I tricked myself into working out 3 times per week
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I tricked myself into working out 3 times per week
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Re: I tricked myself into working out 3 times per week
#2When you're the only person to answer to for your physical health, it can be very easy to let yourself go. Having external accountability is a fantastic driver for improving physical health.
Re: I tricked myself into working out 3 times per week
#3If this sounds appealing, but you want a nice UI to go along with it, check out https://www.beeminder.com/home. Not affiliated with them, just a happy customer for several years.
Re: I tricked myself into working out 3 times per week
#4This is basically https://www.beeminder.com/
(Started by friends)
Re: I tricked myself into working out 3 times per week
#5If this sounds appealing, but you want a nice UI to go along with it, check out https://www.beeminder.com/home . Not affiliated with them, just a happy customer for several years.
Also a happy Beeminder customer!
Note that Beeminder allows manual entry of data — I use this to track “work out 3x / week” type goals, but also has plenty of integrations (e.g. Apple Health data) for goals like “walk 10k steps / day”
The latter makes it much tougher to cheat yourself
Re: I tricked myself into working out 3 times per week
#6One thing I'd really echo here is the emphasis on "realistic". And not "realistic for somebody else" or "realistic for your imagined optimal self" but realistic given not just your current fitness level but also your current level of skill in following through.
As an example, travel and illness threw me off my regular schedule this summer. One I haven't exercised for a while I get kinda miserable, so exercising seems impossible and I have a hard time getting back to it. I couldn't just set a goal of 3 solid workouts per week; I would have failed.
What I picked was a daily streak of at least 10 minutes of elevated heart rate (zone 2 or better) per day. A short, brisk walk would be enough to qualify. The first days sucked and I had a couple false starts, but yesterday was streak day 18, and now going out for a 3-mile run or doing 30 minutes on the indoor bike actually feels good. So now I'm ready to commit to something more serious, but it took a ramp-up to get my brain ready for 3 real workouts per week.
Re: I tricked myself into working out 3 times per week
#7There is also https://www.healthywage.com, which is sort of a "battle royale" version of https://www.beeminder.com
Re: I tricked myself into working out 3 times per week
#8For me, setting a goal was the key. I've been messing about with kettlebells for a couple of years, but 16 weeks ago I started a goal to get to be able to complete a set number of lifts with a particular weight. I'm most of the way to that goal now, driven by meeting it and have been working out 6x per week since then. Previously, a normal week was maybe 2x.
When I do reach it, I plan to set a new goal around maintaining that.
For the other kettlebell nerds: the goal is 100x 32kg swings in 5 minutes and 10x Turkish getups with 32kg in under 10 minutes (the "simple" part of Pavel's simple and sinister)
Re: I tricked myself into working out 3 times per week
#9If this sounds appealing, but you want a nice UI to go along with it, check out https://www.beeminder.com/home . Not affiliated with them, just a happy customer for several years.
Huh. I like most of the idea, but there's no way I'm going to incentivize a company such that they do better if I fail.
Re: I tricked myself into working out 3 times per week
#10This method can stop working immediately if both parties decide to stop working out.
Also there is nothing that FORCES you to pay to the other person, no legaly binding contract so if you really don't feel like you're just gonna say "fuck it and fuck you" and it's gone.