I would be sitting at a cafe, working, when I would inevitably spot a few individuals with this device stuck to their tricep, prominent for all to see.

No, this device wasn’t one that revolutionised your Tricep growth, nope. This was a device that had been in use for years, probably decades in the past, but they were now in the hands of fitness optimisers. And if there is one thing that optimisers love doing more than optimising their fitness, it is talking about optimising their fitness. (Exhibit A: Yours truly)

That device? A simple CGM. (Continuous glucose monitor, for the uninitiated.)

A device that was, and continues to be, a life-saving device for folks with diabetes, had now turned into a symbol of status; people who didn’t need to wear one were all brandishing it and talking about “seeing their glucose spikes and how eye-opening it was”.1

What was once talked about in a random Tim Ferriss book or on an obscure podcast episode had now gone mainstream. Indeed, some people have made their entire careers around this.

Amidst this rage, a client had reached out asking me for my opinion on whether it would be a good option for him to consider wearing a CGM. He was an individual who had no history of diabetes, was leading an active lifestyle, had steady bodyweight and exercised regularly, but the FOMO was strong.

I outlined my Pros and Cons, and one of the cons I highlighted was that I feared these devices could make people paranoid about everyday, normal blood glucose fluctuations and/or could lead to or worsen someone’s eating disorders if they’re not careful with how they use it. My client listened to my suggestions and decided to wait it out.

A few weeks later, during another 1:1 check-in, he was glad he did. The very fears I had listed out to him happened to a friend of his right before his eyes, while sharing a meal. His friend couldn’t stop touching his phone to his monitor to get a reading after every.single.bite. he had. Instead of enjoying the company and the food, the client’s friend was obsessed about where his numbers lay. And this wasn’t a one-off incident, but one that apparently happened to him daily.

CGMs have now receded from the mainstream, and thankfully, the people who do require these devices are not being shortchanged due to supply constraints. However, the optimisation culture has not only endured, it has gone further than ever before.

Now, devices are capable of tracking more.

What was once primarily available to elite athletes is now available for us everyday folks, and boy, are we making the most use of it!

Steps, calories expended, sleep score, ovulation tracking, recovery score, HRV - name it, and there are multiple devices that can do this for you.

What’s lost amidst all this is this:

1. What, exactly, are you optimising for?

2. Is the data you track even accurate?

Now, before I come across as a Luddite2, I have a couple of devices myself. I use an Apple Watch on the daily, tracking steps, activities, stand scores etc. And I was gifted a Garmin which I use exclusively for my runs and anything related to running.

When I initially got my Apple Watch I would wear it almost all day. The only time I took it off was to charge it. I was keen on looking at my sleep scores, my RHR, my overall steps, etc. (I never cared for calories because most devices are inaccurate with their estimations, and I don’t exercise or move to burn calories anyway).

Now, however? I only wear it for a portion of my day. The moment I’ve closed my rings, the watch is off and on the charger. Likewise with my Garmin: I used to track sleep and recovery stats on it regularly for the first few months, but now, it is only used when I run in the mornings and then it rests on a desk for the rest of the day.

Why this change?

One, because some of the things I was tracking were things I could track even without the watch. Example: Sleep and Recovery.

I don’t need my devices telling me what my sleep and recovery score is and whether I am Blue/Green/Red after a night of sleep. I don’t want to be checking into my device first thing in the morning because I can check-in with myself. There have been many days when I have had 4-5 hrs of sleep, woken up with a “bad” sleep score and had a great day. Conversely, there have been days where my sleep score was good but I felt under fatigue all day.

Most importantly, I didn’t want a device whose accuracy is questionable, dictating my mood for the morning or the day. I’ve had quite a few trainees come up to me and be worried about certain numbers because their device told them they were not well-rested etc, never questioning if they felt the same way themselves.

Two, what is the point of optimising for anything, if the optimisation is causing you more stress?

If anything, we should be optimising to be more robust in the face of issues coming our way, not becoming fragile at the first sign of deviation.

I experienced this first hand a few years ago, where not getting my morning cup of coffee was turning me to Jekyll. If I couldn’t function without a cup of coffee, was that a healthy relationship? I decided no, and went a year without coffee in 2025, just to prove to myself that I could do without it.

I still think these devices are good, provided we use them not to get obsessed with the numbers they throw up, but if instead we use those numbers to guide our training, our nutrition, and our daily activities.

For the past few months I’ve had great nights of sleep, repeatedly. I get anywhere between 7-9 hrs on the regular, and I don’t need to wake up and check my REM sleep and Non-REM sleep to determine if it was a good night’s sleep.

If things change in the future, I may still go back to tracking sleep to see what variations have come up, but otherwise I am going to bed device free.

Be diligent in choosing what you optimise.

Be aware of the inaccuracies of the numbers you are shown.

Be curious without being obsessed.

Don’t shorten your life’s best experiences in the pursuit of making it longer.

What I enjoyed reading this past week:

“The socializing that happened in parks, neighborhoods, boy scouts, etc. now must happen in the private domain. A bigger house, which includes a large playroom and yard, is the private replacement for a public square that no longer functions and is thus necessary infrastructure as much as luxury.”

Becoming Noble

Young adults are poor despite every metric which suggests otherwise

A recent article from The Cut received a huge amount of attention: ‘It’s Hard to See My Parents Live So Lavishly While We’re Struggling’. The piece includes vignettes of Millenial hardship…

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2 months ago · 2318 likes · 362 comments · Johann Kurtz

What I enjoyed watching this past week:

Needless to say, I am watching a lot more running content on Youtube than almost anything else, and this lengthy vlog about Ben’s recent 5k PB was a fun watch - and not just because these madlads are faaaast!

What I enjoyed listening to this past week:

This episode on the founding of Hyrox, the current zeitgeist in the fitness industry, was a good one. Youtube

It is the month that my dad was born in, and I chose his birthday to finally take reins of my career and start something of my own; it has been 9 years since that fateful decision and - it goes to show my lack of imagination - I never expected it to be as good as it has been since.

Yesterday, July 31st, marked 9 years since I took my first session as an independent PT. I still remember it like it was the past Monday - I had 7 clients lined up on Day 1 - thanks to some generous referrals from friends and clients - and I went through doing different assessments for them through the day. Some involved postural assessments, others involved more technical, sport-focused assessments.

At the end of the first day, I felt like I could do this. I could probably coach people without the strappings of a gym, of a team, and without needing to rely on “management”.

All I had hoped was to get through the second half of 2017, and then re-assess come 2018. Here I am, 9 years later, forever grateful for the decision I took and the opportunity I grabbed with both hands.

Some lessons learned since:

Rely on others.

Social media - Twitter and Instagram in particular - is filled with “No one is coming to save you” and its various derivatives. This is especially aimed at men, asking them to steel themselves to be the all-knowing, all-conquering saviour, the writer of one’s own destiny; to not expect anything from others or to be reliant on others.

Somewhere during Covid, I had believed the same too. It felt right. More importantly, it fueled my pride - believing you can, and have, done it all alone is an ego-boosting belief. I only needed to introspect for a few minutes to realise how wrong that was.

And honestly, I pity the folks who think they have to do it all by themselves, not out of compulsion but out of some self-aggrandizing, deluded, belief that asking for help is not the right approach and that one can do it all by themselves.

If I have made it this far as a personal trainer, it is because I’ve had friends, family, clients, acquaintances, and former colleagues reach out and be generous with their time, and give me a helping hand even when I didn’t ask for one.

Right from Day 0, I had friends recommending me to their friends and clients. Till date, my business mostly runs on referrals and word of mouth from people who wish me well.

I am grateful for the fact that I’ve people I can rely on and have people who think I am worthy of their trust and positive word of mouth.

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Work is a part of life.

There is a time and place to make work the entirety of your life, and there are times when you need to know when to quit or step back.

As with most things in my life, I accidently found a few people who had charted out the kind of business-life that felt the most natural to me. I wasn’t out to build a huge business, nor was I looking to expand it continuously and grow every quarter, and yet for a couple of years I behaved and ran my business like I did.

These weren’t the genesis years where I had to grind it out to ensure I had some financial stability or to ensure my business had some future. This was well after I had established a good business, one that generated enough income to let me live the life I wanted to. And yet, I spent a good 18-20 months working harder than ever, working longer with no specific end goal in mind, expect to continue to make a little more than what I did the year before. (A stupid goal)

And then one day I took a step back to ask myself:

Why I decided to quit and work my own hours if I was going to be working longer hours than what I did originally?

Sure, the money was better, but what was the point of earning what I did if I had no time to spend it with people who enriched my life?

That was when I realised I’m not in the game to be known as the hardest worker, or be known for the longest number of hours spent working every week, or tick off any of those boxes that gets productivity wonks happy.

And then I re-read a book that I loved, and a particular quote made me rethink my approach.

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Build a life that impresses you first.

Internal metrics > External validations.

Some of what I mentioned earlier has to do with me seeking external validations. Working longer hours, being too busy to meet people or spend time with loved ones, constantly seeking more work, showing others how much work I was neck-deep into: these were all the ways I thought I would get others’ approval and admiration. The admiration I got felt hollow, and the satisfaction was fleeting at best.

Except, when I did, the bar was now set higher. It was a lose-lose situation where I was the loser in both the situations. Thankfully, I was able to course-correct well before I burnt out.

Realising that I needed to first satisfy my internal metrics, exclusive of anybody’s validation or praise, made me rethink my approach to work.

Now, I get to enjoy my work without feeling like I am compromising my life.

9 years on, I am glad the anxieties, fears, and insecurities about both work and life have died down.

Here’s to the next decade.

What I enjoyed watching this past week:

“Pattu” was one of the first people who influenced me to think about personal finance, through his blog ‘Freefincal’.

What I enjoyed reading this past week:

Not a Straight Line

#16: Thoughts of a financially dependent woman

Sitting by the pool at a very nice hotel, watching the sunset one of these evenings, I called my spouse and told him that I don’t think I deserve this…

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5 months ago · 136 likes · 30 comments · Ritika

What I enjoyed listening to this past week:

This episode on building your aerobic engine/cardiovascular capacity.

A large part of the improvement came from the fact that I had a very low baseline, and the ~54 min 10k was the slowest of my life. While it was reflective of my then current endurance levels, it wasn’t a true benchmark since most of my previous 10k races had me finishing between 44-46 minutes.

While the improvements I had last year were significant, I was keen to see if I could continue to eke out performance improvements once I get back to my average 10k times of 44 minutes or thereabouts, since that is where I was generally stuck.

From last year’s article:

While I did not break the 40 minute barrier, I did come close. If I remain injury free, I see myself breaking that barrier in the coming months.

Today’s post is about the improvements I’ve had since, and how I was able to hit a Personal Best of 40:15 in March earlier this year.

The one big change I have made since December of 2025 is that I have changed my approach to running.

Last year I modified the running programs I bought from Ben Parkes. While the programs were pretty great I wasn’t sure if they were long term sustainable, and it didn’t help that the programs were generally for either 12-16 weeks.

What would I do once the programs ended? Rerun the same?

It was also true that the cumulative fatigue, despite running 4-5 weeks, was quite high. I needed to find a way to run better, more often, without the cumulative fatigue becoming an issue in the long run.

And in December, I came across the Norwegian Singles Method (NSM) or the Sweet-Spot training method, by James Copeland. This felt like a methodology I could adapt, and most importantly, follow for how many years of running I intended to do. There was no concept of peaking, no concept of tapering, and the load management was a core principle of this method.

Since December last year I have been able to use this method to largely positive results.

I ran my (then) fastest 10k on February 1st, finishing at 42:20.

A month later, on March 1st, I was able to finish the 10k in 40:15.

6 weeks later, I was able to finish the 2026 TCS10k in 42:20, a solid 11 minute improvement from 2025, despite carrying an injury.

And in June and July I ran two more 10ks, finishing in 43:18 and 43:38, two results that would have resulted in a PB in any other year, but such has been the improvements I’ve had this year that they don’t even feature in the top 3 timings for this year.

While the February run could be attributed to the previous running mileage and programs I followed, the latter wins can be attributed directly to adapting the NSM into my training.

The Principles:

1. Keeping the easy runs really easy:

This has been the key change for me. While I did a fair amount of easy (or Zone 2) runs last year, I always felt like I was at the upper end of my heart rate (HR) range for the same, and not every run had me feeling like it was RPE 2-3 on 10.

It also showed in my recovery, where my energy for a workout session - Threshold Run, Speed Run, Intervals etc. - would feel compromised.

Since December, I doubled down on the paces I was running and running towards the lower-middle of my Zone 2 HR range than at the upper end.

This has allowed me to accumulate a lot of good miles, build my aerobic engine, and continue to hit the paces well during my sub-threshold runs.

Speaking of which:

2. Fine-tuning the Sub-T paces:

The other major switch was that instead of having multiple runs in a week, I now have just two:

• Easy Runs,

• Sub-Threshold runs.

While I do have Long runs in the week, they are just Easy runs that are extended in duration.

I switched over from running at Threshold paces, doing intervals, performing strides, speed sessions into just running Sub-Threshold sessions. It was not like I didn’t enjoy my earlier efforts, but I found that doing those past a certain mileage was asking a fair amount of me.

Now, the Sub-T runs.

These are runs that I perform at a heart rate that is just below my lactate/anaerobic threshold.

To ensure I understood what my Lactate/Anaerobic Threshold was, I performed two tests:

• Vo2 max testing.

• Blood lactate testing.

Through these two tests, we were able to determine that my Lactate Threshold was ~164 bpm, and that I hit this at roughly 4:10-4:12km/hr.

Now, these tests are conducted on a treadmill under ideal conditions where paces, temperature, incline etc are controlled for. Running outdoors where gradients change, there is crosswinds, tailwinds, and headwinds to contend with, and the temperature varies meant that I had to adjust the paces up, and run based on my HR range rather than my pace.

As an example:

Running at a HR of 155-164 bpm for either 3, 6, or 10 minute intervals with 1 minute rest between each interval. The number of intervals I perform varies between 3-10, with the objective being to do ~30 minutes of Sub-T efforts during every session, ~90 minutes per week.

So the sessions line up as:

• 10 min*3 efforts with 60s between each effort.

• 5/6 min*5/6 efforts with 60s between each effort.

• 3 min*10 efforts with 60s between each effort.

This, here, is known as Sweet-Spot training or NSM.

The objective is to manage load well while doing enough to push the paces up from under the thresholds.

While it has been only 7 or so months of this, I do believe a lot of my wins and the increase mileage is due to following this methodology.

3. Being okay with going slow:

While the two principles above were about physical changes and tune-ups, this one is more about a mental tune-up.

Over the last year or so, I have learnt to let go of all ego and really come to love slow paced running, so much so that there are times where I am looking forward to my slower, easier runs more than I am my Sub-T sessions.

The Mistakes:

Mileage ramp-up:

Ramping up mileage without a clear plan. While the book and the method advocates for a slow, gradual build-up of mileage over weeks and months, I didn’t follow it.

I was chasing random numbers because they looked good on a screen and felt great to talk about.

While it seemed to go well for the first few months, the added mileage did catch up to me about 16 or so weeks later when I suffered an injury that was primarily due to over-use.

Now that I have finally made good recovery from the injury and am back to stringing together sessions, I intend to go easy to mileage build-up, even if it feels slower than what is doable.

Injury rehab and Pre-hab:

Or lack thereof.

Given that I am generally prone to some lower-leg injuries due to physical constraints, I should have taken this a lot more seriously.

I have had different lower leg injuries over the years, and when those were at bay during my mileage build-up, I assumed all was well. I had not accounted for the fact that just because an old injury doesn’t recur doesn’t mean that a new injury can’t occur, and that is precisely what happened.

Thankfully, it was an injury didn’t need any intervention barring some physio and rehab sessions, and I am generally on the mend now.

A harsh lesson, but one that reminded me to not take these issues lightly and to spend more time working on minor chinks in the armor.

Lack of nutrition:

Up until February on 2026, I never hydrated during a run or during a race. It was just something I wasn’t comfortable with, and I wasn’t sure if my gut could handle this change.

All of my previous races had gone well, so why change what was working?

A classic case of “What got you here may not necessarily get you there”.

As I started prepping for my marathon - one that I cancelled due to aforementioned injury - I realised that I was leaving so much more on the table by dismissing proper nutrition.

This wasn’t just about my during-the-run protocols, but also protocols pre-run. Ever since I started hydrating and prepping well, I have seen a marked improvement in my performances during training. I can’t wait to see how much better this gets over time, and what other strategies I can use - Bicarb (?) - to improve my performances.

In all, I have been quite happy with the progress I’ve made because it is now real.

For a long time it felt like just a fever dream I was chasing without knowing how to get there. I kept constantly throwing more and more and more into my efforts thinking that is what will bring me the results I craved, when in fact it has been the opposite.

Taking it easy, not rushing for results, doing my easy runs truly easy and dialing down on my sub-t paces has really helped me unlock a new level to my running, and I can’t wait to see how the rest of the year (and beyond) pans out.

Maybe, that sub-40 10k is not that much of a stretch anymore.

What I enjoyed reading this past week:

THE NEW JERUSALEM

Ceci n'est pas un Monet

Last week, a Twitter user called SHL0MS posted the image above with the heading, “i just generated an image in the style of a Monet painting using AI[. P]lease describe, in as much detail as possible, what makes this inferior to a real Monet painting…

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4 months ago · 141 likes · 9 comments · Spencer Klavan

What I enjoyed listening to this past week:

Shit you don’t learn in school is one of my favourite podcasts. The hosts are fun to listen to, their stories are engaging, and the best part is that there are absolutely no ad breaks on the show.

This episode on their Africa trip and their planning behind it was a fun one, especially if you have plans to head to that region.

Enjoy it here! Spotify here.

What I enjoyed watching this past week:

One of the best things that has happened in the creator world is Casey getting back to regular vlogging. Watching his vlogs from 2016-19 were some of my favourite ways to pass time, and I am glad he’s back to doing it on a semi-regular cadence.

Now that I’ve been running a fair amount, I thought I will start reviewing some of the shoes and other running gear I own so that people can make an informed choice.

Since the start of 2025, I have now run ~2600 km and have done so using multiple shoes. The one shoe that has dominated has been the Asics Megablast, which I bought on November 19th last year, and since then have put in nearly 1120 km in. Post that, I bought a second pair and have put it another 400 km in them already, cumulatively running ~1500 km in the two pairs with plenty of life left in them to go longer.

They have been absolutely fantastic to run in, and have made my runs all that much more enjoyable.

Stats:

Weight - 64-66 kg

Easy Pace - 5:50-6:10/km

Marathon Pace - 4:40-4:50/km

10k Pace - 4:10-4:15/km

Size - UK9/US10

Foot strike - Midfoot/Heel Striker

Background:

I have been primarily into S&C with running as an occasional hobby that I indulge in for the most part of my adult life. Started running longer distances back in 2015, and would race the occasional 10k once or twice a year. I never had any structure of program for my runs and would just lace up and go out without much thought into what I would do on the run.

Unlike a lot of other runners, I got quite irregular with running during the pandemic and it was only last year, early 2025, that I decided to take up running again primarily for improved cardiovascular health. I had decided to start with some easy runs and build up mileage for the initial few months and then branch out to doing other types of workouts - intervals, tempo, threshold etc.

So while I’ve been running since a long time, I would call myself a hobby jogger rather than a serious one.

Shoe History:

Back in 2010 I was diagnosed with a chronic case of Shin Splints. My physiotherapist recommended I pick-up shoes that provide some stability and arch support since I had flat feet and tended to overpronate when I ran. This led me to picking up the Asics Gel Kayanos 16, a pair of shoes that were prohibitively expensive for broke me, but thankfully I had family support.

Since then I have stuck to the Gel Kayanos faithfully, switching from the GK16s to the 24s a few years later (2018).

At the start of last year I was still running in the Gel Kayano 24s - which goes to show how little I had run in the 7 years prior - but I also knew I wanted to branch out and try other shoes.

After a few months of getting back into the groove of things, and having done enough reading and watching on what shoes I could potentially experiment with, I went with the following pairs:

• Asics Gel Kayano 31 - For continued support and stability on easy days.

• Asics Novablast 5 - For faster runs

• New Balance Rebel V4 - An alternative to the NB5s. (Turned out to be a damp squib for me)

I ran in the first two for about 5 months, racking in ~550 kms in total between the two. As I got closer to my Half-marathon prep in late October 2025 I realized that the Novablasts weren’t great for long runs, and the Kayanos were too heavy/felt leaden when I tried to run longer distances and they sucked all joy out of running when I ran in them, despite (or due to) the stability they provided.

I was contemplating getting the Asics Superblast 2’s but by then I had seen enough reviews of the Megablast for me to give that a try.

They definitely felt bouncier, more energetic than the SB2 though a lot less stable. I was unsure if these were the best shoes for me, considering the instability, but the practice runs I did at the store felt very good so I took a - very expensive - gamble.

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First Run impressions and Break in:

The first run impressions were anything but good. The shoes felt blocky, uncomfortable and I didn’t feel any sort of energy return that I was hoping from them. I had seen others state the same and that they had to run about 50 km before the shoes felt broken into, so I knew my experience wasn’t unique.

However, the very next day I felt a huge difference in my run. The bounce/energy return was amazing, and while it did feel unstable, it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. Every subsequent run I went on had the opposite effect of buyers’ remorse - I knew I had made the right choice.

Pros:

Variety - In the 7+ months since the purchase I’ve racked up over a 1100 kms in the original pair, gotten a second pair and racked up 400 kms in those too. I have used them for a variety of runs - Easy pace, Sub-threshold, Threshold, Speed/Intervals, Long runs, and even ran a HM in them; they were fantastic for all of these runs. It truly is a terrific all-rounder.

Legsaver - ‘Sagasu Running’ uses a term called ‘Legsavingsness’ and I must say that this ranks very high up there on that front. I have done multiple runs in excess of 20 km and very rarely have my legs been dead or tired at the end of those. There was some fatigue, of course, but I felt good to go the next day, and the shoes played a major part in that.

This also meant that instead of dying at the end of a long run, and hoping to get the shoes off, I was really enjoying them and felt no difference in how the shoes felt at the end of the long run.

Midsole - I am not going to spend more time on the midsole since I have nothing new to add to what’s already been said multiple times before: it is truly fantastic. Asics has used a new midsole, a full slab of their FF2 Turbo midsole, and I am going to find it hard to purchase any other Asics shoe in the future that does not feature this foam.

Durability - Even though I had hit well over 1100 kms in my first pair, the shoes/midsole still felt pretty great. Not as bouncy of course, but still plenty of energy return allowing me to do my long runs with little to no discomfort, and still being able to pick-up pace when required on my sub-threshold runs.

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Cons:

Since the shoes were fully paid for, I have no reason to not talk about some of the cons of the shoes.

Width - The width on this shoe is a bit of a bummer. I personally love the race-fit upper, but the narrow fit at the forefoot had caused insane blisters on my pinkies, and is definitely the biggest con of this shoe. If the fit/width was the same as the NB5, then this would be an even better shoe.

However, the newer pair of this shoe that I bought has not caused my any trouble at all. I am not sure if the shoes are a wee bit wider, or if not tying the laces in a runners knot has helped ease up my forefoot in the shoe, or if my foot has gotten used to the width, but I have had not issues for the past 400-500 kms.

Either way, something for you to be mindful of when trying at the store.

YMMV:

The price - Yes, it is an extremely expensive shoe but given the variety of runs you can do in them, and how many kilometers they seem to last, I think the price is justified.

Stability - Now, I had no issues with stability, despite having a few turns on my daily runs, however, owing to the big slab of midsole on this shoe and its stack height, there is a good chance the shoes will feel unwieldy if you’re not used to high stack shoes or have primarily been running in low-stack, flatter shoes.

Biomechanics - As I mentioned at the start, I have flat feet and tend to overpronate. I ignored these issues and continued to enjoy my runs but the lack of foot and arch strengthening has caught up in the last weeks when I was diagnosed with Posterior Tibialis Tendon dysfunction (PTTD), so if you’re someone who has arch/foot issues, do ensure you work on those simultaneously and not take things for granted, especially if you’re considering these - or other non-stability - shoes.

What next:

I contemplated getting the Puma Velocity Nitro 4, or the Superblast 3 as my next pair but after having run in both, I decided to stick to my MB and get another pair instead.

On an exciting note, I have also gotten a pair of chinese shoes that I was eager to try, and so far they’ve been fantastic in the few short runs I’ve done in them. I can’t wait to try them for longer runs and see how things pan out over the course of the next 6 months.

TL;DR:

Great shoes. Ran a 1000 km in them. Would recommend.

What I enjoyed reading this past week:

High Agency

The Adults Don't Exist

Mozart overspent his income, lived in mountains of debt and regularly wrote letters to his friends begging for money. He died penniless at 35 and was buried in an unmarked grave…

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3 months ago · 5869 likes · 265 comments · George Mack

What I enjoyed listening to this past week:

How to return to running after an injury.

Spotify link here.

What I enjoyed watching this past week:

How to build an unstoppable aerobic engine, even if you’re starting from zero.

Technically, I listened to this on my run, but the video with some of the graphs listed as well as the nuggets contained in this conversation are well worth it.

“This” being spending most of my time on hobbies I find enriching. I worked hard for a few years, and then sheer dumb luck combined with forces outside my control (pandemic + online work) propelled me further into the waiting arms of a future version of me I didn’t know I needed or was excited to embody.

All this has meant I have spent the first half of this year reading voraciously, devouring book after book, and unlike some of my past years I have done so not because I wanted to read more books from a numerical perspective but because these books have thoroughly enjoyable.

While I generally do a year-ender list every year - past lists can be found here and here - this time I thought I will break it into two parts.

I have a set of rules I follow when it comes to choosing the books I read:

1. Diversify into new genres even if the books and authors aren’t ones I’ve heard of. If I had stuck to just reading only the topics that interested me, I would never have come across some of the best books I’ve read.

2. Re-read books I’ve enjoyed previously. I have found this to be the most helpful tip I can give any reader stuck in a rut. It always helps in bringing me out of a rut and remember the joy of reading again.

3. Avoid new releases; read books released well before the past 12 months. Due to the nature of the internet, we are always caught in “what’s happening now” and I found it necessary to step back and instead read things written years or decades prior and not get caught up in the never-ending now that the internet forces down on us. The only times I’ve gone against the rule is when the book, or the author, or both, are compelling.

This is likely to be a fairly lengthy read, so use the navigation bar on the left to skip about to the sections that interest you the most.

There is also a way to read this list:

The first four books are disparate with no link to one another. They’re fun reads, and you can either pick them up or skip over.

The last four books are interconnected, and if you’re interested in that topic, then picking those four books up and reading them - in any order you wish to - would really help enhance your worldview around that topic.

I started the year by finishing off the book I was reading last year, Children of Ruin, and since that book was already listed last year, I am not repeating it here.

Alright, here are my favourites of 2026 so far.

1. The Money Trap (Biography)

Amidst the heavy duty reading that I did of books 5-7, I wanted to read something lighter, one where I can e-flip easily without having to re-read a sentence or paragraph to understand what it meant.

The Money Trap by Alok Sama turned out to the right book for this.

I liked the non-linear structure of the book, revealing its layers over many chapters instead of taking the traditional - and frankly, boring - route of “First I was born here, and then I went to school here, and then I worked there”.

We are diving right in from chapter 1, and there are some chapters where it plays out less like a memoir and more like a thriller. We get some new insights into how Softbank worked, and how some of their biggest deals were made, and we also get insights into the person that is Alok Sama.

One of my favourite passages:

2. The Hallmarked Man (Crime)

Growing up, one of my favourite books was Satyajit Ray’s ‘The Adventures of Feluda’. I thoroughly enjoyed the camaraderie between FeluDa, Topshe, and Lalmohan babu, and while the initial couple of stories were clearly inspired and Indianised versions of Sherlock Holmes and Arthur Conan Doyle, the latter stories took their own sweet course, and were thrilling stories.

Post that, however, I struggled to find a detective series that captivated me until I came across the Cormoran Strike novels accidentally about a decade ago.

Here was a series that finally focused on the detection aspects of a detective and less about his/her physical prowess a.k.a becoming an action book. While the latter books do tend to go on and on, I’ve personally never had any issues with their lengths, and find the complicated relationship between its two leads fun to read (though their hesitancy and unwillingness to speak frankly does lead to many an exasperated shout from my end).

Despite that, I wouldn’t call this a great series; it’s fun enough to read them once and they’re a good companion on a long journey, but I don’t see them becoming classics or becoming books that I will re-read in the future.

3. Never Split the Difference (Self Help?)

This is a book that I read way back in 2019, and I had quite loved certain aspects of the book. I had enjoyed this book so much that I had gifted a fair number of people copies of the book.

I had come across excerpts from the book much earlier than 2019 and they had struck a chord with me; the tactic about negotiating with specific numbers (24552 INR) v/s vague round figure numbers (18000 INR) had come in handy when I was helping a friend negotiate their salary at a job they coveted. They were able to get a near 100% increase from the initial salary that the company quoted by using this specific tactic (and a few others) from the book.

Of course, now in 2026, a lot of the concepts of the book have become commonplace: “Mirroring”, “Labeling” “Beware of Yes; Master No” etc. are now touted widely by marketers but the book still managed to hold my attention.

4. The Great Indian Brain Rot (Social Media)

This is the first book that I decided to purchase based on someone’s Substack. I came across a random article by the author of the book and since I enjoyed his writing I decided to go ahead and buy the book.

A more appropriate title for this book would be “The Great North-West Indian Brain Rot” since a majority of the book deals with influencers and internet personalities that are mostly from the Hindi-speaking belt, most of whom I have never heard or watched, and going by the anecdotes in the book, I should be glad to have escaped the algorithm.

This book, though, is anything but brain-rot. It opened up my eyes to the various different ways people from marginalised sections of the society are using the internet, and social media, to further themselves, and giving themselves a chance to move up the ladder that until now had multiple gatekeepers.

Maybe it was because I have been at an arm’s length from these influencers that their stories resonated; I had no prior idea of who they are, how they look, where they come from, and therefore had little to no biases of my own that could cloud my judgement of the book and the characters in it.

Some passages I enjoyed:

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(Tech and or Geopolitics)

The following four books can be read in isolation, or can be read as different parts of a large collection/anthology.

I would also suggest pairing these books up with Chip War by Chris Miller, and The Power Law by Sebastian Mallaby, two fantastics books that helped me understand how the current tech companies came to be, and the evolving nature of tech and start-up financing over the past few decades. These books can help you understand the current world we live in and the geo-politics of current times.

More importantly, these books listed below, have helped me get a glimmer of understanding of how China (specifically the government) operates, and why they’re in the dominant position that they are currently.

5. Apple in China

If you’ve been on the internet long enough, you would have likely come across the constant bickering amongst Android and Apple fanboys. While these days the bickering has more or less disappeared, there was a time when any article about either platform brought it tons of comments from fans and haters alike.

One of the constant criticism of Apple about a decade or so ago was their hypocrisy when it came to their “corporate values”, where the company would happily bend the knee to dictatorship, authoritarian governments, and/or theocracies.

“Apple in China” is a fantastic book that dives deep into how closely the two entities are embedded and what this could mean for the company, for China, as well as the United States in the future if they end up having a tussle over Taiwan.

Starting from when Steve Jobs returned to Apple, a company that was on the brink of bankruptcy, to the current multi-trillion $ company that it is, the book charts how the company got enmeshed into the chinese economy and how both the country and the company benefited, and continue to benefit, from this arrangement.

This is a fantastic book that I cannot recommend enough.

6. Red Carpet

When I briefly reviewed Robert Iger’s book ‘Ride of a Lifetime’, I had remarked about how the only passages in the book that dealt with China were all congratulatory and barely talked about all the issues that Disney had dealt with in the country. I knew that China had a vice-like grip on Disney - and all of Hollywood - but I did not know how strong that was until this book.

Red Carpet is a great follow-up to ‘Apple in China’ because a lot of what you learn about how the chinese government operates in the earlier book comes in handy when you see how they tackle Hollywood, and get them to kowtow to their needs.

Hollywood, much like Apple, loves signalling its virtues but only where it can get away with it or where it knows it can helps its bottom line. At the first sight of resistance that can affect its income, it is happy to toe the line.

This book is about how as China’s box office grew, and as DVD and other sources of additional revenue started drying up, Hollywood started creating content that would appeal to and appease the government there since the box office profits were astronomical, and how China used its economic might to keep big businesses in check.

Ex: Sony Pictures releasing a movie about Dalai Lama? Or an actor that has been vocal against China? Well, that might mean that Sony Entertainment won’t get to release its phones, walkmans, playstations in the country. And so on, with many such examples of movies that were asked to be shelved even outside of China.

The most interesting chapter of this book is titled ‘Censorship’ and it goes in-depth into what is allowed onto China’s theatres and what is left out, and some of the themes that were supposedly shunned and a ‘No-no’ were a huge surprise to me, and how the playbook is inspired by one established Nazi Germany:

Even if you read it as a standalone book, disconnected from all the other books in this list, you will have a great read on your hands.

I look forward to re-reading this in the years to come.

7. Chokepoints

If, like me, you were tired of reading about “sanctions” and didn’t know what they were, how they were enforced, and what the criteria was for selecting certain sanctions, this book is a phenomenal read.

Starting from the disastrous “War on Terror” in Iraq until the early 20s, this book details how modern warfare has changed to one that was fought with soldiers and artillery to one (mostly) fought by US diplomats and bureaucrats in closed rooms, using their technological might to levy economic sanctions on regimes and countries that defy the ‘world order’ and/or attack an ally.

This is a dense book that goes into details about economic policies and political machinations including how the sanctions against Iran, North Korea, Russian, and China came to be, but continues to be an interesting, engaging, and sometimes even, thrilling read.

Combine the chapters here on Huawei and US sanctions on the company with the next book and you will get a great understanding of how and why things stand the way they are right now.

8. House of Huawei

In the early 20s, one started hearing about Chinese manufacturers upping their game when it came to smartphones. Most of their early releases were all blatant knockoffs of the iPhone but in the early-mid 2010s the numerous chinese brands started releasing some impressive new hardware.

Amongst them was a company called Huawei, one that I knew of only because they were partnering with Google, whose Nexus phones I was a fan of.

And then years passed and I had forgotten all about the company until 2019 when the Trump administration in the US went after the company and banned several of its devices for alleged built-in backdoors, while also asking allies to not install their 5G equipment.

In ‘Chokepoints’ there’s a passage about Huawei and China that I think is pertinent here:

Until this book, little did I know that Huawei was more than a phone company, and that phones were barely a small part of their business.

This is a deep dive into the culture of Huawei, how it came into being, its alien company structure - which is hard to grasp even after reading the book and looking at graphs - the tenacity of its founder who survived through several catastrophes, and ultimately its role in the geopolitical battleground between China and the US.

The book doesn’t dive deep into the engineering processes that helped Huawei make some breakthroughs but is more concerned with the political machinations that enabled it.

These were my top books for the first half of 2026. There were a couple of other books that I started but I either dropped them midway or have put them on ice for later.

I have also realised that while I am fascinated by History, a lot of historical books don’t grab my attention beyond a few pages. Some of the ones I’ve tried to read, repeatedly, seem like they were written for fellow academics and not for the layperson.

Anyway.

See you next Sunday.

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PS: This is not an ad for Amintiri. I just happen to go there a lot to get my coffee and read my book.

At the start of the year I shared my fitness goals for the year, and then followed it up with my first quarterly update for the year here.

A quick recap from February’s post:

“In 2025, the approach was to have a broad sense of what to do through the year. In 2026 I am narrowing it down instead and putting on horse blinders.

For 2026 I have only two goals:

• Run my first marathon, and

• Run my first marathon in under 3 hours.”

And in April I added this:

“Simply put, all of my energies, training strategies and protocols were going to be designed to focus on running with the two goals above as priority.

I intended to run my first marathon in May, and the other in December. In lieu of this I had broken my goals down into Half Yearly Quests.”

In lieu of this I had two marathons I had signed up for:

• Copenhagen marathon on 10th May,

• Another one in December 2026. (undecided)

The Copenhagen marathon (CPH marathon henceforth) was a last minute plan. I was up early on January 18th, being unable to sleep since it was race day at TMM when I happened to check my email and saw that I was lucky enough to have gotten a bib for the CPH marathon via their resale platform. I had 24 hrs to secure the bib. I decided I would take a call once TMM was completed and see how I fare there.

TMM turned out be great and I finished the half marathon in 1:33:41, a personal best. Buoyant after this result, I decided to give the CPH marathon a shot.

I had only ~16 weeks or so to prep, but I was confident I could do well since I had been consistent with my running through most of 2025. Frankly, I was more concerned about securing a Danish visa than I was of prepping for a marathon.

As I went through the weeks of training, I realised my goal had to be to just finish the marathon without worrying about the time I would take. Experience it for what it is, for I would never be running a marathon for the first time post that again; time goals could wait.

Training was on track, I had secured my visa, and I had figured a way to travel to CPH and back while avoiding the crisis in the middle east. All was well, until March 27th.

PS: This is a detailed article, so take your time with it. However, if you want to read only about specific goals, use the navigation tab on the left.

H1 Quests - April to June update:

The first half of this year can be divided into two distinct periods:

January 1st to March 27th.

March 28th to June 30th.

27th was my personal Ides of March. The date separating my BCE and CE era. The date post which my world had changed and there was no going back.

Okay, enough hyperbole.

As I mentioned in my last post, I had suffered an injury in my right lower leg and another in my left quad and the injuries were both mysterious for a while. Scans showed one thing - ligament strain/tear - but in reality I didn’t exhibit any of the positive signs that doctors and physios look for when they test you for the symptoms.

After a few back and forths and multiple consultations, I finally understood what the right lower leg issue was:

Posterior Tibial Tendon Dysfunction or PTTD for short.

(The Quad/Groin injury was never diagnosed accurately.)

The probable reasons for why I suffered this injury were many:

• Increased mileage

• Insufficient prehab/rehab work

• Insufficient recovery

• Body biomechanics conducive to injuries: Flat feet, bowed legs etc.

• Repeated use of shoes that had worn its cushioning out etc.

As with all injuries, it is never down to just one issue and is generally a culmination of multiple issues that end up peaking simultaneously at the same time.

For once, I acted like a mature adult (for a brief period) and performed my rehab exercises diligently. I could feel my foot healing, but I had lost precious weeks in the crucial final few weeks before my race. These were the weeks wherein I would have gotten in my longest runs of the training period - runs ranging from 28-34kms - and missing those meant I was unsure if I was capable of running the marathon distance.

And of course, my foot was pain-free but it hadn’t healed. My left quad was still strained and the recovery seemed a fair few weeks away.

All of this meant that a few weeks before the CPH marathon I decided to cancel the race and put off my first marathon for later in the year.

While these two injuries dominated a fair amount of my mindspace in April and May, not everything was a lost cause. I still ended the first half of this year with some wins.

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Aerobic Endurance:

Here is the plan I had set out for H1 of this year:

• Aerobic Endurance: The Plan:

  • 3 Easy Runs (ER) for ~60 minutes.

  • 3 Sub-Threshold Runs (Sub-T) - 11min*3, 6min*6, and 3min*11 at paces ranging between 4:30-4:15 respectively.

  • 1 Long Run (LR) for ~90 minutes.

While I could not stick to this schedule for aforementioned reasons, I still stuck to this template at reduced distances and duration. Whenever I could run, I did so alternating between Easy Runs and Sub-T Runs. Given the injuries, I had decided against any long runs.

The month of May, in particular, was a challenging one. I was traveling and fell ill so I couldn’t eke out the number of runs I would have liked.

June was a return to some decent form, clocking in the highest mileage in the last quarter, and feeling more confident about my fitness. I am hoping to kick on in the coming months, despite some lengthy travels coming up.

Notable wins:

The timing of the injuries was unfortunate for another reason:

I had planned on aiming for a sub-40 minute 10k at TCS10k on April 26th, and the injury put paid to those ambitions. Regardless, I was glad that despite mostly doing physiotherapy and running minimally in the 2-3 weeks leading up to the race I was able to line up at the start line.

In 2025 I had finished the race in 53:21, the slowest 10k race of my life. I had used that race as the launchpad for my training for the rest of the year.

In 2026 I finished the race in 42:20, a personal best for this course, and tied second for my fastest 10k time. If I had paced myself better, I would have likely finished 20-30s faster, but I let the excitement take over and ended up positive splitting instead of negative splitting.

This was a reminder that despite the injuries and setbacks this year, 2026 has been a great year for me:

I have hit my personal bests in the half marathon and 10k categories this year.

I ran another 10k in June, and despite limited training and continued rehab work, I was able to finish it in 43:18, my 3rd fastest timing in this category. The highlight of the run was being able to race in the area I grew up in and whose boundaries I’ve spent most of my life within.

As of this morning - 5th July - I have completed yet another 10k, the Bengaluru 10k on Nice Road, one of the most gruelling courses in the city with its rolling hills and steep gradients. I finished the race in 43:38.

Glass half-empty: That’s my slowest 10k this year.

Glass half-full: That’s my fastest 10k timing for this race.

Looking ahead:

If all goes well, I will participate in my first marathon later this year. Given that I had to drop out of one, I have decided to modify my goal:

I am no longer chasing a sub-3 hour marathon timing, and instead just looking to complete my first marathon. I will take whatever time I finish in. There may be future marathons that I can aim to finish faster in.

In the meanwhile I want to continue to enjoy my training, enjoy going to bed looking forward to the next morning’s run, and put some miles in my legs.

Strength:

Here is the plan I had set out for H1 of this year:

• Strength: I will stick to the tried and tested formula that worked for me in 2025:

  • 2 Upper Body Days

  • 2 Lower Body Days

  • 1 Accessory Day

The below image states it all:

In my previous update I had shared that I had completed 36 strength workouts, averaging 12 a month, and since April I have only completed 26 more with June being the most abysmal one: just 6 strength sessions.

While I did have legitimate reasons for missing out - illnesses, wisdom teeth surgery etc - I still wish I had done better. Some days I just could not beat the slump and inertia. Goes to show that no matter how experienced one maybe with their training, one still needs to be on the lookout for pitfalls and not get complacent.

Notable wins:

Despite these issues, I did have some wins this past quarter.

I hit personal bests on a few upper body movements, and I grew visible muscle mass despite limited training.

Most importantly, I strengthened my lower legs and my groin, and I can feel the positive impact every time I am out for a run. It is not fully there yet, but it is in a far better place than where I was in April.

Looking ahead:

No elaborate plans for the quarter ahead; just sticking to the basics as listed above.

I have some travel in the second half of July so I aim to complete most of my sessions in the first half, and then resume come August. Now that I have resumed running regularly, I will lift more consistently too, since the latter has a direct effect on the former.

Rehab/Prehab/Mobility:

Here is what I had set out as goals for H1 of this year:

• Rehab/Prehab/Mobility: My goals looked like this:

  • More achilles tendon loading work,

  • More single leg strengthening work,

  • More balance work, and

  • Increased focus on ankle mobility drills.

The one area where I am happy with the outcome from the past quarter, thanks to my injuries that forced my hand!

One of the positives of doing rehab is you learn so much again, and there is also a certain joy in being a beginner. Learning that I could barely balance myself on my right leg, or that my foot muscles were weak AF was less discomforting and more eye-opening.

Notable wins:

Being able to lift my big toe! When the physio first asked me to, I could not move it off the floor. Now, I do it as a party trick! (Yes, I am fun at parties.)

Being able to move my ankle in different directions and planes of motion without discomfort.

Being able to feel my non-existent arch.

I have a new found respect for rehab exercises.

Looking ahead:

Hopefully, less rehab and more prehab/preventive exercises.

Nutrition (and recovery):

Here is what I had set out as goals for H1 of this year:

• Recovery: Frequent use of Massages, Ice Baths and Sauna.

• Nutrition: Higher protein intake, better carb loading and fuelling strategies for my long runs.

Notable wins:

I enjoyed my food. I bothered not about the carb or calorie content, and while I got sufficient protein, I was not too concerned about that either.

I ate for nourishment and for enjoyment in equal measure.

I gained ~4 kilos in the past few months, up ~6 kilos since the start of the year. Some of it muscle, some of it fat.

I found a good masseur who understands what I need, and is happy to let me customise the session no matter what I’ve booked. (I might book a full body massage, but I might turn into a one hour calf and foot massage, as an example).

Looking ahead:

Start focusing on fuelling strategies for my runs, and for my recovery. Most running related injuries tend to be due to under nourishment than from over training, from my reading and experience, and I would love to avoid injuries for the rest of this year.

Looking ahead to H2:

For the second half of the year, I am going to repeat my goals from the first half of the year, and this time I hope to actually achieve most of them.

H2 Quests:

• Aerobic Endurance: The Plan:

  • 3 Easy Runs (ER) for ~60 minutes.

  • 3 Sub-Threshold Runs (Sub-T) - 11min*3, 6min*6, and 3min*11 at paces ranging between 4:30-4:15 respectively.

  • 1 Long Run (LR) for ~90 minutes.

• Strength: I will stick to the tried and tested formula that worked for me in 2025:

  • 2 Upper Body Days

  • 2 Lower Body Days

  • 1 Accessory Day

• Rehab/Prehab/Mobility: My goals looked like this:

  • More achilles tendon loading work,

  • More posterior tibial work,

  • More single leg strengthening work, especially the calves,

  • More balance work, and

  • Increased focus on ankle mobility drills.

• Recovery: Frequent use of Massages, Ice Baths and Sauna.

• Nutrition: Higher protein intake, better carb loading and fuelling strategies for my long runs.

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What I enjoyed reading this past week:

Substack is continuing to be the space where I am discovering some really good writing, and I am glad this space exists.

Infinity Inklings

Why I'm finally writing what every South Asian son thinks but never sends

I have been on the road for a while now, long enough that the days have begun to fold into one another, long enough that I can’t differentiate between what feels like a Saturday or a Wednesday, and today, as I write this, I find myself having slipped into another four-week stretch of trains and rented cars and borrowed beds. But even I have to admit tha…

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9 months ago · 453 likes · 97 comments · Nishad Sanzagiri

What I enjoyed listening to this past week:

Over the past 8ish years, podcasts have become my goto form of audio entertainment, completing eclipsing music. While I still listen to music every now and then, they’re rarely my first choice when it comes to audio.

This is especially true when I am out on a run. Podcasts are great companions when on a run, can be listened to without hurting your ears, and most importantly, they don’t spike my HR up like some thumping music would and thus enabling me to run within the HR ranges I want to.

Anyway, all of this preamble to state that when I finally went on my first long run in over 2 months, I had a great podcast for company that made it that much easier to cruise on my run:

This episode of My First Million with Mohnish Pabrai. Spotify Link

What I enjoyed watching this past week:

While this can be classified under “rehab”, I would strongly urge you to do some of these exercises regularly. I’ve been at it regularly, and have to say that the feet feel so much better once I started the exercises.

“Simply put my goal for 2025 is to be an all-rounder. I don’t want to be good at one skillset alone but I want to develop the goods across multiple skill sets, whether that be Strength, Endurance, VO2Max, Mobility, or with improved control over my nutrition.”

I broke these down into Quarterly Quests and posted an update every quarter last year.

I am continuing this approach in 2026 too, providing updates every quarter. While I am building on the foundation I laid out in 2025 (and the years prior), there have been a few changes in 2026.

In my post a couple of months ago, I wrote:

“In 2025, the approach was to have a broad sense of what to do through the year. In 2026 I am narrowing it down instead and putting on horse blinders.

For 2026 I have only two goals:

• Run my first marathon, and

• Run my first marathon in under 3 hours.”

Simply put, all of my energies, training strategies and protocols were going to be designed to focus on running with the two goals above as priority.

I intended to run my first marathon in May, and the other in December. In lieu of this I had broken my goals down into Half Yearly Quests.

To refresh our collective memories, here are the quarterly quests I had set out for H1 of the year:

H1 Quests:

• Aerobic Endurance: The Plan:

  • 3 Easy Runs (ER) for ~60 minutes.

  • 3 Sub-Threshold Runs (Sub-T) - 11min*3, 6min*6, and 3min*11 at paces ranging between 4:30-4:15 respectively.

  • 1 Long Run (LR) for ~90 minutes.

• Strength: I will stick to the tried and tested formula that worked for me in 2025:

  • 2 Upper Body Days

  • 2 Lower Body Days

  • 1 Accessory Day

• Rehab/Prehab/Mobility: My goals looked like this:
  More achilles tendon loading work,

  More single leg strengthening work,

  More balance work, and

  Increased focus on ankle mobility drills.

• Recovery: Frequent use of Massages, Ice Baths and Sauna.

• Nutrition: Higher protein intake, better carb loading and fuelling strategies for my long runs.

As with all goals, on paper they sound great. Reality can be quite different. So, how did I do?

PS: This is a detailed article, so take your time with it. However, if you want to read only about specific goals, use the navigation tab on the left.

H1 Quests - January to March update:

Aerobic Endurance:

What went well:

Almost everything.

I followed the NSM template to the tee, only deviating on the long runs where I increased the duration and added some higher paces. Otherwise, I was able to stick to the standard template of:

3 Easy Runs,
2-3 Sub-T Runs,
1 Long Run.

I was able to run 6 days a week consistently, increasing the mileage gradually.

This felt like a sustainable approach to me, and I was enjoying most of my runs, especially my easy runs. I would plug into one of my podcast episodes and zone out for the entirety of the run.

I was feeling more confident about my first marathon as training progressed, being able to run at a consistent pace and HR and managing the higher load well. (Nutrition played a huge part here, more on that below.)

This increased fitness also showed up on two different races I ran:

• Tuffman 10k on February 1st: Where I finished the run in 42:20, my fastest 10k ever on a tough course with rolling hills and a lot of side and headwinds.

• Karnataka State Police Run on March 1st: One month later, I bested my 10k timing to finish the race in 40:15. This was a well organised race on a beautiful course where had I paced myself a bit better I could have gotten a sub-40 finish.

Amidst all this, I even had the opportunity to get my VO2 max tested, and all of the work I put in during 2025 seems to have paid off with my VO2 max now hitting a new high of 60.5 ml/kg/min, up from 47 ml/kg/min that I had back in late 2024.

All in all a pretty solid quarter, 8/10.

Looking ahead:

“That sounds like a solid quarter to start the year. Why would you say “almost” everything went well? Why 8/10 and not 10/10? Are you trying to be modest?”

Yea, about that.

Just when things seemed to be going exceedingly well, I started developing some pain around my right ankle about 10 days ago. It wasn’t persistent pain and would go away within an hour or so after I had completed my run. Last Saturday however, despite running a very short distance, the pain increased and was sustained. Only then did I notice significant swelling around my ankle bone.

Now, initial hypothesis was that this was a ligament sprain. However, there were no positive signs when I was tested by my physio - the pain and swelling seemed to be only around the bone and the ligaments were unaffected, and the subsequent X-ray scan also ruled out any major damage to the ankle.

It’s been a week since the initial check-up but the pain and swelling are both down after some painkillers. I resumed some slow jogging the last two days - after consulting my physio - to test my ankle out, and the pain and swelling are both back, though at a much lower intensity.

If this doesn’t change over the next 2-3 days, I am going to go in for a scan to determine what the actual cause is though all signs point towards it being a bone stress injury, which could mean I am off running for the next 2-4 weeks.

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Strength:

What went well:

The fact that I got my strength sessions despite the increased mileage was what I would say went well this past quarter.

I did not lift as frequently as I would have preferred, and I did follow a different structure to my lifting compared to what I had initially planned out, however I am content with where my strength is at the moment while also noting the areas I need to improve in the coming quarters.

Looking ahead:

One of the areas for improvement is definitely increased lower body strength training, which lagged behind significantly in the past quarter.

My legs definitely felt stronger and fresher when I was lifting consistently, and changing up my lower body routine was a mistake. While the increased weekly mileage of running didn’t help matters - my legs were tired after Sub-T sessions - I could have adjusted my training intensity better to keep my sessions going.

I have already rectified it in the past few weeks, and I intend to keep that going unless my ankle injury prevents me from performing lower body movements.

Rehab/Prehab/Mobility:

What went well:

For once, I can be happy with my rehab and mobility work. For years this would be on the lower end of my priorities, and would often be neglected.

The past few months I have been fairly diligent with my mobility and prehab work, performing my exercises everyday prior to my runs and then getting in some foam rolling every alternate day. These two protocols followed by mostly easy paced running are the likely reasons I have had little to no knee discomfort over the past several months of running.

Looking ahead:

Continue my ankle rehab exercises, while also adding in foot strengthening work that I used to do often years ago.

I have flat feet with almost no perceptible arch, and that can be one of the primary reasons I end up having foot, ankle, and achilles issues when I run. Resuming those exercises and adding those to my weekly rehab work should also improve my ankle strength while minimising chances of future injury.

Nutrition (and recovery):

What went well:

I continued to prioritise protein, and I continued to get sufficient carbohydrates in such that I had energy and fuel for my regular runs.

What I am particularly happy about is with my fuelling strategies for my runs. Until February I would generally run on an empty stomach and stick to that during race days too. As I had noted earlier, this strategy is fine if I only train for Half marathons or 10ks, but for marathons I will need to adopt a different fuelling strategy.

I started consuming energy gels on my runs - ~70g of carbs every hour - and with the increased heat and humidity of summer, also started consuming 500ml of electrolyte water during my long runs. I follow this strategy only for my long runs, which are anywhere between 2:00:00 to 2:25:00 minutes and counting. This has led me to really enjoy the long runs and feel like I still have energy to keep going further. I look forward to continuing to improve on this, increasing my water intake by another 500ml in the coming weeks.

Looking ahead:

When I am given the green signal to run again, I will continue to fuel well, both pre and during the run. I will also start prioritising my pre-run fuelling especially on the long run days. Currently I wake up and go out for a run, but the marathons I intend to participate in will be a good 2-3 hrs after I have woken up, so fuelling will be key to better performance, and if I don’t practice that during my training runs I won’t be able to do it on race day.

Looking ahead to Q2:

This is where I would write about what I am carrying over from Q1 and what modifications I am likely to opt in for. However, given the injury I have had to deal with, the future (w.r.t running) is a bit uncertain.

As I mentioned earlier, we are still unsure what the injury is/could be, and how serious it possibly is. In a week or so I would know the status of both my injury and the recovery process post which I will have a clearer idea about what the next few months of running looks like.

There is a possibility I may end up having to drop out of both my upcoming races, the TCS10k in 3 weeks’ time as well as the full marathon I had planned to run in 5 weeks’ time. That would be a bummer, but I would prefer to let an injury heal fully than go for a race that could worsen the injury process and delay my return to regular running.

However, just because I may not be able to run will not mean that I let go of other aspects of my fitness. I will continue to lift regularly, likely increasing the intensity there, continue to do my prehab/rehab exercises, and dial in my nutrition so that when I have the green signal to resume running, I feel ready not rusty.

Here’s hoping the next quarter is pain-free.

What I enjoyed reading this past week:

Kyla’s Newsletter

The Ozempicization of the Economy

Good morning from California…

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5 months ago · 1235 likes · 156 comments · kyla scanlon

What I enjoyed listening to this past week: This episode on the history of Bengaluru.

What I enjoyed watching this past week:

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The structure of listing out my goals for the year and then breaking it down to Quarterly Quests worked very well for me in the past year, especially with helping me improve my running frequency, and while I will have a similar format, I am tweaking how I approach my goals in 2026.

In 2025, I had certain themes I wanted to focus on:

1. Improved Aerobic Endurance capacity

2. Improved VO2 Max (or swap for Anaerobic Endurance)

3. Reduced BF%

4. Improved lipid profile

5. Improved full body strength

6. Better control over nutrition

7. Improved mobility

At the end of 2025, I would say I had succeeded across 5 of the 7 goals, with mobility and BF% being the ones that lagged behind.

In 2026, I intend to work on those goals too but how I am approaching the said goals will now change.

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Simply put, my goal for 2026 is to build on the solid foundation I laid in 2025 while also working on the aspects that are currently lagging. I don’t want to be just good at what I currently enjoy already - Strength training and Running - but also want to work on things that currently seem challenging or cumbersome, namely mobility and prehab/rehab work.

Additionally, and contrary to 2025, 2026 is the year where Running is going to be the goal that I am pursuing. Last year was all about laying the base, and this year is about pushing myself to do better and pursuing certain specific time goals that I have in mind.

Every other aspect of health that I am going to work on - Strength, Mobility, Nutrition, Body composition etc - will all be fashioned to suit my running needs; in pursuit of improving my race timings.

Without further ado, here’s how I am approaching my fitness goals in 2026:

In 2025, the approach was to have a broad sense of what to do through the year. In 2026 I am narrowing it down instead and putting on horse blinders.

For 2026 I have only two goals:

• Run my first marathon, and

• Run my first marathon in under 3 hours.

To be clear, these are two different marathons that I intend to run. One sometime in May-June, and the other in December.

The goal for my first marathon is to just ensure I enjoy the process, get an understanding of how running that distance feels, and complete it without too many issues propping up. The second marathon, likely in December, is the one that I am aiming to push my numbers up and hit a goal of < 3:00:00, a feat that currently is out of reach.

Why these two goals?

I wish I had a logical, rational answer to that.

Until late December I was certain that I would never run anything beyond a half-marathon and that I was completely uninterested in running anything longer than that.

And yet, a few weeks later I had hoodwinked myself into believing that a marathon is within grasp. What changed?

1. I suddenly started enjoying my long runs, and found easy running to be enjoyable, fun even. In the build-up to TMM 2026 I had a couple of long runs that exceeded 21kms - 24km and 26km to be exact, and instead of dreading those runs I quite enjoyed them, and

2. I could see myself improving through 2025 across different paces. In November 2025 I ran my fastest HM yet, finishing in 1:36:38, and that gave me the confidence that what I was doing in terms of training was working.

Most importantly, I came across James Copeland and the cult (in a good way) that is NSM and its safe to say that this book has had the biggest impact on me feeling confident about running a full marathon.

All of this was towards the last week of Dec/first week of Jan. As an added boost, I ran the Half Marathon at Tata Mumbai Marathon the weekend before last (Jan 18th) and hit a new PB, finishing the race is 1:33:41, nearly 5 minutes faster than 7 weeks earlier and 23 minutes faster than my previous TMM PB.

And while running a HM is quite different from running a full, I have some belief that I can finish a full.

As the kids say these days: Delulu is the only solulu.

To achieve this, I have broken these down into Half-Yearly Quests, given where the marathons are positioned, and I intend to tweak these as the year goes on.

H1 Quests - January to June:

Aerobic Endurance:

Over the past year I have done two things consistently:

• Run,

• Consume running content like a madman.

When I am not running I am watching/reading/listening to running content, and vice versa.

Reddit threads, Youtube channels, books, podcasts, Strava groups - you name it. I have been scouring all nooks and corners of the internet to help me understand what the best practices and what are fads that need to go in the bin.

One thing has remained common across all advice: The broader the base, the better. The better you get at aerobic endurance, the better your chances of running a full marathon while improving your timings across the shorter distances.

And while I have been hitting PBs in the 10k and HM category over the last year, I know that my aerobic base building efforts are not where they need to be, given the goals I’ve set.

In December 2025 I started making a conscious effort to run slower, and do more easy runs than otherwise, and it has already proven to be effective in helping me rack up the miles through a month.

The easy runs being at truly easy efforts mean that I am feeling fresh more often than not and instead of averaging 2-4 runs a week that I did, I am now averaging 4-6 instead. Out of these at least 3 are easy paced runs while others are Sub-threshold runs that are challenging but not exhausting. (Straight from the NSM playbook)

I am going to stick to that playbook for the first 6 months, and see how my fitness progresses. (You can follow me on Strava if you wish to see regular running stats/updates)

The Plan:

• 3 Easy Runs (ER) for ~60 minutes.

• 3 Sub-Threshold Runs (Sub-T) - 11min*3, 6min*6, and 3min*11 at paces ranging between 4:30-4:15 respectively.

• 1 Long Run (LR) for ~90 minutes.

On the days when I can’t run 7 days a week, I will swap one of the ERs for the LR instead. Every 4-6 weeks I will aim to increase my ER and LR by a few minutes, and increase 1-2 reps for the Sub-T runs.

Will report back on how that fares.

Strength:

“So are you not going to lift as much because you’re running more this year?”

Au contraire, quite the opposite.

If I need to run more, I need to ensure my body is strong enough to sustain that running and remain injury free. For a majority of 2025 I remained injury free and was able to balance both Strength and Endurance.

The niggles added up, and an injury occurred only when my frequency of my (lower) strength sessions dropped and my mileage increased. I don’t want to repeat that foolish mistake.

I will stick to the tried and tested formula that worked for me in 2025:

• 2 Upper Body Days

• 2 Lower Body Days

• 1 Accessory Day

The only tweak I am going to make is with the Lower Body routines. I might skip some of the heavier lifts I used to perform and replace them with more unilateral work. My gut feeling tells me that this will help with my runs and will minimise balance issues and will also help work the smaller muscles that sometimes get neglected while performing the Big Lifts.

I don’t aim to hit new PRs or lift as well as I did in 2025; my aim is to ensure that I am still maintaining strength and muscle as I go through 2026 with increased running output. Most importantly, remain injury free.

Speaking of,

Rehab/Prehab/Mobility:

This is a new addition to the goals, and I would rank it on par with Strength Training.

Given the excess load that my body is likely to take during a marathon prep, ensuring I remain free of major injuries - minor niggles are almost guaranteed with high physical activity - and most importantly, keep previous injuries at bay will be key. Even a few weeks off due to injuries or niggles can be quite debilitating for the goals I’ve set.

I have had a history of:

• Plantar Fasciitis

• Achilles Tendinopathy

Two extremely annoying and quite frankly, painful, injuries that have occured from time to time. In fact, I am recovering from the latter currently as I write this, and hence my ranking of Rehab work right at the top.

What does this look like in action?

• More achilles tendon loading work, (Isometric Calf Raises, SL Calf Raises etc.)

• More single leg strengthening (Lunges, Bulgarian Squats, Step-ups and the likes)

• More balance work, and

• Increased focus on ankle mobility drills. (Bands or otherwise, but doing enough in a week to help improve my ankle flexion)

Recovery:

Gone are the days when I would feel like recovery is for uncles. I am an uncle now, sadly, and thus recovery is becoming that much more important for me to focus on.

Massages:

Through trial and error I have found a couple of great masseurs via Urban Company over the past year. The pricing is good, the therapists are knowledgeable, and most importantly, they listen to the suggestions I give them.

This is something that I have realised through 2025 - to have a great massage, it is important to communicate clearly with the therapist and explain to them what areas you want them to work on, and what areas are necessary. This has meant I have often signed up for full body massages and have asked to only work the entire posterior chain of my body and not worry about the anterior chain. Making this change has been a definite upgrade, and I feel much more refreshed after my massage than I did earlier.

I aim to get one every ~15 days or so, and more often during the week of a race.

Sauna/Ice Bath:

Now we are venturing into the “Fitness Bro/Longevity Hack/Biohacker” category here, but I recently had an experience that made me question my incredulence towards Sauna/Ice Baths.

My friends and I were in Mallorca for a holiday, and after a full day out in the waters, we decided to book a Hamman session the following day. The 1 hour session had us rotating between Sauna, Ice-bath, Hot-water pool and so on. I came away from it refreshed. So refreshed that I, someone who hits the bed by 9:30pm, was up all night and went to sleep at 6:30am the following day. Bonkers!

Given that access to these are also becoming more open, I will be looking to use it to my advantage, especially after some of the longs runs planned soon.

Nutrition:

Massages, Saunas, and Ice baths are all well and good, but the first point of recovery is always going to be Nutrition.

I am going to sound like Steve Ballmer here, but Protein, Protein, Protein is going to be my mantra for the year. Why?

1. When I have experimented with higher protein intake I have felt more energetic, my sessions at the gym have gone well, and I am recovering well.

2. Being a vegetarian - and avoiding dairy products at that - getting sufficient protein is a challenge if I don’t plan it, and therefore having it at the top of my mind will make it easier to get there.

Additionally, I am going to focus on improving my carb intake and understand better how I can fuel given that I have marathons plans for the year.

So far for 10ks and Half Marathons, I have winged it without worrying about fuelling strategies since I felt I was equipped to handle them without much of an issue. The Marathon is a different beast altogether.

I will need to learn how to run with some food in me, preferably eating about 90-120 minutes prior, and learn how to consume gels and allow my gut to reprogram itself to be able to absorb them during my training weeks.

Additionally, I am going to continue to consume a hefty ton of vegetables every week like I have done over the past year just because I have found them tasty as hell.

And those are the quests for H1 of 2026. While the goals are Half-Yearly, I will aim to do Quarterly updates much like last year.

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This is likely to be a fairly lengthy read, so use the navigation bar on the left to skip about to the sections that interest you the most.

Last year I wrote about the best books I read in 2024, and it resonated with a fair number of you.

As I mentioned last year, I have a set of rules I follow when it comes to choosing the books I read:

1. Diversify into new genres even if the books and authors aren’t ones I’ve heard of. If I had stuck to just reading only the topics that interested me, I would never have come across some of the best books I’ve read.

2. Re-read books I’ve enjoyed previously. I have found this to be the most helpful tip I can give any reader stuck in a rut. It always helps in bringing me out of a rut and remember the joy of readin again.

3. Avoid new releases; read books released earlier than 2025. Due to the nature of the internet, we are always caught in what’s happening now and I found it necessary to step back and instead read things written years or decades prior and not get caught up in the never-ending now that the internet forces down on us. The only times I’ve gone against the rule is when the book or the author are compelling.

Unlike some of the earlier years, I didn’t read a lot books, and I took my time with the books that I did read since a fair number of them were dense, lengthy reads. It’s been a few years since I escaped from the grip of thinking I need to read a lot of books to just focusing on the reading alone.

Alright, without further ado, here' are the best books I read in 2025:

1. Children of Time (Sci-Fi):

Definitely the best book I read in 2025, and easily ranking right up there in my top 5 books read in the past 5 years.

My suggestion would be for you to go into this book blind, and let the story carry you where it does. In the initial few chapters had me scratching my head a little bit, but once I understood the themes and where the story was heading it became a joyous read.

Whether you’re a fan of Sci-Fi or not (as I would like to think I wasn’t), this is a great book and a must read.

2. A Storm of Swords, A Feast for Crows and A Dance with Dragons (Fantasy):

3 different books, all part of the same series - A Song of Ice and Fire.

These books have been out for years, if not decades, at this point. While it is disappointing that GRRM hasn’t finished the books, the ones that have been published are fantastic.

I’ve read them 3 times end to end, and each time I come away enjoying new characters, understand new perspectives, and continue to be in awe of George Martin’s worldbuilding and his prose.

While A Storm of Swords is considered the best of the best in this series - and it definitely is! - I personally enjoyed A Feast for Crows the most. It is an unexpected book, and one that introduces new storylines and characters and has some of the best chapters and writing of the whole series.

If you’ve only ever watched the Shows and never read the books, I would highly, highly recommend reading them.

3. Children of Ruin (Sci-Fi):

Unlike what happened in 2024 with ‘The 3-Body Problem’ series where I dropped the series and didn’t want to revisit or read further, I immediately picked up the second book in the ‘Children of Time’ series, Children of Ruin.

It continues from where Children of Time ends but introduces a whole new universe, and creates a compelling story, one that is as exciting to read as its predecessor. While I am yet to finish the book - I have a few hundred pages left - I did read most of this book in 2025 and hence it finds its mention here.

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4. Chaos Monkey (Memoir):

I first heard of this book years ago when it was being recommended as a book to read to get a courtside view of how working in a fast growing start-up - Facebook, in this instance - was, and the chaos that it is.

In an era of self-censorship, this book is a refreshing change. It is a no holds barred account from an eccentric author, giving us a no holds barred account of his time living in the bay area and working at Facebook. While the technical bits about his role as an Ads person went over my head, the rest of the book was a fun read.

5. It doesn’t have to be Crazy at work (Self-Help/Business):

For long I have admired the authors - DHH and Jason Fried - and their previous book, Rework, has been a book that has shaped my way of thinking w.r.t work and work-life balance. Their approach to building their business, of keeping it private and not chasing infinite growth is one that had a great impact on me and one that I’ve emulated within my own business.

This book is in a similar vein, and if you’re someone who runs a business or is self-employed then there are some valuable insights for you to incorporate into your own life.

6. Tools of Titans (Self-Help/Business):

This book was gifted to me by a client back in 2018. I had read a fair few chapters of this book but I had also scoffed at certain sections in the “Health” category.

7 years later I wanted to revisit it to see how many things still held true, what resonated with me in 2018 v/s 2025, and whether there is any new information that is valid for me in this moment of my life as compared to 2018.

While some of the parts of the “Health” category are still laughable, there are parts that are equally valuable.

Best part about this book is that you can pick it up and read from anywhere. Flip back and forth as you wish.

7. Fat Loss Habits (Fitness):

This book - and the following two - was one of three books that I broke my “No new books” rule for in 2025.

Ben Carpenter is someone who I really admire for the way he carries himself on social media, and how he approaches all things health and fitness.

When this book came out, I purchased it less to read it but to support what he does. And once I got the book, it made sense to read it as a refresher for things that I had learnt and to see if there were newer tidbits that I could use to my advantage.

‘Fat Loss Habits’ is a fantastic book and would be the only book I would recommend to folks if they wanted to read up on Fat Loss and how to go about building the habits to get there.

While it is backed by science, the science doesn’t overpower the writing and keeps the book approachable to regular folks. Additionally the habits are listed in the order of importance and devised such that it can work for complete newbies as well as experienced folks.

Do give it a read if Fat Loss is your goal for 2026.

8. Norwegian Singles Method/Sirpoc Method (Fitness):

If Children of Time was not on this list then Norwegian Singles Method (NSM) would be my top pick for 2025.

While it isn’t necessarily a Norwegian method, the NSM naming stuck and hence the name of the book. But, what is the book about?

It is a book written by a hobby runner for other hobby runners who want to improve their 5k,10k or Half Marathon pace timing.

I came across NSM or Sirpoc training as some redditors fondly call it on a subreddit called ‘Advanced Running’ where the user mentioned improving his full marathon time by a whopping 20+ minutes while using NSM. This got me intrigued, and I went down a rabbit hole to understand what NSM was, who Sirpoc is, and where this training method originated from.

To my luck, Sirpoc a.k.a James Copeland had just released his book a couple of days prior and I immediately picked it up.

Just like ‘Fat Loss Habits’ is the definitive book I would suggest people pick up for hitting their goal, I would recommend NSM for those who are looking to improve their running. Why this book resonated with me is that it is written for hobby runners and it is a program built ground up for hobby/casual runners instead of what we otherwise see: A program built for elite athletes aiming to scale down for the average runner.

I have been trialling NSM for the past ~5 weeks and I have thoroughly enjoyed it so far. In December I was able to run 300km by primarily put this method to test, and I came away unscathed.

I will be sticking to this - with 1-2 minor modifications - for the rest of 2026, and I will be updating you with how my paces improve across different distances (my goal) through the course of the year. Highly, highly recommend this book.

9. The Art of Spending Money (Self-Help):

A new Morgan Housel book would always lead me to break my ‘No New Books’ rule, and it was no different with his latest one: ‘The Art of Spending Money’.

I would call this a spiritual successor of ‘The Psychology of Money’, written in the now famous format that Morgan Housel typically writes in.

A thoroughly enjoyable read that I would suggest anyone interested in psychology or money (or both) to pick up.

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These were my top books for 2025. There were a couple of other books that I started but dropped them midway through.

One quirk I have is that if I am reading a book about business or one that deals with numbers, I need to write down notes or thoughts before I proceed, and that is a difficult thing to do when you’re reading in bed, at a cafe, or while commuting/travelling since the Kindle is the only device handy. While I do bookmark and highlight sections, it can be difficult to come back to them later, and the context of the thoughts formed while reading those sections are lost.

How did you do in 2025? What books did you enjoy? Leave a comment and let me know.

Substack informs me that this post has reached and exceeded the usual email length, so for a great reading experience (and to see the HD images) please open this up on your browser!

This is my fourth year of publishing my annual review, you can find the previous reviews here, here and here.

As I’ve mentioned previously, I am surprised at how many people have told me that they found the review useful. As always while I write this for myself, I do hope you are able to find some value out of it by the time you’re done reading.

Why I do this review: It helps me reflect on the year gone by, to help me stay grounded, to be grateful for the lifestyle and schedule I have, and to improve in areas where I lacked.

The Annual Review will answer these questions:

1. What went well this year?

2. What didn’t go so well this year?

3. What did I learn?

4. What do I hope for in 2025?

And as is my want, I am going to cover a few topics of interest: Health, Travel, Hobbies, and Finances.

This is going to be a detailed review of my year. Please feel free to use the navigation menu on the left to jump to sections that interest you the most

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What went well in 2025?

Health.

As always, Health will remain the first topic I touch upon because it remains my top priority. Health is the foundation upon which my life is built. It is what I do for a living, and it is what I look forward to improving upon, on a daily basis. Being able to move, lift, run, eat nutritious food is a giant privilege and one that I am fortunate enough to do on regular basis.

2025, much like 2024, was a very good year for my health. I improved upon what was already going well, and then decided to take it up a notch in other aspects of my health that I had neglected previously.

A) Strength Training:

Starting off with Strength training because that is the basis upon which a major chunk of my health rested upon, until 2025.

While the absolute numbers are lower - 162 Strength workouts this year compared to 200 and 205 the last two years - the quality of these sessions have been fantastic.

And this is reflected in the fact that I have grown stronger through the course of this year than I have in the years past. I have hit new PRs for many movements, both upper and lower, and have thoroughly enjoyed my training sessions.

Last year I wrote about how I decided to relax in my approach to strength training and I continued to take that approach into 2025 too. I averaged between 4-5 sessions a week, and I was unbothered if some weeks ended up with just 3 sessions a week because I knew I was making good progress in the lifts.

What also helped was after nearly 15 years I decided to take help from experts in the field and pay for a training program. During the latter half of 2025, I downloaded a couple of programs from Jeff Nippard’s library and then went about tweaking it to suit my own needs and the equipments I have access to. This had a great impact since the programming now felt fresh, and I was able to go in excited to the sessions since it felt new-ish.

I have since incorporated some of those lessons into my own programming and have also used it successfully with some of my clients’ programming.

Looking forward to getting stronger and leaner in 2026.

B) Endurance/Cardiovascular Capacity:

For a couple of years now I had been setting a goal to improve my endurance and to get back to running. And for the last couple of years I have ended the year with not much to show for it.

2025 was finally the year when I decided to switch on and make some changes.

As I have detailed through my Quarterly fitness updates over the year, I set myself out some Quarterly quests for my cardiovascular health and then went about working towards them.

The biggest win was getting started. I gave myself an easy way in, focusing on time spent running over any other metric. I didn’t bother about pace, distance etc. I focused on staying within a low HR zone, running indoors for the first few months to ensure my HR remains low, and slowly building up mileage. There was no structure except to turn up at the gym and run anywhere between 30-40 minutes at a steady HR.

I started the year slow, running a total of 122 km between January and April, when I ran my first timed race in over 5 years and ended up with the slowest 10k time of my life. That race was also a good wake-up call to start increasing my weekly mileage and to have a proper structure to my training.

Much like I did with my strength training, I decided to seek out experts and use a program to give my training some structure. I picked up a training program from Ben Parkes’ catalogue, and then I modified it to suit my needs and my weekly cadence.

Since then, barring the months of July and August where I had a fair bit of travel, I have run a minimum of 150 km each month (barring May where it was 115), culminating the year with having run 300 km in December, a number that is two times the number of kilometres I ran in all of 2024 (149 km). Needless to say, I am pretty chuffed with the effort.

What also helped was signing up for races through the year.

• April 2025 - TCS10k

• July 2025 - Nice Road 10k/Tougher 10k.

• September 2025 - Bengaluru 10k.

• November 2025 - SBI Green Half Marathon.

Each of the above races acted as a great checkpoint, and made it easier for me to continue to run when progress felt slow. While I didn’t start running to compete in races, having races to run in has kept the mojo up through the year.

From running my slowest 10k in April, I ran my 2nd fastest 10k in July, and then my fastest in September. To top off what has been a good year was the PB I set during the SBI Green Half Marathon, finishing in 1:36:32. Pretty good!

All of this running and focused training has also translated in improved VO2 Max, and improved aerobic endurance. While I am still not where I would like to be with my Aerobic Endurance, I have a plan set out for it in 2026 that I am keen to implement. Will post more in the coming year.

I will look back at 2025 as a pivotal year in my journey to improve my cardiovascular health. Going from running ~149km in 2024 to 9x that in 2025 is something I am happy about.

Look forward to building on that in 2026 in the races I have currently lined up:

• January 2026 - Tata Mumbai Marathon

• February 2026 - Tuffman Bengaluru.

PS: This increase in running mileage through the year also explains why my total strength training sessions dropped by ~20% from last year.

C) Nutrition:

For one, I finally reduced my dependency on Caffeine. I decided to give up drinking Caffeine on Jan 1st, and I have gone through most of the year without drinking any coffee. (I did end up drinking a cup or two of cinnamon cappuccino, but otherwise I have been off of caffeine)

While the first 8 months were mostly coffee-free, I did discover decaf in August and have made a staple since. I get some of the taste of coffee without the dose of caffeine (which many will claim is the worst of both worlds!).

Dropping liquid calories has also meant that my intake of solid food has gone up. I am eating more veggies than earlier, have reduced my refined carbohydrate intake, and my protein intake has been high despite giving up eggs halfway through the year and being mostly plant based.

I also stopped consuming eggs mid-way through the year. While I used to really enjoy eggs for breakfast, I have also been looking to eat a more plant-based diet, and dropping eggs meant that I was mostly plant-based with my nutrition.

I was also asked to go off of my protein/supplement intake (due to high Bilirubin levels - which I have historically had) and so I’ve been off of any supplements for the past 3 months. (And guess what? My progress in the gym has continued to improve!)

All of this have been worth it for two reasons:

• My lipid profile has improved and I have been able to bring down my Triglycerides.

• My LDL-C has also lowered, though not as much or as quickly as I would hope. But the signs are there, and hopefully I keep medications away for a while longer.

• I have been able to recover from my workouts and stay injury free. For most of this year I have been training 2x a day with the initial few months having my running and strength sessions happen back to back, and the later months with them being separated by a few hours. Despite this increase in physical activity, I haven’t felt jaded or burnt out, and the primary reason for that has been mostly good nutrition.

There are still some gaps to be filled and some improvements to be made. More of that in the next section.

D) Sleep:

I have written about how I have had some issues with sleep in the previous review, and they were mostly due to external circumstances. This year has been quite different. I have had mostly good sleep - otherwise I wouldn’t be able to train as much as I have - with an occasional night or two of erratic sleep, primarily due to my mind constantly working more than anything else, and it has been a welcome change.

I do need to improve my sleep hygiene a bit and keep away my laptop from bed, especially when the Premier League or IPL are on, but otherwise I am happy with some of the changes I implemented last year bearing fruit this year.

E) Relationship:

2025 was a milestone year for my relationship.

23rd October, 2022 is a landmark date if you’re a fan of Indian cricket.

It is the date that Virat played his greatest T20 innings ever, and got us over the line against Pakistan in the World Cup.

The date has a special place in my heart for a different reason:

On the same day I had decided to skip the match and go on a date with a girl I was excited to meet.

During the date I completely forgot all about the match, and yet all the pubs surrounding the cafe we were at were creating a ruckus, and I had major FOMO listening to the cheers. I missed the match in its entirety, and missed what was a generational knock by Virat.

I had no regrets then, and my decision to skip the match to go on that date was validated further when 3 years later that girl became my wife.

10/10 would recommend taking that chance.

F) The Wedding:

There were times during the lead-up to the day when I was pulling my hair out but it was more to do with my penchant for over-optimising and over-complicating simple stuff. Thankfully my wife is used to these shenanigans over the years and chose to put up with it!

My wife and I planned out the entire thing ourselves, and we were quite glad how well the events turned out and how smooth the wedding day was.

Funnily enough, I was so engrossed in all of the planning that it wasn’t until the evening before when I was showering that it hit me that I am the groom.

Of course, planning is only a part of the package. On the day we had some of our close friends and family chip in and ensure we just relaxed.

We now know enough to help someone else plan their big day!

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Travel.

At the start of the year my wife - then girlfriend - and I had decided to put on hold any major travel plans since we had a wedding to plan and since she was on the lookout for a new role. We knew we were likely to only get 1 trip together, and that I would then have another trip with my boys later on, but no impromptu plans or trips were on the Horizon.

I work for myself, work remotely, have no debts or too many dependents, so travel is easy. I am also lucky enough to have friends who are in a similar boat as me, and therefore ready companions for trips.

Much like 2023, 2025 was all about some new destinations for me.

As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve adopted (and my wife has joined the bandwagon happily) the ‘Die with Zero’ approach to our current lives, and thus are happy to spend money - sometimes ridiculous amounts - to create memories that keep giving us dividends in the years to come.

A) Thailand (Bangkok, Koh Samui, and Phuket)

I had visited Bangkok once nearly 18 years ago, as a teenager and as part of a cricket team. It was a short 3 day stopover before coming back to India post a winter Australia tour.

I have three vivid memories of that short trip -

• The heat was off the charts. Within a few minutes of getting outside the Bangkok terminal we were all drenched in sweat, given that we were all wearing winter wear as we departed Australia.

• There was a strong smell of seafood - and other similar food that was being cooked on the streets - that I had never smelt before. The odour was strong and overpowering for someone new to the smell.

• I had some of the best Indian food I’ve ever had in my life in a small restaurant in a small gully, that we just happened to chance upon.

Since that trip, neither had I gotten the chance to go to Thailand again nor had I the inclination to do so for quite a few years. The argument always was the same as what I use when I am persuaded to go other parts of India:

“It is right around the corner, can do it anytime, so let me do other parts first.”

This year, though, we finally decided to travel to Thailand.

We were in Thailand for a couple reasons:

1. We knew that my - then - girlfriend would be changing jobs soon, and may not have the luxury of remote work anymore, and

2. We wanted to do a beach destination where we just put our feet up and just read.

We got lucky with the weather still being fairly pleasant and enjoyed our stay across Thailand. The beaches were great, the food was fantastic, and we had probably our most peaceful holiday since Sri Lanka back in 2023-24.

And of course the best part about the trip were the spas and the massages on offer. Every beach we went to had someone offering a splendid Thai massage right on the beach, and it was so relaxing to just watch the sunset while they worked on our tired bodies. 10/10 would highly recommend.

B) Portugal (Lisbon and Porto).

Portugal and Spain were the countries chosen for my Bachelor Trip. And I am so glad I ended up choosing these two countries, because the entire trip was fabulous.

(And a special shoutout to my friend Rakshita who helped draw up a plan and itinerary and really did convince me to do both Portugal and Spain!)

It was also the first Bachelor trip where the groom (yours truly) was the one who planned out the entirety of the trip, including dates, visas, and accomodation. As annoyed as I was about it initially, I am glad I did so, because we all ended up having a great time.

Amongst the 5 of us who were travelling, 3 hadn’t travelled to Europe and if you exclude my UK trip last year, I hadn’t either. One of my friends hadn’t travelled internationally yet, so if nothing this trip was going to be one heck of experience for all of us.

Out first stop was Lisbon. I had heard a lot about Lisbon and boy did it not disappoint. Great weather, amazing labyrinth of streets, great food (even as a vegetarian), and friendly locals.

The highlight of trip was the Sunset Boat trip that we had booked on the Tagus river. It was beautiful evening, with our host giving us a history of the city, of its buildings and its architecture. The highlight was us spotting a school of Dolphins swimming around us as the sunset. Incredible experience.

Porto was a bit of a bummer for me because I was a bit under the weather and I didn’t want to worsen it before the main part of the holiday, and so I rested in and didn’t get to see much of the city.

What I did see happened to be early in the morning as we walked around the old town and by its Duoro river, and the views were amazing.

I was feeling better by now and looking forward to the next stop on our trip:

C) Spain (Mallorca, Madrid, Asturias)

The leg in Spain can be split into two parts:

• The first 8-9 days with my friends in Mallorca and Madrid

• The final 6-7 days where I did a Solo-trip in Northern Spain.

There are too many highlights from the first leg with my friends to name them all, but I will highlight a few:

• My friend - who had decided to cancel the trip - ended up turning up in Spain and surprising me. Needless to say I was overjoyed to be spending time with him on this trip since we had been talking about this for the better of a decade now.

• Our day out in the water - Kayaking, Snorkelling, Cliff Jumping. This will go down as probably the best day of the entire trip and also the most hilarious. None of us have laughed as much as we did on that day.

• The final night in Mallorca where I surprised my friends by raising a toast for each of them. The youngest of these friendships I share is nearly an adult - 17 years - and so I wanted to thank them for being with me through thick and thin all these years.

The second leg of Spain was something that I deliberated a lot over, and with the help of my girlfriend (now wife) and Gemini I was able to finalise a trip that would satisfy the traveller in me, while allowing me to explore new areas.

After a lot of deliberation I ended up choosing the Basque-Asturia-Cantabria region is Northern Spain, primarily due to its great weather in August - 20-22 deg Celsius - and due to its pristine nature.

A few highlights:

• Driving around the entire region. This was the first time I was driving in Europe, and first experience with Right-hand drive. I got lucky that the car rental company decided to upgrade me to a Mercedes Benz. Needless to say, I had a fantastic time driving across the country.

• The two hikes I had planned for myself in Picos De Europa turned out to be splendid; even better than I had imagined. Gorgeous routes and some splendid scenery throughout. 10/10 would highly recommend.

• The food! I was amazed at how good the food was throughout this region. While the speciality is seafood and Jamon (ham), some of the vegetarian food was bonkers. The focaccia sandwiches were my go-to almost everywhere.

• The Basque Cheesecake. Eating Basque Cheesecake in Basque country was a must do for me.

My friends and I have been wanting to go Europe since 2014, and none of us were in a position to afford that trip for many a year. Once we did end up being able to afford it, all of us were quite busy with our lives. We finally had a reason to do this trip.

I am glad that this trip finally happened, and that some of my oldest and closest friends could make it. I couldn’t have asked for a better way to say goodbye to bachelorhood.

Misc:

Also had short trips to Thrissur and Mysuru this year and both were great fun. One was to celebrate a close friend’s wedding, while the other was to visit the in-laws for the first time, and needless to say, the red carpet was laid out for us!

From two years ago:

“6 years ago, traveling was something that I only aspired to, not something I could afford to…

… To go from that, to traveling regularly is a change I didn’t expect to happen as quickly as it did, and I am forever grateful for the opportunity and the good fortune I have had over the years.”

And I continue to be grateful.

Hobbies.

Reading:

A year and a half ago I made the decision to not read any new books, but instead to read older books that are still recommended, or re-read books I had read earlier that I had previously loved.

This change in approach to reading has borne fruit. I have gone from reading about and around the same topics over the years to expanding the genres that I read. It has also meant that I have eschewed purchasing any new books released in the same year, and instead focus on books released years ago.

I have gone from reading Tech or tech-adjacent books to now reading Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Business, Fitness, Finance and more.

If you’re struggling to read a book, go back to what you loved reading earlier and re-read it and you will be surprised by how seamless reading will feel.

Unfortunately, I haven’t had the time to devote to other hobbies like Pickleball, Badminton, or Padel this year. Running and Training took up a lot of physical energy, and I had to make the choice to drop Pickleball for the foreseeable future.

Writing:

While I am not the happiest with the total number of blog posts in 2025, I am quite happy with some of the blog posts from 2025 and would rank them right up there amongst my favourites.

I was glad that I was highly accountable through the year with my fitness goals and I had my quarterly updates ongoing even when somethings didn’t go as well as planned.

The public accountability also had a big part to play in me staying consistent with my running through the year, and I am going to use the same strategy for other areas I seek to improve in 2026.

Finances.

Spending:

The big finance story of 2025 for me was obviously going to be the wedding.

We knew at the start of the year the timeline we had, and we planned some of our finances accordingly.

Trivia: I had started investing for my wedding day years before I met my current wife. I knew I wanted to get married, and I knew I wanted to have a single day event, inviting all of the people I’ve had the opportunity to coach, work with over the years.

This foresight came in quite handy since the amount needed for the wedding would come from money previously invested and we didn’t have to worry too much about having to pull it out of our current incomes and savings.

And of course the beauty of compounding is that by the time I withdrew the amounts I needed to pay for the wedding, the other invested amounts had already gained as much during that period.

We also optimised the expenses using our credit cards wherever we could, and the points and miles collected should finance a nice little trip in and of itself.

And of course a special note of thanks to my relatives and my Father-in-law who both chipped in for the wedding, and reduced our costs by a solid 25%!

If there’s only one takeaway from this for you: Plan in advance!

Earning:

As I have mentioned countless times before, I am grateful that I am able to run a profitable, sustainable business and run it with integrity.

For over two years I had experimented with posting no new content on my IG feed to see whether it would have any negative impact on my revenue. As it turned out, it had little to no impact on my overall bottomline. New clients continued to be referred by existing clients and existing clients continued to renew their programs.

Investing:

Outside of this one big expense, finances were fairly boring. I continued investing through most of the months, and the market moves didn’t bother me much.

Giving:

One of the goals I had set for myself at the start of 2025 was to give back in some form or another to my friends, family, and clients. One way I did this was to gift reservations for my clients (in Bengaluru) to Naru and surprise them with the said booking.

This was a small gesture on my end to show my appreciation for my clients, especially those in Bengaluru. I will need to figure something similar for my clients in other parts of the world. Any ideas are welcome!

What didn’t go so well this year?

Health.

1. Daily activity:
   
   This was almost a given. The number of walks I went on reduced drastically this year, now that I was running more often than ever before.
   

2. Nutrition:
   
   While I was disciplined for a majority of the year, I have allowed some of the older habits to creep back in, particularly in the past couple of months. I am consuming more liquid calories than I would like, and I am not mindful of protein or caloric intake as much as I would like to.
   
   This has resulted in an uptick in weight, and I am concerned about the internal metrics - abdominal/visceral fat, LDL-C and Triglycerides numbers - and other issues cropping up over any physical changes I may undergo. (Those are concerns too, but minor compared to the blood work.)
   

3. Mobility:
   
   Much like Cardiovascular endurance, Mobility has been a constant in the “What did not go well” section these past few years, and it comes down to two things:

   1. A lack of focus, and

   2. My lackadaisical attitude to stretching and recovery work.

   
   I have been lucky that I have been mostly pain free this year, but I cannot rest on that when the likelihood of me remaining injury free is likely luck rather than skill alone.
   
   I am going to use the same public accountability shtick that I did for my endurance to improve my mobility in 2026.
   
   When you read my 2026 yearly review, you will not see Mobility be a part of this (What did not go well) section.

   ---

Hobbies.

Activity: Running and training took up a fair amount of time and most of my physical energy that I didn’t have the capacity to go and pursue other hobbies - Pickleball, Padel etc. - as often this year.

I am not too bummed about it since the trade-offs were worth it and something I was okay with going into the year.

Cooking: I am a bit bummed out about not using my free time to get better at cooking or in cooking up some new recipes. I have been cooking the same foods in the same manner (which is fine when I am in a deficit) and I haven’t really explored beyond what I already know. Any new foods or recipes I have had have all been down my wife’s cooking or me ordering in/eating out.

Writing: Considering this is the 6th year of Smarter Sundays, it was a given that the frequency of my writing would drop a bit. I am frustrated that the frequency dropped more than I had planned; I want to be averaging at least 3 posts a month, but I have been below that this year even though I started off strong through the initial months.

One major factor has been that earlier I would listen to my podcasts while cooking, walking, or training and so when I came across a great idea for an article I would pause the activity, make a note somewhere, and then continue to walk/cook/lift. In 2025, majority of my podcast listening has happened during my runs and I’ve not found a great way to save ideas or bookmark parts of an episode while I am on the run. I need a find a way around this to ensure I continue to have ideas that I can write more about.

Finances.

Investing:

While I should be glad about the financial state I am in, I am also aware that I could be in a better state with some discipline.

This year was a mixed year. I was disciplined for a majority of the year but during months of higher expenses - Travel months and wedding month - I was more focused on the spending and less on the investing.

One good thing was setting up an SIP - instead of manually investing that I would do previously - and having that run continuously. I intend to continue that in 2026 and step-up the overall investments, especially now that it looks like the markets have been flat for a while.

What did I learn?

Lessons & Realisations from 2025:

1. Once I set my mind on a goal, I go about working towards it with horse blinders on, and therefore I should set myself more goals.

2. Much like in 2024, seek out help when necessary. I would not have been able to run as well and as consistently as I did had it not been for information I received for countless individuals on reddit, Youtube, and more.

3. Proof before purchase. One rule I follow is to buy an object of desire only once I have proven to myself I have evidence of doing the activity that I intend to buy the object for.
   
   As an example, when I wanted to buy a pair of running shoes, I had to first run in my old running shoes and do it consistently before I decided to buy a new pair. I ran ~125km in my 7 year old shoes this year before I purchased a new pair. Likewise with my racing shoes. Only after I had signed up and raced thrice did I end up purchasing racing shoes.
   
   I did the same with my gadget purchases too; both the watch and airpods were purchased after I had already walked/run/been active enough to justify the purchase for those very purposes.

What do I hope for in 2026?

I am going to repeat what I said at the end of 2023 and 2024:

“To continue to do use my time with more thoughtfulness; to do the things that bring me fulfilment, joy, and a sense of satisfaction.”

To add to it: To live a happy married life with the love of my life.

Thank you for reading.

Wishing you a happy new year, and may 2026 be your healthiest and happiest year yet.

Here are 26 Fitness Rules that have led me to a healthier life, and ones I intend to follow for 2026:

Training.

1. Do what comes easy.
   
   If I have gotten better at different movements, or different physical activities it is because I have started with what was easy. Aiming to be perfect at something from the get-go is a fool’s errand, and one I have failed at quite often.
   
   Start with something easy. Do it repeatedly until what is difficult starts becoming easy.
   

2. Seek out expertise.
   
   The one decision I took in 2025 that had the biggest impact on my health: Seeking out experts.
   
   Be it with running or with training I decided to venture out of my comfort zone and seek some help from others far ahead of me in the same field. And the results are proof in the pudding: Running my fastest 10k, my fastest Half Marathon, all while increasing my strength and muscle.
   
   The goal in 2026 is to apply the same rule to others areas I struggle with: Mobility, to name one.
   

3. Resist the urge for needless change.

   
   In the past the biggest enemy I have had to deal with has been my urge for needless change; change for the sake of change.
   
   I would have been following a steady plan, one that is accruing decent progress and is keeping me pain and injury free and I decide to mess it up by deciding to switch up the plans suddenly.
   
   The urge to not follow what is working for others, or what is supposedly better or providing faster results is one that is hard to resist. Resist, though, one must.

   

4. When in doubt, remember The Lindy Effect.
   
   The Lindy Effect is the idea that the older something is, the longer it’s likely to be around in the future.

   Popularised lately by the author Nassim Taleb, it reflects the common adage that things that have stood the ‘test of time’ are things that you can rely on.
   
   Following this principle has led me to avoid chasing the latest trends and fads in training. I stick to time tested principles that have lasted decades if not centuries.
   
   I wrote about this briefly here.
   

5. Always Default to Yes.
   
   When you’re indecisive about whether you should:
   
   - Go for the walk or not
   - Go for the run or not
   - Get in your workout or rest
   
   The default answer should be Yes.
   
   You may need to curtail the length of the run, walk or the session, but even a shortened session is going to leave you in better spirits than one that you skipped unnecessarily.
   

6. Be Happy with what you have, while you work for what you want.

   

7. Plant seeds for Nostalgia.
   
   I didn’t know this at that time, but when I picked up running earlier this year and decided to start slow and see how I go through the year, I was planting seeds for current me to reflect on fondly.
   
   I had no expectations that I would get here, or that I would end up enjoying running as much as I currently do.
   
   There are days when I look back and see how just turning up on a regular basis has led me to improved running efficiency and improved cardiovascular health.

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8. Follow people that are where you want to be.
   

   The internet despite all of its issues is a wonderful tool. What would once be difficult for you to find in your corner of the world is now easy for you find in multiple different corners of the world.
   
   On chat forums, on subreddits, on Strava clubs, at my local gym, and through my online coaching community, I have been able to find a group of people who are where I want to reach, and whose lessons in failure I get to benefit from and pass on.
   
   To draw a financial analogy: Don’t look to emulate the billionaire when you’re starting off. Instead, look at the person who is two steps ahead, and started where you currently are at.
   

9. Don’t miss twice.
   
   To quote James Clear:
   
   The first mistake is never the one that ruins you. It is the spiral of repeated mistakes that follows. Missing once is an accident. Missing twice is the start of a new habit.⁠
   

10. Think long term.

    

    Long term thinking is what sets apart those who are consistently healthy and those who swing between different states.

    ---

Nutrition.

11. Shape your environment or the environment will shape you.

    
    If you do not use choice architecture to set up systems to aid your life, you will end up living a life that feels out of your control.
    

12. Give yourself Unconditional Permission to Eat.
    
    If you want to get out of the restrict-binge-restrict cycle, then it is important to give yourself UPTE.
    
    The fear people have is that they will have zero control if they do this, but it is likely to have the opposite effect.
    

13. Stop attaching moral values to food.
    
    The more you label foods, the more you attach moral values to them. And the more you attach values to them, the higher the chances that you shame and guilt yourself for indulging in some foods.
    
    As with the point above, the fewer labels you attach to foods the better in the long run. There is a time and place for what we call “junk” or “unhealthy” food, and what matters is both the context and the dose:
    
    Is eating Pizza at a friend’s birthday party an unhealthy choice?

    
    Is having a Snickers bar during a long day of hiking a bad option?
    
    Look at food as food, and take into context additional information around it before you worry about labeling or moralising said foods.
    

14. Treat Failure as a chance to learn.
    
    People forget to track one meal in the day and then decide to throw their nutrition out of the window.
    
    People consume a few extra calories for one meal and then decide that dieting isn’t for them and go all out over the next few meals.
    
    Instead, learn from that one meal gone awry and do better in the next one. Ask yourself why you missed tracking a meal or over consumed, and then set up guardrails to avoid doing that in the future.

    

15. Social Health does not need to come at the cost of Nutritional Health.
    
    When at a social event, decide what you want to remember from said event in a few months’ or years’ time.
    
    If your only takeaway is that you were in a deficit while everyone was indulging and creating memories for nostalgia, then maybe it is time for a rethink of your strategy.
    

16. Nutritional Health does not need to come at the cost of Social Health.
    

    Not all social events require you to prioritise social health over nutritional ones.
    
    Is this a friend’s gathering that happens every few weeks? Is this an office party that you would rather not participate in but are doing so for appearances?
    
    Then by all means prioritise nutritional health.
    
    Not every social occasion is a special or needs to be treated as one.
    

17. Start today.
    
    Working on your nutrition when things are busy will hold you in good stead in the long run when compared to waiting for things to settle down before you start.

    
    More time is lost in waiting for the perfect time to start a deficit or a diet, than the lengths of the diets themselves.

    

18. “Dude, where’s my Protein?”
    
    Prioritise protein across your meals.

    

19. Plan in advance.
    
    Most dieting mistakes can be avoided if one meal plans and food preps in advance.
    
    You are less likely to order in food or head out for a meal when there is food already ready at home or can be prepared within a few minutes since it was prepped for over the weekend.
    

20. Minimise Variety.
    
    Limit variety of calorie dense, less nutritious snacks, and increase the variety of nutrient dense, low calorie foods in your kitchen.
    
    Food doesn’t always need to be entertainment. Speaking of entertainment..
    

21. No eating around screens.
    
    The brain isn’t great at multitasking (at least mine isn’t), and so if you are watching something while eating, guess what you’re going to pay attention to?
    
    Chances are you will not know how much you ate, how quickly you ate, and whether you needed to eat it all at all.

    ---

Misc.

22. No screens in the bedroom.
    
    Put the phones, laptops, TVs, iPads away.
    
    There is nothing more annoying than a night of disturbed sleep, and there is almost nothing as joyous as a glorious night of sleep.
    

23. Stop Doomscrolling.
    
    I have gone through 2025 without watching Reels (only a handful) or Shorts or doom scrolling through any short form video content.
    
    Yes, it is entertainment and yes there is some good content out there.
    
    But the last thing I want to do is to rewire my brain to reach for mindless consumption simply because I cannot sit with a few minutes of boredom or discomfort.
    

24. Question everything you read or watch.
    
    Especially so if it fits into your existing beliefs.
    

25. Do not engage rage-bait.
    
    Over the years I’ve seen more and more content created to elicit visceral reactions from everyday people.
    
    Mainstream media and social media both benefit from creating discord amongst people and the less attention we give the nutjobs the better for our own sanity, and for society in the long run.
    

26. Walk.
    
    Yes, the cities in India do not allow for walking to be a leisurely one. And yet, walking is still an underrated way of commuting, of resetting one’s physical and mental state.
    
    Despite the many hurdles, I still enjoy walking.

What I enjoyed reading this past week: Dishoom’s 400m playbook -

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What I enjoyed listening to this past week: Can GBA fix Bengaluru?

Everytime I see a headline ending with a question mark, I am reminded of Betteridge’s Law.

What I enjoyed watching this past week:

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PS: This post from Sahil Bloom was the inspiration for today’s post.

“I am going to start with 20-30 minutes of Zone 2 cardio per session, aiming to complete a minimum of 2 sessions with a bonus 3rd session if time allows it.”

A little further down, on the same post, I wrote:

“This goes against how I generally think about running so I need to remind myself that the pace of the run, the distance, the duration etc are secondary to the HR I am maintaining during the run and anything that helps maintain that Z2 HR is what I will need to do.”

I was reminded this again due to a recent client check-in.

The client was hesitant to start something new - running - and wasn’t sure if they would be upto the task. I was reminding the client that one should being okay with sucking at something in the beginning, and should thoroughly embrace being a beginner.

I understand that most adults are jaded by the time they reach their mid-20s, and that learning something new can feel less like a fun activity and more like a chore.

But unlike chores or work that is hoisted upon you, the activities, skills, tasks that you choose to work upon can be extremely rewarding once you go past the initial phase of learning.

Everything around us has rewired our brains to expect things fast: Food deliveries, Quick commerce, same day shipping, instant transfers of money, high speed internet, and what have you.

Is it any surprise that when everything else we do in life is on the fast lane, switching over to a skill that forces you to stick to the slow lane feels cumbersome, annoying even?

And yet, to become good at anything you must first become consistent.

I can’t reiterate this enough. To become good at anything, you must first consistently put in the work.

It is a simple enough message and yet I am surprised at how quickly this is lost on people.

I have seen clients wait weeks on end not getting in any workouts because they hope that once the current busy period subsides they will magically become the person that does everything the current person is avoiding.

I can empathize with them because who amongst us would not want to shield ourselves from our own self-critical brains?

What’s missed during these decisions is that confidence doesn’t just arrive one random day because your busy times are behind you. Confidence is built on the back of repeated evidence; of you showing up when you said you would, doing the workout you said you would, eating the way you said you would.

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It is built on you embracing the suck, and embracing being the beginner.

Author Sahil Bloom had a quote recently that resonated with:

Don’t dig the well when you’re thirsty.

Simple. Effective.

Back to where I started at: My own running journey.

As I wrote earlier I had to embrace being a beginner; to run slower than I ever had. To run fewer kilometers initially than I would have preferred. To run on a treadmill, and embrace the monotony of it.

It wasn’t fun, but I knew I had to do it. For years I had spoken about wanting to improve my cardio but every time I started, at the slightest of resistance, I would throw my hands up and push it for later.

This year was all about embracing the suck, and that has led to me to new heights:

1. Improving my 10k timing by ~9 minutes within 3 months,

2. Hitting a PB on the 10k a few months later,

3. Running over a 1000 km for the year, a personal record.

And as of this morning, I ran my first Half Marathon race in nearly 6 years.

Not only did I beat my timing goal of 1:40 (100 minutes), but I hit a personal best finishing the run in 1:36 minutes, an accomplishment I can be happy about today because I was willing to endure the initial learning phase.

What I enjoyed reading this past week: Why everything is TV.

What I enjoyed listening to this past week: Ben Carpenter is one of my favourite fitness personalities/coaches to follow, and this podcast was a great listen on my recent long runs.

What I enjoyed watching this past week: This workshop on VO2Max by Joel Jamieson. Highly recommend if you are interested in improving your cardiovascular health.

This week’s post will be a bit different. A fair number of new people have subscribed recently, so this week’s Smarter Sundays will be a recap of some of the articles I’ve written over the years.

Enjoy!

1. How to end the year on a good note.
   
   Short piece of what you can w.r.t your Training and Nutrition to finish 2025 healthier.
   

2. Crafting your Food Philosophy.
   
   As the new year rolls around, it is important for those who truly hope to make a change with their diet to create a solid food philosophy for them to follow.
   

3. 28 pieces of fitness advice I would give my younger self.

   
   Things I wish I knew earlier so I could avoid some of the pitfalls.
   

4. 8 Tips to making dieting easier.
   
   People want to get into a calorie deficit, but end up finding themselves caught up in all sorts of entanglements while doing so. 8 simple tips to make being in a deficit easier.
   

5. The Power of Default Choices.
   
   Or why it is important for us to examine what we think is the norm.
   

6. Choosing your regrets.
   
   Everything is a trade-off, and when it comes to your health what matters is you choose the regrets your future self to have.
   

7. Introduce Discomfort.
   
   Or why excessive comfort can lead to reducing health.
   

8. Zone 2 Training.
   
   Or how I found myself in love with running again.

What I enjoyed reading this past week: Running Industrial Complex.

What I enjoyed listening to this past week: Seed Oils, MAHA, Looking Fit v/s Being fit and more with Ben Carpenter.

What I enjoyed watching to this past week: Money isn’t buying Rich Indians freedom.

PS: If you want to work with me on your fat loss goals, please fill the form here.

When I was first offered the job, the primary reason I was even interested in saying yes was because I realised that if I started coaching, I wouldn’t have to pay for coaching anymore and would get to learn, train, and improve for free, while also getting paid a stipend for my services.

I started as an assistant coach - or is it assistant to the coach? - and my primary role was to warm-up and cool-down the small group that we were coaching.

I suspected that I would do this for a few weeks before I inevitably lose interest and move on to something else. Committing to something new, and going through the grind of being bad at something before I could get good at something was not something I was particularly good at; giving up easily was what came naturally to me.

And yet, I surprised myself when a couple of months later, not only was I enjoying my short stint as an assistant coach, I was looking forward to getting better. I started thinking that this could be a viable career.

What surprised me even more: Even as I was battling my own demons, it felt good being able to help someone else with their own issues. Something as simple as helping someone hold a stretch 10s longer than they could brought us both joy.

I started enjoying teaching people new movements, refining their technique, explaining the reasoning behind certain movement patterns and workout routines. Their curiousity piqued my own.

I felt like I had suddenly figured out life.

For those of you unaware, I am a high school dropout. I was intent on becoming a professional cricketer, and hoping that career would pan out. Alas! I neither had the drive nor the discipline to make it big, and when I realised that a lack of educational qualification was going to be a big obstacle in getting a job I was at crossroads in my life.

I would often get anxious thinking about how I was spending my parents’ hard-earned money, how my cricket career was going nowhere, and how I had no plan on what I would do in my life.

It was during this period of my life that I was offered the apprenticeship opportunity; one that came out of nowhere.

I am glad I was given a chance all those years ago, and I am happy I took it with both hands.

Coaching gave me a purpose back when I was aimlessly loitering in life, wondering if there is even any point in living, and wondering if I will amount to anything in life.

These past 14 years have been - to use an overused cliche - a roller-coaster, to say the least. I have been lucky enough to see the change in people’s attitudes towards their health and fitness from close quarters, and am fortunate I have gotten to play a small part over the years.

From coaching people in small groups, to coaching large groups, from in-person 1:1 sessions to online coaching, so much has changed over the past 14 years, and yet the core of it remains the same: I enjoy helping people with their health. As much today as it was 14 years ago.

I consider coaching less of a job, and more as my life’s purpose, helping people avoid the pitfalls that I fell into during my own health journey, and instead helping them improve their quality of life.

To my clients, Thank you for being a huge part of this journey.

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What I enjoyed reading this past week: Why you should resist reading summaries and build the muscles to read and watch longer form content.

What else I enjoyed reading this past week: Everything is TV. Great article on how all forms of media are turning into TV. (H/t to Tim Ferriss’ 5BF for this recco.)

I turned a year older. I had a toast night with close friends that went on until early in the morning. I had two family functions, including a wedding, with delicious foods all around.

I had multiple cakes, multiple cuisines to choose from, and innumerable sweets to gorge on.

This week had me needing to decide what I will focus on, what mode I will tune into:

Dieting mode or Lifestyle mode?

Dieting Mode:

Dieting mode is when you have a specific fat loss goal or a body composition goal you’re going after.

You are focused on the meals you consume, being diligent about the calorie content of the food ensuring you stick to a specific range, hitting your protein goals, and ensuring that nutritional content of your food is high.

When in dieting mode, you’re deliberately consuming fewer calories than your requirements, ensuring you’re in a deficit to hit your physique goals. The decisions you make regarding your food are decisions taken with physical and nutritional health being a top priority.

Dieting mode is not sustainable long term. It is meant to be a short-medium term change that will help you achieve your goals, post which you can ease back into eating at maintenance calories.

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Lifestyle Mode:

Lifestyle mode differs from Dieting mode in one major aspect:

Social health becomes a priority.

During weeks such as this past one, it is important for me to switch to Lifestyle mode.

Enjoying a cake with my family and friends is more important to me than trying to limit my caloric intake.

Enjoying Deepavali sweets and snacks with family is more important than worrying about the lack of protein.

Ensuring I am in in the moment, taking it all in, and creating memory dividends with my loved ones, that I can encash for decades to come, becomes a top priority.

Yes, the nutrition wasn’t top notch as I would want, but the memories that were created during this week will make for great anecdotes in the decades to come. And that is more important than merely having a lower bodyweight for me.

Much like Dieting Mode, Lifestyle mode isn’t long term sustainable either. It is meant to be used in short bursts, and used strategically so that you don’t end up on the other side of the spectrum where Social Health is the only thing that matters to you.

Once a few days of festivities, celebrations, and occasions are done, it is important to revert to the most sustainable of modes: Maintenance Mode.

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Maintenance Mode:

Simply put, this is where you strike a balance between consuming great quality food that nourishes you, provides you the nutritional requirements that are necessary 80-90% of the time, while also allowing you to indulge in some calorie rich foods through the week.

After a brief Dieting period, this is where most people should aim to be. This is where life as a healthy individual is fun, relaxing, and has few stresses w.r.t physical, nutritional, or social health.

Now that the week of festivities is done, this is where I aim to be until the end of the year. And then once Xmas holidays roll around, I am going to switch to Lifestyle mode again.

What I enjoyed reading this past week: 37 coolest neighbourhoods in the world.

What I enjoyed listening to this past week: Sahil bloom on the 5 types of wealth.

Here’s how you can end the year on a healthier note: 75 Easy.

Everyone has heard of 75 Hard, but have you attempted 75 Easy instead?

Here are the simple tenets of this program:

75 minutes of strength training a week.

3 full body sessions, lasting 25 minutes each.

You don’t need to spend hours at the gym every session - especially when you don’t have those hours; even workouts that are 15-25 minutes can and will make a difference as long as the intensity of the session is high.

Follow the principles of progressive overload over the course of the next 10 weeks, and you will finish the year stronger.

75 minutes of some form of cardio or low HR activity.

Between 2-3 sessions of your favourite cardio activity, lasting anywhere between 25-45 minutes.

These sessions need to be truly low-in intensity, and can be as simple as a walk in the park or on a treadmill/stationary cycle.

Pro Tip: Make cardio easier by making it your secondary activity. Let watching Youtube/talking to a friend/listening to music/podcast be the primary activity and it will be easier to get through your “boring” cardio session.

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75% of your weekly meals planned in advance.

Dieting is hard. Especially so in the environment we live in, where calorie rich foods are available to us, in abundance, and almost 24/7.

The way to negate some of the ill-effects of this environment isn’t to pretend that the environment doesn’t exist, but to change the environment to suit your needs.

Plan 15-16 of your weekly meals that include large portions of protein, good servings of veggies, and a smattering of fruits. If you can nail these meals, you can enjoy your social meals with reduced stress.

90% of your nutritional issues and headaches go away if you just plan your meals in advance.

Screens off 75 minutes before bedtime.

For something that is so crucial to our health and well-being, rest is paid very little attention, and what attention is paid, often tends to be negative.

If your sleep is ruined, your efforts with activity and nutrition may lead to sub-par results.

Having a set schedule for your night time routine is important, and much like how planning is essential to better nutrition, the same is true for your Sleep.

Set aside your multi-coloured displays well before your bedtime. Allow your brain, your eyes, and your other sensory organs some rest from the constant cacophony they’re bombarded by.

Instead, read a physical book, write in your journals, stretch, talk to friends or family, or go on a silent walk.

Take a break.

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People attempt something like 75 Hard and then give up on Day 2. They’re perennially stuck on Day 1 (since the program resets if you “Fail”), and they’re quick to blame themselves for a lack of:

• Willpower

• Discipline

• Motivation

What have you.

They seem to never question if the methods they willingly chose were even the ones they should be pursuing.

75 Hard as a program, I would argue, is setting you up to fail more often than not. It is a program that can work for outliers, and most people are not so.

Very few will be able to get one workout a day that is 45 minutes long, forget 2 such workouts daily. And those are just a small portion of the entire “program”.

Most people would benefit from starting on a lighter note and building their confidence up, then aiming high and having their confidence shattered within a couple of days.

Take the easy wins. Do the easy routines. Build up your confidence, and then take the leap to doing something harder.

What I enjoyed reading this past week: Wealth for yourself v/s Wealth for others.

What I enjoyed listening to this past week: The Rewatchables - Terminator 2.

What I enjoyed watching this past week: This short but beautiful video from Apple taking us through all of their devices over the years.

As a quick memory refresher, this passage below describes my approach to fitness in 2025:

“Simply put my goal for 2025 is to be an all-rounder. I don’t want to be good at one skillset alone but I want to develop the goods across multiple skill sets, whether that be Strength, Endurance, VO2Max, Mobility, or with improved control over my nutrition.”

Then every 3 months since I have been holding myself accountable publicly by providing updates on how things are going.

Why Quarterly?

For one, I borrowed this from Ali Abdaal’s video. This framework is a fine way to check in with myself and see how things are going, and course correct if need be.

Two, these quarterly check-ins do end up showing me:

where I am improving (when I feel I am stuck in a plateau), and

where I am lacking (primarily because I have lost sight of that goal).

Both are important metrics. We don’t want to get hung up on all that we have achieved while ignoring what we haven’t progressed much on, and conversely we don’t want to feel morose only focusing on what hasn’t progressed as well.

So, as we enter the final quarter of this year, it is important for me to reflect on the journey thus far while also looking to finish the year on a high.

The Quarterly Quests for Q3 (July-Sep) was the same as Q1 and Q2 as I noted here.

And to refresh our collective memories, here are the quarterly quests I had set out for Q1 and Q2 of the year:

Quests:

• Aerobic Endurance: Back in January I’d detailed how I am approaching my aerobic endurance:
  
  The approach I’m taking for improving Aerobic Endurance during Q1 of 2025: Frequency —> Duration —> Intensity.

  
  The idea was to first build frequency in my training, judge how my body is responding, recovering and then adjust the volumes accordingly. I followed this plan to a tee in the months between May-Jun.

• Anaerobic Endurance: My goal was simple: Improve my VO2 Max outputs, and to do so with performing one high intensity effort each week in February, and then build on that in March.

• Strength: Compared to the two quests above, this was the easiest since I love lifting weights and have been doing so consistently for years. My goal was to build upper body strength while maintaining lower body strength, especially given that my legs are also going to be taking a bit of a beating with all the running I had planned.

• Nutrition: I had set 3 goals:
  1) Improved protein intake,
  2) Reduced carbohydrate intake,
  3) Mindful consumption.

• Activity: Continue the streak I had built up in 2024, walking a minimum of 8k steps for at least 20 days of the month.

• Mobility: Include 1-2 stretching sessions a week starting February.

As with the previous quarter’s update, some activities went well, some didn’t go as expected. Let’s dive in.

PS: This is a detailed article, so take your time with it. However, if you want to read only about specific goals, use the navigation tab on the left.

PPS: If you want to work with me on your fat loss goals and end the year on a great note, please fill the form here.

Aerobic Endurance:

In my last update here I wrote about how I was bummed out at not taking running all that seriously to start the quarter (April) but ended it on a great note, completing 166 km of running in the month of June.

The following quarter was a continuation of the same.

What went well:

• In July, I ran the Bengaluru10k and bettered my 10k time by nearly 10 minutes, in the span of 10 weeks. This was down to the ground work I had laid in the months prior, building up my aerobic capacity by running slower, and longer distances.

• Despite there being 3 weeks of travel in July and August, I was able to get decent mileage in both the months, averaging 75 km in each.

• What went surprisingly well was the fact that it took me just 1 run post a 3-week break to get back into the groove and feel like nothing had changed.

• Unfortunately, I lost my HR monitor while hiking and that was a bummer. I was not able to track my HR as accurately as I wanted to. The apple watch does a pretty good job though, and I was able to run at a lower HR at faster speeds as compared to the previous quarter.

• And finally, I ended the quarter on a great note, hitting a personal best in the 10k category and finishing it in 43:42, beating my earlier PB by 20ish seconds.

Lessons learnt:

• Embrace the suck. Embrace discomfort. Embrace being a beginner. The first few weeks of running this year were a bit of a pain in the arse.
  
  Running slower than I ever had was a kick up my fragile ego, and it required constant self-talk to keep going (primarily because it was quite boring to run that slow).
  
  But, 9 months in and I am reaping the benefits of pushing through that suck.

• Stay grounded. Stay focused.
  
  One of the big changes I have had mentally this year is that I haven’t turned up my collar because I am doing well.
  
  Instead of feeling arrogant about what I was able to achieve, I am feeling humbled. Following runners and athletes who are way faster, who more consistent, and way more disciplined has kept my feet firmly rooted to the ground. I have done well, and I know I have a long way to go still, and this is a lifelong quest for improved cardiovascular capacity, not a one-off pursuit.

Anaerobic Endurance:

This year has been a year of rediscovery for me.

I had forgotten just how much I loved anaerobic training, HIIT, sprinting etc until I picked it back up again.

Having your heart pounding hard against your chest, while you breathe heavy, and look to push your current limits is a high that I wish to continue to chase.

What went well:

• As evidenced by hitting my PB in the 10k race, my anaerobic conditioning is paying off.

• I am able to sustain running at faster paces for longer durations.

• I am able to run fast during the middle of a run which was something I had never experienced before.

• I will be repeating my VO2Max test in the coming months, so it will be good to see the results of these efforts.

Lessons learnt:

• Prioritise rest and recovery. All of my speed sessions have come at the start of the week after a good 48 hr rest with little to no strenuous activity.

• Remember why you enjoyed it in the first place, and continue to seek enjoyment and the results will follow.

Strength:

Speaking of rediscovering, yet another to the cap: My love for lower body workouts that absolutely crush me during the session.

What went well:

• Practically everything. Again.

  
  Not only was I able to recover from my running sessions in the morning and still have plenty of energy to lift in the afternoons, I didn’t just maintain strength but I gained strength during this quarter.

Lessons learnt:

• Just turn up at the gym. Do a basic workout if need be, but turn up.
  
  The number of times I got in a great workout when 20 minutes prior to it I didn’t want to leave home is testament to the fact that all one needs to do is get started. Get over that inertia that is preventing you from starting, for once you do start, 8/10 times you will end up having a great workout.
  

• Do hard things.
  
  The past quarter has been more fun simply because I have pushed myself out of my comfort zone, performing movements that have been challenging that I otherwise might have skipped over.

Nutrition:

This is the first full quarter - in a long time - that I have been off eggs and been mostly plant based.

I thought being off of eggs would be a challenge, especially when I was traveling in Europe for 3 weeks, but it turned out to be fairly easy and I had ample vegan options available across.

Those 3 weeks of being able to stay plant based were crucial since it meant I didn’t need to eat eggs anymore and could completely take them out of my menu.

What went well:

• High protein intake w/o eggs.
  
  I am averaging 1.6-2.0g/kg/bw for my protein intake, and it has been a fun experience getting this in without depending on eggs, and lately, even protein supplements. I have dropped both protein bars and protein powder from my protein stack and instead mostly rely on tofu to get my protein in.

• Increased veggie and fruit intake.
  
  I started a minor cut a few weeks back and this really helped me focus on what I needed to do with my nutrition, and drop everything else that was superfluous to my goals.
  
  This meant my average vegetable and fruit intake has gone up significantly and I have thoroughly enjoyed this change. I don’t see myself going back to my earlier ways of eating even once I come out of my deficit phase.

Lessons learnt:

• Do the fundamentals, and do them well.

• Keep it simple, repeatable.

• Don’t let changes come at the cost of enjoyment.

Activity:

What went well:

• I continued the streak I had built through 2024.

• Whenever I have the option to walk or take a vehicle for a short distance, I chose the former, ensuring I am able to get my steps in spread through the day. And this has been the case despite having access to a car this past quarter, something that I didn’t have previously.

Lessons learnt:

• I need to continue to walk, and walk more, especially on the days I have runs.
  
  It is easy to count the steps that were part of my run as a part of the overall daily steps, but that doesn’t provide the true picture.

• I am setting myself an ambitious goal of hitting 10k additional steps on the days that I run, and I am hoping to hit that number more often than not in the coming months.

Mobility:

What went well:

• Keeping it small. One odd stretch, focusing on the muscle group that needs it the most has helped.

Lessons learnt:

• (Same as previous quarter) Start small. One simple stretch is good enough. I would start with the simplest of stretches - the calf stretch - and it would feel so good that I would then start adding in a few more stretches to the same routine.

• Am I where I want to be with my mobility? Not even close. But, just like with my aerobic endurance, I can build up to it over a period of time with persistent efforts.

• Continue to stretch the muscles that need work, instead of trying to be a yogi.

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Q4 Quests - October to December:

No changes to my quests. Things are going well and it is better to stick to what’s working well than unnecessarily tinker with a winning formula for the sake of tinkering and experimentation.

My goal is to finish 2025 on a high, feeling fulfilled that I achieved a fair amount of what I set out to at the start of the year.

What I enjoyed reading this past week: Just. Do. Things. Quite apt, considering the theme of this post.

What I enjoyed listening to this past week: Spotify threw this song up, and I have enjoyed writing this post listening to it.

What I enjoyed watching this past week: This first person perspective of a dude running a PB at the Vitality London 10k. Insane how fast some runners can be,

Taking action.

Yes, there are other things involved and luck and circumstances play a role too, but if you’re here reading this on your smartphone you’re mostly on the same level playing field as others who’ve gotten the body, life, or health you wish you did.

And it all starts with taking one step. No matter small, that one small step can have a domino effect in ways you may find difficult to imagine in the moment but one you will be grateful for after the fact.

And you know what is as important as taking action? Taking action immediately.

Doing things before you feel ready to do them.

Let me give you two examples from my own life:

• I started this business with no background in business, no skills, and yet why I have been successful is because everytime I had an idea, I went out and tested it. I took action immediately.

• My cardiovascular capacity was low for the past few years. I kept putting it off with
  
  “Oh, I have enough experience, I can always pick it up easy. I don’t need to worry about it.”
  
  And yet, when I did my tests, it was clear that my capacity was low and needed to improve.
  
  Previously I would wait until I felt ready to start training. This time I knew I had to start training when I felt a little hopeless. And the results are that I went from dreading running anything over 5k (back in April) to now running 3x that without a fuss.

Forget about me. Take a look at your own life, or at people around you.

You will see that a lot of the wins you’ve had are down to you taking action, and moving before you felt ready to do so.

That’s the trait that a lot of outcomes are attributed to. It comes with being slightly impatient, and with a willingness to learn things on the fly.

“But, Pradyum, there is a lot of discomfort that I have to wade through!”

Yes, and that discomfort that you feel is what you need to embrace. Discomfort is not a sign of failure; quite the contrary. It is a sign of you being in the process of transforming yourself.

When I am struggling to run at a pace I am supposed to, there is a high level of discomfort. And yet I know that this is a rite of passage for everyone who wants to achieve something they dream of. This level of discomfort is a sign that your body is learning, that it is understanding, and one that it will adapt to. For, if the human body is anything, it is an adaptation machine. The stimulus your provide is the adaptation you get.

As Ayushi Thakkar writes:

“… learning requires the surrendering of pride. you can’t learn while protecting your image at the same time. you have to allow yourself to sound clumsy, to look unpolished, to admit you’re not there yet. it feels like loss in the moment — loss of dignity, loss of certainty — but it’s really the ground clearing itself so that something else can grow.”

Embrace the feeling of inadequacy, of being less fluent, of not understand movement patterns or motor control. Embrace discomfort for it is the evidence that you’re adapting to change.

Working on things that stress you out today can lead you to a place where those very same things that were once stresses are now your allies.

And from the same author above:

“most of us don’t quit because we aren’t capable of learning; we quit because we can’t stand the feeling of being terrible in the meantime. we live in a world that loves to showcase the before and after, the highlight reel, the transformation photo, the “look at me now” moment. but the middle is quieter and harder to watch. the middle is someone at their desk rereading the same paragraph ten times. it’s someone sweating through scales on a piano while the neighbors pray for silence. it’s someone typing and backspacing so much that the page looks like it’s flickering. this middle — the discomfort of learning — is unphotogenic, so we forget that it exists, or worse, we assume that if we’re in it, it must mean we aren’t cut out for the thing.”

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What I enjoyed reading this past week: The Death of the Corporate Job.

What I enjoyed listening to this past week: Rory Sutherland on the Modern Wisdom podcast.

What I enjoyed watching this past week: A photographer’s review of the iPhone 17Pro.

Here’s what I would do if I was just getting started (or starting over after a break) on my fitness journey this year:

1. Set Realistic Expectations:
   
   Yes, there will be outliers who will use these 100 days and truly transform their health. For a lot of people, this may be a challenge. However, it doesn’t mean that you can’t utilise these 100 days to improve your health and set yourself up for success.

   
   Before we dive into what you can do to improve over the next 100 days, set the right expectations.

   ---

2. Physical activity:
   
   AKA, Daily Steps.
   
   This is the one activity you will aim to do everyday for the next 100 days.
   
   But, we are not talking about some arbitrary number like 10000 steps/day, that doesn’t take into account your lifestyle or schedule.

   
   Instead, you will set two goals:
   
   A Floor Goal: The least number of steps you can do on a daily basis.
   
   You will set this number taking into account the busiest days of the week - when you’re in meetings all day, when you’re cooped up at home due to bad weather, or when you are generally very busy to be able to walk more.
   
   This number is the number you should be able to hit even on the busiest of days.
   
   If you hit this number, you’ve achieved your goal for the day. (As an example - A Floor Goal of 3500 steps/day)
   
   A Ceiling Goal: The opposite of your Floor goal.
   
   Your Ceiling Goal represents the ambitious step goals you want to set for yourself.
   
   Think of the easiest days of the week, where you’re on your feet a lot or are active a lot - Say a weekend hike - and then set your numbers accordingly.
   
   (As an example - A Ceiling Goal of 14500 steps.)
   
   Now, your goal for the next 100 days is to ensure you walk a minimum of 3500 steps/day. On lighter days, walk more. On busier days, treat anything over 3500 steps as a bonus.

   ---

3. Nutrition:
   
   A. Plan ahead.
   
   I would start planning my meals for the week coming up, every Saturday.
   
   I would draw up 2-3 menus, listing out two options each for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and then rotate them over the course of the next 7 days.
   
   Of the 21 meals I would eat in a week, I would want 16-18 meals planned out and give myself 3-5 meals where I can either order in, go out to a restaurant, or allow for some last minute change.
   
   B. Limit snacking.
   
   Once I have drawn up the menus for the week, I will then focus on at first limiting, and eventually eliminating, snacking.
   
   Snacking is one of the biggest reasons people find it hard to either lose or maintain weight while on a diet, and when they’re not, it is one of the easiest ways to put on weight since the calories add up quickly, and without much notice.
   
   Do not worry about "boredom" from eating similar foods regularly.

   Boredom due to a routine is the entry fee you pay for long term success.

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   ---

4. Strength Training:
   
   Turn up 2x a week for the sessions.
   
   Whether you turn up at the gym, or are training with DBs at home, or are doing bodyweight exercises at home - Aim to turn up twice a week every week for your strength sessions.

   
   Aim to do one upper body session, and one lower body.
   
   Anything you do over this is a bonus, but the baseline is 2 strength sessions a week.

   ---

5. Sleep:
   
   A. Stick to a consistent schedule -
   
   Hit the bed at the same time range every evening.
   
   This does not mean you have to sleep at 8pm every night, it just means you have a recurring schedule for when you will sleep.
   
   If you work a different shift, and have to sleep by 1am every night, so be it. Don’t let the night drag on and sleep at 4am instead. Set ranges (9:30-10pm, 1:30-2:00 am) and then stick to it.
   
   B. Improve sleep hygiene -
   
   1. Limit gadgets on the bed, except maybe a Kindle or any other similar, single use device.

   2. Follow a wind down routine leading up to bedtime - Brushing your teeth, flossing, or even a shower before bed. Read a book instead of scrolling on your phone, and of course keep the lights dim throughout.

      ---

6. Stress -
   
   Limit passive relievers of stress: Smoking, Snacking, Drinking, Binge-watching while snacking, Scrolling while snacking, Mindless content consumption, to name a few.
   
   Increase active relievers of stress: Journaling, Going for a walk, Listening to music, Working out, Getting on a call with a loved one, Any form of physical activity.
   
   The more you focus on the active relievers of stress, the better.

   ---

If you think this is too simple, remember this:

Dramatic change is what captures attention, but tiny actions, done repeatedly are what create the outcomes.

All dramatic changes are a result of tiny actions compounding over time.

If you follow what is mentioned above, by the end of the year you would have:

• Completed 28-30 workouts at a minimum.

• Walked 350,000 steps at a minimum.

• Found new ways to relieve stress.

• Learnt how to plan your own meals.

• Gotten stronger.

• Better energy due to improved sleep cycles.

Don’t wait until the new year to become a “new you”. Start now, and start 2026 by being an improved you.

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• Get leaner than where I am at currently,

• See if it helps improve my overall energy w.r.t my gut (which has been a regular pain point).

Given that I was in a deficit I had to plan my meals out well, especially the timing of it. In lieu of this I had decided that my first meal would be lunch, which generally fell right after my strength training session.

The first few days were challenging. Going from consuming 300-500 kcal in the first 4-5 hours of the day to barely having 125 calories (from my protein shake during the workout) was a big change, especially given that my work is front loaded and there is a higher cognitive load during the early hours of the day.

But, I had been here before. There was a time when I would have something to eat as early as 5am in the morning, and continuing having something through the day until I hit the bed. And after having followed this for a long time, I decided to switch - partly due to work, partly due to test myself out - to a 16 hr. fast that would only end at noon. I knew the transition would be difficult - but if I could get through the initial few days and resist my impulses and the ingrained habits - I would adapt to the new routine.

And that is exactly what happened.

A few days after I started the deficit I was able to go for a long run in the morning, do 2-3 hours of work, and then head to the gym without needing to fuel up.

Two weeks in and the change - a drop in calories and missing most breakfasts - feels easy to adhere to, and the longer I continue in this vein the more normal this will feel.

Yesterday I was on a near 20hr fast where the only nutrients I got in were from half a protein shake I consumed post a long run in the morning. The rest of the day I was out, driving around the city and going from one corner to another, and to yet another, before coming back home and having my first meal at 5pm.

And yet, despite the long run in the morning, the long drive across the city, the few hours of shopping that made up the day, I wasn’t drained. I wasn’t dead. And neither was I just coasting along just waiting to grab the next piece of food that would be presented in front of me. On the contrary I felt sharp. My energy was starting to dip, but I didn’t think I would have all of the issues I thought I would have.

And this brings me to the core point of this article:

Our bodies are incredibly adaptive. What is challenging today can become easy and doable tomorrow.

However, for you to see the adaptability of your body, you will need to first be okay with challenging yourself.

You will have to buck the trend of underestimating yourself, what your body is capable of, and what you can achieve in a few days once you push past the sucky period at the beginning.

Underestimating yourself, your capabilities, and your body’s capacity to grow, adapt, and change is admitting defeat even before you’ve had the chance to showcase it.

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What I enjoyed reading this past week: Morgan Housel.

What I enjoyed listening to this past week: The ReWatchables 2-parter on Pulp Fiction was fun.

What I enjoyed watching this past week: Sahil Bloom, 5 types of wealth.