Being Fit

I’m 37. I have never once, in my life, actually worked on being in the best shape I could be (yes, that includes muscles, good shape, six-packs too).

It’s not that I was unfit. I was always just okay — not super fit, not unfit either. I never exercised regularly. I never really joined a gym. A couple of times I tried, lasted a week or two, then quit — gym wasn’t for me, or so I told myself. Food-wise, same story: I wasn’t careless about it, I just kept my weight in check by watching what I ate, nothing more structured than that.

What I did have was futsal, badminton, some walking, the odd running event. That was it. Not because I was unfit. I moved. But moving was never the same as training. I never sat down and said: this is the shape I want, and here’s how I get there.

Then I hit my late thirties, and things got harder. Things I used to manage easily now sometimes feel a bit difficult. I get tired more easily than I used to.

This post isn’t for anyone else. It’s a commitment I’m making to myself, in public, because public commitments are harder to quietly abandon.

Using AI for This

A month ago, I started using AI to help me with all this — as my mentor, my fitness coach, and my nutritionist, all in one.

It guides me daily on what to eat and what to watch for. The gym itself is the only thing on alternate days — everything else, diet, walking, sleep, is daily. Nothing aggressive. No 5am boot camps, no extreme diets. Just steady consistency.

I’m also keeping a log of every workout and gym session, so I can gradually push it up over time. Alongside that, I’m logging my stats — weight and a few other numbers — so I can actually track where I’m going instead of guessing.

I gave myself two years, not two months, because two months builds a phase — two years builds a person.

I’m a computer engineer by background. When we build something serious — a real product, not a quick script — we don’t judge it in weeks. We give it at least a couple of years before we call it a success or a failure. I don’t see why life should be any different. Two years is the timeline I’d give a product I actually believed in, so that’s the timeline I’m giving myself.

Two years is for the habit — the discipline I want for the rest of my life. But I also have a shorter goal sitting alongside it: four to six months to actually get to the physical shape I have in mind. The two-year plan is the lifestyle. The four-to-six-month mark is when I expect to see it on the outside.

What’s Actually Changed (So Far)

Here’s the honest scorecard so far:

• No junk food, no packaged food. This is the big one for me this time — the thing I’m controlling harder than I ever have.
• Counting calories, tracking protein and carbs, trying to actually hit numbers instead of just “eating okay.”
• No alcohol, except for genuinely special occasions — and I wasn’t drinking much to begin with.
• Gym on alternate days, futsal twice a week, daily walking, treadmill or outdoors, whichever I can manage.
• Lights out by 10pm, 11 at the absolute latest. Seven to eight hours of sleep, most nights.

I didn’t used to calculate any of this. Now I calculate everything. And it’s not even that hard, because I was living a fairly similar lifestyle before anyway — I just wasn’t balanced. This time I’m just tweaking things and keeping it all in balance.

Small, repeated choices beat short bursts of intensity you can’t keep up.

Not Just Physical

Last year I was struggling with my mental health. I saw a psychiatrist. It helped, a little.

Physical fitness and mental fitness are two different things. Being fit doesn’t automatically mean you’re mentally fit too. But I do think being physically fit helps, in some way, with being a little better mentally as well.

Since I started sleeping properly and moving every day, something has shifted. Not a transformation. Just a little more steady. A little less noise in my head.

I’m not chasing this to fix my mind — but I’d be lying if I said better sleep and a body that moves hasn’t done more for it than most of my thinking has.

Where This Is Actually Going

In four to six months, I expect to look noticeably different. More muscle, less fat, the visible stuff.

But that was never supposed to be the finish line, and I’ve already said why above.

Right now, this is just week three. I’m not going to pretend I know how this plays out.

I’ll come back to this at the end of the year and be honest about where I actually stand.