Exercise & Movement

The human body evolved to be good at running and some physical exercise. It also evolved to be lazy. If given the option to choose between exercising and sleeping in, we tend to like sleeping.

This makes exercise a particularly difficult hobby to pick up. It is easy during high motivation periods to say "yes I will exercise a lot". However, I do not have high motivation on most days. I come home from work feeling tired and drained, and often have events and hobbies that interfere with exercise. It becomes far too easy to say that I will not keep doing this.

It helps to form a hobby. Want something so simple that I am happy to do it even when I am very tired. The focus is in building the neural pathway of "when x happens I go running". I have started to put running clothes next to my door, so that it is easier to remember how I should be working on it.

Interesting facts about exercise

• Most changes related to exercise happen over months-long horizons rather than day long events. For example, on a 500-calorie deficit it takes 18 days to lose 1kg of fat, so any sustainable cutting happens over a whole season.
• Nutrition is easy to get right. Vegetables are more filling than their calories would suggest, and a simple stir fry makes them easy to digest. Skyr and protein shakes help me get any missing protein into my diet while still being tasty enough for the experience to be pleasant.
• It is so easy for my mind to find an excuse to not do something. I have never been a particularly disciplined person, and expecting myself to be super disciplined in exercise is a fool's errand.
• The only hobby related to physical exercise that I have done consistently is pump it up. Perhaps having friends to do it with initially is helpful? I can try to create those moments by asking my friends if they are interested in running with me for a month.