{"id":1207,"date":"2016-04-08T14:03:49","date_gmt":"2016-04-08T14:03:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=1207"},"modified":"2016-04-08T14:03:49","modified_gmt":"2016-04-08T14:03:49","slug":"flat-stomach-millenials-exercise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?p=1207","title":{"rendered":"Honey, I Shrunk My Stomach"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A<\/span><\/p><\/div>

\n Sunday morning a few months ago, between a set of lunges, death-defying planks, and a round of pilates, my fit-fanatic \u201cfriend\u201d purred something in my ears that I have trouble shutting out to this day.\n\n\u201cMy flat stomach has to be better than yours.\u201d\n\nShe must be joking, I told myself, immediately dismissing her veiled threat as a severe case of carb-withdrawal. Moreover, I was just a temporary companion on her fitness odyssey that day, fairly nonchalant about the pleasures of abstaining from the joys of fried food for the greater good of a toned body. Surely, she didn\u2019t think of my tummy as a competitor.\n\nAs I soon found out during breakfast \u2013 a healthy and fulfilling meal of a glass of the reddest carrot juice for her \u2013 I was wrong. She genuinely<\/em> did think of my tummy as competition. It wasn\u2019t me, it was her, she explained. That it was her battle-cry, something she kept reiterating to herself to rouse herself through the 6.30 am gym sessions, a diet that included more superfoods than actual food, and faking a lactose and gluten intolerance<\/a> with utmost dedication.\n\nMy flat stomach has to be better than yours.\n\nIf that very thought weren\u2019t ridiculous enough, there\u2019s also the fact that she wasn\u2019t the only one believing it.\n\nWhile the country collectively outraged over #RightToPrivacy<\/a> concerns, uncontrolled lynchings<\/a>, and the renewed nepotism debate, millennials, the most misunderstood species of our generation, have quietly been focusing their time and energies on waging another, far more important battle \u2013 that against the existence of tummies.\n\nOnce considered a completely natural body part, tummies are now the mortal enemy of crop-tops and Instagram timelines. Just like women from a couple of centuries ago, millennials too, want to do full justice to their overflowing wardrobe. These crop tops, cropped at every possible place imaginable to best highlight the elusive flatness of a stomach have pride of place in every woke millennial’s wardrobe \u2013 even as their FB and Twitter feeds are full of chants of \u201cbody positivity!!!\u201d and \u201cstretch marks are cool\u201d. We\u2019ll fight tooth and nail in support of plus-size models, and yet, continue to loathe the little dimples on our resting bellies; continue to long for a body type perpetuated by the very media and advertising companies we are unafraid to criticise.\n\nWe\u2019re strong believers in body inclusivity as long as our own bodies aren\u2019t involved. Because our stomachs aren\u2019t meant to be round or house love handles, they\u2019re meant <\/em>to cause envy.\n\nAll roads now lead to the mystical millennial land of the flat stomach. But citizenship here is wrought with onerous challenges.\n\n

Flat stomachs are then, the greatest unrequited love known to any millennial ever.<\/p><\/blockquote> \n\n\nUrban Dictionary<\/a> may define a flat stomach as a \u201cstate of crazy hunger\u201d. But in the woke age of detox cleanses, everything sprinkled with generous doses of quinoa, and unparalleled #wanderlust, flat stomachs have become an accessory \u2013 one you must flaunt in order to attain nirvana. Gone are the days when the only way to sport a flat stomach was if you were born with it, or if you were undeservingly blessed with good metabolism. For millennial women, a flat stomach is like the vote for suffragettes: We don\u2019t have it yet, but by God, are we going to wrest it.\n\nAnd, even then, it\u2019s not enough. They\u2019re not just <\/em>fighting against manipulating their own bodies into submission, but also against every other unrealistic flat stomach that adorns their Instagram timelines or stands next to theirs at a hipster music festival.\n\nFlat stomachs are then, the greatest unrequited love known to any millennial ever. Much like an obsessive lover, we\u2019re willing to go to any lengths to win it over, to tell it that we\u2019re worthy, that they\u2019ll never find anyone as loving as us. We spend sleepless nights dreaming about how they\u2019d look on us. We go on a journey of self-discovery; sign up for yoga and spin classes, and hope against hope that we\u2019ll get it to \u201cpalat\u201d. We compromise and add probiotics to every meal we pretend to have. We pine, and long, with such passion that it\u2019d put the manchild in Ranbir Kapoor<\/a> to shame. We\u2019re ready to leave behind plates of delicious fries, and peace of mind if it means having an ironed tummy by our side.\n\nBut no matter which strenuous diet we seem to adopt, one wrong move, and we end up pushing our flat stomachs away. A classic case of loving someone too much, too soon.\n\nEven when we do end up torturing our stomachs to look flat, it\u2019s never a permanent union. It\u2019s almost always laced with insecurity and tension. I remember a friend who developed a strange habit of suspiciously watching her stomach while she took bites of her food. She had conditioned her appetite to such an extent that the moment a tiny bulge appeared, her meal was over, while another would go off solid food indefinitely to preserve the rock-solidness of her stomach. A flat stomach is ultimately the kind of love that needs to be earned, and one that leaves no stone unturned in making you acutely aware of your failings in earning that love.\n\nEvery generation is defined by a great struggle or tragedy. For some generations, it might have been apartheid or dial-up internet, but for us millennials, it\u2019ll be our inexplicable greed for a flat belly.\n\nA few months after our odd gym date, I warily met the friend again for breakfast. She came in her gym clothes, and called for the same carrot juice, but there seemed to be one improvement. She had a new workout chant, she told me, beaming.\n\n\u201cWith great starvation, comes a great flat stomach.\u201d\n\nIt\u2019s a great<\/em> tragedy indeed.\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

All roads now lead to the mystical millennial land of the flat stomach. But citizenship here is wrought with onerous challenges.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":103,"featured_media":1208,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[637,2042,2043,319,2044,1103,2045],"class_list":["post-1207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-people","tag-exercise","tag-fitness","tag-flat-stomach","tag-health","tag-health-craze","tag-millenials","tag-tummy"],"yoast_head":"\nHoney, I Shrunk My Stomach<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"All roads now lead to the mystical millennial land of the flat stomach. 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