Editor's Note: Hey guys, it's Mukesh again, and today's piece is by my colleague Rudraksh Singh. Rudraksh recently joined Alpino as a Summer Intern and is currently in his third year at Symbiosis, Pune.
During his first week, I was just getting to know him as a person, and naturally, working with a D2C health food brand, I asked him how he manages his diet while living away from home in Pune. I expected a pretty surface-level answer, that he might have found us on quick-commerce or seen one of our ads on Instagram. But what followed was one of the most honest and relatable conversations I've had in a while. And at the core of it was this one idea: not every battle is worth fighting.
So I asked him to write about it. Here it is, in his own words.
Moving Out
It was my first time moving to a different city, away from my parents. A lot was rushing through my mind, meeting new people, making new friends, finally having the freedom I had been craving since my teens. In my head, I was completely ready to start my adulting journey.
The first few days felt electric. New faces, late nights, spontaneous plans, everything felt perfectly in place. There was no time to slow down or think, because something new was happening every single day.
But like most things in life, the excitement started wearing off. After about a week, I naturally gravitated toward the 4-5 people I actually resonated with. The novelty was fading, and I realised I hadn't been paying much attention to my own life at all. I needed some structure. I have always functioned better with balance.
The Realisation
Like a lot of 20-year-olds, I wanted to build a good physique and feel better in my own skin. So I enrolled at a nearby gym and told myself: from tomorrow, I am going all in. Gym every morning, college, and some time with friends to unwind. Simple enough plan.
The Problem
I went to sleep that night genuinely believing tomorrow would be different.
And it was. For exactly one day.
I hit the gym in the morning, went to college, and ordered an expensive protein bowl for lunch because I hadn't had time to prepare anything in the morning. After a long day, I walked back to my PG to get my daily steps in, and then ordered another expensive protein bowl for dinner, because after all of that, there was simply nothing left in me to cook.
The next day I told myself: order lunch to save time, cook dinner to save money. On the way back I'd pick up groceries. Solid plan.
I forgot the groceries. That day and the next.
Slowly, I was back in the same loop. Not because I was lazy, but because managing college, gym, and diet simultaneously had a real cost. A decent, affordable meal required daily grocery runs, 30 to 45 minutes of cooking, and then cleaning up after. That is not laziness. That is just more than one person can consistently carry, on top of everything else.
Going Hardcore Mode
So I did what we have all been taught to do since childhood. I call it Going Hardcore Mode, which simply means: if something is not working, apply brute force. Override the excuses with willpower. I told myself I would not give in to tiredness, would not order out, and would not let my protein goals slide.
It worked. For four days straight.
That is when something clicked. Some problems do not need harder effort. They need a smarter approach. I had the same 15 to 16 waking hours as everyone else. I had a finite amount of mental and physical energy. And I was burning a disproportionate amount of it fighting a battle that did not need to be fought that way.
So I started asking a different question: where does my energy actually give me results?
The Refined Approach
I stripped the problem down to its simplest form. I did not want to think about what to eat every single day. I did not want something so expensive it would eat through my pocket money. I wanted a standard, repeatable diet that hit my protein goals, affordably and with minimal effort.
So instead of me working for my diet, I designed a diet that worked for me.
I sat down with a pen and paper. I calculated what I could realistically spend and the number came out to under Rs. 300 a day. Then I identified 2 to 3 foods that could anchor my protein intake every single day, regardless of how the rest of my meals went. I call them my anchor foods. They guaranteed me 40 to 50g of protein daily, a floor I could rely on, not a ceiling I had to chase.
With these two simple decisions, I built a standard weekly meal plan that solved three problems I think a lot of you will relate to:
- Not having to think every day about what to eat, while still hitting your protein goals.
- Not burning a hole in your college pocket money.
- And not having to calculate your macros every single time you sit down to eat.
If any of that sounds familiar, here is the exact meal plan, with the numbers:
The Meal Plan
Breakfast:
Protein Oatmeal Bowl / Calories: 445 kcal / Protein: 25g
- 70g oats, 200ml milk, 1 tbsp peanut butter
Lunch:
Egg Bhurji / Calories: 425 kcal / Protein: 36.5g
- 3 whole eggs + 3 egg whites, 2 slices brown bread
Snack 1:
Protein Shake / Calories: 225 kcal / Protein: 25.5g
- 1 scoop whey or plant-based protein, 1 banana
Dinner:
Chicken and Rice / Calories: 585 kcal / Protein: 44g
- 150g chicken, 300g cooked rice
Snack 2:
Post-Dinner Craving / Calories: 195 kcal / Protein: 10g
- 2 tbsp peanut butter (32g), straight from the jar
Total: 1875 kcal / 140g protein
Before You Go
This meal plan carried me through my entire first and second year of college. I never got bored of it. Yes, the initial cost of buying peanut butter, oats, and protein powder feels steep for a college student. But in the long run, this plan is far more consistent, far more affordable, and far less mentally exhausting than figuring out food every single day.
The real win was not the meal plan itself. It was the moment I stopped treating my diet like a battle I had to win through sheer will, and started treating it like a system I just had to set up once.
Not every battle is worth fighting. Some of them just need a smarter setup.
