If you want to be healthy...

...a lot depends on you and your attitude towards a healthy lifestyle, says Madhuri Ruia, a nutritional and Pilates expert who writes a column called Diet Desk in Mint.

According to Ruia, there are three types of mindsets that prevent people from taking a step towards a healthy lifestyle:

The “definitely, maybe” attitude: You have definitely decided to become healthy but keep postponing the day when you will start implementing the changes. It will be the first Monday of every month and...that Monday never comes.

The “It’s just one life...” attitude: So why bother? You believe that this soup, salad and exercise routine is just too restrictive. The health craze is a fad that is bound to get shelved sooner or later. After all, people you know have managed to stay healthy on a paratha, pastry and party-till-you-drop lifestyle.

The “It all comes back again” attitude: It is better to stay fat than diet and exercise. After all, once you stop the diet, the weight will all come back with a vengeance.

Many young people today fall into one or the other of these categories. But I believe if you push yourself just a little every day you can work wonders, whether it is your health or your career.

When I began running on a treadmill at The Zone Mind and Body Studio in Koramangala eight years ago, it took all my willpower to run at a stretch for... five minutes. But I kept at it and gradually I was able to run for 20 minutes without a break. Then I began experimenting with the pace and also the distance. Finally, totting up 2 miles or 3.2K in 20 minutes at 6 mph (9.6K per hour) became a breeze.

Now I find a 20-minute run is very easy but, at 51, I find it difficult to maintain the 9.6K-per-hour pace from start to finish, so I have opted to go for distance. Yesterday, for example, at the gym in our apartment complex, I ran for 45 minutes without a break at the average speed of about 9K per hour and notched up 7K, burning up more than 500 calories in the process. As I said earlier, if you push yourself, you can achieve miracles.

Back to the Diet Desk now. To brush up on your health attitude, and to learn how to motivate yourself, go here.

Why am I asking you to do this? Because the media industry expects you to work long hours and gives you very few opportunities for long downtime, especially if you're a junior. Your health, consequently, is going be a factor in how well you do in your career. So make time for it now when you're still young — 30-60 minutes a day, three days a week. I guarantee this will make a difference.

• Photo courtesy: Mint 

UPDATE-1 

Yesterday, a few hours after posting the item about the role of exercise above, I hit the treadmill at our gym. Normally, after a longish run, I take it easy the next day. But yesterday I wanted to see if I could push myself again and I went at it hammer and tongs. Starting at 9K per hour, I increased the pace gradually till, in the 31st minute, I was running at 10.2K per hour. I topped out at 10.6K per hour and in 32 minutes 18 seconds I achieved my target of 5K. (The video posted above was shot on April 8, 2015. I'm running at 9kmph and I covered 6.2K in 45 minutes.)

But, really, this is not a big deal for people who have been gymming for years. 

In fact, running 12K over two days can be likened to a speck in the cosmos if you consider the case of Ranulph Fiennes, the Englishman who, according to the Guinness Book of Records, is the world's greatest living adventurer. He is also the holder of several endurance records. Here's one that is simply astounding, no other word for it:

(FROM WIKIPEDIA) Despite suffering a heart attack and undergoing a double heart bypass operation just four months before, Fiennes, in 2003, carried out the extraordinary feat of completing seven marathons in seven days on seven continents in the Land Rover 7x7x7 Challenge for the British Heart Foundation. "In retrospect I wouldn't have done it. I wouldn't do it again. It was [nutrition specialist] Mike Stroud's idea". Their routes were as follows:

26 October - Race 1: Patagonia, South America

27 October - Race 2: Falkland Islands, "Antarctica"

28 October - Race 3: Sydney, Australia

29 October - Race 4: Singapore, Asia

30 October - Race 5: London, England

31 October - Race 6: Cairo, Egypt

1 November - Race 7: New York, USA

Originally Fiennes had planned to run the first marathon on King George Island, Antarctica. The second marathon would then have taken place in Santiago, Chile. However, bad weather and aeroplane engine trouble caused him to change his plans, running the South American segment in southern Patagonia first and then hopping to the Falklands as a substitute for the Antarctic leg.

Speaking after the event, Fiennes said the Singapore Marathon had been by far the most difficult because of high humidity and pollution. He also said his cardiac surgeon had approved the marathons, providing his heart-rate did not exceed 130 beats per minute; Fiennes later confessed to having forgotten to pack his heart-rate monitor, and as such does not know how fast his heart was beating.

• For more on the great man, go here.

UPDATE-2

Ranulph Fiennes is such an inspiration. If he can run seven marathons in seven days on seven continents, surely I can push myself to do that little extra every time I get on the treadmill. So yesterday, May 5, I gave it my all at the gym at our club. I didn't have a lot of energy at the beginning so I kept the pace at a steady 9K per hour. It took me a while — 53 minutes and 25 seconds to be precise — but, in the end,  I achieved my target of 8K, which is the distance from my home to Commits, and which takes me 25-30 minutes by car. I have done 8K on the treadmill before — once, many years ago. But this is the first time I clocked 20K in three days. It is gratifying to know that one can get better with age.

Thank you, Sir Ran!