Exercise & Movement

[AI generated not reviewed yet]

Philosophy

I treat exercise as a laboratory for understanding habit formation and sustainable behavior change. The goal isn't to become an athlete—it's to build systems that work when motivation is low and life gets complicated.

Current Practice

Running: 3x per week, 20 minutes each, same route. Deliberately boring and consistent. The focus is building the neural pathway of "I'm a person who runs" before worrying about performance or variety.

Approach: Start stupidly small. Make it easier to do the thing than to decide not to do it. Lay out clothes the night before. Schedule specific days rather than hoping to fit it in.

What I've Learned

Post-Exercise Fatigue: That depleted, low-energy state after working out is completely normal. Planning for it—having a specific snack ready, setting a timer for the recovery window—turns it from a problem into a predictable phase.

System Over Motivation: Habit formation is about designing the right system rather than relying on willpower. I'm not trying to feel like exercising—I'm trying to make it feel inevitable.

The Long View: Sustainable change operates on a different timeline than immediate feedback suggests. Progress is measured in showing up, not performance. Around week 6-8, it stops feeling like a decision and starts feeling like something you do.

Key Insights

• Dress like it's 15-20°F warmer than it actually is (you'll feel cold for 5 minutes, then perfect)
• Find routes that start from your door so there's no commute to the "starting line"
• Lock in two days as non-negotiable, keep one as a floater for flexibility
• Some hunger while cutting is normal—it's data, not an emergency

The goal isn't to love every moment. It's to make the good choice feel automatic.