You just have to reprogram yourself to do it.
Nothing else but ACTION will suffice for exercising.
A very fit friend of mine said to me many years ago "I just don't give myself any choice about whether I'm going to the gym."
You can talk and use apps and make plans and get trainers and coaches and excuses etc etc etc but in the end the ONLY thing that works is ACTION - go and exercise. Find an exercise that suits you. I like running because it's so easy - just pull on shoes and go - and you can listen to podcasts as you do it. Also CrossFit because I find exercise boring so it's really great to do a group class where the instructor tells you what to do - all I need to do is turn up for an hour and hand over all the thinking about it to someone else and leave fitter and hour later.
I use this strategy too and it's the thing that has worked best for me. I make it a rule and don't let myself ask questions. No "do I have the time/energy?" or "should I do my workout today?", because it's always easy to find a reason not to. Wiggle room has a tendency to grow and suddenly you haven't worked out in a couple weeks. Then a month. Now you have to start over again.
Taking choice out of the equation makes it a lot easier to form and keep the habit.
If you go after work: "In order to go home, I have to go to the gym first." As though the gym is required step in the process.
If you prefer the morning: "In order to have breakfast, I have to do my workout first."
That's it. That's the rule. Like brushing your teeth before bed.
However, I also had to shift my mindset towards trying to progress via small inconsequential chunks, rather than trying to "fix everything". E.g. the idea is to just show up to the gym - not exercise - but if latter happens, then sure, why not (and it usually does). I think it helps snap out of the failure avoidance mode.
I'm about to force myself to spend 180 a month for a crowded upscale 24 fitness. But the Olympic gym that wanted 320 a month takes the Cake.
When I wasn't living in a literal oven I would go as far as the drive 30 minutes to do CrossFit or Oly. I have a metal block on not group classes. Only CrossFit works for me. I never get results at a vanilla gym. But you are right its a no choice situation. But for me it works to have a chart with weekly cells.. hard to break that chain when you need a new poster board...
How are you defining results?
If you watch yt videos by Arnold or Jay Cutler and just go to the gym, you'll be the strongest guy there in about a year.
If you mean lose weight, that's 99% an intake problem.
No just an inherently sedentary programmer - I'm no CrossFit evangelist - it's just a highly time efficient way to meet the goal of being fitter and returning to programming.
I think the secret to actually exercising is understanding what you do and do not like and finding exercise that suits you. If I go to the gym on my own I get bored and I do not push myself thus I do not get much fitter. So CrossFit is part of the success secret for me because it is effectively a group gym program in which I must do what I am told whilst I am there - unlike going to the gym on my own, getting bored and lazy and dropping it because it's not working for me.
Since I am too lazy to exercise intensively I need to be in a structured environment to do that.
Going to a group exercise class requires nothing more of you than turning up - motivating yourself just to arrive somewhere is much easier to do than motivating yourself to self plan and self drive an entire workout.
YOU are responsible for making the best you.. and it always feels better if you have crushed out a daily workout before most people are awake:
https://www.businessinsider.com/retired-navy-seal-jocko-will...
The reason is simply because people don't want to take action. They want to procrastinate and avoid and find ways of almost exercising and there's absolutely no better way to do that than to delegate all your emotional energy on the subject to some sort of app.
Apps to encourage you to exercise are awesome business - they just aren't a way to actually become an exercising person but who really cares about that.
> Apps to encourage you to exercise are awesome business - they just aren't a way to actually become an exercising person but who really cares about that.
Moral human beings with any sense of self-respect.
Trade is about voluntarily exchanging value. I give you something (like money), you give me something in return (like an app that does what I need), we're both happy. What you're praising here is a violation of this - it's encouraging people to lie about the value they're offering. It's wrong.
> it's really great to do a group class where the instructor tells you what to do
So, trainers and coaches are useless, but "instructors" are alright? I fail to see the difference there.
Interacting with other people can motivate you. Having a trainer or a coach does work. Having someone tell you what to do takes off the mental part off your shoulders and then you can "just do it". And you might also feel bad if you don't show up.
https://forum.duolingo.com/comment/17598950/The-demotivation...
https://forum.duolingo.com/comment/3705144/Streak-Breaker-Wh...
https://forum.duolingo.com/comment/7927344/Lost-streak-and-m...
Smoking - I used to smoke a pack a day since I was 21. 5 years ago I decided to quit. I started a stop watch on my wrist watch to count number of hours since last smoke. Once that went up 250 hours, I used a wall calendar to mark of days. I tend to break the stream couple of times a year by smoking socially. But when I see my wall calendar, I always get back to maintaining the streak. I have not quit the habit, but I went from going a pack per day to 2 packs per year, which health wise is good enough. Having said that, I found that having a wall calendar, bigger the better, really helps. Apps with notifications etc not so much. I am currently working on an app which turns your android wall paper into a streak tracker, will of course post on HN when ready.
I'm glad to hear someone else had the same experience. I wonder what it is that causes one to work better than the other...
"You did great for the past 4 weeks - perfect streak" or "you are doing really well - only missed one day in the past 4 weeks". You know, something a human might say.
Start off with a x Days, then switch to x Weeks and then moving average.
It is only lost in Duolingo but you have learned some of the language (I am assuming here).
TL;DR - Your hard work wasn't lost. Your knowledge of that language didn't disappear when that streak ended. You just forgot why you downloaded Duolingo in the first place.
The Health App has been a win. Tracking meals and what have you is straightforward.
But the real win is the gamification of the Global Challenge. While completely meaningless in any real-world sense, somehow keeping the step score and all of the silly achievements and missions help to quantify and motivate.
Recently, via the headphones, I've taken in some outstanding podcasts while out walking. (No specifics, lest I violate the HN orthodoxy.)
Overall, any app that gets us up and moving is a positive thing.
I use duolingo as well - and one of the saddest days was when I lost a 100+ day streak. It's funny how a meaningless number can have so much power.
> gamification of the Global Challenge.
I have personally experienced how powerful gamification ux can be. Especially if used for a positive outcome.
For example, lets say I set a goal to walk for 1 hour per day. But then I only walk for 30 minutes, how would the app handle that situation?
Why did you want to track the goal in the first place? This is probably the most important question.
Why didn’t you set the goal to 30 minutes, if there are days where it’s likely that you miss your more ambitious goal?
If you set the goal to walk an hour per day and you just walk 30 minutes, you obviously failed to reach the goal. Depending on the first two questions, you can be hard on yourself for this or not.
Because the goal is still an hour, but there are different levels of failing. A simple binary "pass/fail" means the record shows the same difference between lying in bed all day Vs running a marathon and walking 59 minutes Vs 61. If I'm 2 grams above my goal weight at Christmas is that a simple "fail"?
You are right that setting a goal aligned with what you want to change is the important question, but you want you achieve may not well fit into a clear pass/fail.
Unfortunately at the moment it is binary (done or not-done).
Maintaining a streak has more of a negative feeling, where you are committed to it but don't really want to do it. Also, what happens if you lose the streak. If you missed 1 day, now the streak and motivation is gone. 1 day turns into 2, etc.
Sounds masochistic but it's like a good sore if that makes any sense.
This app is designed to help you develop that habit.
I think you logged-in before "trying out". I have fixed the bug now.
Gamification is basically a way to substitute fake goals for real ones, which works for some people but not all.
To share a personal example: signing up for a long race gave me concrete goals with a deadline, I could measure my progress in distance and time, and by the time I completed the race I began to enjoy running for the sake of running. Now I have an enjoyable hobby that also contributes to "increased useful lifespan".
I can seriously recommend it. Go for a run, if you're finding yourself putting off something with the intention of working when you get back.
Unfortunately not hopping on as a user because I have a workout partner at the moment, but I've been wishing someone would build this for ages.
> I work out dramatically more with a little bit of social accountability.
I have experienced the same myself, and suspect that it is true for most people.
Sorry about the convoluted route.
My wife and I talked a lot about getting a dancing mat, which was my college friend's go-to exercise technique (he ended up going semi-pro and winning some awards in StepMania competitions), but dancing mats - especially hard ones - make a lot of noise, making them unsuitable for use in an apartment in a block of flats. Dancing games have similar benefits - exercising becomes fun, and there's built-in progression to guide you. But after Oculus Quest - a standalone, untethered VR headset - came out, we decided to go the Beat Saber route. Waving hands doesn't make the noise stepping does, and untethered headset is even more portable than the dancing mat.
Quick notes: i couldn’t find a way to delete a task, and the task directory table doesn’t fit on an iPhone 8 held vertically.
