Unlike most
businesses that peak during Diwali, fitness centers patiently wait for the last
diya to die out and the last cracker to fall silent for their clients to walk in.
Weight watchers, who usually go off-guard for a few weeks, find themselves
piling up two to six kilos around this time.
Diwali, and the weeks that lead to it, is a time
when calorie intake shoots up dangerously. Dry fruits, sweets and barfis start
coming home, and most of us are unable to keep our hands off the loaded trays.
Aritual visit to a relative or friend’s home is customarily associated gorging
of sweets or snacks that are dense in calories! And no matter how health
conscious you may be, refusing to pick up a piece from the thali and depositing
it into your mouth is fraught with the risk of being labeled stiff, snobbish,
unsporting, or lacking in the “Diwali Spirit”, that you can’t afford at this
time.
While talking of spirits, yes,spirit consumption
also goes up significantly at these times. Alcohol is notoriously calorie-rich,
providing 7 Kilocalories for every ml, compared to a humble 4 for each gram of
carbs. And spirits go down the throats of spirited revelers in the company of
fried snacks and nuts, which in turn are loaded with fats, that provide 9 Kilo cals
for each gram that you consume!
Responding to the call of the times, several
mithai-wallas have started selling “low cal” sweets for their health savvy
customers. Lucknow’s prime sweet maker, Chhappan Bhog is offering three varieties
of low cal (cane-sugar free) sweets this season, innovatively named Fig, Date
and Nut Berries. Another one, patronized by a diabetic patient whose blood
sugars remain at dizzy heights, makes ‘Son Papdis’ and Chamchams without using
the regular sugar.
Funnily, the festive spirit of Diwali also absolves
us from feelings of guilt or remorse in skipping our regular dose of exercise.
It is parties in the evenings, card sessions late into the nights, the late rise
in the mornings when it is well past tennis-time, and hot puris and kachoris
greet us at breakfast.
Post Diwali
then becomes the festive season for fitness centers. Irresistible promises and
lure of discounted packages lead us up the steps to gyms and saunas. And back
then we return to the mocking treadmill to sweat and pant as penance for all
our indiscretions and sins!
Gym owners are the last to get Laksmi’s blessings
during Diwali, but they get it in abundance! And it is through the Halwai’s
that she sends her blessings!
As published in HT City ( Hindustan Times) dated 11 November, 2012.
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