How I Transformed My Life with a 1000-Day Workout Challenge!

From being an unfit-lazy-ass, to a fit-lazy-ass :)

Mar 23, 2023

On 18th March 2023, I completed a 1,000-day streak of daily workouts.
PS: As of writing this PS, I am on a 1500+ streak, and continuing. The remaining post remains same and is the foundation of this.

Why it all started?

It was 2017.

I just got married.

I visited my wife, who was working in Singapore.

2-days after I reached I got a severe back cramp.

That put me on 1-week bed rest.

That period was also when I was the most Un-Fit, I have ever been.

My wife said, “I do not want such an unfit person in life”.

Thankfully, she didn’t leave me.

But she asked for a promise that I would improve my lifestyle and become fit.

Behind a fit man, there is a strict woman.

So I decided to take charge and embark on a life-long journey to become fit.

The journey was full of painful self-realization, failures, multiple back and neck pains, X-rays, MRIs, and 100s of painkillers!

But slowly and steadily. I did it.

Slowly and steadily.

That’s the answer.

That’s always the answer.

That’s the only answer.

Jungli Mee! Unfit, Undisciplined, No Direction.

What did I consider a workout?

If you think a workout is only about

1-hour gyming and sweating the hell out of your body.

You are wrong!

And that’s probably why most people never develop fitness as a lifestyle.

Perfectionism is a silent killer.

So, let’s be practical,

Here’s what I considered to be a workout :

A minimum of 20 minutes: It can be walking, running, yoga, gym, pranayam, stretching, swimming, or anything that is purely for the benefit of the body.
When I travelled for vacation, e.g. Turkey in 2022, I averaged 10 km walking every day. That’s a workout.
Every Friday, I play cricket. That’s a workout.
Working out in splits: due to time constraints or other factors, I had to split my workout into multiple sessions. e.g. 10 mins in the morning and 10 mins in the evening. However, I kept such occurrences to a minimum.

I do not have a precise count, but over the last 1500 days, I did roughly :

~ 400 Runs+Walks (avg. 30 mins)
~ 500 gymming sessions with a personal trainer (avg. 50mins)
~ 100 at-home gymming sessions (avg. 45mins)
~ 200 Yoga sessions (avg. 30 mins)
~ 200 Pranayam sessions (min. 20 mins): These were also my weekly rest days.

Overall,` My average workout duration was 45 mins / day It’s 60 mins for 5-6 days a week. It’s 20 mins for 1-2 days week The minimum is 20 mins for it to count as a workout. That’s close to 200 calories burn everyday.

Bad Days Before Good Ones.

I didn’t suddenly become disciplined one morning, stopped eating unhealthy food and started going to the gym. No Sir!

I made a mistake in understanding my body.

I did random shit, that probably worked against me.

Here are 4 failed attempts at fitness

1st failed attempt: 2012
- Joined a gym
- Paid 9000 rs
- Went for 1 week
- Stopped

2nd failed attempt: 2015
- Joined a gym
- Paid 12000 rs
- Went for 4 months
- Lost 12 kg
- Stopped
- Gaind 15 kg

3rd failed attempt: 2017
- Joined a gym
- Paid 10000 rs
- Went for 6 months
- Lost 15 kg
- Stopped
- Gained 15 kg

4th failed attempt: 2018
- Started a super-restrictive diet
- Lost 15 kg in 3 months
- Stopped the diet
- Gained back 15 Kg

24th Jan 2019: The 5th lifelong attempt.

After going through the cycles of losing and gaining weight, I realized fitness is not a once-a-while thing that we can do once a year. It’s not an annual vacation.

It must be our everyday life

So finally, on 24th Jan 2019, I started a Habit Tracker.

P.S: The below screenshot is an evolved version. I started with tracking Yoga for 5 Mins but kept on iterating as I improved. Yoga 5 min, became Yoga 10 mins, and so on….Similarly started adding more and more habits as it went well.
P.P.S: I have been creating this tracker every year since 2019.
(Here’s the FREE template)

Get My Habit Tracker

1000 Days and 10,000 hurdles.

The journey was not smooth.

I wanted to give up, especially in the first 300 days.

Here are some hurdles life put in my path.

Becoming a Parent: 7 days in hospital at peak lockdown, sleepless nights for the first 6-9 months (update - I have a second kid in 2024 Jun)
Fevers: I caught a fever 2-3 times over the last 3 years
Brother’s Marriage: Where I had to attend guests and enjoy
Major time fighting: with dad and leaving home for a night with my dog
Multiple Vacations: 5-7 in India and 2 in the International
Other travels: weddings, functions, work-related. (One trip was 10 hours on road)
Building a Startup: that sucked every ounce of mental energy, every day
Knee and Back Injuries: made workouts inefficient

And many more…like Just not wanting to workout, every other day

Before you think that I have superhuman qualities. The answer is both Yes and No.

No, because → everyone faces similar situations like this. They were nothing new. Nothing existential. Nothing unique to me.

Yes, because → most people use them as an excuse for nothing taking action. I did not accept these reasons. And that was the only thing that created the difference.

5 Weird Places For Workout

Kyunki ek baar jo meine commitment kar di, to mein apne BAAP ki bhi nahi sunta!

Brother’s wedding pheras: I was sitting and doing my kapalbhati/anulom-vilom at 2 AM in the night, while my brother’s pheras were going on.
Walking 3 km inside the house: A couple of times, I did not have the energy to go downstairs, so I walked 3 km from the dining hall to the drawing room.
Back seat of the car: My brother and a cousin were drinking Rum in the front seats, and I was doing my workout in the back seat. <I know what you are thinking. Backseats of cars are not meant for workout>
Dancing at parties: 2 times, I considered dancing as an act of workout. Because the intention of dance was not to enjoy but to work out. I tracked the dance on my Apple Watch till I burned 200 calories. And oh man! Was that tiring? I never jumped so much while dancing.
Workout in train: I was travelling for a wedding and knew I wouldn’t get time. Btw, I have worked out in flights, buses, cars, malls, parks, weddings, parties, and hospitals.
P.S. The train was 30 30-minute spot workout.