Wasted Effort | Nerd Fitness

I remember racing down the escalator at Macy’s in the Cape Cod Mall.

My mom, calmly riding the Up escalator like a regular person, would say I’m going to hurt myself (possible) or I’m going to make a scene (correct) or disturb people trying to go down the escalator ( also correct).

Sometimes I get to the top, tired and out of breath, while mom goes and laughs at my hard work.

Spend enough time at the airport (or traveling with kids), and within minutes you’ll see kids trying to outrun a People Mover moving in the opposite direction. Tiredness for them, entertainment for us.

See where I’m going with this?

My friend Mark Manson put the following thathis newsletterthat this week:

“All the hard work, perseverance, and enthusiasm in the world will not do you any good if you are doing the wrong thing. In fact, it will do the opposite. “

Which brings me to today’s question…

Where are you running up the DOWN escalator?

Last year, I remember talking to Coach Matt from Team NF about thatteaching clientsthat who succeeds and who struggles.

• Those who have found success: they recognize the escalator as moving in the right direction, and work hard to get on it. Each step actually increases their efforts.
• Those who struggle: they continue to invest their energy, determination, and effort into changes that don’t move the needle.

I’m sure you’ve had moments where you wonder if all the effort is worth it, or why progress seems harder than normal.

Here are some examples of trying to run down the escalator:

• Spending a lot of money on expensive supplements (not prescribed by a medical professional).
• Switch to organic, gluten free, or low carb keto based snacks only in the latest fashion.
• Try complex diets without to be honest reduce the amount of food you eat.
• Exercise you hate exclusive for weight loss reasons.

Running (and anything that counts as cardio) is GREAT for heart and lung health. But running and cardio is thatless effective for weight lossthat than we think (unless we ALSO change our nutrition strategy).

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

If these are our goals, then focusing our attention on the right escalator is essential.

Here are examples of climbing an escalator:

Show me someone who mostly eats protein, fruits and vegetables, and strength trains (with progressive overload) for 30 minutes a few times a week, and I’ll show you someone who moves UP the right escalator.

Here’s the thing: thatPeople don’t like to exercisethat. We were also not designed to thrive in a world where high calorie, nutritionally empty delicious foods are always available.

Which means if we spend precious brain power and energy to do one thing, we can also choose the right things to trick ourselves into doing.

Yes, there’s a whole “life vs behavior” change part of this too (which I covered in a previous newsletter about thatManageable vs Meaningfulthat). But deciding “how quickly do I want to implement these meaningful steps” is a better question to ask than “Why am I not making progress yet?” working hard?”

Go down the wrong escalator, and go up the right one.

Might as well put that effort to good use!

-Steve

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