I Watched Both My Parents Die Too Early. That's Why I Train.

This is not about six-packs. This is about not becoming a statistic.

My mother passed away at 66. My father at 64.

Neither were reckless. They didn't drink heavily or smoke. They ate what most Indian families eat — rice, roti, dal, minimal protein, maximum carbohydrates. They lived the kind of quiet, sedentary life society calls "normal."

And both of them left far too soon.

The Question That Changed Everything

I was in India, caring for my mother in her final years, watching a brilliant woman slowly disappear — not from her body, but from her mind. Alzheimer's.

The moment it became real for me was sitting with my father through his chemotherapy sessions. There are usually six or more rounds. You sit and watch the IV drip and you know that what is going in that bottle is destroying good cells alongside the bad ones. It is heart-wrenching in a way that is very hard to describe. And then people around you start talking about cancer genes, and suddenly it is not just about your father anymore — it is about you.

Somewhere in that grief, I stopped asking "why did this happen?" and started asking "what can I do so it doesn't happen to me?"

That question changed my life. And now it's the engine behind everything I do.

The Lies We Were Sold

Growing up Punjabi, certain things were treated as facts:

• Eating meat was heavy. Ghee was bad. Eggs raised cholesterol.
• Exercise was for young people.
• After forty, you slow down. After sixty, you survive.

Almost none of it was true. The "safe" path — carb-heavy, protein-light, low-movement — is now shown to be a major driver of the exact diseases killing us. Diabetes. Alzheimer's. Cancer. Heart disease.

Scientists call them diseases of civilisation — modern conditions driven by modern habits. Most are largely preventable.

Large epidemiological studies now link long-term patterns of inactivity, central obesity, poor sleep, and ultra-processed diets to exactly the conditions that show up later as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, dementia, and many cancers.

I Started at 38. In the Worst Time of My Life.

I wasn't a lifelong fitness person. By 38, I was overweight, grieving, and exhausted. I started simply. Fasting. Walking. A lot of walking.

I called it a cleaning phase. I started with 7 to 8 kilometres of walking every day and extended fasting windows — 16 hours at first, occasionally longer. I once did a 38-hour water fast. The first few weeks felt horrible. Going that long without eating goes against everything your body is used to. But your body does adapt, and what comes after that adaptation is a kind of clarity I had not felt in years.

Then I started lifting. Then I changed how I ate — more protein, more real food, less processed everything.

It was not genetics and it was not an extreme plan — it was finally understanding how the body actually works and applying that consistently over time.

What I Actually Believe

Most people attach a lot of superficiality to their fitness routine. I think the bigger question is whether your training is keeping you healthy on the inside — your organs functioning, your metabolic markers clean, your body disease-resistant — regardless of whether you have an Instagram-ready six-pack or biceps worth flexing. That is what I coach toward.

This Is a Long Game

My parents didn't get the information in time. I cannot change that.

But the decisions you make in your 30s and 40s are deposits into an account your future self will either thank you for — or desperately wish you had started sooner.

I train for the version of myself at 70 who can still move freely, think clearly, and live fully. I train so my story ends differently from my parents'.

I am not a doctor and I do not treat disease. My work is helping people change the daily inputs — movement, strength, food, sleep — that research consistently shows make those diseases more or less likely.

It is not too late. It is, in fact, exactly the right time.

Everything I write and coach comes back to this — you cannot change your family history, but you can change the habits that decide whether you repeat it.

— Shiva Malhotra, Barefoot Protocol

ACE Certified Personal Trainer | Sydney, Australia