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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

#31

Post by jjtheblunt »

Adopt a feral dog : they domesticate easily and their last countless generations of ancestors were among the fittest selected by nature for general wellness and energy, not specific characteristics by (an echo chamber of) breeders.

First hand experience : you'll not be bored, they're smart and loving, and energetic (and hilarious). You'll therefore be more physically active without being bored than you thought possible.

And when people joke about border collies being high energy, you'll get lots of exercise rolling your eyes. Ours has a husky rescue friend, with comparable and likely much higher energy level, but generally, a canine makes a great personal trainer.

Re: I tricked myself into working out 3 times per week

#32

Post by _tom_ »

Tarsul wrote: post #29

I read a HN comment a while ago wrt running that said that motivation might come from saying "I want to see this beautiful place again" (where the running leads to.) instead of saying "I need to run because I want to lose weight" (or whatever). I'd like to say it works, but actually what was even more important for me was to change my thoughts about running. If you feel like running is a chore, you will never motivat…

I have switched from thinking "what should I do" to "what nice thing can I do for future me".

It's not an instant fix, but it's a definite uptick in execution. For me. Your mileage may vary.

Re: I tricked myself into working out 3 times per week

#33

Post by Tarsul »

endisneigh wrote: post #23

I'm happy for the author, but I've always found these sort of tricks to be a chore. I bought a cargo ebike and use it for 99% of my traveling, including a 20 mile commute to work (~40 minutes each way). Now you can exercise for free, no tricking necessary. Sadly you aren't going to become super muscular riding around a bike, but I assure you, you'll be in excellent shape even with an ebike. Maybe it's because I'm laz…

but is it really exercise with an ebike? I'd like to see others chip in on that (or studies ;).

Re: I tricked myself into working out 3 times per week

#34

Post by endisneigh »

Tarsul wrote: post #33
endisneigh wrote: post #23

I'm happy for the author, but I've always found these sort of tricks to be a chore. I bought a cargo ebike and use it for 99% of my traveling, including a 20 mile commute to work (~40 minutes each way). Now you can exercise for free, no tricking necessary. Sadly you aren't going to become super muscular riding around a bike, but I assure you, you'll be in excellent shape even with an ebike. Maybe it's because I'm laz…

but is it really exercise with an ebike? I'd like to see others chip in on that (or studies ;).

why wouldn't it be? you can still pedal and lower the assistance. personally I find using an ebike with low assistance to be more difficult than a regular, light road bike

Re: I tricked myself into working out 3 times per week

#35

Post by SoftTalker »

For me the biggest thing is finding the sport or activity that you enjoy (or can at least tolerate) doing.

Over the years I tried biking, running (street, trail, track), swimming, various machines, other things I'm probably forgetting. Hated every minute of it, and could never stick with it.

I tried weightlifting a few years ago. No machines, just barbells. I honesly can't say that I love doing it, but I have been able to stick with it 3 days per week and I only miss if I am sick or have an unavoidable conflict.

If you can't get into the habit of working out, try something else. Also try variations of group/solitary activity. I'm a pretty introverted person but one thing that helps with getting to the gym is knowing a group of people there.

Re: I tricked myself into working out 3 times per week

#36

Post by trutic »

jjtheblunt wrote: post #31

Adopt a feral dog : they domesticate easily and their last countless generations of ancestors were among the fittest selected by nature for general wellness and energy, not specific characteristics by (an echo chamber of) breeders. First hand experience : you'll not be bored, they're smart and loving, and energetic (and hilarious). You'll therefore be more physically active without being bored than you thought possib…

As someone who has an energetic dog, I'd be careful of telling people to do this. It's a lot of responsibility, and the amount of workout and training is more time than I spend working at times. Especially if you are single like myself.

Re: I tricked myself into working out 3 times per week

#37

Post by staindk »

savanaly wrote: post #3

If 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.

This looks great but I'm surprised there isn't any % of the paid money going to charities, good causes or something.

I'd like something like this that pays into my retirement, a long-term investment or donates to charity, with maybe 1-20% going to Beeminder or whatever.

Re: I tricked myself into working out 3 times per week

#38

Post by javajosh »

Tarsul wrote: post #29

I read a HN comment a while ago wrt running that said that motivation might come from saying "I want to see this beautiful place again" (where the running leads to.) instead of saying "I need to run because I want to lose weight" (or whatever). I'd like to say it works, but actually what was even more important for me was to change my thoughts about running. If you feel like running is a chore, you will never motivat…

Great story. I have a similar one with swimming. When I started swimming laps, I'd always come at it hard, and I'd sometimes panic, lose my breathing, and feel like I was going to drown, and have to stop completely. And it was terrifying.

Eventually I learned to a) slow down at the start, and b) to recognize when I was inching toward the redline, and slow down while still swimming to avoid the panic stop. I felt, and still feel, that there was an important life lesson there: to be attuned to yourself, to make conscious decisions about your behavior based on that awareness, optimize for 'harmony', or 'least disruption'. There are some psychological things going on, too, like shame, guilt, etc that seem really silly now but felt real and were pushing me toward the wrong conclusions!

Re: I tricked myself into working out 3 times per week

#39

Post by SoftTalker »

endisneigh wrote: post #23

I'm happy for the author, but I've always found these sort of tricks to be a chore. I bought a cargo ebike and use it for 99% of my traveling, including a 20 mile commute to work (~40 minutes each way). Now you can exercise for free, no tricking necessary. Sadly you aren't going to become super muscular riding around a bike, but I assure you, you'll be in excellent shape even with an ebike. Maybe it's because I'm laz…

I wouldn't wear that weighted vest too much. If you wear it all day, it will have the same adverse effect on your joints as being 20 lbs overweight.

It's fine to use it to add work to body-weight exercises such as pullups, squats, etc. but don't wear it for hours just walking around.

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