Comment by btrettel | Hacker News Reader

Comment by btrettel | Hacker News Reader

The linked article seems to suggest that you can replace bad habits with arbitrary other habits. Maybe that's true, but I think it's best to change your situation so that the right choice is the easiest to make.

I've discussed this in the context of transportation cycling at HN in the past:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16515129

> As a transportation cyclist, some people I know think I must have superhuman willpower. But the reality is that I don't own a car, don't like the bus, and live too far away for walking regularly to be practical. I structured my life so that cycling is the most convenient option.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16450267

> No excuses are valid. Don't feel like it? Doesn't matter. I don't want to ride most mornings. Cold weather or rain? Too bad, no choice still. Sick? Take a day off for your health.

> I am no more successful at maintaining other exercise in my life. I used to run more regularly, but I haven't had the time for a while. So I understand how difficult maintaining an exercise habit is. That's why I leave nothing to chance.

> I think it's best to change your situation so that the right choice is the easiest to make.

Lowering the activation energy required to do cardio by getting my own treadmill in the living room really helped me get into the habit of doing cardio more regularly.

Now instead of paying every month for a gym membership I rarely used, I end up doing a good 3-4 hours of light cardio every week, opportunistically, because it's so easy to get started, and I can play music and watch shows while exercising without worrying about disturbing others, making it a much more enjoyable experience overall.

Glad to hear getting a treadmill worked for you. "Activation energy" is a great phrase to use here. I'll adopt it in my own conversations.

Glad to hear a treadmill worked for anyone, I've only seen them used in homes as clothes drying racks.

> Lowering the activation energy required

This is exactly the reason why I like working out at home instead of dressing up and taking the time to travel to the nearest gym. And well, coming back from it too. In the process, I've even worked on improving my form while only been using my body-weight and a stress rope, instead of ego lifting at the gym.

Thank you for staying this. (again)

I've always really hated exercise, and I still do. I've never been able to get into the 'exercise zen' that some people talk about. No matter what approach I take, even going back to when I was young, exercise was unpleasant.

Not surprisingly, nothing I tried over the years for exercise stuck very long.

Until I arranged my life that I had to ride my bicycle to get to work.

I absolutely do not look forward to riding each day. I will subconsciously look for excuses to not ride. (We do have a car, but my wife is the primary user of it. So sometimes if I know she won't need the car that day, I'll cheat and drive that to work.)

But overall, it's been a pretty revolutionary change. I'm getting a reasonable amount of cardio nearly every work day.

Your experience is similar to mine.

Some of my friends have tried to make exercise inherently enjoyable, but I see this as usually a lost cause. Using myself as an example, there are very few exercises I would enjoy. And would I even do an exercise I enjoy regularly anyway? Basketball can be fun, but I never felt motivated enough to play unprompted, so it's not enough. Plus, basketball is nowhere near as good cardio as cycling.

Given that excuses are easy and that you probably can't make exercise enjoyable enough, the best option I can see is to make exercise unavoidable. Active transportation is my favorite here. Reducing friction helps a lot too, and might be enough for any particular person reading this, but I prefer to leave as little to chance as possible.

Maybe that's true, but I think it's best to change your situation so that the right choice is the easiest to make.

Absolutely. I basically stopped working out when I turned a section of my basement into a gym. I thought it would be nice to have the extra room, and ability to leave the equipment set up. In practice, it was out of sight out of mind. A month ago I moved some of my gear into my office, and have worked out every day since.

Well you do have a choice when it’s raining. You could take the bus. I guess you don’t like the bus, but you do have a choice!

You're correct, I didn't choose the right word. I usually will wait for the rain to stop, but I also do ride in the rain. I prefer most rain to the bus. I have chosen the bus a few times over cycling over the past 5 years, but only when the rain was particularly bad.

In my case, taking the bus is a good 15-20 minutes slower than biking, so by the time I'm looking at rain and having second thoughts, I'm usually too late to catch a bus and be at work on time. Very effective!

You write this as if they are contradictory, but I'm not sure why.

They're not contradictory. My issue is that you can do better than arbitrary replacements.

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