Fitness...Mumbai Style

Instead of the usual sophomoric attempts at wit to describe my level of frustration with this topic in India, I thought I'd share a picture of women "running" in the Mumbai "marathon". As the old adage goes, a picture is worth more words than a 3 page double spaced essay...

Yes, those women are wearing jeans, sunglasses and carrying phones and shopping bags during a marathon.


Also, psych, gotcha! I'm still going to write a 3 page essay on this topic. Below are a few observations which I think are among the causes for poor fitness among the middle/upper classes in India.*

1) For women, skinny (aka "smart") is healthy--forget that there are things like cardiovascular health and muscle tone. Women would much rather starve than hit a gym or be active

2) For men, skinny is unhealthy--again, forget that you might have good cardiovascular health and are toned. Not that I necessarily possess either of these characteristics, but I keep getting told to eat more. For those of you that have seen me eat, you know this is pretty difficult

3) Gyms are considered only places where body builders go. Case in point, Gold's Gym is the most popular "high-end" gym in India

...I can keep typing more reasons but I think that might me too much of a workout for hand and we know the last thing we want is for me to be any skinnier.



* I have to qualify that these are gross generalizations because I do have many friends in the city that do not subscribe to these views and I know many in the west that share some similar misguided views.**

** Will I ever get tired of footnotes or now footnoting footnotes? Never. Believe it.