Just exercise. People are so lazy in that regard it baffles me.
So we've established that people are lazy, and that "just exercise" would do them wonders (or at least be a lifestyle improvement). And they still don't take the dog for a 30 minute walk. Given that, rather than chastising and feeling superior about our own fitness (for example, I ran ten miles yesterday; mmm, I'm practically marinating in smugness right now), what can we do to get people out the door?
Of course, if I could answer that, I'd be at my book signing and not shouting at the wall on HN.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, several of my coworkers lift weights exclusively and can't believe I prefer running. It bores them out of their minds.
I have to wonder if many people don't exercise because they find it boring and unsatisfying, not because it's difficult.
don't even get me started on swimming...
so as you can see, i've done plenty of exercise in my life, and at this point i'm 100% comfortable saying that i just don't like doing it. i admit it is a major personality shortcoming of mine. i'm not a negative person, this kind of stuff doesn't leak into areas of my life -- i just wasn't born with that selection of genetics that drives me to love this stuff. to me it's basically like a second job, a manual labor job, i have to do.
yes, i feel good afterwards, but to me sitting my ass down on the couch also feels good. as i understand it, to some people, sitting down for an hour feels disgusting, like a physical revulsion in their body. they're very lucky. i could sit on my couch for days on end and it takes effort to not actually do that.
my desire to make money, be presentable, and contribute to society override my natural laziness, but i totally understand how those people get to 800 pounds and are couch-locked. they simply do not have any kind of social drive, which is the built-in mechanism that is supposed to balance your built-in human condition of laziness (in my case).
be thankful that you take to running/exercise like we take to computers/technology -- it's definitely an asset in life. it's something i have to constantly overcome, i'm envious of people who get the urge to get up and move around without any kind of outside motivation. i've spent a lot of money on extrinsic motivation and it's clearly the inferior choice!
What worked for me was to stop associating exercise with working out. Instead, I just started seeking out more physically demanding hobbies/activities. I enjoy yard work; when I had a yard, I spent a lot of time creating a garden and pathways and trimming trees and whatnot. In an apartment now, but still help friends out with that because I genuinely enjoy it. I also like woodwork and building things, but again apartment. So I volunteer for Habitat for Humanity frequently. I also frequently rearrange parts of my apartment when I get bored.
I can't stand the gym - to me it feels like wasting time because I don't independently enjoy the activities the gym offers. Or running, or cycling. But I enjoy what I mentioned above, so the "exercise" stemming from them are ancillary benefits rather than the primary purpose.
Diet is more important than exercise. A 300+ lb person can lose 100 lbs in half a year just by changing their diet and doing no more exercise than they currently do. (I advocate the keto diet, especially if one has tried other diets and failed, but it's not the only way.) You can't out-train a bad diet.
I have no idea, I can only imagine. Skinny all my life, competitive runner since I was 12, I've never once put on a pair of skimpy shorts and a singlet, and headed out the door for a run worried about my body image. But let me tell you a story...
Buddy of mine on Xbox, played with him for years when we mutually worked at MSFT, but never "met" him. I remember he once mentioned that he weighed 400lbs. Well, one night we're playing Halo as we do on Friday nights, and he's cutting out early. "I've got a 5K to run tomorrow." Wait a minute, what? Hey, $GAMER_TAG, am I remembering right that you weigh about 400lbs.? "Used to. Doctor said to lose weight, so I started running. Lost 175lbs. so far, still have XX to go."
I had to mute my microphone because I cried. I was so proud of this person I'd never met in person, but knew for years. No, I don't know what it's like to be 400lbs. But I can imagine. I can imagine what it's like to walk around with another me riding piggyback. And I can imagine the mental hurdles to overcome, the body image issues, and the other barriers that make it easy to just sit back down on the couch and say, "who am I kidding?". Instead, this person said one day, "today, I am a runner" and went out and did it. And then did it again, and again until the weight started to come off.
Why, so I can expose my gross body to the world?
Fuck 'em. Tell 'em this sub-3:00 marathoner said it's okay, and they can just look the other way if it bothers them. And if you see a skinny guy with a brindle pit bull dog running by you, don't worry about what he's thinking about you, because he's silently cheering you on.
Diet is definitely important for sure, but so is exercise. Diet is controlling what's going into your body. Exercise will improve your body's metabolism, and have a host of other benefits.
Exercise can certainly be tiring, if you're training for performance, or rehabilitating an injury. But, a basic yoga class, a few laps of the pool, or walk around the block isn't going to noticeably tire an otherwise healthy adult.
Time-consuming? That's likely short-sighted when you account for reduced longevity, time spent ill, etc. A few hours a week isn't that much time in the overall scheme of things.
And exercise should almost never be painful. The only exceptions would be rehab or training for a specific event.
What's left: 2 hours. If I spend 30 minutes exercising, that's 25% of my discretionary time every day. That feels pretty time-consuming, even though I do think it's worth it.
Though even with 4 hours, depending on the person, every day after work might feel like they need their entire 8 hours of free time between work and sleep just to survive, ideally they'd have more. Technology was supposed to give us more leisure time we can put into things like exercise but here we are still slaving away at desk jobs for 40 hours a week.
That's why I have a problem with things like CrossFit, P90X and the like. Time-consuming, that I can't help with. But "tiring" and "sometimes painful"? Unless you're a competitive athlete, you're doing it wrong. The article points this out (and I'm basically echoing the sentiment of the article). A 30 minute walk with the dog? That shouldn't be tiring or painful (or if it is, you really need to do it more often).
But I'm guessing that some folks get the impression that "exercise" must be EXTREME!!!!11!! or it doesn't count. Why work on bringing your half-marathon time down (which is a much more appropriate goal for the 20 mile/week runner) when you can slog through the death march of a six hour marathon?
A little overweight? A lot overweight? Don't exercise because you don't think you'd survive the CrossFit your cow-orkers are doing? Don't think epic mountain bike rides are really your thing? Meh, fuck all that, put your shoes on, go for a walk for a half hour. Your cow-orkers won't be impressed, but I will be. Yes, a guy with multiple marathons (and a whole list of other shit you don't care about) under his belt whose idea of a good Saturday morning is running up some mountain for a few hours, will be impressed. Because inertia is really good at keeping you on that couch, and if you can overcome that and make that first step out the door, in my book your ahead of this guy who gets out the door out of habit more than anything else.
So true. It works the other way too. Once you get into the routine of exercising it becomes easier to work it into your schedule.
I also agree that exercise should never be painful. Unfortunately, we have a "no pain, no gain" mentality about exercise in this country. I don't even think the exercises advertised as "extreme" (ala P90X/Insanity/Crossfit) need to be painful, but some people will push themselves more than they should (Crossfit in particular is notorious for poor trainers overpushing people to injury).