Eat healthy, work out wisely

At 25, Taskeen Fatima Basha realised she was neglecting her health. Life in the corporate lane brought with it, aches and pains that simply wouldn’t go. “All we do is sit in front of our systems, skip meals, sit on calls at insane hours; we get no sunlight at all. My neck and shoulder pain wasn’t getting reduced with physiotherapy. I was determined to regain my healthy self. I read up books on health and diets from popular nutritionists, saw YouTube workout videos, understood myths and facts related to health. I was ready to do whatever was required to become healthy,” shares Taskeen.

Taskeen’s road to recovery was slow. She however knew once she was better, there would be no looking back. She began to walk, jog and gradually progressed to running. “I began with running on the road. A mistake; it gave me back and hip pain, so I shifted to running on a ground,” she says. She points out that she learnt everything right about fitness from the experience of listening to wrong suggestions that came her way.

However she was a quick leaner. Eventually her friend dragged her to a gym and things began to get better for her. After working out in the gym, “Someone saw me do a side crunch. They came up to me and asked me to guide them. I did and from then on, seeing the way I workout and handle my reps and weights, some of the women would come to me for help or suggestions. I was happy to help, but then I wasn’t a certified trainer,” quips Taskeen.

That led Taskeen to learning and getting herself certified as a trainer. Soon, she quit her job as a software engineer to take up fitness full time. “I am not one of those overnight YouTube fitness sensations. I learned out of my need, so I faced many challenges. Add to it the fact that gym, running, zumba, aerobics, etc were alien to me,” she adds.

She also started making workout videos and posting them on YouTube. In them, she wasn’t teaching how to crunch or do pull ups, instead was demonstrating what not to do when doing something as simple as doing a plank or biceps curls. She points out that even a wrong posture on the cross trainer can lead to an injury. “My YouTube channel—TheUrbanFight, started getting more views with such precautions. Eventually I got myself ‘A-certified’ as a fitness instructor.”

Myths abound around fitness “No one wants to know about endurance, flexibility and strength. Instead everyone wants to be like someone else; some celebrity they see on TV or magazines. I totally believe in healthy choices. I am not in support of result-oriented health awareness; results may take time, but there will be a visible change in our overall fitness,” smiles Taskeen.

Taskeen too has her lazy days but she is never sad about working out and she is always ready to assist someone who takes interest in their health. “I always wanted to dance. While I was learning and educating myself about healthcare, I also went and signed up for hip-hop classes while I could. That's how Zumba also happened. I eventually got certified as a Zumba instructor by Sucheta Pal,” she says with a pleased smile.

This column features people who dared to give up lucrative career to pursue their dream