After a few days of struggling to use WordPress to develop my site, I can finally say it is starting to come together. There is still plenty of room for improvement, but the overall structure has started to take shape. That said, I was able to share 11 goals across Health & Fitness that I am currently pursuing. I intend to work on the other two categories—Money & Career and Personal Projects—over the coming weeks. Nonetheless, those goals cover four main areas, which are improving strength, endurance, calisthenics, and body composition. I’d like to have a well-rounded physique without neglecting certain areas such as cardio. Overall, I have been consistently exercising over the past 12 months—about five days a week—and am aiming to achieve all eleven goals by the end of December 2026. Right now, I’d say I’m on track, but all it would take is one injury to derail my target timeline.

Strength

For anyone who regularly lifts weights, a major milestone is placing two 45-pound plates on each side of a 45-pound Olympic barbell, for a combined weight of 225 pounds, on each of the “big three” lifts: bench press, squat, and deadlift. When I returned to weight lifting in August 2025, my big three lifts were all closer to around 10 reps at 135 pounds. I had significantly neglected my health in several of those preceding years in the sense that I was living a sedentary lifestyle. As part of my finance job, I was sitting in a desk chair for at least eight hours a day with no real counterbalance of physical activity outside of business hours. Since then, however, I have joined a gym and prioritized taking care of my health. After a year of effort, I not only feel better but have also added approximately 50 pounds to each lift, reaching 185 pounds while maintaining a similar rep range.

Endurance

In the several years leading up to August 2025, sadly, my cardio was mostly walking up and down flights of stairs in my home. I probably never averaged more than 5,000 steps per day during any given month. For what it’s worth, I was a former soccer player and was on the track team in high school, so I did have a solid cardiovascular foundation early on in my life. Regardless, more recently, I’ve been more cognizant about tracking my step count and I now aim for at least 7,000 a day. While 10,000 is probably the number that first comes to mind, research suggests that approximately 7,000 steps per day may provide substantial health benefits and represent a more realistic target for many adults.

I’m looking to do more than count steps though. Ultimately, I want to compete in an aquabike covering the swim and bike portions of a half Ironman: a 1.2-mile swim followed by a 56-mile bike ride. Because I previously suffered a serious knee injury when I dislocated it playing football in high school, I’m not looking to complete a full triathlon. My goal would be to complete the entirety of the aquabike in under four hours—with the swim portion in about 35 minutes and the bike portion in about three hours. However, over the past few months, I have only been training for the 1.2-mile swim. The good news is that I have decreased this time to about 38 minutes from an initial starting point of about 48 minutes. There’s more wood to chop, and before I start training for the cycling segment, I’ll have to buy a suitable new bike.

Calisthenics

My calisthenics goals focus on improving strength, muscular endurance, grip, and core stability. By the end of December, I am aiming to complete 20 strict pull-ups, 60 consecutive push-ups, a two-minute dead hang, and a three-minute front plank. At the moment, I can complete approximately 12 pull-ups, 40 push-ups, and a 90-second dead hang. I am also able to hold a front plank for around two minutes. These goals are different from simply lifting heavier weights because they require me to control my own body weight for either more reps or a longer period of time. The pull-up target will likely be the most difficult because each additional repetition becomes harder as the total rises. However, progress across all four exercises should complement my other fitness goals by improving my grip, core stability, muscular endurance, and relative strength.

Body Composition

While getting to or below 10% body fat is a straightforward objective, I’ve stated before that I’d like to have a well-rounded physique, so naturally this came to mind. Not only that, but besides the aesthetics of having a more sculpted body, this goal will complement the others I am working on, particularly my endurance and calisthenics goals. At the time of this writing, I’m at about 11% body fat—measured through a bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) device—so I’m quite close to my target. I will focus on whether I can sustain a body-fat level below 10% rather than treating a single reading as sufficient to mark the goal complete. I anticipate the main challenge will be maintaining a lean physique while also trying to improve my strength levels.

The Road to December

You might be wondering: If it took a full year to add 50 pounds to each of my big three lifts, how could I possibly add another 40 pounds in less than six months? Well, I believe it is still a realistic goal since I was set back by a few moderate injuries over the past year. I’d like to share what I learned from those setbacks in another post, but I’ll save that for a later time. Additionally, when I was in my early 20s, I could lift more than 225 pounds on each of these exercises, so I believe muscle memory may help me regain some of that previous strength. As for the aquabike, I am excited to buy a new bike and begin training. At this point, I have no idea how long it will take me to complete the 56-mile cycling portion. It is possible that I will not achieve this goal in 2026 because, by the time I am ready to compete, the colder weather may mean there are no remaining events in the Northeast. It will be interesting to see how many goals I end up achieving, but my mentality has shifted to thinking long-term, so even if it gets pushed back a few months, that’d still be okay with me. Continuing to make progress, remaining consistent, and staying healthy enough to keep training are far more important than reaching every target by a specific date.