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Comment by EricHolden12 | Hacker News Reader

I know it can be difficult to think putting your health and and mental well-being first especially during stressful bouts.

I’ve had undiagnosed ADHD since I was a teen (now 32) and recently got a diagnosis and started using medication (Vyvanse).

Without a doubt the only thing that has ever come close to helping me feel “normal” has been exercising regularly. Whether it was going for a run, or lifting weights, the stillness you feel through medication is something I only felt after a nice workout.

So that’s what i’d recommend. Put your physical health first, eat better, exercise regularly, and top it off with something low effort but high reward like yoga or meditation. That is the only way.

https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/09/exercise-...

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>the stillness you feel through medication is something I only felt after a nice workout.

I struggle going to sleep at night. I'll either ruminate on bad memories from the past and get myself all wound up, or I start mentally taking apart a coding problem.

The best way I've found to deal with this is exercise. It's hard to be wound up when you're physically exhausted. Afterwards I can actually feel my body relax, and I can drift off to sleep.

How did you convince/motivate yourself to exercise?

I think most people know the benefits of working out, but have trouble getting started.

Literally just by showing up.

People have a distorted view of exercise, thinking that every work out, every gym session has to be intense but in fact the most important thing is to do something.

Have a gym membership? Just show up and walk on the treadmill for half n hour and go home.

Don’t have a gym membership? Go for a walk around the block.

All that is exercise.

The magic happens when the repetitive act of showing up starts compounding in unexpected ways.

You feel the benefit so going the next time is less effort, and you may walk a bit longer.

That in turn affects the choices you make about what you eat, when you go to sleep, the quality of you’re sleep, the increase in dopamine from all those activities, which then feeds back into the cycle.

So literally the easiest thing you can do is do something, don’t expect overnight results because that kind of expectation informs the perceived effort (which is high), which results in people doing nothing.

>That in turn affects the choices you make about what you eat, when you go to sleep, the quality of you’re sleep, the increase in dopamine from all those activities, which then feeds back into the cycle.

It's really hard to eat a candy bar when you know how much exercise is going to be required to burn it off.

An interesting thing after being 6 weeks into my first serious strength training program: I found you needed to build strength to build strength. In the beginning, everything feels a little sloppy because you’re just trying to stabilize your bodyweight in weird positions with the best form you can. It doesn’t feel like much is happening then, but you’re building stability you’ll use to build strength. If you keep showing up, then by like 3 weeks in the motion smooths out and you can more easily direct power where you want to train.

Use whatever motivation and self discipline you can muster to set up and implement a new habit, not do a thing. Tie it to an existing habit you already do regularly. “Every day after X, I will Y” where X is something you already do and Y is new newly desired behaviour. Keep it brain dead simple at first (eg. Put on my gym shoes). Have compassion if you don’t do it perfectly. Be kind to your self. Do it every day.

For me the Apple Watch and having my fitness metrics as the main screen is the biggest motivator. I just try to close my rings every day and that I say goal of the day.

+1 one for exercise tracker. I got the Fitbit Luxe a couple of years and I have been wearing it every time for exercise to get points. A bit like gamification.

Highly recommended. It's small enough that i don't notice it.

This advice is repeated a lot, but motivation is fleeting and you just have to make it part of your routine in the same way that brushing your teeth, showering, paying your bills, cleaning your house, and so on are.

If it helps, you can think of it like "going to work". Very few people are lucky enough to feel any sort of intrinsic motivation to show up at work every day, but they do so because of the consequences are disastrous if they don't. The analogy isn't perfect since the long term consequences of ignoring your health are farther in the future, but the upside is that after exercise you get shorter term feedback in improved mood, sleep, concentration etc. You just need to show up and do the work.

This is the answer. Use any fleeting motivation to construct the habit. Do not rely on “feeling like it”. Once you’ve created the habit, it will feel uncomfortable not exercising.

I, and I suspect other ADHD people, don't form those habits. I've for years read things like "you don't have to remind yourself to brush your teeth because it's a habit. You can make exercising a habit, too."

But for some of us, we do have to remind ourselves to brush our teeth, or eat, or whatever thing the average person does "automatically".

"Having a routine" is exactly what doesn't work with ADHD. We can't do routine. Anything but this. Some of us are struggling with brushing teeth every day, or showing up at work. Even though when hyperfocused, we can do a week's work in a day, or successfully prepare for a difficult exam in a night, but doing something regularly — that's something we absolutely don't have.

If you're struggling with brushing your teeth,showing up to work or other basic self care, then I don't think the discipline to exercise will manifest itself and it is likely time to speak with a professional.

I do have a therapist who is an ADHD specialist, but it doesn’t help much. “Well yes, your case is quite severe, try to do what you can and see how it goes”. I’m trying.

One technique that I've found helpful is setting up triggers, rather than routines. A trigger being a commitment of the form, in circumstance X, I will do Y. e.g., When I enter the bathroom the first thing in the morning, I will do some pushups. At a high level, it accomplishes the same thing as a routine, but it doesn't require the global discipline of a routine. With triggers you're only responding to the moment.

That is a very neat idea. It might just work for me. Thank you

I’m not the above poster, but I would say reducing friction is key. I have no problem exercising, probably my greatest joy in life, but when my attention “tank” is low I can spend an hour failing to get on the damn bike and go. So I have everything I need, a change of clothes, bike pants, bike shoes, helmet right next to the bike, so I can’t waste time looking for things, wandering aimlessly, etc.

This is the only advice that worked for me. Before you settle down to watch TV for the night (or read a book, or whatever it is you do to unwind), prep yourself for everything you want to get accomplished the next day. Pack your gym clothes, put your car keys and gym badge next to them, find the time on your calendar when you're gonna go and block it off.

I do this for things that aren't the gym too. Need to grocery shop? Write a list, grab reusable bags and lay them down next to your keys, etc.

A nice TV right in front of my exercise bike, and an otherwise crippling Netflix addiction.

I think "exercise" and "working out" are probably the wrong target because they're kind of pointless all alone. The key is to find something physical that you can get (mildly) obsessed with doing, then create a mechanism to get you to do it regularly (e.g., a Couch to 5k plan, a pickleball league, a climbing course). At some point, doing that thing will become your default behavior, just as doing whatever you do now is your default behavior and doesn't require motivation/willpower. It might even lead to other training to get better at that thing.

The secret is to find something active you enjoy and is fun. Changing your lifestyle to become an enthusiast of it (cycling, sailing, tennis, whatever) Not going to the gym or trying to convince yourself to run for an hour around the block. Make it enjoyable, a hobby.

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