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Comment by zacoder | Hacker News Reader

Because you lack discipline. You never learned to accept pain and effort now for a valuable gain in the future. You're chasing pleasure and trying to avoid pain. And you're simply living in the present, satisfying every random whim and craving.

Every good thing in your life comes at a price. You may not see it yet, but there are no freebies. If you want a fitness habit, you need to pay for it with time and effort. There are no magic solutions. You simply need to force yourself to suffer. Embrace the pain. If you're not feeling like you're dying, you're doing it wrong.

Go do 10 push-ups right now. Get up from your chair and do them. There is nothing really stopping you. Only the excuses you make for yourself.

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Discipline is only a small part of the answer and IMO the wrong place to start with, especially for people who have never had good fitness habits. You can only begrudgingly force yourself to do difficult tasks for so long. That's why fitness gyms see big influxes during the new year and then traffic dies off a month later. It's not necessarily that people aren't disciplined, its that they're bored.

What's more important is finding activities that are naturally motivating and fun to do. These habits are far easier to build when they are more rewarding. Rock climbing, squash, swimming, martial arts. If its fun, then you WANT to go more often. You actually think about improving your skills. And then you naturally build discipline because the cost of missing out becomes more expensive to you.

I know you love talking out of your ass. But if you ever decide to push yourself for more than two months, you will understand that a fitness habit never feels forced. You will chase it in an active manner because you will love it.

Ask any fit or sporty individual you know. They don't do it because they have to. They do it because they want to.

The boredom you mentioned is natural. Everybody gets it at the exact same strength and at the exact same moments. The difference is that some people are disciplined enough to continue and burn through it. And only then you get to see the fun and enjoyment part.

Discipline is king. With anything else you're just lying to yourself. Nobody will create the perfect environment for you to be comfortable with physical effort. You're the one that has to do it.

Thanks for this reply, now I know not to waste any more time with you. You clearly know everything. Best of luck.

I'm afraid that you misunderstood. I was the one wasting time with you. You're clearly having a problem with maintaining a fitness habit. Don't blame me if don't like the reality. I'm just giving you the cold hard truth everybody else tries to sugarcoat.

Heh, you don't know me, and I don't have a fitness problem. I spent two months this year fighting and training muay thai in Bangkok. That includes waking up at 5:30am and running 6k before padwork/bagwork/sparring, and then training again in the afternoon. That's the lazy fighters regimen, pro fighters are required to run twice that. At home I train 4-5 days a week. My vacation is literally going to Thailand for fight camps.

You know how I know you're full of it? Its the bullshitter's law: the amount of knowledge a person has is inversely related to how well they claim to know a topic.

Since you already know everything about motivation and achievement, there's nothing for me to discuss here with you. Everyone is weak and stupid except for you.

And in all of that training discipline is a small part? Who is the bullshitter now?

Discipline is only a small part of the answer and IMO the wrong place to start with, especially for people who have never had good fitness habits.

What's more important is finding activities that are naturally motivating and fun to do. These habits are far easier to build when they are more rewarding.

And then you naturally build discipline because the cost of missing out becomes more expensive to you.

And then shout "Oorah!"?

I have certain fitness habits, but they have modified over time, and I can think of certain matters that have interrupted them: sore knees, sore shoulders, work, school, family, travel. I don't know what the OP's interruptions are. Do you?

I'm not impressed by the excuses you give to yourself.

Neither was I at 29.

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