I discovered something similar last year when I had a couple of acres of badly overgrown land to clear and no time to do it, plus a need to get off my bum and stop the rot. I got into the habit of getting to the land before dawn, working for a few hours, then returning home before my teens surfaced. Being out in nature, hands in the earth, working my body and resting my mind, is incredibly therapeutic. I can't join you in going to a carpark but I'll be there in the garden, mattock in hand.
Excellent! Research shows Our brain is wired to feel good after working with our bides, particularly our hands, to create something or improve the environment we are in (cleaning toilets included!) What I know of it is called an effort-driven reward circuit.
Walk/run is a great way to start, easier on the bod but still gets you there. (Jeff Galloway, marathoner)
I have a lamp on timer for those nasty cold winter mornings - def helps!
Never too late to start running - did my first marathon at 59. I live in a seniors’ building and use the canes/walkers/wheelchairs as motivation - I refuse to go there.
The smoking has done its damage, but I am definitely improving. I am also skeptical of most of modern medicine. I read you can't undo a lot of the damage of smoking. Then I read of people quitting and miraculously most of the damage disappear in X years. I am convinced most modern medicine is guesswork.
So I am pushing myself and I am learning new things. As the article outlined, I did not expect a morning walk or run to wake me up so well.
Grin...sitting here reading this at 5.30am as I am working on devouring an entire pot of coffee, knowing I need to get my lazy butt up and get some exercise. At 67 and arthritic and 2 bad knees I doubt I will ever run again. Mebby start walking
Walking is very underrated. I walk every day as I don't have a car. After I quit smoking and recovered from the lung infection it was walking I used to get fitter.
As for the knees and arthritis, perhaps this may be of interest:
Fantastic. My energy took a serious dip after quitting. No stimulants. So it takes the body a while to adjust. But it does adjust.
I think my subconscious partial rejection of coffee is a desire to get off all stimulants to see what my body is capable of.
As for quitting the smokes. I found removing a negative was not enough. You have to add positives that are challenging while a smoker. Vigorous walking was my one. After a few months I noticed how strong I was even walking up hills.
I also live in an apartment with no lift. So I have to walk up nine flights of stairs daily. So that helps, lol.
Definitely start walking! I am 62 with arthritis and hereditary neuropathy (CMT), a type of muscular dystrophy. I’ve always loved hiking and walking, but now can only do a couple miles on level ground. It still makes a huge difference to my mood and energy to get outside, even with my leg braces and hiking poles. The poles are great for us arthritic older people, they prevent falls and give your arms a little exercise as well.
This and your previous post are very motivating, especially given that you’ve stopped smoking. Sometimes I feel silly when I sit down and make a list about planning meals better or getting up and out earlier…by my age I should have mastered some of this stuff! But life is really a series of starting over, falling down, getting back on track, etc. and it’s good to be reminded not to quit. Self discipline today often seems like an act of rebellion and for good reason.
I think the good life is a series of reinventions. Another way to think of it is life is a series of chapters, like a book. Childhood, adolescence, young adulthood etc. A lot has to be learned in each stage.
I think our enemy is drift. So I very much approve of sitting down and planning meals, or planning anything. Life is in the doing, but some thought is needed.
Importantly I think all these things remind us a life worth living must be consciously lived. The drift is us losing attention, taking our eye off the ball. So the notion to plan meals better, lose weight, take up running and other activities are a kind of subconscious push against the drift we all experience.
It is a constant battle. But as the Wittgenstein quote alludes to, a good life isn't lying on a beach drinking cocktails or a mindless bliss with no strife, it is something closer to rising above the worries and the fears and really embracing it, warts and all. And I now believe the path directly to this mental state is found in action or doing. Immersion perhaps. Getting on with it. Realizing life is in the living and not the thinking (with its own demons; anxiety, fear, worry and so on).
So most of these reflections articles are really just me groping my way through these things and then writing it down.
One thing I have learned though is everyone is winging it. We are all faking it to some extent. No one knows anything, lol. So that gave me permission to just open myself up and write these kinds of articles that demonstrate I am pretty clueless just like everyone else.
Your routine is fantastic. Keep taking bits and pieces out of that 3mile morning and sooner than you think, the whole thing will become a run. Your wind will return (speaking from experience). Cycling is not exercise, at least not one that is based on natural human movement. It is more of the “machine” doing the moving for you -- a way to get from points A to B faster than walking, but I’d say that’s not the purpose nor value of “exercising”. Anyway, please take this in no way as criticism -- hell, cyclin is fun (ish) -- but rather as a full endorsement of your process coming from a former smoker and current fitness freak and enjoyer of your writing.
Thanks for this, and for the encouragement. It can be quite galling when you start an activity like running and realize just how out of shape you are. But as they say, if you are poor at running then run more.
Thanks for reading. I am sure I will become a fitness freak too. I can feel it happening.
Just FYI, I've been working at it for a while now. Went low-carb about 25 years ago (I'm 66) although I still smoked and drank too much at that time. Yet, I still got into ever better shape as I learned and studied these things. When I finally stopped smoking I was in otherwise excellent (apparent) condition with about 10% body. Now, some 20 years later I'm about the same (slightly higher BF% but not a lot). Carnivore, work out 4 to 5 times/week, don't go at it quite as hard as I did in my 50s although that's not because I can't, I just don't spend the amount of time I used to on it. My self betterment these days is more focused on the mento-spiritual side while remaining deeply committed to physical improvement alongside.
Good for you. I too am low carb, plus just generally eating fresh and clean. The smoking was my major hurdle, now gone. So hopefully it is all gains from here.
Sounds perfect -- you clearly know the drill. I should not have talked about myself so much, as if it's even relevant to your situation. What I intended was simply to add on to my encouragement in a sort of "keep at it and it'll pay off" kind of way.
Keep it up Spiff! I'll be honest I may not exercise quite as fanatically as you do, but I do get up at 3;30am, write, write, write then prepare for work at 7am. I'm trying to get healthier and get into a better workspace much like you, but I may have to emulate your own actions and start exercising again soon.
You're really inspirational here mon ami, keep going gonna be cheering for you!
Some of the most profound insights at the simplest. And there are many contained in this piece.
I, too, have recently changed a lot of my habits in life: I've given up smoking, I exercise at least four days a week, I eat more healthily, and I do my best to ignore the doom and gloom of the news cycle. I focus on my two jobs, my son, and maintaining healthy relationships with people worth keeping in my life. Block out the noise. Embrace nature. Find your grind. Surround yourself with people of character and strength.
If you do all this—as it seems you have been doing—you'll be surprised at just how much you can achieve in this world. I certainly have been.
I think that is it. Especially actively blocking news. I get most of my news via memes, lol.
A healthy diet is crucial as is exercise. I am only now understanding this. When you are down, especially when addicted, it can be hard to imagine how you escape. But once you do a new world opens up.
And real world connection is the thing. A legacy of COVID is the way more and more isolate themselves.
To enforce discipline in exercise, I have a rule about days off. I can choose to take a day off , but it can never be the current day. I can take tomorrow off, but not today.
Change is difficult, but decline is worse. I have learned grand plans don't work. Just do something then build on it. Perhaps have periods when you don't smoke, maybe going for a walk then add to that.
It is doable and often seems much harder in your mind than in reality. And good habits can be formed just like bad ones.
I am new to it. I thought I was losing my mind. I was telling others and they looked at me like I was crazy. 5am? What? Five in the MORNING? Are you mad?
It was a revelation to me I could wake up that quick with zero stimulants.
Love it, process rather than goal, action instead of thought, it was a great reminder to get outside too - I never feel as good after a run on the treadmill as I do when I run in the fresh air. Your post encouraged me not to take the easy road. Doing the harder thing is better, shows us we’re more capable than we realize.
I think of the laws of motion. It can be really difficult to overcome the inertia resisting a change in a habit or routine. But once one passes that, the hill starts to level out and a new routine is formed and inertia is now created that causes uneasy feelings when one stops the new routine. I try to be cognizant of that when I'm trying to make a new habit. It WILL be hard at first and it WILL get easier.
Also love jockos comment from a podcast (of course not the only one to say it) that motivation has little to do with it, it's all discipline lol. If we wait until we feel excited about doing something good luck. But as you discuss, I do think our body is wired (effort driven reward circuit) to use our bodies much more than we do and feels good when we do, particularly if we are creating something.
Yes to all that. It is all about discipline, but we know this becomes automated in short order. The body and the mind have ways to make it all work even if we don't fully understand.
I am only just realizing the power of movement. We are not designed to sit at desks and drink coffee. I think that is what my early morning revelation really is. A natural alternative we have forgotten about.
I’m happy and excited for you. I have been there, and god damn does it ever feel good to start getting in shape. Not saying it’s in the cards for you but if you backslide, don’t fret. This experience you’re having is available then too - speaking from experience, I’m a periodic lazy person.
I may look into this for the time is coming that being up pre-dawn in the rain in a parking lot just isn't producing the anecdotes I need to convince people I have lost my mind 🤓
I've seen a few Wim Hof videos where he is swimming at the arctic. Looks totally crazy but is clearly doable. And beneficial.
I discovered something similar last year when I had a couple of acres of badly overgrown land to clear and no time to do it, plus a need to get off my bum and stop the rot. I got into the habit of getting to the land before dawn, working for a few hours, then returning home before my teens surfaced. Being out in nature, hands in the earth, working my body and resting my mind, is incredibly therapeutic. I can't join you in going to a carpark but I'll be there in the garden, mattock in hand.
We will both be there in spirit 🤓
There is something invigorating about an early start. So good for you. I feel like I am stealing time.
Excellent! Research shows Our brain is wired to feel good after working with our bides, particularly our hands, to create something or improve the environment we are in (cleaning toilets included!) What I know of it is called an effort-driven reward circuit.
I am realizing this myself. Effort counts. It pays dividends. Action overcomes depression too in my experience.
Walk/run is a great way to start, easier on the bod but still gets you there. (Jeff Galloway, marathoner)
I have a lamp on timer for those nasty cold winter mornings - def helps!
Never too late to start running - did my first marathon at 59. I live in a seniors’ building and use the canes/walkers/wheelchairs as motivation - I refuse to go there.
Kudos and mucho respect for you!
That is all inspiring to hear. Good for you.
The smoking has done its damage, but I am definitely improving. I am also skeptical of most of modern medicine. I read you can't undo a lot of the damage of smoking. Then I read of people quitting and miraculously most of the damage disappear in X years. I am convinced most modern medicine is guesswork.
So I am pushing myself and I am learning new things. As the article outlined, I did not expect a morning walk or run to wake me up so well.
maybe try some Mullien to get the tar and shitty mucus of your lungs.. smoke it or drinking eat.
Yes it is damaging and no, it can’t be totally fixed. But running does get easier once quit.
Maybe I should mention that I am a smoker of about 45 years now. Yeah, freeq of nature, I know. But at least I know why running is hard 😂
It is hard to quit. On a plus note tobacco keeps testosterone high 😜
Grin...sitting here reading this at 5.30am as I am working on devouring an entire pot of coffee, knowing I need to get my lazy butt up and get some exercise. At 67 and arthritic and 2 bad knees I doubt I will ever run again. Mebby start walking
Walking is very underrated. I walk every day as I don't have a car. After I quit smoking and recovered from the lung infection it was walking I used to get fitter.
As for the knees and arthritis, perhaps this may be of interest:
https://www.uab.edu/news/health/item/10316-study-low-carb-diet-provides-relief-from-knee-osteoarthritis
It's amazing how much of the commercial diet is inflammatory.
Yep, especially the seed oils. Absolute poison. Sugar, toxic chemicals, stodge. We are not designed for any of it.
Plus lack of movement. We are designed to move. I am now learning this.
Me too. I quit smoking in June. Right now walking for 30 minutes after work to avoid naps.
Fantastic. My energy took a serious dip after quitting. No stimulants. So it takes the body a while to adjust. But it does adjust.
I think my subconscious partial rejection of coffee is a desire to get off all stimulants to see what my body is capable of.
As for quitting the smokes. I found removing a negative was not enough. You have to add positives that are challenging while a smoker. Vigorous walking was my one. After a few months I noticed how strong I was even walking up hills.
I also live in an apartment with no lift. So I have to walk up nine flights of stairs daily. So that helps, lol.
Definitely start walking! I am 62 with arthritis and hereditary neuropathy (CMT), a type of muscular dystrophy. I’ve always loved hiking and walking, but now can only do a couple miles on level ground. It still makes a huge difference to my mood and energy to get outside, even with my leg braces and hiking poles. The poles are great for us arthritic older people, they prevent falls and give your arms a little exercise as well.
That is excellent. Especially the therapeutic effect of getting outside. Good for you.
This and your previous post are very motivating, especially given that you’ve stopped smoking. Sometimes I feel silly when I sit down and make a list about planning meals better or getting up and out earlier…by my age I should have mastered some of this stuff! But life is really a series of starting over, falling down, getting back on track, etc. and it’s good to be reminded not to quit. Self discipline today often seems like an act of rebellion and for good reason.
I think the good life is a series of reinventions. Another way to think of it is life is a series of chapters, like a book. Childhood, adolescence, young adulthood etc. A lot has to be learned in each stage.
I think our enemy is drift. So I very much approve of sitting down and planning meals, or planning anything. Life is in the doing, but some thought is needed.
Importantly I think all these things remind us a life worth living must be consciously lived. The drift is us losing attention, taking our eye off the ball. So the notion to plan meals better, lose weight, take up running and other activities are a kind of subconscious push against the drift we all experience.
It is a constant battle. But as the Wittgenstein quote alludes to, a good life isn't lying on a beach drinking cocktails or a mindless bliss with no strife, it is something closer to rising above the worries and the fears and really embracing it, warts and all. And I now believe the path directly to this mental state is found in action or doing. Immersion perhaps. Getting on with it. Realizing life is in the living and not the thinking (with its own demons; anxiety, fear, worry and so on).
So most of these reflections articles are really just me groping my way through these things and then writing it down.
One thing I have learned though is everyone is winging it. We are all faking it to some extent. No one knows anything, lol. So that gave me permission to just open myself up and write these kinds of articles that demonstrate I am pretty clueless just like everyone else.
😛
Your routine is fantastic. Keep taking bits and pieces out of that 3mile morning and sooner than you think, the whole thing will become a run. Your wind will return (speaking from experience). Cycling is not exercise, at least not one that is based on natural human movement. It is more of the “machine” doing the moving for you -- a way to get from points A to B faster than walking, but I’d say that’s not the purpose nor value of “exercising”. Anyway, please take this in no way as criticism -- hell, cyclin is fun (ish) -- but rather as a full endorsement of your process coming from a former smoker and current fitness freak and enjoyer of your writing.
Thanks for this, and for the encouragement. It can be quite galling when you start an activity like running and realize just how out of shape you are. But as they say, if you are poor at running then run more.
Thanks for reading. I am sure I will become a fitness freak too. I can feel it happening.
Just FYI, I've been working at it for a while now. Went low-carb about 25 years ago (I'm 66) although I still smoked and drank too much at that time. Yet, I still got into ever better shape as I learned and studied these things. When I finally stopped smoking I was in otherwise excellent (apparent) condition with about 10% body. Now, some 20 years later I'm about the same (slightly higher BF% but not a lot). Carnivore, work out 4 to 5 times/week, don't go at it quite as hard as I did in my 50s although that's not because I can't, I just don't spend the amount of time I used to on it. My self betterment these days is more focused on the mento-spiritual side while remaining deeply committed to physical improvement alongside.
Sorry for the TLDR
"Rumble, young man, rumble."
Good for you. I too am low carb, plus just generally eating fresh and clean. The smoking was my major hurdle, now gone. So hopefully it is all gains from here.
Sounds perfect -- you clearly know the drill. I should not have talked about myself so much, as if it's even relevant to your situation. What I intended was simply to add on to my encouragement in a sort of "keep at it and it'll pay off" kind of way.
Oh no it is very useful. I think that is what the comments are great for. Insights into others' lives.
Keep it up Spiff! I'll be honest I may not exercise quite as fanatically as you do, but I do get up at 3;30am, write, write, write then prepare for work at 7am. I'm trying to get healthier and get into a better workspace much like you, but I may have to emulate your own actions and start exercising again soon.
You're really inspirational here mon ami, keep going gonna be cheering for you!
Some of the most profound insights at the simplest. And there are many contained in this piece.
I, too, have recently changed a lot of my habits in life: I've given up smoking, I exercise at least four days a week, I eat more healthily, and I do my best to ignore the doom and gloom of the news cycle. I focus on my two jobs, my son, and maintaining healthy relationships with people worth keeping in my life. Block out the noise. Embrace nature. Find your grind. Surround yourself with people of character and strength.
If you do all this—as it seems you have been doing—you'll be surprised at just how much you can achieve in this world. I certainly have been.
Fantastic article, Spiff.
I think that is it. Especially actively blocking news. I get most of my news via memes, lol.
A healthy diet is crucial as is exercise. I am only now understanding this. When you are down, especially when addicted, it can be hard to imagine how you escape. But once you do a new world opens up.
And real world connection is the thing. A legacy of COVID is the way more and more isolate themselves.
To enforce discipline in exercise, I have a rule about days off. I can choose to take a day off , but it can never be the current day. I can take tomorrow off, but not today.
That is excellent. I am going to try this myself.
I try to do a no zero days. But yours is better.
I've also discovered that i'm toooo comfortable and in the same routine as you were.
Thanks for the proverbial kick in the arse.
Change is difficult, but decline is worse. I have learned grand plans don't work. Just do something then build on it. Perhaps have periods when you don't smoke, maybe going for a walk then add to that.
It is doable and often seems much harder in your mind than in reality. And good habits can be formed just like bad ones.
Try cold water dipping it has similar effects.
And cold showers I am told. I wonder if they do awaken ancient survival routines?
I've been doing the same for years - albeit with my dog. It is a very calming way to refresh!
I am new to it. I thought I was losing my mind. I was telling others and they looked at me like I was crazy. 5am? What? Five in the MORNING? Are you mad?
It was a revelation to me I could wake up that quick with zero stimulants.
Love it, process rather than goal, action instead of thought, it was a great reminder to get outside too - I never feel as good after a run on the treadmill as I do when I run in the fresh air. Your post encouraged me not to take the easy road. Doing the harder thing is better, shows us we’re more capable than we realize.
Definitely focus on the process.
And getting outside is especially needed in these times of working remotely and office work. None of it is healthy.
And pushing ourselves can yield unexpected results. You just have to try things and see what happens.
Great closing line!
I think of the laws of motion. It can be really difficult to overcome the inertia resisting a change in a habit or routine. But once one passes that, the hill starts to level out and a new routine is formed and inertia is now created that causes uneasy feelings when one stops the new routine. I try to be cognizant of that when I'm trying to make a new habit. It WILL be hard at first and it WILL get easier.
Also love jockos comment from a podcast (of course not the only one to say it) that motivation has little to do with it, it's all discipline lol. If we wait until we feel excited about doing something good luck. But as you discuss, I do think our body is wired (effort driven reward circuit) to use our bodies much more than we do and feels good when we do, particularly if we are creating something.
Yes to all that. It is all about discipline, but we know this becomes automated in short order. The body and the mind have ways to make it all work even if we don't fully understand.
I am only just realizing the power of movement. We are not designed to sit at desks and drink coffee. I think that is what my early morning revelation really is. A natural alternative we have forgotten about.
I’m happy and excited for you. I have been there, and god damn does it ever feel good to start getting in shape. Not saying it’s in the cards for you but if you backslide, don’t fret. This experience you’re having is available then too - speaking from experience, I’m a periodic lazy person.
Good on ya, keep it up and enjoy it!
Rep ifunny
Most of our members are women.
In winter I wear a wool toque and wool socks when I go in the ocean!
Health benefits are measurable
It also creates self satisfaction and a sense of achievement
Vi ses
Jon
Sounds great. I am very impressed.
I started cold water dipping a year ago
September 2023-May 2024 when the ocean water temps became summer like
I stay in easily for 20 minutes, snow or ice on the ground no problems.
It became similar to doing a martial art.
Stride quickly into ocean shoulder deep.
I belong to a group of that regularly does it couple times a week.
Now is the time to start to get acclimatized!
Tusen Takk
Jon
I may look into this for the time is coming that being up pre-dawn in the rain in a parking lot just isn't producing the anecdotes I need to convince people I have lost my mind 🤓
I've seen a few Wim Hof videos where he is swimming at the arctic. Looks totally crazy but is clearly doable. And beneficial.