Voxcali

It's this passing cloud casting a dark shadow on your alabaster cities and your hopeful children.

[Verse 1]

But there’s a cloud above you now,

[Chorus]

[Verse 2]

There are hands pointing outward

[Chorus]

[Bridge]

You were never made of marble,

[Verse 3]

It’s not you, America,

[Final Chorus]

[Outro]

After winning back-to-back titles in the World Series of Poker Ladies Championships in 2024 and 2025, Shiina Okamoto is successfully cementing her name as one of the best at the poker table.

Shiina Okamoto is representing Japan on an international level becoming one of the most recognizable names in professional poker.

She was born in Tokyo, Japan and first emerged onto the poker scene in 2023 during the WSOP $1,000 Ladies Championship. Okamoto competed amongst 1,295 entrants and made her way to the final table before finishing as runner up, taking home over $118,000. While some players would have felt satisfaction taking home the second place win, Okamoto used it as motivation for the year after.

In 2024, Okamoto returned to Las Vegas and once again made it to the final table of the Ladies Championship except this time, she defeated 1,245 players to take home her first WSOP gold bracelet and the first place prize of $171,732. This win put a huge spotlight on her status in the poker world and cemented Okamoto as one of Japan’s most elite players.

To continue her legacy, Okamoto returned to the Ladies Championship again in 2025 where she defeated a record-breaking 1,368 contestants. Okamoto’s second consecutive WSOP win made her the first player ever to win the tournament in back-to-back years after finishing as runner-up the year before. Her impressive three-year run is considered one of the greatest in the tournament’s history.

Beyond the Ladies Championship, Okamoto has had major success in other poker circuits, recording cash finishes at the European Poker Tour, WSOP Europe, and other tournaments throughout Asia. As of 2026, Shiina Okamoto’s calm demeanor and strategic decision-making has earned herself over $1 million in live tournament winnings.

Traditionally, poker has always been dominated by men, but Shiina Okamoto has risen as one of the modern faces of the game and is inspiring women in Japan and across Asia to pursue competitive poker.

This Korean folk tale features a pair of devoted sisters slandered by a wicked stepmother finding peace and vindication only after their death.

Come close, my little dumplings. Tuck your toes under the blanket, pull the moonlight up to your chin, and listen to an old story from long ago, when villages were quiet after sunset and even the crickets seemed to whisper politely.

Once there lived two sisters named Janghwa and Hongryeon.

Janghwa, the older sister, had a heart like a spring morning. She was gentle, patient and always thinking of others. Hongryeon, the younger sister, was bright as a little red flower after rain. She laughed easily, asked too many questions and could never keep her hair ribbon tied for more than five minutes.

“Grandmother,” you may ask, “why are little sisters always losing their hair ribbons?”

Ai-goo, because little sisters are part child, part breeze. That is simply how the world was made.

The girls lived with their father, a scholar named Bae, in a house with a tiled roof, a persimmon tree in the yard and a pond beyond the garden wall. When their mother was alive, the house was filled with warmth. She would brush Janghwa’s hair, braid Hongryeon’s, and say, “My two blossoms, look after each other. A sister is a lantern when the road grows dark.”

But when the girls were still young, their dear mother became ill and went away to the place where good mothers rest among the stars.

For a long while the house felt hollow. Their father walked softly, as if loud footsteps might break what little peace remained. Janghwa tried to help with the cooking. Hongryeon tried to help too, though once she put salt into the tea instead of sugar, and everyone made such faces that even the sad house nearly laughed.

After some time, their father married again. His new wife came into the home wearing fine clothes and a sharp smile.

Now, children, not every stepmother in a story is unkind. Some are warm as fresh rice. Some are sweet as roasted chestnuts. But this one — ah, this one had a heart that had grown narrow from jealousy. When she saw how beautiful and beloved Janghwa and Hongryeon were, her thoughts turned sour.

She had sons of her own, and she wanted all the family’s love, all the family’s fortune and all the family’s good luck to belong only to them.

So she began with little cruelties.

If Janghwa sewed a neat seam, the stepmother sniffed and said, “Crooked.”

If Hongryeon swept the floor, the stepmother pointed to one speck of dust and said, “Lazy.”

If the sisters ate a bowl of rice, she said they were greedy. If they ate less, she said they were ungrateful. A person who wants to be cruel can always find a reason, even if she must invent one out of thin air and old cabbage leaves.

But the sisters did not answer harshness with harshness.

At night, they sat together by the small lamp.

“Unni,” Hongryeon whispered to Janghwa, “will it always be this way?”

Janghwa took her sister’s hand. “No season lasts forever. Even winter gets tired and lets spring come in.”

So they endured. They remembered their mother’s words. A sister is a lantern when the road grows dark.

But the stepmother’s jealousy grew bigger, and one day she told a terrible lie about Janghwa. It was such an ugly lie that I will not place it fully in your ears before bedtime. Let us only say that she tried to make Janghwa’s father believe his daughter had brought shame upon the house.

Poor Scholar Bae was weak in spirit. Instead of looking into his daughter’s clear eyes and asking for the truth, he believed what his wife told him. That is a sad thing, children. Sometimes grown-ups, even fathers, can be foolish when they are frightened or tired or too eager for peace.

Janghwa was sent away from the house, weeping so quietly that even the wind felt ashamed to blow. She walked to the pond beyond the garden, where reeds bent their heads and dragonflies skimmed the water.

There, in that lonely place, the poor girl disappeared from the world of the living.

When Hongryeon learned what had happened, her little heart cracked like thin ice.

“My sister was innocent,” she cried. “My Janghwa would never do wrong.”

But no one listened. The stepmother turned her face away. The father covered his eyes with sorrow and confusion. Hongryeon went to the pond and called her sister’s name again and again.

“Janghwa! Janghwa! Your little sister is here!”

The pond answered only with ripples.

Soon after, Hongryeon too vanished from the house. Some say she followed her sister out of grief. Some say her heart simply could not stay in a world where truth had been buried so deeply.

Now, do not be frightened, my little ones. The sisters did not become monsters. They did not become shadows with sharp teeth or dreadful things that hide under beds. No, no. Pull that blanket back down. I see your knees hiding.

They became spirits of sorrow — pale, gentle and quiet — wearing white robes like moonlight on snow. They did not want revenge. They wanted only one thing.

They wanted the truth to be known.

After that, strange things began to happen in the village. Whenever a new magistrate came to govern the district, he heard soft crying near the pond at night. Then he saw two young girls standing beneath the willow trees, their faces sad but kind.

“Please,” they whispered, “listen to us.”

But the magistrates were proud men, and proud men often have very poor ears. Instead of listening, they became frightened and ran away. One even hid behind his own hat, which, as you know, is not a very useful fortress.

At last, a brave new magistrate arrived. His name was Won, and he was not only brave but sensible, which is much better. Bravery without sense is just a rooster fighting a cooking pot.

On his first night in the village, Magistrate Won sat awake in his office. The lamp flickered. The bamboo outside tapped against the window. Tap, tap, tap.

Then came the sound of weeping.

Not loud. Not angry. Just sad enough to make the candle flame tremble.

The doors opened by themselves, and in stepped Janghwa and Hongryeon, dressed in white, their hands folded politely before them.

Magistrate Won’s guards yelped and hid behind each other. One dropped his spear. Another tried to bow and run at the same time, which is difficult and not graceful.

But the magistrate stayed seated.

“Young ladies,” he said gently, “you have come a long way through sorrow. Tell me what happened.”

At last — at last! — someone listened.

Janghwa told him about the stepmother’s jealousy. Hongryeon told him about the lie. Together they told him where the truth could be found and how their innocence could be proven.

Magistrate Won listened to every word. He did not interrupt. He did not scold. He did not say, “That cannot be,” simply because it was hard to hear.

The next morning, he called the household together. The stepmother arrived wearing her sharp smile, but her hands trembled like leaves.

The magistrate asked questions. Then more questions. Then one very quiet question that made the stepmother’s face turn pale.

Lie by lie, her story came apart, like a straw sandal in the rain.

At last, the truth stood in the room where everyone could see it.

Janghwa had been innocent. Hongryeon had been faithful. The sisters had been wronged by jealousy and by those who failed to protect them.

Scholar Bae fell to the floor and wept.

“My daughters,” he cried, “my poor blossoms. I should have trusted you. I should have listened.”

And that, children, is one of the heaviest sorrows in the world — to understand too late what love should have understood at once.

The wicked stepmother was punished according to the laws of those old days, and her lies could harm no one anymore. The village finally breathed freely again. The pond became peaceful. The willow trees no longer shook with midnight crying.

That night, Magistrate Won dreamed of the two sisters.

They stood beneath a sky full of stars. Janghwa smiled with the calm of a flower opening at dawn. Hongryeon’s ribbon was tied properly for once, though I suspect heaven helped.

“Thank you,” they said. “Now our names are clean. Now our hearts can rest.”

Then they turned and walked together along a silver road of moonlight, hand in hand, until they disappeared among the stars where their mother waited.

From that day on, the people of the village remembered Janghwa and Hongryeon not as sad ghosts, but as two devoted sisters whose love stayed bright even in darkness.

And so, my little ones, what does this old tale teach us?

It teaches us that jealousy is a worm that eats the heart from the inside.

It teaches us that lies may run fast, but truth walks steadily and arrives in the end.

It teaches us that when someone is hurting, the bravest thing we can do is listen.

Most of all, it teaches us what the girls’ mother told them long ago:

A sister, a brother, a cousin, a friend — anyone who loves you truly — can be a lantern when the road grows dark.

Now close your eyes, my little blossoms. The pond is quiet. The willow trees are still. Janghwa and Hongryeon are safe among the stars.

And you, thank goodness, are safe under your blanket, where the only ghost is Grandmother’s old hand looking for one last goodnight tickle.

Not only did he create one of the country’s most famous food trucks, Roy Choi helped make Korean food a staple in mainstream American dining.

Before Korean cuisine became a mainstream staple of modern dining, Roy Choi was serving Korean short rib tacos to the people of Los Angeles out of his food truck.

His journey to becoming one of the founding fathers of the modern food truck movement began in Seoul. He was born in 1970 and immigrated to the United States when he was two years old, settling in Southern California where he spent most of his life in between Los Angeles and Orange County. Choi’s parents actually owned a Korean restaurant, which is how he was exposed to the industry at an early age.

He attended California State University, Fullerton and graduated with a degree in philosophy, then later enrolled at the Culinary Institute of America, one of the country’s most prestigious culinary schools. Upon completion, Choi worked in hotel kitchens and fine dining restaurants such as the Beverly Hilton, and began building his culinary resume.

But in 2008, Choi made the decision to partner with Filipino entrepreneur, Mark Manguera and his wife Caroline Shin, to open Kogi BBQ. Kogi is a Korean-Mexican food truck that serves Korean barbecue in tacos, quesadillas, and burritos, a fusion food that was brand new to foodies. Kogi would also make real-time updates on their Twitter page so customers knew exactly where the truck was in Los Angeles. With lines wrapped around the city’s blocks, the concept exploded and Kogi BBQ quickly became “America’s first viral eatery” according to Newsweek.

It didn’t take long for Choi’s influence to extend beyond food truck tacos. He has since then opened several famous Korean-fusion restaurants including Alibi Room in Los Angeles and Best Friend in Las Vegas. Choi’s 2013 memoir became a New York Times bestseller and in 2019 he was the co-host of The Chef Show, a series that celebrated cooking from cultures around the world.

Over the years, Roy Choi has become an advocate for food accessibility. His television series Broken Bread explores food inequality and those working to improve local food systems. This has earned him an Emmy Award as well as the 2020 James Beard Award for Outstanding Personality/Host. Other impressive accolades he has received over the years include being recognized as one of TIME 100’s Most Influential People in 2016 and being inducted into the California Hall of Fame for his contributions to California's culinary culture.

Roy Choi helped introduce Korean flavors to Americans way before Korean cuisine became a mainstream food choice, proving to the world that great food doesn’t always have to be served in a fine dining setting.

Japan’s World Cup run ends in heartbreak against Brazil as Haeran Ryu records the largest comeback victory in LPGA major history.

In a heart-wrenching conclusion to their World Cup journey, Japan fell 2-1 to Brazil in a dramatic Round of 32 clash Monday in Houston.  The Samurai Blue initially stunned the favorites when Kaishu Sano fired in a brilliant long-range strike in the 29th minute, handing Japan a lead that they defended with remarkable discipline for much of the match. However, Brazil’s Casemiro broke through the Japanese defensive wall, equalizing in the 56th minute.  The contest remained a tense, back-and-forth affair until the dying seconds, when Martinelli struck in the 5th minute of stoppage time to secure the comeback victory for Brazil and seal Japan’s elimination from the tournament.

Haeran Ryu secured her first career major title in historic fashion at the Women’s PGA Championship, overcoming a staggering 10-shot deficit after her opening round to claim victory.  Finishing at 13-under, Ryu achieved the largest 18-hole comeback by a major champion in LPGA Tour history, earning a winner’s share of $1.95M.  Korean compatriot Ina Yoon, who had opened the tournament with a record-breaking 63, finished two strokes back at 11-under to take second place and collect over $1.1M.  Amidst a final round challenged by significant weather delays and gusty conditions, Ryu’s resilience proved unmatched as she navigated the course to solidify her place in the record books.

The Travelers Championship concluded with a thrilling display of golf at TPC River Highlands, highlighted by a spectacular final-round charge from Collin Morikawa.  Finishing in third place at -20, Morikawa electrified the crowd by firing a brilliant 9-under 61, a performance that nearly vaulted him into a playoff before he ultimately finished just one stroke behind the leaders.  His impressive finish earned him a prize of $1.36M.  Meanwhile, Akshay Bhatia also enjoyed a successful week, carding a strong -18 total to secure a share of fifth place, which netted him $760,000 for his efforts.

Houston Astros right-hander Tatsuya Imai seems to have found his stride, delivering a masterful performance on Thursday, in a 2-1 victory over the Detroit Tigers.  Imai dominated the Tigers’ lineup across six scoreless innings, surrendering only two hits and a single walk while racking up 10 strikeouts.  This impressive outing marked his fifth win of the season and extended his recent run of success, as it was his third consecutive victory in appearances that resulted in a decision.  In Imai’s previous start on June 19 against the Cleveland Guardians, he set a new career high by recording 11 strikeouts.

Junya Watanabe has always made an effort to stay out of the spotlight, but his designs made it impossible for the fashion world to ignore him.

There are many luxury designers looking to build their brand through fame and publicity, then there’s Junya Watanabe, a designer who wanted to stay entirely out of the spotlight to let the clothes speak for him. 

He was born in Fukushima, Japan in 1961 and grew up with an interest in clothing because his mother ran a made-to-order clothing shop. This exposed him to fashion design and tailoring at a very young age, leading him to attend Bunka Fashion College, one of Japan’s most influential fashion schools. Watanabe graduated in 1984 and immediately began working for Comme des Garçons as a pattern maker under fashion legend Rei Kawakubo. 

Kawakubo was impressed by Watanabe’s skill and creative approach and named him chief designer of Comme des Garçons’ Tricot knitwear line in 1987. This opportunity allowed Watanabe to debut his first collection in Tokyo in 1992 and was on the runway at Paris Fashion Week in 1993. 

Fashion critics quickly noticed his work and described his style as “techno couture” because of his futuristic designs. Watanabe expanded his influence even more through major collaborations with brands like Levi’s, Converse, and The North Face, which have all helped normalize modern luxury streetwear. 

Even with his global influence, Watanabe always wanted to remain private. He rarely gives interviews, almost never appears in public, and doesn’t even give a customary bow at the end of his shows, yet still has earned massive respect in the fashion industry. Today Watanabe still works for Comme des Garçons out of the brand’s headquarters in Tokyo. 

Junya Watanabe built his brand through innovation and risky experimentation and even though he rarely speaks in public, his work quietly helped shape modern fashion, from avant-garde runway pieces to collaboration-driven streetwear culture.

After launching her career as Katana in Suicide Squad, the versatile actress now anchors the platform’s most-watched streaming superhero series, The Boys.

Karen Fukuhara stars in Amazon Prime Video’s flagship superhero series The Boys, portraying Kimiko Miyashiro across 40 episodes.  The multi-Emmy Award-winning global hit premiered its fifth season in April, and consistently ranks as the platform’s most-watched series.

Fukuhara made her feature film debut in 2016 as the sword-wielding superhero Katana in the DC Comics blockbuster Suicide Squad. The film grossed $750 million at the global box office, yielding high visibility for her first major project.

Her career also features extensive voice roles in major animated properties.  Fukuhara starred as the titular protagonist Kipo Oak in Netflix’s Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts in 2020, voiced Glimmer in the animated series She-Ra and the Princesses of Power from 2018 to 2020, and portrayed Haru in the English dub of Pokémon Concierge from 2023 to 2025.

Before her screen acting breakthrough, Fukuhara studied at UCLA, graduating in 2014 with a bachelor of arts in sociology and a minor in theater.  During her college years, she balanced her education while working as a sports reporter for a show on NHK, Japan’s public broadcasting network.

The 34-year-old Japanese American actress is a Los Angeles native. Growing up in a bilingual household, she attended a Japanese language school on Saturdays for 11 years and trained in Shotokan karate throughout her youth.

In Fukuhara’s next project, she will star as Officer Leah Mizuno in the Lionsgate and ABC police procedural spin-off The Rookie: North, which is scheduled to premiere in early 2027.

Ethan Guo flew across six continents and gained nearly 2 million followers while raising awareness for childhood cancer research—all before turning 20.

While most 19 year olds are just starting college or entering the workforce, Ethan Guo had already logged over 700 flight hours, building a strong reputation as one of the world’s youngest pilots.

Guo was born in Tianjin, China in 2005. He moved to the United States and developed a fascination for aviation at the young age of 13. He graduated high school early in order to dedicate more time to flight training and by the time he was 17, he earned his private pilot license.

When he was 19 Guo had completed over 700 hours of flight time after flying to 48 states and crossing the Atlantic Ocean three times. Guo also became Instrument Flight Rules-rated, meaning he is able to navigate and fly using cockpit instruments without visual ground references, which is an impressive accomplishment for any pilot.

In 2024, Guo launched a campaign called “Flight Against Cancer”, inspired by his cousin's battle with Stage 4 cancer. He set his sights on becoming the very first person to fly solo to all seven continents in a small aircraft. The mission began in May 2024. Guo flew tens of thousands of miles across more than 60 countries and raised $1 million for childhood cancer research. His journey caught international attention quickly as Guo was documenting his travels and sharing updates online.

By 2025, Guo was nearing Antarctica, the final stage of his record-setting campaign. What was supposed to be the happy ending to his mission became a global controversy when Guo was detained by Chilean authorities after landing in Antarctica in June 2025. They were charging him for filing an inaccurate flight plan and Guo was stuck in Chilean Antarctic territory for over two months while the case was being investigated. Upon an approved agreement, the criminal charges were dismissed and Guo donated $30,000 to a Chilean children’s cancer foundation and agreed to leave Chile with a three-year ban from reentering the territory.

Guo’s aviation journey allowed him to build a significant following of nearly 2 million followers across social media platforms, giving viewers an inside look on his life as a young pilot. He has yet to confirm if the 7-continent mission was ever complete, but his accomplishments have already cemented his place as one of the most ambitious pilots in the world, inspiring other young pilots and bringing attention to childhood cancer research.

Victor (00:00)

Victor (00:27)

Taking a look at our daily habits. And the important thing when doing an audit is you should not be approaching it with a judgmental lens. Because when you start coming at this from a place of self-loathing, that is not a good place for self-improvement.

Victor (01:25)

We want to change ourselves over a long period of time because that is what is going to allow us to keep whatever progress we've made. It's not about how fast you get to your destination, but it is about whether or not that it is something you can maintain. Think about borrowing versus owning an asset, right? Chances are if you're listening to this, you're interested in improving your body composition.

So, what is the point of speed running and rushing your way into 10% body fat if you won't be able to keep it for an extended period of time? You might look good for a couple weeks, but if you slowly regress back into your old habits, you're going to lose it. So before we do anything, I think it is important to take some time to audit your daily habits and what they are leading to.

And when we conduct an audit, we should not be conducting it through a lens of judgment, right? We should be coming at this in as objective and as clinical of a way as possible. Because when we start attaching moral judgments to our own actions and our supposed failures to live up to what we believe we should be, that just builds resentment and we don't want that, right?

We want to be happy ultimately, because what is the point of embarking on a journey if you're going to just hate it the entire time? The more that you hate the work, the less likely you are going to do it. And especially in our modern media landscape with figures like David Goggins, Andrew Tate, et al. They are going to tell you to hate yourself, but if you hate yourself.

then nothing is really going to make you happy.

Victor (03:54)

Your daily step count, the hours of sleep you get per night, and the amount of calories that you are consuming, along with your weight, day to day, at least for a week. And once we gather these baseline numbers, that is when we can start to think about ways we can modify our behavior that will put us more in line with the person that we want to become.

Victor (04:55)

When you go on Instagram or you go on social media, there will be a flood of ads telling you the best wearable devices. Do not use any brain power for any of this. Just buy a device, slap it on your wrist, and start tracking. The most important thing is that you become attuned to your daily activity. Do not get into the weeds as to what the best wearables are. Again.

This data has to be actionable. If this data does not modify your behavior, it is useless. And I'm saying this as a statistician and somebody that works in data. Nowadays everybody thinks that they need more information to act, but the reality is you can act with incomplete information. And most of the time, life is about finding heuristics.

aka measurements that are good enough. And let me reiterate, we are looking to track our weight day by day, our calories consumed day by day, and our activity level day by day. And our activity level can be approximated by our daily step count, which is the classic.

Victor (06:42)

Who we are at our best when we've gotten a full night of sleep, when we are just full of energy and willing to crush every single workout and tackle everything on our to-do lists. That's us at our best. And now the thing that people and most self-improvement content fail to acknowledge is a lot of times we don't live up to that idealized version of ourselves. There are days where we are going to be

On the left side of that bell curve, our lower bound is we're going to be tired, we're going to be lazy, and we're not necessarily going to make the most disciplined choices. So when approaching our behavior modification and our self-improvement journey, we have these two levers to manipulate manipulate. We can either push what we do at our best, or we could look to simply

Raise our floor. And this is the unsexy part of self-improvement is thinking about what we do on a day-to-day and looking to make slight improvements to ourselves at our worst. And I think we oftentimes don't want to face ourselves at our worst, right?

The version of ourselves that put off chores, that wants to order takeout instead of cooking, and that wants to skip workouts. We don't want to acknowledge that that is a part of us, but when it comes to changing ourselves, we have to.

Victor (08:51)

Chances are if it's sedentary around 4,000 steps per day, we can start by bringing it up. The ideal standard is between 8 to 10,000 steps per day. I personally clock in between 10 to 12,000 steps a day. And seeing a number that large is daunting for most people, and we want to make this as easy as possible. So

We don't necessarily want to jump into 10 to 12,000 steps per day. If that is too much, then just look to increase it by two to maybe three thousand. So if you're walking only four thousand steps per day, try to see if you could slowly bring that up to six or seven thousand steps.

And soon in this process you'll find that it'll be much easier to bring it up. All it takes is just a few sessions of intentional movement per day, you know, maybe a small walk before or after a meal, maybe a taking a longer route to go to the restroom, maybe instead of scrolling on your phone.

You just simply take a quick leisurely lap around your apartment, your house, what have you.

Victor (10:41)

Chances are, if you're listening to this, you probably are a little bit ashamed of how much screen time you have on your phone, especially with forms of social media like Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, etc., etc. And again, we do not want to come at this from a place of shame. We want to come at this from a genuine desire to improve.

And chances are your screen time is exceeding five, eight, ten hours per day, there is definitely time in there which we can carve out to get just a little bit more activity in. Again, it doesn't have to be much. We just need to sneak in a little walk here and there. And before you know it, we you can achieve 10,000 steps per day.

Victor (12:00)

That is something that I personally do. I weigh out almost every single unit of food that I eat every day. You don't have to do this, but I would recommend at least trying this for one to two weeks as an exercise so you can better understand how much food you're eating per day. Now, once you have this list of food that you're eating.

Victor (12:59)

Day. A lot of us simply don't. And I don't think that we live in a culture that tells us to intentionally eat. A lot of times we just eat out of boredom, we eat out of enjoyment, but we don't really eat with a purpose. And I do have to acknowledge that food is one of the fundamental joys of life.

Victor (13:54)

And once you figure out how however much that is, for me personally, it's about a hundred eighty to two hundred grams of protein or something, and even that may be a little bit too much, right? For me, after I figured that out, I just made it a goal to eat that much protein every single day. So that comes out to, I don't know,

Four three to four hundred grams of chicken breast per day. I don't eat that much chicken breast per day, but that's just to give you an idea. And from the protein is where I shape the rest of my diet. So

For me maintenance calories is around twenty nine hundred per day. So once I cross out that calorie amount of I don't know

However many calories 400 grams of chicken breast is. I don't know. I think that's about 500-ish calories. Anyway, once I have that established, then the rest of my diet is pretty flexible so long as I stay under that 2900 calorie mark. And

Whatever your maintenance calories are, if you want to gain weight, you'll have to eat above it. And if you want to lose weight, you'll want to eat below it. Now, with this in mind, we have to be careful as to how extreme of a deficit we want to be in.

Victor (16:04)

five hundred calories below your maintenance, you will be hungry and your body will try to fight you. And the cravings will intense and you will relapse and you will undo all your progress. So I highly, highly recommend

You take only one, maybe two hundred calories worth of a deficit. If you try to rush this process, it is going to be very, very painful. And like I keep saying, it is not about whether or not you can achieve your end goal, it is about whether or not you can maintain it.

Victor (17:16)

The use of a deadline. I know to accomplish most goals, people recommend setting some kind of deadline so you work to achieve it. However, with certain long-term goals and lifestyle changes like weight management, I find that when you set a goal or time or yeah, or a deadline.

You end up putting undue psychological strain on yourself. Because if you have to achieve a 10% body fat or what have you in six to eight weeks, any setback will feel like the end of the world. And when you're psychologically distressed, that is when you start making poor decisions. You're no longer being active, you're being reactive.

I can tell you from personal experience that I did not set a deadline for my goals really. I just decided that I was going to track my calories and increase my step count and track my weight. And what I found was that as I tracked my weight day by day, week by week, and my caloric intake day by day, week by week, I just found that I became attuned with my own body and my own eating habits. And when I had that level of

Control, I found that I could isolate my own emotions from my process.

Because again, when we are acting emotionally, we make poor decisions. I know personally it was a little jarring sometimes to see that, I'm losing five, ten, fifteen pounds. And then all of a sudden when I see that progress reverse after maybe one or two days of enjoying life with my friends and trying trendy restaurants, that my weight would climb up.

Five, sometimes ten pounds. And it is very tempting when we see these setbacks to suddenly make sharp changes. Right? my god, we have overeaten our caloric limit by a thousand calories for two days. Now it's time to go five hundred under. And when we make these punitive actions towards ourselves.

That's when we relapse because when we start depriving ourselves, our bodies will send those hunger signals to force you into making bad food decisions. So what I have found personally is that I will not change make any changes to my behaviors for at least a week.

If I am behaving in a certain way, I will simply allow it to persist for a week while logging and see where I'm at at the end of the week. If I find that my current habits are leading me to stagnate, which I did notice over the past couple months, that is when I will make a very slight change. So, for example, when I saw that my weight was starting to climb up a bit, I waited a week, logged all my food, and then the following week I just simply adjusted my calories.

calories from twenty nine hundred per day to twenty eight hundred per day, just a deficit of one hundred more calories. And then I just waited a week. And during that week, obviously the scale did not really move much.

I found that I was at the same weight. And again, if you place, if I had placed a deadline as to when I was supposed to achieve my goal weight, each day where my weight was not trending downwards would have felt like a psychological blow. It would have felt like I was losing time. And that

emotion would have caused me to maybe eat even less and less until finally I'm so hungry that I just go go to in and out and have a binge right disordered eating is not good

Victor (21:46)

Any results until weeks later, and most people are very uncomfortable in that waiting, and through that discomfort, that's when people start spiraling. A number of people I've talked to about this in real life say that they're afraid of quote unquote wasting time and that they want the results to come quickly, but unfortunately, I find these same people will waste even more time by not.

Their behavior or by spiraling in the same place for months on end.

Victor (22:51)

A deadline can stifle that. A deadline can make every single setback feel like the end of the world. And again, when we act on emotion, we make bad decisions.

Victor (23:38)

And those becoming somebody that looks active is what is a question of principle. And if you want to become that, then that will involve a modification in behavior, which will take time.

Victor (24:28)

If you value the freedom to eat whatever indulgent foods that you want and to watch sports all day, then that is your imperative and your body will reflect that. If you are somebody that is intentional about their eating and likes to be active and go outside and engage in sports, then your body will change to fit that lifestyle.

Victor (25:24)

Victor (25:39)

That is something that we have to answer before we embark on this. I mean, for me, right, I compete in jujitsu a lot, and having a fitter body will just make me better at jujitsu. And for me, jiu-jitsu is a form of artistic expression. So having greater capacity will allow me to engage in my art on a deeper level, which is something that I enjoy. I'm also

Very active. I love being outside. So for me, being fit is just how I interact with the world and how I derive joy from things. I personally don't like watching sports. So, and I personally get a lot of enjoyment playing sports and being outside. So my body is geared towards that end through my intentional eating habits and through how active I am just at a base level.

reflects that

Victor (27:06)

How much we need to move more and how much less we need to eat, we need to figure that out via tracking. So for one week, all you need to do is just track your activity by way of counting your steps through an app such as your health app on your phone. And you need to track your calories. You can do so with a free app such as MyFitnessPal. I personally use the free version of MyFitnessPal because frankly I just

Need to track the nutrients and my tot total caloric intake. Once you have completed the audit, now you know what your baseline is. And again, plan for the worst version of yourself. Not the one that is full of energy and has a low workload. I'm talking about the one, the version of you that wants to order DoorDash and skip a workout.

The point of this is we need to first raise our floor because once we raise what we do at a bare minimum, then that raises our peak. And over time, this improvement of our bare minimum will yield in change. But again, you need to give this time. In a later episode, I will talk more on working out and other

Considerations. But for now, if you made it this far, just observe yourself and track your behaviors.

The son of NHL veteran Manny Malhotra is projected to be selected in the top five of the NHL Draft.

At only 17, Caleb Malhotra has established himself as one of the top prospects entering the 2026 NHL Draft.  An elite two-way player of Indian descent, his proactive lane disruptions and elite playmaking have led scouts to compare his talents to established NHL stars like Nick Suzuki and Jonathan Toews.

Malhotra’s steady play has earned him the #6 spot among North American skaters on NHL Central Scouting’s final rankings, while Sportsnet’s veteran NHL scout Jason Bukala ranked him as his #3 overall prospect.  The 6’2”, 183-pound center comes from a premium athletic lineage, being the son of former NHL veteran Manny Malhotra.

Recent mock drafts underscore his status as the consensus top center available, making him highly coveted by front offices selecting at the top of the board.  The Athletic projects Malhotra to go No. 3 overall to the Vancouver Canucks – the franchise where his father famously played.  Meanwhile, Bleacher Report links him to the Chicago Blackhawks at the No. 4 pick.  He has also been heavily connected to the New York Rangers, who drafted his father in 1998.  The Rangers, who had the third-best odds for the top pick, slid down to the No. 5 selection in the draft lottery, potentially putting them out of range to select Malhotra.

He spent this past season starring for the Brantford Bulldogs in the Ontario Hockey League, where he recorded 29 goals and 55 assists in 67 regular season games, and added another 26 points in 15 playoff games.  Before joining the league, he played for the Chilliwack Chiefs.

While Malhotra holds a commitment to Boston University for the 2026–27 season, his status as a projected top-five pick makes it highly likely he will bypass the collegiate route to turn professional immediately after the draft.