, magazines - anything she can lay her hands upon. She never misses a single TV fitness programme. She has long, earnest conversations about calories and cholesterol with every doctor, dietician, and food-shop attendant she chances upon. One of her ambitions in life is to "chart out a programme" - columns giving advice on what she would eat and drink, what kind of exercises she would perform. When we bumped into her again, she said seriously, "I haven't started exercising because i haven't yet drawn up my chart." She, probably, never will.