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Comment by koube | Hacker News Reader

Things that people enjoy are incredibly subjective and condescension towards people who don't enjoy the same things as you do isn't going to change that. If exercising were truly at the top most enjoyable things for everyone then we would not have an obesity crisis.

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OP points out how pointless exercising is however I'm the one being condescending? Anyone can change if they are hurting enough or find the future outcome alluring to work towards it.

> If exercising were truly at the top most enjoyable things for everyone then we would not have an obesity crisis.

Exercising itself has little to do with obesity. It all comes down to eating healthy and restricting your caloric intake.

Healthy food is cheap af when you prepare it yourself and don't buy into every trend. You don't even have to exercise if you don't want to but obviously it's good for your overall health and mind.

Much like learning anything else, physical exercise seems pointless and unnecessarily difficult at first. Once you start to put things together, understand the way your body works, and see yourself make progress over time, it becomes fun! I've gone through that process myself, and I remember when exercise was a chore. It's unfortunate there isn't an effective way to communicate this to people who haven't been through it, because life on the other side is just so much better.

I've been working out on and off for 10 years, had a climbing gym membership for six months, and run with a dog most weeks. I have never ever stopped absolutely dreading every moment of exercise and I have never looked forward to it ever. I fucking hate it and I have always fucking hated it, and if the current trend continues, I will continue to fucking hate it. I now run 4 miles, 4 times a week and I fucking hate it. How many decades before it becomes enjoyable?

It will never just "become enjoyable". What may happen, if you open your mind to it, is you might realize that the discomfort you feel (which is different from pain! if you feel a lot of pain, get it checked out) is just a question from your body. It's asking you, do I really need to do this? Because animals have evolved to conserve energy whenever possible. If you can learn to mentally answer your body, yes, this is something we need to do on a regular basis, you'll learn to move past the agonizing over discomfiture. With time, you'll realize discomfort isn't a useful factor when it comes to exercise (although, again, pain is). As you discount it towards zero, you'll be able to focus on other things when you exercise (how's my body doing? what's my effort level? am I going faster than yesterday? what about that project at work? what's the meaning of life?). It may start to help you think, and you'll start to improve (that hill used to be tough, but now it's a piece of cake!). With time, you may look forward to exercising.

It's a process you need to work at, but it will enrich your life in so many ways if you can get past that tricky mental hurdle. I truly hope you do!

Probably until about 6 months before your knees finally give out. Have you considered eating cake on the beach instead? It will probably only shorten your life by around the same amount of time that you spend running.

You have no idea how much I've considered it. I walk through the bakery section while grocery shopping sometimes and fantasize about eating ALL of it. Even the cheap store brand stuff looks SO GOOD.

In terms of health and longevity, I suspect the vast majority of the benefit is in just not being sedentary and not eating all of the cake. Nearly all of the very old people I know have had the habit of taking long walks, but I cannot think of any who were athletes.

How can you not have fun running with a dog?

Mine can keep up with me on a bike so on foot I constantly throw sticks to him and make him swim while I run in the opposite direction.

Also, maybe try THC I hear it brings on the runners high immediately.

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