Tag: LinkedIn

Wk 31-26 – Weekly Note

Notes and reflections from Week 31 of 2026.

2 Aug 2026.
Seema’s Starbucks.
I’ve been coming here everyday for the last week or so. Some normality has come back to life. I think as much as I like being a nomad, I also like the idea of being tethered at one place and living a boring life of routine. Talk of weirdness. Lol!

PS: Pradeep asked me what do I mean by “fix life”. This normality of having a routine is a component in fix life.

Ok, so a lot to talk about.
Took much action over the last few days and I feel like dumping things somewhere. I mean I am dumping those onto my Roam and notes and all that but I still want to capture those.

Lessgo…

Oh, the song of the week is this.

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Highlights, reflections, updates, notes and thoughts from the week gone by.

1/ A month in Dubai

I’ve decided that I will go live in Dubai for the month of Sep. It’s my 2131231th attempt to go build a life outside India. Let’s see if I am able to make it work this time.

While I am there for this tiny window, I will see if I can shift my personality to live in a place like Dubai where people expect everything to be polished and all that. Like I said, I am not sure and I will never find out till I actually do the hard thing.

Oh, and more than just the shift, I need to also think what I can apply myself to. Agency, AI transformation, 66MGRoad, Yellow, Writing, Or anything else. And if nothing else, a podcast 😀

PS: While editing this, Claude told me to build a clone of FlexingIt for Dubai market. Lol, so many ideas. So less time. Such easy desk execution now. What does a man do!

PPS: As I write this, there are news that the conflict is escalating and that means all my investments and plans will go down the drain. I remain an optimistic and I hope we would find some resolution soon.

PPPS: As I edit this, there are talks of de-escalation. Optimism Pro Max.

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2/ The August Plan

While September is Dubai (and thus things around there), here’s my plan for August…

  1. Work more on WeAreC4E.com. Make it into a lead magnet for event piece for C4E.
  2. I am thinking of shipping the CRM tool to the world. I find value in it. Let’s see if others will find value as well. So, I will make a landing page and will try to give demo to people and sell them a subscription. In case you want to buy, am selling it for $99 a year.
  3. Make Book 2 shippable. It’s almost ready. Just that I need to make a pass thru it.
  4. Operate in Eco Mode. And as a part of that, use cash as much as I can (against digital payments). Unless absolutely necessary. I want to add friction to the money spending thing.

I will add more as they come.

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3/ Udipt and Himanshu

On 66MGRoad, these two boys are helping me move things. And I’ve been proven very wrong by these guys at a lot of places. I want to make a list but I think that is beyond this blog. At this time, I merely want to acknowledge and document that I was wrong.

Also they taught me the value of doing things with Brute Force. And reminding me of PG’s do things thats dont scale.

Thank you, boys.

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4/ Eco Mode

I have activated Eco Mode in life.

This meant that I’ve cut EACH expense that is not required. This means, I have expensive memberships and I will downgrade on things where am paying to get special access (you know, lounges, clubs etc). I am also more mindful and I am eating at home. And I am increasingly tempering my spends at Starbucks. Irony, I am sipping onto a 400 bucks coffee while I write this.

Among these, the one that hurt the most was cancelling AMEX. Couple of reasons TBH.

A, I spend about 75K on it per year, just to get access to the card. I can get Claude for that much ;P. The add ons they offer dont really add a lot. I dont think I’ve used any of their additional services. I will find out ;P

B, Over time the service had really degraded. Like one time I didnt have my card on me and they denied me access to their otherwise empty lounge.

I know it will be tough to get this again. But I had to get it as an ego thing. I got it. And they were not able to offer me enough value to retain them when the times turn bad for me. Compare this to Claude. I am thinking of getting an even higher tier than that 200 USD Max!

Oh, this is true for people and relationships too. I’ve often see myself getting cut when I stop offering value. In fact, I’ve been cut even when I was valuable. Lol!

PS: like I said above, I will use as much cash as I can in all of August, to know and see how am I spending.

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5/ Previous Weekly Reviews

I dont know why but I was seeing older posts on these weekly reiews.

And I realized that they were more layered, nuanced and revealed more about my thinking and were not merely reporting. I think since I got busier I started to cut corners. Starting with this one, I will get back to more verbose, more long-form notes where I talk about a lot more than mere reports.

Lemme know what you think.

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6/ Ideal End State

I met Dr H this week. She asked me what do I really want from life and in life. And while elaborating on it, she asked me if it was a lavish home, people, money, power or something else. And when she further elaborated it, I realised it was something VERY similar to Kevin’s Ideal End State.

Made me think.

And here’s my articulation of how I want my life to be. PS: Note 2 self – my more private ideal end state document is here.

My answer will always start from the Kabir couplet.

Sai itna dijiye, jaame kutumb samaay,
main bhookha naa rahoon, sadhu na bhookha jaaye

And if I were to tangibalise it, I would say,

  1. Enough to not think about spending money. I anyway don’t splurge. I spend on mid-level comforts (business class travel etc). I think I would glad if this number is in high three-digit USD millions.
  2. Enough to support friends, family and acquaintances with things that they need. Need. Not want.
  3. Live without needless drama. In a place that gives me AC (or is cold without AC). I dont know what this location could be.
  4. Some work that allows me to travel the world and meet people. And with time, people who are at the top of their games. I remember Chamath or someone mentioned that the world is run by 150 people. I dont want to run the world would but I would love to know some of those.
  5. Support and be a patron to people who’re pushing the baton with art, music, entertainment, films etc.

Of course there is more. The private link above has a longer list.

What do YOU really want?
What’s your ideal end state?

PS: An argument against this ideal end state is that I want to enjoy the journey and not work towards a destination. And while I do things that take me close to my ideal end state, I want to continue to optimise for day to day joy.

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7/ Lessons from HelioCoach

I’ve never talked about this our loud but here I am.

For context, I pulled together a team of friends and well-wishers and built a consumer mobile app for supplementation compliance. You may see it at heliocoach.com.

Of course the market is crowded but I thought I could find a place and build a business. We wanted to get just about a few hundred dollars each month and that would have made us enough to keep the team going. You know, Ramen money!

We did each thing that all the startup gurus say — content, ebook, influencers, founder branding etc etc. And yet we were unable to make any dent anywhere.

Of course, I take it in the stride. And I did get something from it.

Here’s a list…

  1. Aarya
  2. Confidence that any app can be made using Claude. I am using that confidence to build 66MGRoad now. And Chandni and Aarya are now building Yellow.
  3. Lessons on importance of distribution. This has been on my radar for like decades but I havent moved my ass on it.
  4. Awareness that I am unable to push people I love. As the originator of idea and “leader” of the team that was working on this idea, I take all the blame for the non-success of the app. And I learnt that unless I push, I wont be able to take things far. This is something that Nakul also mentioned. That unless you are a gunda in your team, you wont be able to move things forward.

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8/ Nims. And Mt Everest

The mountains took Nimsdai away. I am sad about it and my thoughts are with his family. This tweet from Barsha expresses the agony and anguish that I feel in words far better than me.

Also, lemme talk about something else here. Lemme make this about me.

When I was young (around 2013 or 14), I read somewhere that years are long and decades are short. And at that time I made a promise to myself and the world. That I will do three things – make a billion dollars, impact a billion lives and climb Mt Everest. And I will take 10 years to do that. This 10-year deadline expired on Jan 1, 2026. And ofc, I didnt do any of these three. While I am hopeful that I will do the first two, I’ve given up on Mt Everest.

Many reasons. Lemme try to articulate.

a/ I dont have it in me. It’s plain simple acceptance of defeat and humbling down that comes with it.

b/ I did go to the Everest base camp (in 2021) and I sort of understood that it’s not for me and thus worth the effort. This could be my justification-brain talking here but a shot at Everest would have taken me a few years of all-in training and a lot of money. I know there are serious hobbyists who’ve done it. But I am not like them. I am easily distracted and have way too many interests to go all-in into one of those.

So, I gave up.

Mind you – this could be my defeat talking. So read with that bias please.

c/ I realised that Everest was a bragging conversation more than anything else. I come from Delhi and Haryana and like most people from there, I love to talk. And this means that I would have spoken it out loud in some conversation. So, that!

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9/ Rant on Reading

I grew up with comic books and novels (my father used to read potboilers from Surendra Mohan Pathak and all) and then once I went to MBA, I got to read more. And with time reading habits evolved. Till the last few years. When my reading habits changed.

I stopped reading books unless they were recommended by a lot of people I respect.

Most of my reading then became blogs, newsletters and all that. And then that stopped too. Not because there was so much to read but because I found “better” way to read. By seeing videos, talking to people and tinkering and all that. And for my use case, this works well. So I never picked books again.

Plus I’ve been distracted a lot. I have immense respect for people who’re able to do things while battling personal things. I can either keep the kitchen running for myself. Or I can think deep about things. Lately i’ve become acquainted with a young woman, Drishti. She does brilliant work at work and for her personal projects. I dont know how she gets the time. Or find the energy. Or may be its easy once you have a job that gives you a fixed fee for a fixed time you rent there. There are times when I regret my decision to not take a job and use my non work time to meander. But then I think about how we as humans weren’t really supposed to take jobs and all that. It’s just a construct to keep the fire burning.

Ok am rambling. Moving on.

PS: This means that my reading list and the TIL group that I run is dying a slow death. I am just glad that Pradeep keeps me posted on important things around the internet!

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10/ Claude

While I was doing an edit pass, I realised that I hadnt talked baout Claude. And I must! After all, thats where I spend a lot of my time and attention. I have nothing specific to write this week. My tokens got Maxxed on a Tuesday or something (reset happens on Thursday) and I felt like one arm has been taken away from me 🙁

And since it came back on a Thursday, am back on it with a vengeance! Yay!

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📷 Photos from the week gone by

Available on request :D.

But I have to place this here.

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📈 Trackers…

Here are one.

Love that there’s good recovery (I suspect Whoop is misfiring), green on emotions and about 6-7 hours of sleep on an average.

Also notice the pushups row. I do sets of 5 thru the day. Aim is to get to 100 pushups in a day (through the day) and then grow sets to 10 and then more.

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✅ Action on LARGE objectives for the year

In 2026, I plan to do three things.

  • Book2
  • Human Flag Pole
  • Save a million dollars

Book2 / Caravan Serai.
No movement this week. I will pick this in August.

Human Flag Pole.
I’ve started with push-ups. Its nothing tbh but some action for sure.

Save a million dollars.
No action to report.

📌 So, what did I get done last few weeks? And what will I do next week?

This is a one-line report on progress I made on various things that are important to me. I will only talk about things that I got done. Shipped. Not WIP.

So, this year, I want to track the following…

  1. Health. Sleep, food, movement. Bad. Many weeks running.
  2. C4E / Work. Pick a thing to apply myself to. Reworked on C4E website. Added some content. Made some progress on 66MGR.
  3. Brand SG / Distribution. No action TBH.
  4. People. No action.
  5. Book2. Nothing this week.
  6. Shauk. Again, nothing.

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🏃‍➡️ Health

No large actions apart from eating first meal post 12, taking supplements on time (Just popped the Vit D 60000 IU tab), some pushups. Which is a LOT tbh, compared to what I am typically on.

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⏲️ Reminders from last few days

Thanks to Claude and sgTasks, I dont forget things. However like most things that you stop thinking about, often they become blind spots and you dont even think about those. And I’ve found that thinking about things in the liminal often gives you great clarity.

So, I shall write those here in a list.

  1. Fix my linkedin
  2. Get a better CA for C4E
  3. Fix the voice guide on my AI tools
  4. 66MGR Ops things
  5. Close edits on wearec4e.com

Eventually this list will get longer. But at least it’s a start.

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🗓️ So, one thing that defines the past week?

Routine.

The other words for this year have been: Getting Back, Freedom, People, Motion, Show, Flow, Excitement, Embarrassment, Blur, Whiling, Movement, Activity, Regular, Easy, Journey, Downtime, Same, Drift.

So that.
Over and out.
Until next Friday.
SG

Oh, and this too shall pass.

PS: This series of posts is inspired by Thej and his weekly notes. Previous editions from 2026 are: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 (missed these three), 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25 (missed), 26, 27, 28, 29 (missed these three), 30

PPS: Please do point typos.

PPPS: In case you see me being inconsistent in anything – work, writing, reviews etc, PLEASE do point out.

Wk 31-25 – Weekly Notes

Updates from Week 31 of 2025.

10 AM.
Versova Starbucks.
AK’s spot!

I dont know how this came to be called AK’s spot. Like most things, it would have started with me sitting at one specific place, and then my people finding a place around me. AK being AK would’ve picked one opposite and then like each thing, this became a habit.

So, am AK’s spot. And here is my recap of what probably was one of the most stressful and yet exciting weeks in a long long time. For starters, see this…

Screenshot of Whoop data from last week.

Ok, I am still listening to Ray.

Today, it’s this version. On loop. I encourage you to play this while you read the rest of the post. Can’t stop thanking Starbucks for introducing me to this voice and track.

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I must find a way to do these unplugged gigs. You know, like NPR’s Tiny Desk, Sofar, David Letterman’s and all that.

Anyhow. Let’s go.

💭 Highlights, reflections and notes from the past week

PS: As always, these are not in any order.

A/ WTF to write?
So, letting you all in on a secret. I copy-paste the secions an headings and content from the previous week’s post. Then I edit ALL the sections execpt this one. And then I take my time to go thru my notes and lessons and and all that and I add those here.

Today when I opened my notes, I realised that this week was so busy that I was unable to capture a lot of things. And that means that I dont have a lot of things to write here.

But we shall prevail and let’s see what I write.

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B/ Linkedin Shoutouts
Starting this week, I will give shoutout to at least 3 people each Sunday on my linkedin.

This week, I gave a shoutout to Nikunj, Roohi and Nipun. See here.

In case you need me to talk about you, you know who to reach.

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C/ Hard things that don’t scale
I am often reminded of doing things that don’t scale and now that I am in the middle of doing things, I am learning the deeper meaning.

Things that scale need time to put rails and then, well, scale. The things that dont scale are built to get to the market the fastest.

And that nuance is what makes a LOT of difference.

And no, I am not advocating one over another. You gotta pick what works for you and what you want to work on.

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D/ Raanjhanaa’s alt ending
The neck of the woods that discusses films is going berserk about how the producers have used AI to recreate the ending of a film.

There are notes from people about how the director was not consulted, how the nostalgia induced by film now seems cheated, how the consumers deserve more. Etc etc.

Before I write more,

No, I havent seen the film.
No, I dont care about the fandom.

But what I do care is that AI is here.

And especially in disciplines like filmmaking that have been gatekept for long. After code, this is the one that needed disruption and is getting disrupted. I love that I am around to see this revolution. I just hope I was bang in the middle of it.

Oh, and couple this with Shekhar Kapur’s Warlord. And with attempt from C4E folks of doing a feature with TNKS (see this). And while editing, just saw this.

All I can say is that change is coming. And either we embrace it. Or we die a slow, painful, agonising death.

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E/ Founding Creator Roles and JDs
In this video, Balaji talks about why EACH startup needs a Founding Creator. And wow, eyes opened. I’ve remained on the sidelines for too long. And I need to now advice the same to all my younger friends.

This is one of those life changing advices that need no more words to be split. I’ve been guilty of remaining a private person for too long and I need to change that. I wish I was more adaptable while I was younger!

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F/ F1, the Film
I havent had the time to write about F1 yet. I will probably sit on it today.

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G/ New kids to learn from
I am starting to feel the need of finding new people to learn from. In a different era, this was SoG (see this). But with time, that got faded. And now I have no one.

SoG and my life’s work

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Thing is, lately that supply of new, fresh, young talent has dried down. I need to build another group / cohort or something that I can be a part of, to learn new things.

If I had more time, I would teach (each teaching session requires a lot of prep). And since I dont have that, I want to rather build some group. Any ideas anyone? How are you doing this? How do you think others are doing?

I do have some groups that I run where I overshare. Here’s a list.

  1. SG’s Braintrust
  2. TIL
  3. 2025 Mentees (private link)
  4. Taste for Makers

And I am sure there are more. But I need this structured manner in which I can learn from young ones.

Come on, universe! Help me! tw

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H/ Safe Word.
Was reminded of this. See this. And yes, inspired by Simon Sinek.

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Ok, so words are not wording. See A. And see this. May be next week.

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📷 Some Photos from the week gone by

Here are some photos from week 31.

I would love to highlight this quote from Om, from this post about Meta’s MSL.

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🈺 The LARGE objective from the week gone by?

I had two large things when I started this year. Book 2 and a yearly plan (that I’ve been writing for a long time. This year I couldnt).

Book 2 – no action.

Yearly Plan – I dropped it a few weeks ago.

And starting today, I am adding a new large life objective. Health. More in the next few lines.

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☑️ So, what did I get done last week?

This is a one-line report on progress I made on various things that are important to me. I will only talk about things that I got done. Shipped. Not WIP.

  1. Health
  2. Meru
  3. C4E
  4. Brand SG
  5. People (Family, Friends, Strangers, etc)
  6. Book2
  7. Shauk (Music, Films, Poker etc)

Health. More awareness. Tiny actions. I am also building a new section on this weekly review. But the metrics remain off the chart. So, a -1.

Meru. Was busy. Did some things that showed outcomes! A 0. Yay!

C4E. No action from my side. 0.

Brand SG. No action. And no action does not mean 0. It means a -1.

People. No action on this. I’d say 0.

Book 2. Lol! -1

Shauk. I started with poker. So a step in the direction. But a 0.

So the overall score is -3.

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📊 The tracker from the last week

Here is the tracker.

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Ya ya.
Far fewer greens.
I will fix it. Especially cos health seems to be a recurring theme here.

I need to find the cause and then eliminate that.

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📖 Interesting Reads / Views from the last week

I have added views as part of the reads from this week onward. This is cos a lot of my “reading” now happens via podcasts / YT videos that I consume while in commute.

Here’s a list.

Oh, while each of these links is interesting and important, I am highlighting some.

  1. Microsoft Research’s note on what jobs are in demand and the ones that are gonna go out. Here. If you are the one who thinks will get impacted, please talk to me and I will try to help.
  2. The Philosophy of Sridhar Vembu (of Zoho), according to Notebook LM. Via this.
  3. Om’s MASTERpiece on Meta, Zuck and MSL. Here.
  4. Balaji talks about why EACH startup needs a Founding Creator. Here.
  5. This is a very interesing post on Reddit about how to build wealth as a young person. Here.
  6. Cheaper by the Dozen. Here. Funny that English language paperback version is not available. The Marathi edition is.
  7. An interview of Brian Chesky where he reflects on his IPO conversation. I love him! Also, I love the quote – “your culture is often forged in the darkest moments”.
  8. This thread by Tim. On investments and money.
  9. Taleb on Stoicism. Here. I love the guy. Sad that he’s blocked me on X. This video reshaped how I thought about stoics. I realise that I have much to learn! In fact, you must subscribe to Picking Nuggets – one of THE best channels on YT.
  10. Mahesh Murthy’s interview. TBH, I havent watched this in full and I know he may not carry the cleanest reputation. So that.

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🧠 Reminders from last week

This section captures things that I want to not forget. I add those to SG’s Office. I will copy paste these week on week and track updates.

So, I’ve been skipping this for the last few weeks. I am skipping this week as well. Havent had the time TBH to work on this. Again, this week is tough but I will get to it soon.

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🏃🏻‍♂️‍➡️ Health

Today on, I am introducing a new categoery. Health.

I will track it here as a seperate section.

A/ So few things that are at the top of my mind.
I am 42. And probably with a body of a 50-year old. And thus I need to work on it.

I am not getting younger and since I love the idea of living, I really want to do something about it. See this photo that a friend sent me.

I’ve been tryin to be 31″ since 2012. We are on the 31st week of 2025. 13 years. And I was supposed to have climbed Mt Everest by 1 Jan of 2026. I cant climb my bed most days.

So that.

B/ sgHealth
I plan to share some updates about my life and all on this WA channel. You are welcome to join. Here. Expect frequent updates. At least once a day.

C/ Crowdsourcing my health
I’ve often said and believed that getting healthy is easy for rich people. And I’ve never had the money. So, I could stand on the sidelines.

And I can no longer do that. So, to test my thesis, I approached some friends with an offer. Give me 10K each for 3 months. If I can get tangibly better (health wise), I will goto even more people!

While the two people who’ve agreed to help me can pay 10K today, I’ve told them that I will have lost 2 KGs by end of August (I was 91.3 while naked) on 30th July. If I am 89ish, I will take their money for OND and see how it goes.

D/ Use of AI
I wrote this following query to help LLMs help me with my food.

Hi, you are my food ordering guide and companion.

Each day I will give you places where am hanging out at. I need to know what should I order there which is low in calories and high in protein, with high satiety. 

Please note…

1/ Give me a list of gluten free, low carb, no daily, no oil foods that I can eat as someone living in india.

2/ Please know that I am a diabetic, lactose intolerant.

3/ I want this to be made without oil. Not even ghee, no butter.

4/ Please know that I am gluten intolerant and I am lactose intolerant.

5/ I dont eat non-veg. I can eat eggs, though. 

Here are more details..
a/ Cooking methods: I dont want no oil. I am okay with steamed, boiled, grilled (dry), or tandoor-cooked items.
b/ Nuts and seeds: I am okay with almonds, walnuts, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, etc
c/ Legumes: I am comfortable with dal, chickpeas, black beans, etc. but I will try to give you more details as we start.
d/ Sweeteners: complete avoidance of sweeteners

When I give you a restaurant name, please browse the internet, find menu from reputable sources, analyse macros of promising menu options, find 5 most suitable menu options, and suggest a reasonable 1 line simple request for each which I could convey to the waiter or chef to either lower calories, increase protein, increase satiety of that particular menu option

For each meal, I want to eat portions that are at max 400 grams. And I want a lot of fibre and protein. Followed by fat. And then if in case, carbs. I am ok with spicy.

Finally, before recommending, check your recommendation against the 5 things that I have told you.

Also, I will tell you what I fianlly ate. I will also upload the photo. keep a tab of the time am eating, whwat am eating, macros and all that. And then give me a weekly report.

Ask me any questions that may help you do your job better.

Thanks!

Let’s see what comes out of it.

So, that.
Let’s see if I am any better.

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🥡 So, one thing that defines the past week?

Stress.

Oh and in the previous weeks, the one-word reviews have been… Numb, Blur, Fast, Uncool, Disappeared, Experience, Grind, Busy for Nothing, Regular, Getting back to action, Slack, Busyness, Action, Survive, Looking Up, Survival, Taste, Community, Respect, Money, People.

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—
Phew!
Lemme know what you think.
See you around.

Oh, and this too shall pass!

PS: This series of posts is inspired by Thej and his weekly notes. The previous editions are here: 01, 02, 03, 04, 05, 06, 07, 08, 09 (missed), 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 (missed), 16, 17 (missed), 18, 19, 20, 21, 22 (missed), 23, 24 (missed), 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30

PPS: Please do point typos.
Grammarly is not working well and I don’t have energy to cut paste edit this in some other spell check thing.

PPPS: In case you see me being inconsistent in anything – work, writing, reviews etc, PLEASE do point out.