This time around, back in 2020–21, I actually came in knowing what I was doing. That was the biggest difference from my first transformation. In Part 1, I only did cardio — I never touched weights, never thought about protein or nutrition, just ran and hoped for the best. This time, I had actually done my research.
This was the final year of my master's program in the US and I was planning to get married in 2021 after graduating. I had one goal in mind — I wanted to be the fittest version of myself when I wore that three-piece suit on my wedding day.
This time, I went deep into nutrition and fitness science. I learned about macros for the first time — protein, carbohydrates and fats — which foods provided each one, and how to build my meals around them. I started logging everything on MyFitnessPal and weighing food on a scale. Honestly, that was a game changer for me. I had been badly underestimating my calorie intake without even realising it. Over time I got good enough at estimating portions that I didn't need to obsessively log every meal, but that understanding of food has stayed with me ever since.
On the diet side, I went really strict. I ate almost the same meals every day — oats and egg whites in the morning, rice, chicken and salad for lunch, grilled chicken breast for dinner, and more egg whites whenever I was hungry in the evening. After learning how much added sugar I was actually consuming, I made a personal decision to cut it out entirely — no desserts, not even a pinch of added sugar in my meals. I ended up sustaining that for more than 180 straight days. As someone with a serious sweet tooth who has always craved desserts, that felt like a huge personal win. Honestly, I was never bored of eating the same thing every day. I think I was just so focused on that end goal that nothing else mattered.
I also made sure to fix the biggest mistake from last time — strength training. I wasn't doing anything fancy. Whenever I could find time, I'd do a quick 30-minute full-body session, using bodyweight exercises at home or basic equipment at the apartment gym. No complicated split routines, no focusing only on the muscles that would look good in a suit — just full-body compound movements to make sure I was building and preserving muscle while losing fat this time.
My packed schedule was the next challenge. Between finishing my final semester, preparing for job interviews, applying for jobs and grinding through coding challenges, I was missing my step goal and falling out of my routine more often than I wanted. So I figured out a hack — whenever I took video calls with family, my fiancée or friends, I would walk instead of sitting down, and hit my step goal at the same time. This simple habit meant I never had to carve out separate time just for steps.
And I got there.
I was in the best shape of my life on my wedding day. I wore that suit and felt exactly like the version of myself I had set out to become. But honestly, what surprised me most was how different I felt on the inside. I was confident and proud of myself, and it showed in the way I carried myself. Being in that shape on one of the biggest days of my life felt incredible.
After the wedding celebrations and time with family, I eventually returned to the US and normal life. And that's when things started slipping.
My workout frequency dropped first. I wasn't going to the gym as often and the home sessions became less and less frequent. At the same time, I stopped paying close attention to my meals. The discipline I had applied to every meal just wasn't there anymore. And then the desserts crept in. They started as part of the wedding celebrations, which made sense, but oh boy, they didn't stop there. Soon I was having dessert almost daily without even noticing it had become a habit. I had become very good at avoiding desserts altogether, but I had never actually learned how to include them in moderation once the restriction ended. I kept telling myself I was still eating well because my main meals still looked healthy and structured. But slowly, I was losing what I had worked so hard to build.
Looking back, the mistake is clear. The wedding was my only finish line. Once I crossed it, there was nothing on the other side keeping the habits alive. The motivation I had been running on didn't just slow down — it disappeared. I had built the perfect system to reach my wedding day, but never a plan for the life that came after it.
What I learned during this time—macros, tracking and portion awareness—is still genuinely useful to me. The mistake wasn't the method. The mistake was that the entire system had an expiration date built into it.