3, Aprill 2017

Health is Wealth

Written by Babu Alwarappan, Fitzapp Co-Founder

My father was a self-made man. He was born into a poor and large family and had a basic education. Despite this, by the age of 50 he had become the general manager of a financial group.

He was my hero.

But his success came at a cost. His focus on his career gave him myopia when it came to his health. In his mid-50s he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.

Basking in his glory he did his best to stay humble, although bad luck or lack of importance placed on his health I'll never know - he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. At the age of 55 lying on a hospital bed, he held my hands and said “Son, health is the only wealth you truly acquire”.

Two months later he was gone from my life. I was just a teenager.

In his absence his words played on my mind every day. I wondered why he had chosen to speak them to me and not my brothers or sister. Was it because he thought I was likely to fall into the same trap? Did he think I was vulnerable to living indulgently?

Or did he think I was compassionate enough to make a difference? More than finding the answers to those questions I was interested to learn about earning a wealth of health. This led me to delve deep into fitness science, learning about nutrition and other key contributing factors in diversifying a health portfolio.

The knowledge I gained over the years has helped me transform from 35% body fat to 18%. I also discovered that health wealth was less about losing weight or burning fat, and more about sustaining fitness and living a healthy lifestyle.

Becoming a dad myself has only sparked more interest in health. Ergo I write this column as part of the quest to find the answers to better life, and to break that vicious chain of bad habits and instil good ones in our kids, and above all to motivate and inspire.

It is a universal truth that fitness is a key factor to healthy living, but unfortunately it takes a back seat in our busy corporate lives. We all know we should keep fit, yet we don't do anything about it. The answer boils down to a simple truth "lack of motivation" and at times lack of know-how, too.

So to address that I designed a fitness app called "Fitzapp". At the end of the day if you are motivated to do any physical activity, then that can turn into interest and interest to a hobby and hobby to a good lifelong habit.

At the age of 55 lying on a hospital bed, he held my hands and said
“Son, health is the only wealth you truly acquire”.

Have you heard of the Maslow hierarchy of needs? It is a psychological model of human motivation. It suggests that humans must fulfil basic needs before they have the head space to turn their attention to higher level needs like esteem and self-fulfilment.

No matter where you are in the Maslow’s hierarchy; whether it’s chasing your dreams, trying to escape the rat race or living life to full, all of us have less time for fitness, especially if we are not passionate about it. In this fast food culture there are many quick solutions to reducing weight, including fad diets and poor fitness training methodologies.

Through Fitzapp I’m trying my best to educate people and to also provide a high quality fitness program by sourcing content from some of the world's best coaches.

Currently Fitzapp features a program from coach Duncan whose workouts are designed not only to strengthen and HIIT your fat burning zones, but also to improve your posture, stability, agility, balance, cardio and range of motion through highly motivating and, at times, even challenging group video/audio fitness.

Throughout my journey I’ve learned that progression is the key factor to my motivation. Hence the core feature of the app is aimed at improving certain aspect of your fitness.

Just like any financial investment you make, you need to diversify your portfolio in fitness. By doing the same physical activity day in day out, your body plateaus and culls your progression. Hence Fitzapp's other cool feature is that it allows you to keep adding different styles of workout to your regime.

So start investing in your health now while you still have the energy and passion for life, and I'm sure you will reap the dividends when you retire.

I wish my dad had done. I know my children will.

Until next time, keep Fitz-h(app)ening!