As you feel the effect of aerobics unfolding within you like the petals of a blossoming flower, you will find yourself seeking out and enjoying the kind of food that complements your lifestyle. You will realise that it is not how much you eat but what you eat that is important. When the field of fitness was still in its infancy, experts introduced calorie­counting meals.

They figured - rightly - that if you expend more calories than you consume, you lose fat. Hordes of calorie-counters took to it with great enthusiasm and lost weight. But once the novelty palled, they began to feel they were strapped in a straitjacket. The rigorous discipline of eating only one bowl of cereal, two slices of fruit, seemed rather tedious. After weeks of counting the calorific value of every morsel they put into their mouth, of feeling guilty every time they exceeded their quota, they gave up. The calorie data that continued to pour out of these fitness laboratories was impressive - if you thought of them as purely mathematical exercises.

For example, they informed you that an average person needed 1500 to 2500 calories per day. Along-side, you read food facts like one kg of fat corresponds to about 6000 calories, while a kg of carbohydrates contained 4000 calories. Sometimes, two experts did not agree on the number of calories in the same foodstuffs! And as the great calorie debate continued, you opted out of this rating race wanting desperately to gnash your teeth preferably into a small chocolate bar. "That's 300 calories!" whispered your guilt-ridden mind.

"So what?" you chomped back defiantly. Calories do have their place - but only as preventives, or therapies, They should be taken into account when you have a specific medical ailment and are treated by a nutritionist for a specific cure. But in the normal course, our non-calorie counting method is simpler.

It allows you to eat delicious food in large quantities with just a few changes in your pattern of eating no fat, no sugar, minimum salt. Then, you need not worry about how much you are eating. At the end of every meal, you feel full, content and even your taste-buds are satisfied. We shall deal with the 'hows' and 'whats' in later chapters. But our method leaves you psychologically free, giving you plenty of space to experiment and enjoy the eating process.

And scoring those 30 runs per week becomes a breeze - without counting a single calorie! Charming, is't it? But do you know that this calorie-expending chart holds good for you only if you weigh about 68kg? A separate chart will have to be drawn up if you are say, 80 kg! Also, this raises another spectre. If you have consumed 1500 calories in a day, it means you have to calculate how many hours you have been lying down, sitting, standing, driving, playing, etc. to figure out whether you have expended the same amount­or more - of calories.

Whew! Rather impractical, don't you think? By the way, sporting activities can be vigorous without being aerobic! For example, tennis is a stop-and-go sport. It will make your cardiovascular system work hard, your heart will pump faster - but only in short bursts. Whereas as we have said earlier, aerobic training requires vigorous continuous and steady movement. Our aim is to free you from the tedium and give you the maximum aerobic benefits, It is not only easier to notch up a fitness score, it is also more fun. In fact, we have simplified it to the extent that it can slide easily into your lifestyle - where it is as effortless, normal, and reflexive as blinking!.

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