https://youtu.be/Fxzo0mdoZ8o
Transcript
[00:00:08.650] - Darshan Doshi
Hi, everyone. Welcome to DASAR. Today's podcast is on fitness. It's on running, it's on health. And I have an awesome podcast guest with me, Shajan Samuel. He's a runner. He's an Ultramarathoner. He's a business leader. And so we are going to talk a lot of things today. This might be a long podcast. Just like the others, we're going to cover fitness. How do you get fit? How do you maintain fitness? Everybody has a busy life. Everybody wants to have a great social life. But how do you keep fitness as a key parameter in your life? We are also going to cover injuries, sickness. We are going to cover nutrition, sleep, and a whole lot of things related to fitness in this podcast. So, first of all, welcome. This is an absolute pleasure to host you here. I've been an avid fan, a follower of your tweets. And the moment I kind of reached out to you, you said, all right, let's do this, right? And so I'm super excited about this. Thanks a lot for joining us on DASAR.
[00:01:17.570] - Shajan Samuel
Yeah, I'm very much thrilled and delighted to be on this podcast. And I look forward to sharing my limited wisdom with all your listeners.
[00:01:26.360] - Darshan Doshi
Brilliant. So let's get started with the basics. How did your fitness journey start? Were you unhealthy at any given point of time? And then how did you build that momentum towards fitness?
[00:01:37.990] - Shajan Samuel
See, it all started off the fly. I had a very busy traveling job. I used to travel around more than 20 days a month. And while I was in Kerala, I worked in Kerala for a year. I used to have a lot of oily parathas and chicken and stuff like that. So I put on a lot of weight when I was 32. So at 36, 37, one fine morning off the fly, I just went for a short jog and I was surprised to utter dismay. I could not even run 100 meters. I was panting and gasping for breath. And I told myself, this is not fair, this is not done. This is absolutely ridiculous. And that is the day I realized that, what's this? So I came back home and I said, next day, again, I went out and I could run 150 meters. So I realized that there's something wrong with my health. Fitness.
[00:02:38.810] - Darshan Doshi
So that's how you got started. I'm going to set the context for our audience. Today, you're an ultramarathoner. You are in the Limca Book of records. You won other Indian records as well, maybe better than me explaining. Maybe you can help us understand what is ultramarathon. And just a quick overview of the records and the work that you do in the fitness space across India. Because it's not just running for passion. You're making this a cause. This is a cause for living for you. So maybe just some more thoughts on this.
[00:03:16.380] - Shajan Samuel
Yeah, I was 92 kg, and definitely I was not in control of my life. I was like a ship without a rudder. And my life was wandering aimlessly. So when I was 37, I started to jog. I was able to do 10 km with a lot of struggles. I was running five, then walking 2 km, then slow walk. So this saga continued for four years. So till 40 years I was doing 10k with lot of effort and struggle and discomfort. I was still 92, so I was not losing weight. I was still not losing weight. So 40 years I made this audacious plan that, look, I want to transition into a long distance runner. And I did not know how and what, but this is a commitment I made to myself. So the difference between the promise and the commitment is that promise you make to others, commitment you make to yourself. So I knew that if I had to become an ultra runner, I have to make things very, very difficult for me. The best place to hang around is the comfort zone. But nothing radical happened there. So I moved to Mumbai. I stayed in a slum, absolute slum, devoid of all amenities. I slept on the hard floor. No TV, no television, no refrigerator, nothing. Just the floor. And at 07:00 p.m., I used to go off to s
