New Normal

   My exams were just a few days away when the lockdown was announced. I still kept preparing as I don't know that even after 21 days the lockdown will continue or not. But it kept increasing. And I kept preparing. Slowly, I was irritated by reading the same things again. I spent the days simply watching some TV shows and reading the same syllabus. Of course, I had my amazing family with me. We spent more time together and it was fun. Also, I had some amazing friends with whom I communicated on a daily basis. I still do. Their situation was just the same. In fact they were more irritated than me.

Most of my friends are extroverts and you can imagine how hard the lockdown can be for extroverts. But still, all of us survived to support each other. When I was able to completely digest the fact that this is going to continue for a long time and the exams were also sorted then I decided that I should utilize this time to do some productive work. From the time I gave my board exams, I had transformed myself into this disciplined person who would always need to do anything. I wasn't like that earlier. But a tight schedule in 12th std made me like that.

Even after boards were over I was still in that mode. I started learning French and Sanskrit in my after boards vacation. But vacation didn't last much longer. The college started in July. And then the schedule continued for one more year. It wasn't like I didn't enjoy festivals or important days. It was just that my motto was to work hard and party harder. I had even planned my summer vacation as I was finally going to get a long vacation after the 12th. But lockdown came and all my plans got ruined. And that taught me that life does not go according to our plans. We have to keep changing our plans according to the situation.

The first few months were filled with enjoyment as well as anxiety. I was enjoying the time with family but was worried about exams and about all the plans and about not being much productive and about the no of increasing cases and whatnot. Our mind in this busy world is fastest than anything else. It travels to so many places within a microsecond. Stress and anxiety have become normal in these trying times. But as I lived these days I Iearnt that not much is in our hands. And life isn't a race. It can be as simple as you want it to be and still be able to make it beautiful. In fact as much more simpler it is you will be more at peace with yourself. But living a simple life doesn't mean living an unproductive or a lazy one. It simply means to reduce our desires and not to do everything at once. It is about taking one day at a time and giving equal time to every important aspect of your life. Be it your career, your family or even yourself. 

     I've always been very serious about my career. This lockdown also gave me an opportunity to cherish some good time with my family. Now only one aspect was left and that was the most important one. To work on myself and also to make my family work upon themselves. My mom had bought a diet cookbook a long time ago. As she was searching through all the cookbooks to decide what should be the dinner she came across that book. She showed it to me. As I went through some introductory pages I found it interesting. Of course, it was a bit difficult to execute the plan but we had plenty of time and we could do it if all of us help mom in executing it. It was planned for one month.

We started it and the first week was initially interesting. The food was healthy as well as tasty. But there were also the times when the dishes weren't that good and were very different from our taste. But we still continued. While doing this I learnt one thing that once you start feeding healthy food in the proper amount to yourself the craving for unhealthy food decreases on its own. All it takes is some days of self discipline and then it will be incorporated into your system as a habit. And just as I had started enjoying simple life I also started enjoying simple food. Even I had tried all those fast foods at home when lockdown had started. I was trying to learn new recipes.

But after a few days, I was bored by those things also. After following the diet, food was not a problem anymore. Salads and Raita became an important part of the daily diet. Regular vegetables were far more better than any other special dishes. Different types of flour other than wheat made food more interesting. I didn't eat rice for three weeks. It was unusual for my family as otherwise rice was common in our daily diet. But I started enjoying other food items also. There was also a time when felt like stopping it because my body was not accustomed to eating much paneer as it was suggested in the diet. I felt like not eating anything on those days when the Paneer plan was to be executed. This was a new change and a hard one but still an interesting one. After one month of hard work I had lost 2 kgs of weight. Not just the physical change my overall health also seem to be fine. My mind was a lot calmer. The body felt lighter. 

    When you start doing something more and more things related to it start showing up. All you need to do is to take the first step and then take one day at a time. We got the news that Yoga classes were going to get started nearby. This was a good opportunity. We joined the early morning batch as I belong to a family of early risers. All of us believe that waking up early gives a good start to your day and boosts up your energy. You get plenty of time to do everything you want to do in your day. Also, most of the world leaders also agree with this fact. And our culture also suggests that we should wake up on time and sleep on time.

I had relaxed enough in the lockdown and now it was time for some action. Initially, it was hard. The whole body was in pain for one week. But slowly we started enjoying that too. The body got habituated and pain reduced. We have an amazing yoga teacher who makes sure that we do variety of exercises so that body doesn't get much habituated and stops losing weight. Not just fat burning she also helps in muscle building exercises.

As days passed our physical capabilities increased. The exercises that we were not able to do easily earlier were possible now. The most important thing about yoga is that it is not just good for our physical health but also for our mental health. Meditation is a part of the daily routine in our classes. Ever since we had started that our mind is more relaxed. Self-realization through yoga has also been suggested in Bhagwad Gita and we are definitely experiencing great results. Also, I needed a new diet plan now as my body got habituated to the previous one. I downloaded an app in which we can choose the variety of options for food. And then they will design a meal for us which also has its quantity of each food item mentioned. We can also log in and get to know about all the nutrients - both macro and micro. According to that, I had to manage my whole day and all the meals.

As I continue using it there is something new I learn everyday about food. I learnt about the amount of nutrients that I take into my daily diet. I understood the importance of each nutrient in our body and in our diet. Now my goal was not just to lose weight but to adopt an overall healthy lifestyle so that each system in my body can work properly. Also, there are many workouts presents in the app also. When we had to stop classes for some days due to Corona I continued my workout from the app. After one month I had lost both weights as well as inches.

One more thing that I realized is that looking healthy and being healthy are two different things. You just can't judge anyone by their body and you need to keep working on your body even if you have a perfect looking body. A person looking completely fine gets a heart attack or some serious disease just because he has good metabolism and keeps eating the food which is not very healthy or lives a life which includes little or no workout. We need not just look healthy we also need to be healthy from inside out. Don't work out because you need to look good you are completely fine the way you are. Don't work out because it is cool and celebrities do it all the time. Don't work out because everyone is doing it. Workout for yourself. Workout so that you can achieve all the things in your life that you want to with a healthy body. Workout to show your body that you love it. Do it for yourself. 

    I realized in this lockdown that there is nothing we cannot do. All it takes is some days of self-discipline. Once you get habituated nothing is hard. I had started following the app one year ago. But couldn't continue it all the time. But also for all the little time, I did it still showed some result. In the last year, I've lost 7 kgs of weight. But most of that was achieved in lockdown. And I still have much time and I am going to utilize it as much as I can.

Online classes have started. The day is much more organised now. I'm finally giving enough time to all the aspects of my life - education, family and myself. This is the new normal. Of course now and then bad news breaks out and affect us. But we need to stay strong and we need to stay safe. We have to follow social distancing. We have to be there for people who need us. Help the people around you as much as you can. And most importantly take care of yourself. Don't give up. Life is not always a bed of roses some days will be tough and some will be easy ones. But still, there is something to learn in every situation. So, learn the lesson and keep working.