Wasted Effort | Nerd Fitness

I remember riding the escalator up at Macy’s at the Cape Cod Mall.

My mom, who was calmly riding the upward escalator like a normal person, would say I was going to hurt myself (probably), or that I was making a scene (correct), or interrupting people trying to go down (also correct).

Sometimes I would reach the top of the mountain exhausted and out of breath, and my mom would arrive at the same time, laughing at how hard I worked.

Spend enough time in an airport (or travel with young children) and within minutes you’ll see kids trying to run on the people mover, only to go in the other direction. It’s exhaustion for them, entertainment for us.

Do you understand what I’m trying to say?

My friend Mark Manson put the following into Numberhis newsletterNumber This week:

“All the courage, perseverance, and drive in the world won’t do you any good if you do the wrong thing. In fact, it will have the opposite effect.

Which brings me to today’s question…

Where do you run up and down escalators?

Earlier this year, I remember having a conversation with Coach Matt from the NF team NumberCounseling clientsNumber Who succeeds, who struggles.

• Those who are successful: They identify an escalator moving in the right direction and work their way up that escalator. Every step actually amplifies their efforts.
• People who struggle: They continue to spend their energy, willpower, and effort on changes that go nowhere.

I bet you’ve had those moments where you wondered if all the effort was really worth it, or why progress seemed more difficult than usual.

Here are a few examples of trying to run a downward escalator:

• Spending a lot of money on expensive supplements (no prescribed by a medical professional).
• Switch to organic, gluten-free, or low-carb keto snacks only About the latest trends.
• Tried a complex diet, but the results were not noticeable actually Reduce the amount of food you eat.
• do exercises you hate Only For weight loss reasons.

Running (and any other aerobic exercise) is great For heart and lung health. But running and aerobics are NumberThe weight loss effect is much worseNumber More than we think (unless we adjust our nutrition strategies too).

My guess is that you want to look more “toned,” which means you don’t just want to “lose weight,” but you want to keep your existing muscle and lose the fat on it.

If these are our goals, then focusing on the right escalators is key.

Here is an example of walking up an escalator:

Show me a person who eats mostly protein, fruits, and vegetables and does 30 minutes of strength training (gradually overloading) a few times a week, and I’ll tell you a person is moving up the right escalator.

Here’s what happens: NumberHumans are not born to love sportsNumber. We are also not designed to thrive in a world where there is always delicious food that is high in calories and devoid of nutrients.

This means that if we were to spend valuable brainpower and energy doing something, We might as well choose the right thing to trick ourselves into doing.

Yes, there is a whole Life and Behavior change component to this too (I covered this in a previous newsletter) NumberManageable and meaningfulNumber). But deciding “how quickly do I implement these meaningful steps” is a better question than “why am I not making progress despite this?” Is it so hard?

Go down the wrong escalator and onto the right escalator.

Might as well put this effort to good use!

-Steve

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