The world before the coronavirus is now gone, changed forever. How can we deal with the new reality we now face? Everything about our lives has changed – from our work, to our relationships and our exercise and even spending habits. Questions flood our minds, filling us with anxiety. Understanding this new situation can be difficult. In this time of crisis, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed and lost. Not to worry, because we have answers that can help. This episode of Vishnu Ki Secret Life dives...

What do music lessons, art therapy, cooking, and video-calling have in common? Well, they're all great ways to pass your time in lockdown, silly! This is a special episode of Vishnu Ki Secret Life, recorded from deep within the confines of my home during lockdown. More than two weeks have passed since most of the world went into lockdown, to stop COVID-19 from spreading any further. Two weeks in isolation can do a number to anyone's mental health and peace, going from fun to "when will this...

In the interest of limiting the novel coronavirus’ spread, a number of organisations in India and across the world have asked their employees to work from home, thus eliminating person-to-person contact. This, as you may know, is all contributing to what has become the watchword in this time of pandemic and panic –– social distancing. Social distancing is a set of non-medical steps that can limit the spread of the virus. If we don’t practice social distancing, and if the number of infected...

Modern life is unbelievably stressful. According to a 2018 study, 9 out of 10 Indians feel they’re suffering from stress because of work, health or money. 3 out 4 said they don't feel comfortable talking to a medical or mental health professional for their stress. If you don’t manage your stress by relaxing regularly, you’ll be more prone to feeling overwhelmed, experiencing emotional outbursts, depression and feeling like escaping from everything. Needless to say, without some form of...

Do you feel guilty or ashamed after you eat some foods? Do you hide what you eat or how much you eat from people? Do you ever stuff yourself till you’re full, and then keep eating? If you said yes to any of these questions, you, or someone you know, might be suffering from food addiction. On this podcast, I document my own struggle with food addiction, and how I try to cope with it on a daily basis. What’s food addiction? It’s an addiction to junk food that’s as strong as drug addiction and...

I think it’s safe to say most of us were hoping 2020 was better than 2019. But just over a month into 2020, many people have already felt that stress levels, both physical and mental have gone up. And the first thing that goes for a toss when life gets overwhelming, is your self-care routine. Diets go out the window, exercise routines are ignored and we often stop the steps we took to make sure we were feeling and doing fine. But self-care is essential to a healthier state of mind, a better...

On Vishnu Ki Secret Life, we usually talk about fun, light topics with a little bit of knowledge you can take for your own daily life. Today we're talking about something a little serious - Mental health. Specifically how people's mental health has been affected by the CAA protests and anti-NRC protests, going on in India right now. The CAA protests have had a visible impact across the country, with people mobilising in large numbers to protest peacefully. Protests have turned violent in many...

Almost 100 percent of all New Year’s resolutions fail. But this year we’re giving you a guide to set better resolutions and accomplish what you set out to achieve. Do you want to lose all the weight you’ve gained over the holidays plus a little more? You want to make 2020 the year you quit smoking? It’s very doable, but you just need to take the right steps, with the right guidance. Today’s episode of Vishnu Ki Secret Life covers just that - how to set better resolutions and how to accomplish...

What is a calorie? Why do calories matter? Are all calories the same? And can you stay healthy if you just count calories and work out regularly? Today we’ll answer all these questions and more. We have three guests with us today – clinical nutritionist Rupali Datta, 23-year-old Abhishek Sarin, who works as a constultant in Delhi, 22-year-old Udayan Sinha, who’s a journalist. Both Abhishek and Udayan have lost approximately 20 kilos each. And this is everything you need to know about...

......And we're back! This is Episode 1 of Season 2 of Vishnu Ki Secret Life, the show where you learn something new, through my own experiments, and with the help of experts and others who’ll be joining me. Today we’re talking about how to get back on track when you either stop a diet or fail on the way to your goal! Stop me if you’ve heard this story before. The festivals are here, you’ve had a few weeks of eating good rich food, mithai, cake, and other delicious things…. And suddenly your...

Let’s talk sex. How can you improve your sex drive? There’s a ton of research proving the connection between what you eat and what goes on in your bedroom. But what else can affect your sex drive, positively or negatively? And how can you get more bang for your buck, quite literally. A low sex drive can be tough to deal with. It can lead to decreased interest in sex, friction in relationships, arguments, dissatisfaction, frustration. I’ve personally experienced what can happen when someone...

How does food affect your brain? Do you feel low on energy all the time? Lethargic? Like you don’t want to get out of bed or move? It may have something to do with the food you eat. Eating unhealthy food or junk can lead to problems like depression, fatigue, lethargy, and mood swings. What food can you eat to fix this? What food should you eat to avoid feeling like this? There’s a big relationship between what goes in your stomach and what goes on in your mind. There’s substantial research...

Do you need to eat three meals a day? Does eating more, smaller meals speed up your metabolism? Is breakfast the most important meal of the day? The answer to all of these questions is a big fat no. And I’ve got into tons of arguments about this, but stick around and you’ll know why I’m correct. So, on this podcast we discuss paleolithic living, paleolithic eating, paleolithic exercise as well as intermittent fasting. So going paleo means getting a little closer to nature, but not going full...

On this episode of Vishnu Ki Secret Life we answer one of the most searched questions on the internet when it comes to health and fitness.   What diet should YOU follow?   We cover three popular diets on this podcast – The Keto Diet, The Low-Carb Diet and The Paleo Diet.   The ketogenic diet, or keto, is an almost zero-carb diet that focuses on high protein and high fat food. In simple terms, when you’re on a ketogenic diet, you eat almost no carbohydrates.    The Low-carb diet allows a low...

Supplements. Pills. Drugs. Which ones should you have? And how can they help you? On this podcast, we discuss the often neglected fourth pillar of health – supplementation. Why should you use supplements? Which supplements should you take? Why can’t you get your nutrients from just eating “healthy”, natural food? We answer all these questions and more on this episode of Vishnu Ki Secret Life. Host: Vishnu Gopinath Producer: Vishnu Gopinath You can follow Vishnu on Twitter at @VishnuSaysWhat...

Getting inadequate sleep for even one night can affect your brain function. Getting inadequate sleep for many days together, turns your brain into a confused mess. Simply eating right and sleeping well will make you healthier. On the other side of this coin is the fact that if you DON’T get enough quality sleep your fitness, your brain, your memory, and your appetite ALL go for a toss. I know because I’ve messed around with my sleep quite a bit, getting too little, or, sometimes, getting the...

I experience anxiety often. If you’ve dealt with anxiety, you know the crippling effect it has on you. You’re always worried or uncertain, you have trouble making decisions, and it basically is a huge pain. My anxiety is usually made worse because I drink a lot of coffee. L-Theanine is a non-essential amino acid which is found in tea. Which means it’s not made naturally in your body, but you can get it from drinking tea. The ingredient in green tea that calms you down is L-Theanine! On...

In March 2013, I lost more than 5 kilos of weight in 2-3 weeks by eating ONLY fat. I didn’t step inside a gym for a single day of those three weeks, but I SHREDDED fat. How? I went on a fat fast. During a fat fast, you eat ONLY FAT. Almost no protein or carbohydrates. JUST FAT. The science behind it, is that since fat is so satiating, it’s hard to overeat it. I started my fast on 3 March, 2013, and broke my fast on 19 March. I started my fast weighing around 87 kilograms. Two weeks later,...

I first learned about Modafinil in 2012\. It’s a prescription drug that’s commonly used to treat narcolepsy and a range of other issues including sleep disorders, and Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder. It’s also used, off prescription, as a ‘cognitive enhancer'. I read a study that said Jet fighter pilots could function for up to 37 hours of continuous wakefulness, with a very small drop in baseline function on 100 milligram doses of Modafinil. I tried Modafinil for the first time in...

You might feel like you’ve tried everything to lose weight, but nothing happened. That’s likely because you’re making these weight loss mistakes that you should avoid.  Don’t worry much, I’ll tell you what might be going wrong that you haven’t realised.  So in case you missed it, a quick recap – I was super fat my whole life, blowing up to 120 kilograms at my fattest, and then I lost around 40 kilos in a year, just by eating the right things and doing a little exercise.  But my story...

I’ve been addicted to many things. Coffee, food, alcohol…you name it. But before it all, I was addicted to video games.  On this episode, I’m going to walk you through my struggle with video game addiction and how it almost cost me my relationship with my family. Before I end today’s episode, I will be brutally honest with you. So prepare yourself. Host: Vishnu Gopinath Producer: Vishnu Gopinath

I HATED my first beer. I was 12 years old, and I was on vacation with my family. My parents were having a beer and I was a curious little child. So….I asked my father for a sip. And he’s a very wise man, he understood that if he said no to me I’d only want it more, so….he gave me a sip. I’ll be honest, it tasted like bottled piss.  On this episode of Vishnu Ki Secret Life, I’m going to walk you through some common mistakes you might make while you’re drinking and how YOU can avoid...

Diabetes sucks. It does. It does. It really really does. When I was 18, I went for a health checkup in college. They used to have those compulsory health checkups because I went to a law school and they wanted to basically avoid any potential liabilities in case one of their students had a health condition they didn’t know about. I had a serious health condition. On this episode I tell you how I lost 20 kilograms in four months, simply by understanding the science behind sugar and fat. Listen...