Stop giving excuses and start exercising

This is the first time I’m hearing the words, exercise evasion. I have heard of tax evasion but not exercise evasion, and you mean the consequences can more be dire and calamitous? What are the common excuses for exercise evasion?” asked the friend.

“Let us take it one at a time. The commonest is ‘I am not a sporty type. Exercise is not for me and I have not exercised from my school days’. This is a common confusion between exercise for sports and health requirements,” dad said.

“The individual need not have any quality of a sportsperson to begin an exercise programme. The best example would be veteran athlete of Tamil Nadu, 75-year-old John Devasir, who decided to increase his physical activity to combat diabetes when medicines proved ineffective. He had never exercised seriously until then but transformed into a medal winner. This goes to say that age and prior experience is not a prerequisite for exercise initiation,” mom said.

“The next common excuse for exercise evasion is ‘I have no time’. This is the reason for laziness, lethargy and loss of priority,” dad said.

“What do you mean by loss of priority?” the friend asked.

“The ownership of an alluring automobile, luxury villa or business chain takes precedence over one’s body. Thus your health, by sheer negligence, is accelerated rashly towards death. The blissful yield to the gustatory apparatus, the tongue’s preference for magnanimous quantity and prejudiced choices cause adiposity to deposit in the most crucial arteries, which block oxygen and lead to premature termination of life,” dad said.

“One fails to enjoy the drive in the car and instead, seek the ambulance for a quick ride to the hospital, which is expected to magically revive at all costs where all the chances of revival have been systematically sabotaged by the self — by bequeathing the liver to alcohol, lung to tobacco, heart to fat and cholesterol and the kidney to hypertension and diabetes,” mom said.

“The hospital may say ‘you don’t have time’ in spite of their sincere efforts,” the friend said.

“The next frequent excuses are ‘exercise is painful’ and ‘hate to exercise’. It’s a total misconception of pain and pleasure,” dad said.

“Chewing the excess food is pleasurable but its consequences are painful and even detrimental. A wise choice might be to exercise and bear the mild pain. A little pain during exercise is acceptable when the benefits are large and pleasurable,” mom said.

“Another excuse is ‘anything bad may happen to the neighbour but not to them’. This is a myth until reality strikes mercilessly. Lack of exercise and careless calorie consumption causes diabetes, obesity, hypertension, cancer and heart attack to everyone and not just the neighbour. Just like food, clothes and academics, physical exercise is a need and not a want. This responsibility must be shared by every member of the family for themselves first and others next,” dad said.

“The option of the best hospital in case of accident and illness is an absolute must. If the hospital entry is preventable and absolutely manageable without pharmaceutical agents then the onus lies with every individual to exercise just like the breath they take, the food they eat and the matter they excrete,” mom said.

“Exercise evasion could cause more damages than exercise invasion.

It is purely an individual pursuit, which no medicine can provide,” dad concluded.