The Power of Fitness

[Music]

thank you so much for the introduction

i really appreciate that um

so there are certain points in all of

our lives

that are defining moments some

have near-death experiences some lose

loved ones and some have to make hard

decisions throughout their lives

and the list goes on this is my story

on how fitness redefined my life

from the moment we are born or maybe

even before that our parents

naturally want us to be successful they

want us to grow up to be lawyers

doctors engineers or successful business

women

and men i grew up the same way

my parents worked hard as immigrants

from india

to make sure that my brother and i both

received the best education

and went into careers that would set our

lives up for success

and what they didn’t know nor did i

realize until

very late in my life was that there’s a

cost to it

and i’m not talking about a monetary

cost

so due to the lack of our knowledge

i spent years blindly going to school

and then college and i ended up

graduating from law school

in december of 2019.

looking back now throughout our

schooling

we were told that we had to take core

classes such as

math english social studies

and science we also had elective courses

these were secondary in nature and

important and

they weren’t as vital they weren’t as

important

as their core classes your success at

the class

was not as important

and one of those electives or secondary

secondary classes

were physical education

so even while we were in school we were

taught to put our physical education

second

[Music]

and it’s kind of engraved in our

minds that it has to be second

so even in law school

we weren’t provided courses on physical

health or mental health

and this is true although lawyers and

most

other professional careers have high

rates of stress

depression poor physical health and so

on

and although we may not have been

directly taught to put our physical

health second

the system was designed to make us think

that way

in the u.s obesity has risen

to above 40 percent

back in 2017 and 2018.

obesity in india has reached epidemic

proportions

with morbid obesity affecting 5

of the country’s population

in the entire world 13 of the people

are obese that means a little over 1

billion people in the world

are at risk of heart disease loss of

bodily functions

diabetes stroke osteoarthritis

and now coronavirus

being obese or overweight significantly

increases your risk

of being hospitalized due to the virus

because of a decreased capacity of your

lungs

impaired immune functions and

increased bmi and i know what you’re

thinking

a beach there’s a there’s a vaccine

coming out it’s been approved

we’re good we’re going to be fine we’re

well

coronavirus is not the first disease to

ever exist

nor will it be the last studies have

shown that obesity may be linked to

lower vaccine responses

for numerous diseases as demonstrated

with influenza

tetanus and hepatitis and this is

exactly why

we need to change how the world sees

fitness

when i was in school and in college i

saw fitness as a fad

just like others i wanted to be the

biggest and strongest person in the room

i wanted to look like a star as we saw

on social media

and movies so i worked out religiously

but what i didn’t know was that being

the biggest and strongest

didn’t necessarily mean that you were

the healthiest i also didn’t know

what i was really doing and i wasn’t

taught how to properly work out

and what it means to be fit nor was i

taught

how i can incorporate healthy habits

into my

ever-changing lifestyle as an adult

as a young adult i had packed on

a great amount of muscle and someone

could look at me

and assume i was healthy because of the

mainstream

standard we’ve all created about what a

person looks like

when they’re healthy but the truth is

i had poor cardiovascular health my

stamina was next to nothing

in a high intensity situation and i

could barely run

half a mile without having to sit down

and take a breath

and not to mention my lack of mobility

and flexibility as an overall athlete

and as stressful as college was it

wasn’t until i got into law school

that i realized how unhealthy i was

the first year of law school is meant to

torture you

you were worked to death with copious

amounts of reading

and assignments and you were exposed to

an unexplainable fear

of being called on in class by your

professors

and well the grading system isn’t the

fairest in nature

so you’re working your butt off for what

most likely won’t reflect in your grades

and what is the result lack of time to

focus on your health and wellness

large amounts of stress

high risk of depression and lack of

sleep

all of which lead to poor physical

health

so why is our health and wellness not to

not tended to in our schooling why is it

not a priority

if our education system is designed to

stress us out

the first year of law school took such a

huge toll on me

that i suffered from every single thing

i mentioned

i gained a ton of weight i could barely

sleep

i ate disgusting amounts of junk food

and i was incredibly depressed and on

the verge of not wanting to live

nothing else caused this school did

so i spent 12 years in school four years

in my undergraduate studies and then

three more getting my law degree

that’s 18 years that led me to be so

unhealthy without any sort of

preparation for life

and that is a reality of access to

modern day health and fitness education

we are so caught up in our own lives in

our

own pursuit of what we believe to be

happiness

that we forget that without our health

we have nothing

i started by speaking of everyone having

a defining moment in their lives

i had mine after the first year of law

school

i didn’t do well specifically

i failed i didn’t know how to handle the

stress

and i wasn’t taught to do so and

physically

i just gave up because of lack of time

and energy

and when i found out i was failing i

lost all hope

i had no more fight in me and the

pressure of being successful

just became too much so i gave up on

life

and that’s the toll so many pay and

that’s the toll

so many succeed at paying

but ironically enough i failed at that

too

and that defined how i would live

this newly given chance of life so one

day

i woke up and i said to myself

i’m going to get into shape both

mentally and physically

and i told myself i will make time every

single day to work out

to tend to my personal life and just

take time out for myself

i found a workout program and three

months

after that i lost 50 pounds

i was healthier and happier than ever

before

during that course of time i also

started to do better in school

i started getting better grades i

started retaining more information

and i started enjoying school rather

than being stressed from it

and really just did what i could

to be my best and to take it further i

took it upon myself

to help inspire others like me people

who are in the same

situation as me and help them find a way

to take time out for their own health as

well

and to really emphasize how much better

i was doing

through the rest of the two years of law

school not only did i do

better in school but i went out of my

way to teach myself photography

videography over five different types of

training styles

and created a brand of my own to show

others that if i can do it

so can they obviously i ended up

graduating law school

and doing okay but what was the sudden

change how could fitness have made such

a

huge difference well it allowed me to

have an

outlet outside of the regular ongoing of

my day

i worked out for 20 minutes a day every

single day

that’s it on occasion i

do a workout twice

but i also started to watch

what i ate and that sounds cliche right

but instead of going out and getting

food i started

cooking which really allowed me to

connect with myself

and really learn about myself and that’s

something we don’t do very often

and these two things working out and

watching what i eat

they sound so small and my new but were

the biggest factors for my health

the dictionary defines fitness as the

condition of being

fit and healthy but there’s so much more

to it than that

being fit is great but

it’s the journey to get there that

defines it

the journey is what creates a healthy

lifestyle and healthy habits

i have a saying not one meal

made you fat and not work at one workout

made you fit it takes consistent

action to either be fit or be

unhealthy and that is why i believe

fitness should be a primary success

subject

not only through school but even in

college

and graduate school so that people don’t

have to learn the hard way

like i did we are expected in society to

grow up

evolve and change our perspective on

life

the older we get we go from playing

video games as kids

to being expected to handle full careers

and be responsible for a family

in a matter of a few years but no one

teaches us how to continue our own

well-being

through all of that and not all of us

have the means to hire personal trainers

and therapists

and so on fitness

like anything else evolves it can grow

with you

change with you and fit your needs based

on your own unique life

and that’s where the education of

fitness comes in

to help us focus on our own health

on our own well-being while we grow

and in the modern world with a pandemic

in our midst with a virus that feeds off

of us

being unhealthy the education of fitness

has never been so critical

and i truly believe if every single

school

incorporated one required course on not

just the importance of being fit

but how to achieve it and how you can

start your fitness journey it could make

a huge impact

not just on today but on generations to

come

and until that time comes i urge every

single one of you

to take time out of your day whether

it’s 10 minutes

20 minutes or an hour whether you’re a

student

whether you’re whether you have a

full-time career or you are a

stay-at-home

parent to focus on your fitness

both mental and physical

we as humans are ever changing

we grow throughout our lives experience

new things go through different issues

and so on we are inherently

impermanent but to be able to take on so

much

in the few years that we have to live in

the world

we have to be mentally and physically

ready

that is all