I come from a football-crazy country and grew up playing the game. Soccer makes you tough and demands that you be as fit as a fiddle. That’s the tradition and knowledge I grew up with. If you’re not fit, you’ll miss out on all the opportunities or will be forced to withdraw yourself from the field.

Your fitness quotient depends a lot on your childhood. A healthy child grows up to be a healthy man. So I would advise every youngster to take up some demanding game like football from childhood. If you’re not fit and healthy, you have to take corrective steps. I’ll give you my example. I wasn’t born with a silver spoon in my mouth. So food was always simple — bread, butter and bananas (for breakfast). Here, I find many people start work very early in the morning after skipping breakfast. A bad habit, to say the least. You need breakfast for recharging your body in the mornings.

Practice and training take up a vital part of my daily schedule. My days are divided into two sessions: morning and afternoon. In the football culture I grew up in, too much practice at a stretch was considered to be a bad thing (I find boys here training for over three hours non-stop). Training should never be tiring and it should not exhaust you totally. Nor do we play too many matches. Never more than one or two a week. During off- season, I do more of gym work, jogging and sprints. I also work on my weak muscles. In season, the stress is on skill and in the off-season it’s strength and correction.

I think fitness should be a priority but it should not be a complicated thing. Just make it a point to keep fit and follow certain simple rules. No drastic change in food habits or training regimen is necessary. Rather, develop the will to remain active and strengthen your weak muscles (we get a lot of those due to injuries in the game) by focusing on those.

Fitness, to me, means being able to deliver when required. But if you find that your body is not responding to your call, don’t be disheartened. Try to make it strong by following simple exercises and food and everything will be in order. Know your body’s needs and fulfil them.

My diet chart

I am a simple man and my regimen is simple and logical. My profession dictates a disciplined daily routine. I cannot cross the total calorie requirement ceiling charted out by my dietician. It goes like this:

• I take breakfast at about 7 am. A simple meal consisting of bread with butter, eggs and fruits (usually, bananas and papayas). My breakfast regimen is dictated by the fact that I have to take about 3,000 calories every day when in season. What goes into the meal also depends on what I take later in the day.

• I prefer to practise for one hour in the morning, preferably from 9 am. After this, I take plenty of water along with fruits or fruit juices.

• Lunch is usually at 12 noon and never later than 1 pm. Lunch consists of rice, meat and vegetables.

• The afternoon practice session lasts for an hour. After this, I again have plenty of water and fruits (I love apples) and food supplement drinks. This is necessary for filling any protein and vitamin shortfalls I may face due to the physical exertion that is part of my profession.

• Supper is usually at 7 and consists again of cereals, fish (or meat) and vegetables.

• I hit the sack at around 10 and sleep for eight hours.

As told to Sipra Sen Saha

1.Be in tune with your body. Don’t eat more than you need.

2.If your lifestyle doesn’t allow you to burn too many calories, choose low-calorie food.

3.Have a diet pattern that includes your favourite foods. You can’t maintain a proper diet on food you don’t like.

4.If there’s a taboo (religion or health) on some food, go for viable alternatives. If you can’t take red meat, make sure to have enough of fish and chicken along with alternative milk proteins. Supplement your food with health drinks.

5.Avoid artificial food, the contents of which are not mentioned on the label and are not accepted by the experts.

6.Always remember that your body is not ready for any sort of fitness regimen if you are hungry and tired. Don’t start your day without breakfast.

7.Don’t wait for facilities (say, a state-of-the-art gym). Start exercising with whatever you have at your end.

8.Walking and dancing or doing household jobs (with a smile on your face!) are viable fitness options.

9.Gyms are very good, but you need the guidance of a trained coach.

10.You can’t stay fit unless you decide to do so. Your desire is the ultimate thing.