I had a similar experience, I couldn't get myself to exercise, at all. So one day I told myself I don't have to do any more than one. One situp, one pushup, etc... whatever I wanted for my routine. This was easy to start, easy to maintain, and fantastically simple to overcome the mental block to do it.

I started 3 months ago and I am still not great at exercising, I do 2 minutes at a time at most. And I'd do this a couple times a day. But no excuses allowed because it's too dang easy to do, and I sound like a tiny baby complaining about one single pushup.

Within a couple weeks of doing this, my sleep improved. I fell asleep a lot easier, and woke up more refreshed. There's a freedom you get when you can truly say "something is better than nothing", and then stick to it.

A number of times I have literally done one single pushup for my workout. :P And it's just fine.

Edit: Actual routine (2 min) 20 pushups (maybe), 20 squats (maybe), halfass jumping jack things (30 secs?), 20 crunches (maybe), 20 stupid looking back crunches (not a real thing, but I like them), swing my arms around (monkey exercise?), twist my next (feels good). I attempted a pullup multiple times a day,finally after 2 weeks of this, I did a full pullup!

Today I did 2 pushups. :)

I recommend doing negatives (jumping up to the pullup bar off a box or something and lowering yourself down steadily) to rapidly improve your pullups. You can quickly get to being able to do one after never having been able to, or in your case, you should be able to get from 1 pull/chin up to 3-4 fairly quickly.

Good luck, and keep up the good work

I like that idea, I will try it. I did get up to 4 though, but I am not trying. :P I am doing the absolute minimum that I can handle. I don't break a sweat even, and my breathing is barely elevated. (part of goals, not to over do it)

Also, another rule I have, if it hurts, I stop. Period. So one day I did a few squats, my knee felt funny on one, a little pain on the next. I stopped. The next day it was fine and I did 20 squats again.

Thanks for the suggestion.

Regarding the pain, a few years ago I injured my lower back. Recently I haven’t really been paying much attention to it, and even just bending down to pick something up caused a little pain in my back and knees.

A month ago I went to a health spa and within a few days all my pain was gone. I wasn’t doing very strenuous excercises, but the important thing was I was doing something every day and using most of my muscles - it was basically aerobics designed for middle-age people.

My point is firstly that pain can be caused just because you aren’t using the muscles. Muscles get stiff if not used and that inturn can cause more problems (I believe most of my back injury was caused by tight hamstrings).

And secondly it’s often easy to fix, you don’t need to be deadlifting 300lbs and spending 3 hours in a gym, just some simple excercises you can do at home is enough. I wouldn’t even worry about how many you can do or whether your form is perfect (within reason), just using the muscles is the important part - especially for most of us who are at a desk for 9+ hours a day.

Thanks for the note, it's good to know it's not a fluke to have these methods work out.

It's almost comical how rarely I've heard the kind of advice for light exercise. It's almost always "you have to get your heart rate up to 120 bpm for 30 min or you are wasting your time!" bah. "you need to do 200 reps or you're wasting your time!" double bah.

I run a totally lame mile run a few times a week, and I like my exercising, I make it easy and mostly enjoyable, and it's turned my life around.

I agree with the sore muscle thing, I had my acheles tendon hurt really bad when running. So I had to stop for a month. But when I started to run again, it still hurt, I was worried.

Here's the really dumb part. My TV/movie based medical knowledge told me that I may have to work through some pain (ie, like in physical therapy) to get my ankle back to normal. It was healed, just not in shape, or some such dumb thing. And it worked! (yah for the movie about the hurt army soldier who had to get his legs working again! and the stubborn nurse that wouldn't let him quit!)

Remember in old british movies/tv they would go out on a "constitutional"? (I thought that was so uptight and funny when I was younger)

That is such a nice idea. I am tempted to try this. I am very bad at pull ups. Like you said I have done exactly zero pullups.

I completely understand, you should give it a shot. All I did was just try a couple times, I'd do like 1/5th of a pullup a couple times a day, and after awhile I could just do a little more, without any extra work. :P Hope it works out for you.

I put a pullup bar where I walk past consistently, so I don't have to go out of my way to make a try at it.

Back crunches are very much a real thing, and one of the core exercises in 5BX (https://csclub.uwaterloo.ca/~rfburger/5bx-plan.pdf) Chart 2, Exercise 2

That's an awesome booklet, thank you, the cartoons are wacky fun. :) It looks like it's Exercise 3 though, the labels are on the bottom. What I was actually doing is Chart 3 Exercise 3, but they look similar.

Just be careful before doing these. "Please Note: Many exercise physiologists consider the sit-up in the higher levels to be capable of causing spinal injury, and therefore unsuitable for an unsupervised program. As always, please consult your physician before attempting any exercise program."

Source: https://untotheone.com/public/health/excercise-programs/

I pay pretty close attention now days, but your warning is a good reminder. I stopped doing situps a long time ago, and stick with crunches, as situps were just uncomfortable.

I think a general "pay attention to your body's warning signs" is a good common sense rule.

Similar anecdote; I'm middle aged and have become fairly sedentary over the past few years but life is busy & a little complex so not easy to get back to a gym or regular cycling.

I've recently started doing step-ups when I first get up in the morning whilst waiting for the kettle to boil. I've a strong coffee table which is about 20"/50cm high and I do five steps leading with each leg, then switch legs and repeat until the kettle boils. I'm currently up to a total of about 50 step-ups and get my heart rate up to 145-155 region in that time. No sweat and no stiffness.

I'm not sure how much this is actually doing but having seen a few things on HIT recently it could well be a very good two minutes for my health. I've noticed a difference in how I can now spring up a couple of flights of stairs so something is changing for the better.

The most important for me is I can fit it in with zero 'cost' to my time and it's fairly easy to do every day.

Edited to add I also stand on one leg when cleaning my teeth. I've an electric toothbrush which 'pings' every 30 seconds so I swap legs each ping. Again it's zero time and may well be helping a little with balance and some of the core fitness.

That's a great idea, I may have to try that. I am already tired of the same exercises.

I did run into an issue though. Just like you, I'd exercise while my milk was heating up (quick coffee, switched to hot chocolate (organic, don't give me greif)) but when I cut back on that too, it affected the number of times I worked out. lol. :P

Any suggestions on how to get a routine in where there's not triggering event?

No direct suggestions, sorry. One thing though with the milk you need to think about and keep watching as you don't want it boiling over but with the kettle I can just leave it. I'm going to see if I can start doing things like full bodyweight squats or possibly press ups for zero time but not sure either would get my heart going like those steps do.

My stopping of the gym was due to the kids changing schools so my routing changed. Like with your cutting back one small change can have consequences you'd never consider.

You may want to try a short jog to fill in the missing work out. That is how I started. I determined to do just 10 minutes a day. I ran in my pajamas and crocs for the first few months, on a treadmill. My rule was never run faster than it hurts, and in the first 10 min run I probably did half a mile (lol, walking speed :P)

But running didn't help me with my neck and back or arms, so that's why I started with the upper body stuff, but I am noob with this. :P With the milk I microwave it, I have electric kettle for the tea though. Maybe I will have to make my self drink more tea to my exercise in?

Another note on the jogging thing, I run on the balls of my feet, to avoid knee/hip/spine issues associated with running. Though it's more strain on your calfs/ankles/tendons (soft tissues that repair easier than cartilage), and it's a little more exertion.

But my rule was I waste so many 10 min blocks of time in my life, I could do this.(10 min getting dressed, 10min in the shower, 10 min reading news, or eating breakfast, etc...) I was in physical pain all the time from years in a desk, I was desperate, that was my motivation. That was probably 3-4 years ago. This past winter it was too cold to run, so I tried the "actual" workout stuff.

What is a "press up for zero time" mean?

Running has never been my thing, just can't seem to get along with it.

> What is a "press up for zero time" mean?

By that I mean it doesn't take up any special time, like doing my step ups when the kettle is boiling. Even if that extends to 3-4 minutes that's still done in no time.

BTW I measured the table and it's actually 17"/43cm high which is coincidentally about as high as a natural step up would go.

This reminds me a lot of Scott Adam's theory about systems over goals. I've used this in various areas of my life and I'm happy with the results so far.

http://blog.dilbert.com/2013/11/18/goals-vs-systems/

That's brilliant, I got half way there on my own, but I think he's onto something. The only real super benefits I've gotten in my life were from permanent changes, not temporary achievements.

Conversely, I've often reached goals by accident from a permanent change (ie, system) but rarely have I reached permanent change by reaching a goal. (even when they are spectacular goals).

(got to go back and finish the article now... a note of trivia, I had an inlaw that worked in the same office as Scott, and thought the cartoons were funny. He worked for a phone company in California.)

Do reverse rows before trying pullups. Then pullups while supporting with one leg and so on... well there are many videos on youtube with great advice - search for "calisthenics".

Thanks, I will give that try. Can't believe I didn't even think about looking on youtube for advice, but I didn't even expect to make any progress, that was a surprise. :P

The author is making the point that our way of obsessing over self improvement is making us unhappy. You note that with a certain attitude you dont necessarily become more unhappy from it. I dont see a conflict here. The author would most likely not disagree with you, but simply point out that most people simply dont hold the attitude that you recommend. The reasons for this is another big discussion.

We're in perfect agreement on the substance of the issue. But my point was that, from the title to the content, my perception is that the author emphasizes self-improvement as the issue per se, instead of an unhealthy attitude towards blindly plunging into instant-fix "lifehacks", etc. He's behaving as if a modest, incremental, low-judgment approach to self-improvement doesn't exist, instead of simply being harder to do.

I've always had a strong drive for self improvement; in fact I'd go so far as to say it's one of my primary drives. The reason I haven't really faced the issues that the author is describing is because what I do has nothing to do with "productivity porn" or "disgusting consumerism". I buy books to learn things or use the library, I weightlift regularly in the school issued gym shorts from my high school soccer team, and everything I've learned and practiced about mindfulness cost me nothing but my time.

I don't have a problem with the author's castigation of productivity porn, but rather with his lazy conflation of all efforts at self-improvement. Hell, look at the verse he chooses to quote from Fitter, Happier[1]: it's about eating well and exercising regularly.

[1] incidentally, I had an OK Computer poster with this songs lyrics on my wall in college, so it's not like the complaint about productivity porn doesn't resonate with me.

My guess is that the author thinks that you are missing the core problem here. What if being insecure with who you are is the real problem? What if having a limited understanding of what constitutes 'improvement' is the problem?

I would think, for example, that the author would look down very much on your definition of success in eating, given that your standard appears to be "a model of what many people would ideally like to eat."

> I would think, for example, that the author would look down very much on your definition of success in eating, given that your standard appears to be "a model of what many people would ideally like to eat."

That was perhaps oddly phrased, but I believe you're misunderstanding me. The way I eat is 1) extremely enjoyable to me, 2) feels _really_ good from a health perspective, and 3) _is_ healthy, at least according to the best guess nutritional science has to offer.

Could you clarify what exactly you think the author would find to look down on? It sounds like you misinterpreted me to be saying that my goal was _per se_ to eat in a way that people would think I'm awesome. I really couldn't care less what people think of my diet, as evidenced by the fact that I consistently deal with mild social pressure around my diet (eg, that it's super weird to not like pizza or fried things).

What I actually meant was that I don't really suffer much from succumbing to food cravings that I believe aren't healthy for me, because my dietary preferences happen to align with my best understanding of what healthful eating is. (The main exception here, as noted in my other comment, is that I'd ideally eat less meat).

The author would find nothing reasonable to object to in your statements. I find this article frustrating because it fails to reiterate a common point bestowed by all self-help pundits worth their salt. Results are highly subjective in many domains. This pseudo enlightened take on interacting with capitalism at large can be concisely boiled down to a simple question. If all of your friends jumped off a bridge, would you jump too?

The guy got played by the system and he's mad about it, plain and simple. There's no new information in this article, just a somewhat novel and ironic perspective of how capitalism is a 'terrible' thing. Because we've never read about how people earn money taking advantage of the uninformed before.

In all of my research of self-help it's usually very clearly stated somewhere in big red text 'INDIVIDUAL RESULTS MAY VARY' and somehow this genius missed that. His shortcomings from blindly following in the footsteps of others is now the fault of an entire industry interested in offering perspectives to those who wish to grow.

> My diet, for example, is pretty much a model of what many people would ideally like to eat

Can I ask what this consists of?

I should clarify that by "what many people would ideally like to eat", I meant, "for the purposes of health". It just so happens that over time, my preferences have aligned with exactly what I was targeting for health reasons. Something to do with gut flora? I dunno.

Given that nutritional science is such a dumpster fire, I basically end up with a hybrid diet that's based on the parts of nutritional science that aren't too controversial: high in fiber, low-GI carbs only (and less carbs than most eat), fats are almost all "healthy fats", mountains of vegetables and fruit, and I try to minimize red meat.

I eat a LOT (and a variety) of vegetables, quite a lot of beans and lentils, quite a bit of fish, eggs fairly often, a low to medium amount of meat (about 50% poultry and 50% lamb and pork). I get some additional fats from olives (which I cook with fairly often) and nuts. Whole grains make it in there to round out fiber intake, but not in particularly large quantities. I don't enjoy or eat much dairy (excl plain yogurt, I love it), fried stuff, or processed carbs. The only thing I would change about my diet for health purposes would be to go fully vegetarian (for a combination of health and ethical reasons), but I just find that whenever I weightlift regularly, it can be difficult to get enough protein without meat.

This sounds like I'm unusually ascetic about food, but I actually LOVE food: before I started cooking, I would eat a different cuisine everyday, and now that I cook regularly, I try to rotate through at least a handful of cuisines (keeping every cuisine's ingredients around is tougher). My relationship with all the unhealthy foods that people crave tends to be analogous to how you probably feel about Pixie Stix: yes, to some degree we're wireheaded to enjoy it, but once you're out of the habit of it, it actually starts tasting pretty gross. The flavors are unsubtle and uninteresting, once you stop being used to the dopamine hit you get from it. This is how I feel about (eg) grilled cheese, or bread-heavy dishes, or the cheese and dough part of pizza.

What kind of dishes do you find yourself throwing olives into?

I find them in recipes fairly often[1], and make tapenade sometimes, but they're actually pretty easy to work into many of the meat or fish recipes that I make[2], as long as the flavors are complementary. Hell, even my first regular, staple "recipe" when I started learning to cook had olives in it and was super easy: a 3-egg scramble with chili powder, smoked paprika, baby spinach, quartered black olives and optionally a little bit of crumbled feta. Super fast, super easy, super delicious, and it came from just looking at my spice rack plus deciding that I wanted some Mediterranean flavors in my eggs.

This is probably made a lot easier by the fact that the cuisines I decided to focus on when I had to narrow it down for cooking were Mediterranean (excl Italy) + Middle Eastern + North Indian, and most of the Mediterranean makes regular use of olives.

[1] I'm relatively new to regular cooking, since the first few years out of college, Google fed me, so a lot of my cooking is still following recipes by the book

[2] I really enjoy Fish Veracruz, which is a good example of this

I've just recently started enjoying olives and have only been eating them on their own. Hadn't thought of putting them in my eggs.

Fish Veracruz looks tasty, thanks for the suggestion!

I mistyped in my previous comment: I don't make the eggs with Spanish olives, I make them with black olives. I find Spanish olives harder to cook with because the flavor can overwhelm other flavors, but I do eat them alone and every once in a while find a recipe that works well with them. I cook much more often with black and kalamata olives.

Thanks for the detailed response!

Just imagine what you would ideally like to eat.

steak, lobster, a milkshake, a baked potato and some cake?

would you like a scoop of icecream with the cake?

This part about sleeping sounds a lot like me. What was the issue, if I may ask?

I have unusually sensitive sleep, which I haven't yet addressed, but there were a couple of physical things that were combining with that to make it so that I pretty much never got a restful night. I apparently have GERD, as well as bad enough allergies that my nasal passages weren't open enough. So I started using H2 blockers and nasal strips and the immediate improvement in my quality of life is insane. It manifested in a pretty unintuitive way: the fact that I had to exert a certain amount of pressure to continue breathing through my nose was apparently enough that my body would keep me from ever resting very well. At its worst, I would spend 11 hours in bed and still feel way less rested than _5 hours_ makes me feel now.

I concur, nasal strips improved my sleep substantially, after struggling for years with very dry mouth at night (causing me to wake up multiple times a night). My family has issues breathing through our noses for some reason, something genetic. I even got a septoplasty and turbinoid reduction to try and fix it (very pushy ENT surgeon), but this didn't really help much at all.

Only drawbacks I've noticed to long time use (4 years): they are expensive, at least in the UK. And I think it has slightly altered the appearance of my nose (making it look puffier where the strips pull up) - but this is hard to know for sure, as I don't have pictures to compare as a baseline. I've tried to minimize any physical effect by using as small strips as possible.

Interesting. What were the GERD symptoms, and what did the H2 blockers do?

The main symptom would be that I've had a low grade cough my entire life, which was also the main issue when sleeping. I'd also always have a mildly sore throat I was constantly having to clear. More recently, even mild triggers (one or two alcoholic drinks, not eating until late in the day) would give me some pretty horrible heartburn for hours, which is what made me see a doctor about GERD. She directed me to an OTC medicine (Zantac) and I've been taking it once or twice a day for a few weeks. I'm at the pt now where I only take it if I'm going to eat a trigger (alcohol, caffeine, spicy food). My mom has actually had GERD and taken Zantac for about a decade, so I probably should've thought of this earlier.

H2 blockers lower your stomach's response to histamine. I believe antihistamine allergy medicines are H1 blockers: they work slightly differently but have roughly the same mechanism of action.

Right, H2 blockers also mimic the effects of H1 blockers (antihistamines). Thus, they will reduce swelling, including in the nasal passages by blocking histamines.

Amongst other side effects - antihistamines inhibit/block tanning.

Thanks for sharing. My wife (a medical professional) has commented that I seemingly have trouble breathing through my nose. I'll give strips a shot.

Honestly, they're incredible. I had a weird home environment as a kid and it turns out there were a few medical problems I've been dealing with my whole life as a result; I've been addressing these recently and am mildly uncomfortable with having a drug regimen, as pretty much every drug has the possibility or certainty of side effects, in either the short or long term.

Nasal strips, by contrast, are literally just holding your nose open. The worst I can imagine is that my skin might get irritated from regular contact with the adhesive, but so far that hasn't happened. They also work insanely well for me: Occasionally when I'm trying to get back to sleep, I remember that I can now take full breaths and I do it, and I IMMEDIATELY feel my brain sinking into sleep mode.

I'm fairly certain I have gerd and bad sleep and will have to try these things, thanks.

If you live in a dry area, try a humidifier too. Before I figured out the GERD, I started using a humidifier and it helped a bit (mainly by making the GERD and allergic symptoms less severe).

Sleep is SUPER important, and these things are all inexpensive and basically risk-free from a health perspective. (Though I would probably at least ask your doctor about reflux before deciding to take H2 blockers regularly. It's just prudent when deciding to take a new drug regularly).

I’m guessing sleep apnea, as the most common culprit leading to difficulty getting up in the morning. Apnea also frequently is misdiagnosed as ADHD.