Health Topics
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Healthy Living
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October 2009
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| Bollywood's Keep Fit Machines |
Nutan Sehgal
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Life is seldom a party for top actors and models. Whether it is a festival season like Diwali where sweets and parties are in abundance, these celebrities try and stay away from all excesses. But being human, excesses do happen and that's when they switch to their special diet and work-out modes. |
This is the price stars have to pay to stay in the reckoning. For, in showbiz, an expanding girth can be a sure shot path to a shrinking career. Any straying away from the regimen can mean loss of contracts and slim pickings in this fiercely competitive world.
And though the Indian Arnold Schwarzeneggers and Pamela Andersons may still be sometime away, the fact is that like their western counterparts, Indian stars too have learnt that it takes more than just a pretty face to survive in a world that brooks no flab. Which is why stars are constantly running up tapes around their waists, working out in gyms with personal trainers and going on low fat, high fibre diets.
Size Zero Secret
Kareena Kapoor's famous size zero diet plan may have skyrocketed her career, but being so fit she does take— and deserves - a break from her routine and goes on an occasional vacation or to a party. But she is soon back to her strict regimen that is a clever mix of cardios, weight training and yoga. Being a strict vegetarian she sticks to nonfattening foods like a small cup of thukpa (Tibetan noodle soup) or an appam or pasta and drinks soy milk and mint tea. With a diet like that she's back to her amazing figure within days, even after a potentially fattening Diwali.
Even Rani Mukherjee has turned a fitness fanatic after she put on a few kilos in the past one year. That's when she decided to take charge of her life. Her toned body in the latest film Dil Bole Hadippa has put her back in the contention for the most heavenly figure of Bollywood. She has devised a special workout plan for herself which includes weights, stretching and aerobics. And as she eats mostly a low calorie diet, she managed to lose almost ten kilos before she started shooting for the film. The results are there for all to see and her drop-dead looks are the envy of other heroines.
Pumping Iron
Salman Khan's muscles are a part of Bollywood folklore. That he has a fixation for pumping iron is no secret. His fitness regimen stretches for an incredible three to four hours a day. But since he can't spare that kind of time from his busy schedule most of the days, he has cut out on his sleep and works out late in the nights and sweats it out till the wee hours of the morning. Says the hunk, "Eat right and work out right, it's as simple as that. My secret of keeping fit is regular gymming and a professional trainer. As for my diet I follow a simple rule - before I put something in my mouth I ask myself if it's right for me. That's because you are 80 percent of what you eat and only 20 percent is of what you do at the gym."
Body Toning Gadgets
Hrithik Roshan would readily agree. A complete workout freak, when it comes to fitness, his day begins at his personal gym that is equipped with some of the most sophisticated weight training and body toning gadgets. But when it comes to food, Hrithik follows some strict diktats, even on Diwali. No fatty or fried stuff. No butter, cheese or oil-based foods. He has a sweet tooth so he allows himself the indulgence of chocolate milk but this is no ordinary chocolate. It is packed with proteins and vitamins.
Soup & Salad
Much of Akshay Kumar's diet too comprises health foods. He is very careful about what he eats - egg whites and juice for breakfast, daal-sabzi and grilled fish or chicken for lunch and soup and salad for dinner. Most of his food has very little oil. No booze and intense training. He jogs on a treadmill for an hour besides doing weights and presses.
Food is something that Preity Zinta loves. But since she has a tendency to put on weight easily she balances her fondness for food with a regular exercise programme. She makes it a point to work-out in a gym at least four days a week which accounts for her svelte figure.
Actress and model Urvashi Sharma confesses to having a sweet tooth and can afford to binge on the laddoos because she does not put on weight easily – and because she does not miss her gym schedules.
Stars like Preity, Salman and others have realized that the glam world feeds on youth and glamour. And youth and glamour can last only in an environment of a regimented lifestyle of barbells, jogging shoes, salad and juice bars and protein-enriched diets. Wild all night partying has become a thing of the past for serious actors who are fast turning Bollywood into one big fitness club. |
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