Are you the kind who hates to go to the gym? Or the kind who hates to diet? Well, here's hope.
Harman Baweja -- the hottest newcomer in town, who makes his debut in Love Story 2050 -- looks like he's hiding a six-pack under his shirt. And to think that just a few years ago, he weighed a good 90 kilos!
Ironically, Harman does not believe in gymming too long. He claims to not have seen the insides of a gym in weeks! And he doesn't even diet. He tells us how he keeps fit:
I was very skinny as a child. But in the last few years, I put up a lot of weight -- I was almost 90, 95 kilos! When you're an assistant director (to father Harry Baweja), you live on vada pav, pav bhaji, dabeli, food on the sets, 10 chais a day...whatever you can get! Your focus is on getting your work done -- making sure the Beta tape is delivered at 2 am, continuity sheets, all of that.
But when you want to become an actor, you have to start focusing on your body. I worked out a lot then. But I'm not the type who believes in spending hours in the gym, taking pills and supplements. I haven't been to the gym in some weeks now. But I'm still fit.
People think that fitness is about going to the gym; that gym jaakar body banti hai (one gets a body by frequenting the gym). But fitness is more about 'internal' than 'external'. We need to eat right. That doesn't mean that I skip my aloo parathas or my rajma-chawal or my chocolate ice cream. I eat everything. When God has made so many kinds of food, why eat only boiled eggs!
If I'm training for dance rehearsals -- for an hour to one-and-a-half hours, with breaks -- that's my fitness regime for the day. I'm not obsessive about my fitness. If I can dance, shoot action sequences, stay up late and give interviews after work...that's fitness to me.
I went on a diet when I was trying to lose weight. If you ask me to take my shirt off, I'll need a week. In that week, I'll diet and cut down on what I need to, and focus on getting sharp cuts. The day I give that shot, I'll start eating again.
I used to have protein shakes when I started working off, I won't deny that. When you start working out, there's a lot of peer pressure and you tend to try everything. So I did. But I left all that in the last one year. I wouldn't recommend protein shakes at all.
The biggest fitness tip is to eat right, and in proportion. Excess of anything is bad, including diet food. If you eat too much diet food, you're not getting the essential minerals and vitamins that the body needs. So you need a balanced. And if you can work out for even half an hour a day -- in whatever form -- that's enough.
Text: Ronjita Kulkarni
Also see: Meet Harman Baweja!