When I first moved to Chicago, I was terrified of buses.

I was living in a midsize house in Logan Square with 13 roommates (not an exaggeration). I was unemployed, had never been to Chicago before, knew nothing about the city, and could barely find my house on map.

Google Maps saved me from being completely clueless, but even when it told me which bus to take there were problems. Sure, I could take the 73 along Armitage, but was I supposed to take it east or west? Which direction even is east or west?

The first time I walked up to the intersection I was frantic. There were four bus stops with three different bus numbers. I waited for a few minutes and only saw one bus come through, and in my panic the thought that went through my head was this:

“Maybe I should just take this one.”

…

What?

I was trying to get to specific place to meet a specific person about a job I desperately needed. I even needed to catch a connecting bus down the line.

How on earth did it make sense to get on the first bus I saw, just because it was there?

Of course, it didn’t. And if I had been just slightly more composed, none of this would have been a problem. I had all the information I needed. I just wasn’t using it.

The bus stops in Chicago are labeled. They tell you the bus number, the direction of travel, the final destination, and the run times. They even have a number you can text to find out how long you need to wait.

Google Maps may not literally say “take the bus east,” but if I had paused for two seconds I would have realized that my college-educated ass knows how to read a map.

Fortunately, I was able to hold out, get on the right bus, and catch my connection. That job didn’t work out, but the advice I got was excellent and I found a different one before too long. I also overcame my fear of buses, and ride one daily for my commute.

But having no idea what to do almost led me to a terrible decision. When you are scared and uncertain, it’s easy to jump at the first course of action––whether it will actually solve your problem or not.

Most decisions don’t have the immediacy of a bus stop. It’s a terrible feeling when you watch your bus pull out just as you’re walking up to the intersection. And it’s hard to be graceful while desperately sprinting to beat the bus to the next stop.

And yet, so many decisions play out like that intersection.

Riding the Bus to Fitness

(How’s that for a cheesy subheading)

When I work with people trying to get fit, there are usually two competing urges.

The first urge is “nope nope nope I don’t know what this gym thing is and I don’t want anything to do with it. Keep it away from me!”

People with this urge don’t really know what to do at the gym. The idea of standing on the gym floor surrounded by equipment. and not knowing how to use any of it, is kind of terrifying.

So people with this urge do a couple things.

Some of these people will start to research. They’ll look up all the popular beginner programs, detailed analyses of whether Stronglifts is better than Ice Cream Fitness, and maybe even dive into some research to figure out whether 3×8 is better than 4×6 for building muscles.

And, of course, they never work out.

Other people with this urge skip the research and go straight to the not working out.

In either situation, the cause is the same. Uncertainty and fear of the gym lead to inaction. I covered this urge in my article I Have 11 Favorite Exercises, But I Won’t Tell You What They Are, but I’ll save you a click: the message is that the specifics of your workout are not that important. You need to pick something and do it consistently.

But there’s a layer of nuance to add to that message. Because if I had picked that first bus, I would have wound up on the south side of Chicago instead of my meeting. The second urge is jumping on the first program that comes into view.

People with the second urge have a different problem. Because although the most important part of fitness is consistency, the exercises you do actually matter at least a little bit.

The second urge is how people wind up hurting themselves with too much weight or working out for a year with zero progress. Before you start working out, you need to know which bus to get on.

And, like with my bus experience, the buses are not that complicated. The information you need is available, and you don’t need to research the activation of different muscle groups or the difference between 3×8 and 4×6.

You just need a simple place to start, based on the fundamentals of a good workout.

I’ve written about what makes a good workout before, and even put together a simple one for your first day at the gym. In summary, do three sets of eight reps (or 3×5, or 4×6, or 1×8, I don’t care) for each type of movement, then move on to the next one:

• Squat – Lunges, Back Squat, Goblet Squat
• Hinge – Deadlift, Romanian Deadlift, Glute Bridge
• Push – Bench Press, Push-up
• Pull – Pull-up, Seated Row, Dumbbell Row
• Core – Plank, Side Plank, Ab Rollouts

That’s it. Simple. Timeless. Effective. At the highest level of athletic development, working out gets complicated. But the fundamentals of a good workout don’t change.

Of course, your goals may not be related to lifting; you may want to run, or play a sport, or just improve your diet to lose a couple of pounds.

In every case, you already have the information you need to choose your bus (or you can get it quickly). Figure out which way is east and go for a ride.

 

Here are two statements that are both true:

1. Details don’t matter
2. Details matter a LOT

When you read articles like “7 Ways to Get More Energy” or “6 Exercises For Huge Arms,” how often do they motivate you to do new things?

Sure, there are times where you come across an exercise or activity that you haven’t seen before and it seems like it’s worth a shot. You’ll probably try it a couple of times before shelving it.

But most of the time, especially when the article claims are big (6 Exercises that Will Destroy Anxiety Forever, anything related to making money), you’ll read for a little bit, think “huh, that’s cool,” and go back to your life.

Because even though there are times that details can make a difference, there are many more times where they do not.

First, let’s talk about why they don’t matter. Then we can cover when they do.

Why Details Don’t Matter

When you are trying to start a fitness habit, you don’t need six separate exercises to work your arms.

You don’t need to know which of the million deadlift variations targets which ratio of hamstrings to glutes to lower back.

You don’t need to time the rest between sets to the microsecond, and you don’t need to know the difference between five sets of five reps and four sets of six reps.

You need to actually work out. So things that get you closer to that goal should be your priority.

And yes, you want to be doing a workout that’s effective. You want to make sure that you aren’t spinning your wheels, doing a lot of “work” without making a lot of progress.

But for someone starting out, the things that help you make progress are simple:

1. Do compound exercises
2. Make them harder over time
3. Do it consistently

That’s it. Until you reach a certain level, you don’t need to be doing much more than that.

(This is naturally for lifting. If you’re focusing on running the steps are, roughly, 1. Run and 2. Don’t Stop)

A friend once asked me if they need to be doing jump squats to help their squat get more explosive. Maybe a serious powerlifter could think about how to train their squat’s bar speed (it still might not be jump squats), but you don’t need to worry about it when you’re only squatting 135.

I know that there are objections to this. How do you know which exercises to do? How do you know how quickly to add weight? Aren’t those six-exercise articles helpful in answering those questions?

Most of the time? Not really. Coaches and experienced lifters are well aware of “program hopping,” the tendency for new exercisers to get excited about a new routine, drop everything, and switch from what they’re doing.

We know about it because it’s a problem. You can’t make progress if you don’t give a routine time. If you’re constantly looking for new exercises, chances are good you wind up doing a lot of things that don’t help very much.

What if you’re just trying to optimize your routine, trying to find the best combination of exercises to get the most benefit out of the smallest amount of work?

Even at the highest level of coaching, experts disagree. There is no “perfect combination of exercises.”

Three examples, just off the top of my head:

• Eric Cressey, who works with a lot of pitchers and baseball players, tends to be conservative with even slightly risky shoulder exercises
• Mike Boyle, who has a lot of hockey clients, argues against squats (hockey players have weird hips)
• Bret Contreras heavily advocates glute exercises

More generally, a powerlifting coach will emphasize the Big 3 (squat, bench, deadlift) over most other exercises. A physical therapist will look at the relationship between stability and mobility, and focus on that. A trainer at your typical gym…well, your guess is as good as mine.

Where do these different perspectives come from? Often because of the narrow area of research a coach has chosen to focus on, or because of the specific kind of client a coach takes, or some other reason. It doesn’t matter.

The thing is that, despite their differences, these coaches agree on 80% or more of their programming. Ultimately they agree about so much more than they disagree; what they disagree about is just more noticeable.

If you want to lose weight, these guys are going to say lift weights, do some aerobic stuff, eat less.

If you want to gain weight, these guys are going to say lift slightly different weights, do some aerobic stuff (probably slightly less), and eat more.

If you want to get more athletic as a total beginner, they’re probably going to say you should start by getting stronger.

When you constantly switch up your routine in search of the perfect combination of exercises, you’re focusing on micro-optimization. You focusing on the controversial areas of disagreement instead of the widely accepted truths.

You sacrifice the 80% of success that you could get easily in search of the last 5% you’ll never see.

Ask yourself this before diving in. via GIPHY

That’s why the details are unimportant: they distract you from the fundamentals of what really matter.

Details Matter a Lot

If details don’t matter, how can they also matter a lot?

Details matter a lot in two settings: when you’re advanced enough to use them and when you think you need to know them.

When You’re Advanced

There will be a point in any activity where you start to plateau. Your lifts have stalled, the characters in your book are interesting but not intriguing, and you’re bringing in freelance work (but not quite enough to quit your job).

When you start to plateau, the first thing you should do is check your fundamentals.

Have your lifts stalled because you dropped volume on compound exercises in favor of individually strengthening lagging body parts? Or because you deloaded to work on form for 6 months? The answer is still in the fundamentals.

Are your characters embedded in an interesting world and story, but you find yourself recounting a lot of their thoughts and feelings? Unpack the setting, show don’t tell.

Is your business growing, but too slowly? What’s the key value you offer to your clients?

You get the idea.

If you’ve checked your fundamentals and still aren’t making progress, then you can change up your approach and look at the details.

Do you have trouble locking out your deadlifts? Work those rack pulls and hip thrusts. Are you getting stuck in the hole for your squat? Box squats and paused squats may be the answer. At a certain point details become important.

And of course, you can keep getting more and more detailed as you keep advancing. If you’re Tom Brady, maybe that even means you avoid eating tomatoes because they increase inflammation.

But most people will never reach that level of detail, and can get more mileage out of fundamentals than they think.

When You Think About Them

The other reason details are important is as subtle as it is important: because you think about them.

So, so many people never start exercising (or writing a book, or building a business, or switching careers, or even building a goddamn treehouse) because they’re worried they won’t get everything right.

If you think you need the perfect set of exercises, an immaculate plot, airtight revenue projections, the perfect connections, or the best-crafted brand of nails, you’ll never get started.

Thinking about the details puts the focus on what you don’t know, and what you don’t know is scary.

It’s natural to be afraid. The unknown is inherently terrifying. On my first day at the gym, I stood awkwardly in the middle of the room before heading over to the bench press—because it was the only exercise I vaguely knew about. I nearly dropped the bar on my face because it turned out I didn’t really know how to do that either.

The thought of standing in a room full of equipment you don’t know how to use is enough to keep lots of people out of the gym. It’s that focus on the details, on each individual exercise and each individual piece of equipment, that starkly highlights what you don’t know and what you haven’t achieved.

Instead, focus on what you do know. You know to focus on consistently progressing compound exercises, because I just told you. Good. Forget about everything else and focus on that.

Will you need to know more eventually? Of course. But if you’re constantly worrying about how much you don’t know while also trying to establish a habit, you’re going to learn nothing and fail at the same time.

But what exercises should you do? Isn’t it important to have a balanced routine?

Sure. Here, this is an outline for a routine that hits all the main movements and body parts. I’ve given you a few options for each category, but just pick one from each, do three sets of eight reps (or 3×5, or 4×6, or 1×8, I don’t care) then move on to the next one:

• Squat – Lunges, Back Squat, Goblet Squat
• Hinge – Deadlift, Romanian Deadlift, Glute Bridge
• Push – Bench Press, Push-up
• Pull – Pull-up, Seated Row, Dumbbell Row
• Core – Plank, Side Plank, Ab Rollouts

That’s a place to start. If you want a little more detail, my article on the first day at the gym has more info.

The details only matter because you think you have to know everything before you start. But you don’t. You only need to know enough to get started.

The 11 Favorite Exercises I Won’t Tell You

Of course I have favorite exercises. Everyone does.

I could tell you what they are, I guess, but I won’t because it doesn’t matter. The list is going to be boring anyway, and include things like pull-ups and deadlifts, because those are the fundamental movements that work.

Even the weirder exercises like farmer’s walks are probably not 100% new to you.

If you’re new to something, whether it’s fitness or anything else, there are a few fundamentals that matter more than anything else.

Sometimes those fundamentals will be seem like cliché advice (it seems like every fitness blogger has written about Milo and the Bull). That doesn’t make them less true. As YouTube entrepreneur Shay Carl says, “the secrets to life are hidden behind the word cliche.”

The fundamentals will always be most important. Forget the details and focus on them.

 

On Fridays, I eat Qdoba.

The gym is quiet on Friday evenings. The power racks are empty, bars and plates neatly slotted in their places. The artificial turf is open, the yoga mats that crowd the floor on Mondays nowhere to be seen.

There are people, a few dudes benching or curling or pressing or shrugging, by the dumbbells. Maybe there’s a lone lifter cycling through the machines.

There are more people downstairs, in the cardio room. But the sound is not the endless blended “thunk” of 50 ellipticals. If you closed your eyes, you could count the number of machines by the noise.

It’s Friday night. Of course most people don’t want to work out. But Friday nights are my favorite.

On Fridays, there’s no waiting for equipment. There’s no asking to work in. There’s no maneuvering around people during farmer’s walks, or standing in line at the water fountain.

When I finish my workout, I set aside extra time to stretch and foam roll. I sit back and relax in the empty sauna. I stand under the showerhead and let the water wash away my sweat.

And as I stand in Qdoba, ordering a steak burrito with queso and extra guac, skin still warm to the touch, I feel an incredible lightness that can only mean the week is over.

That’s how exercise makes me feel, but you don’t have to take my word for it.

The effects of exercise on happiness and mood are well established by everyone from lifestyle bloggers to MD/PhD psychiatrists, and (spoiler alert) they’re good.

If you doubt the power of exercise, or even just want to know why it makes you feel the way it does, read on.

How Exercise Makes You Feel

Research has consistently shown that exercise improves your mood [1, 2].

Post-workout mood, via GIPHY

Some have even argued that exercise is as effective as antidepressants or therapy in treating depression [3], and exercise can probably interact with other things to have even larger effects on your happiness [4].

In covering one study of adults with moderate depression, habits blogger James Clear pointed out why exercise makes you happy:

“Exercise does something that medication doesn’t. It proves a new identity to yourself. Each time you finish a workout, you reap the benefits of an increased sense of self–confidence. The cumulative impact of these “small wins” is enormous.”

There are psychological and physiological reasons that exercise is awesome, and we’ll dig into the details of each in just a moment.

But first, imagine asking someone who exercises regularly what impact exercise has had on their life.

Actually, you don’t have to imagine it; transformation stories are everywhere on the internet. Just Google “exercise saved my life.”

There are over 15 million results.

There’s a reason that the popular site Develop Good Habits lists “daily exercise” as the number one habit of happy people, and that Amit Amin of Happier Human says that “regular exercise increases happiness just as much as doubling one’s income would.”

There’s no shortage of experts or celebrities telling their story either. Michelle Segar, PhD, MPH, professor at the University of Michigan and the author of No Sweat, said in an interview that:

“I like to think of physical activity as a way to revitalize and renew ourselves, as fuel to better enjoy and succeed at what matters most.”

Henry Rollins, former vocalist for Black Flag, wrote an internet-famous essay titled “Iron and the Soul” in which he says that:

“The Iron is the best antidepressant I have ever found. There is no better way to fight weakness than with strength. Once the mind and body have been awakened to their true potential, it’s impossible to turn back.”

And of course, I’ve written about my own story about fitness, about what it feels like to be fit. The short version is this: exercise makes you happier, more energetic, and more confident.

But why?

I was curious; so many people talk about the wonders of exercise, but it seemed like no one could answer the question of why. I scoured the internet and came up with…not much.

There are lots of blog posts and articles out there, but they all seemed to stop short, saying something to the effect of “endorphins!” plus some hand waving.

Endorphins can explain a post-workout high, but what about increased confidence? What about long term change? The answer wasn’t clear.

There’s nothing more dangerous than a curious nerd with a question, and I dove into the psychology and neuroscience research to get to some answers.

In part one of this article, I’ll highlight the psychological reasons behind why exercise makes you happy. You’ll find that they apply to happiness in general, but also suggest ways to get yourself to work out more consistently.

In part two, I dive into some neuroscience to show that, although endorphins are definitely a possible cause of happiness after exercise, they are far from the only cause. If you feel terrible after exercise, you’re probably working out harder than these processes can account for.

(In fact, there probably isn’t a single physiological reason that exercise affects mood. Exercise has an effect on an incredible number of aspects of your neurology. Still, I lay out the current state of the research)

But instead of slapping down a conclusion at the end, I’m going to give you some of the big insights up front. Why should you care why exercise makes you happy?

If you ever have trouble working out consistently, and we all miss days occasionally, focusing on the psychology of what makes exercise awesome can help you refocus — and focus on things you love instead of things you hate.

The psychology of why exercise makes you happy suggests that you should:

• Focus on making tangible progress (as in, every workout) towards well-defined goals
• Choose your goals, and specific exercises, based on what you personally like and value
• Use exercise a reset for when you’re worrying, to get things under control
• Make friends! Exercising with friends makes you happier and more consistent
• Do exercise that feels good. If you feel terrible, you’re working out harder than dozens of physiological processes can make up for. Take it easy and ramp up over time.

Part 1: The Psychology of Why Exercise Makes You Happy

Exercise can affect long-term happiness because it contributes to other things that increase long-term happiness.

Exercise can improve mood right away, but it can also be a long-term process, via GIPHY

In that sense, there’s nothing unique about exercise. It just happens to check a lot of the boxes for things that we know make people happier.

I would argue, however, that exercise is especially good at checking a lot of these boxes, and that some boxes are much, much harder to check off using other methods.

Can you be happy without exercise? Of course! But there’s no other single activity that fulfills so many fundamental psychological needs.

But before we talk about those, let’s cover some of the things that don’t make us happy — even though we think they do. The time and energy we waste on these fruitless pursuits make the real causes of happiness (the ones exercise can help) even more important.

Things that Don’t Make You Happier: The Hedonic Treadmill

Psychology research has revealed quite a few factors that make people happier or less happy.

It has also revealed an unpleasant truth: we are terrible at knowing what will make us happy.

This finding is at the core of Harvard professor Daniel Gilbert’s book Stumbling on Happiness.

As Gilbert writes:

“We treat our future selves as though they were our children, spending most of the hours of most of our days constructing tomorrows that we hope will make them happy… But our temporal progeny are often thankless.

We toil and sweat to give them just what we think they will like, and they quit their jobs, grow their hair, move to or from San Francisco, and wonder how we could ever have been stupid enough to think they’d like that.

We fail to achieve the accolades and rewards that we consider crucial to their well-being, and they end up thanking God that things didn’t work out according to our shortsighted, misguided plan [5].”

The point is, of course, that we don’t know what will make us happy. That’s why “our temporal progeny” is thankless—the things we do in the present often don’t affect our long-term happiness.

This goes for just about everyone. I’ve read plenty of this research, and I guarantee I make this mistake all the time (I’m even shopping for a new laptop as we speak). Gilbert literally wrote the book on the subject, and I’d be willing to bet he’d be the first to admit his misestimation.

And one major cause of our misestimation is the hedonic treadmill.

Not this kind of treadmill. I think this would actually work. via GIPHY

The hedonic treadmill is the idea that we begin adapting to new experiences and possessions as soon as we have them [6].

If you suddenly moved into a mansion, you would become happier — for a little while. But before long you become used to the backyard pool and 16 bathrooms. It becomes just another part of everyday life.

The same is true of money [7]. People often strive to make more money, to work harder and get that next promotion. But the research shows that money only increases happiness when it lifts you out of poverty and fulfills your basic needs.

Take lottery winners as an extreme example. I can only imagine the spike in happiness that occurs immediately after winning the lottery.

via GIPHY

While we’re at it, imagine a horrible accident that leaves you paralyzed and unable to walk. Hard to imagine a bigger spike in negative emotion.

And yet, one year down the line, lottery winners are not significantly happier than before they won the lottery and paraplegics are not significantly less happy [8].

Many people think that attractive people are happier than unattractive people. But this turns out not to be the case either [9].

We adapt, or habituate, to our environments. Getting more stuff doesn’t make us happier, and losing lots of stuff doesn’t make us less happy.

And yet, amazingly, even people aware of this research often don’t believe it. I have personally witnessed people say things like “Money can’t buy happiness, but I’d rather cry in a lamborghini.”

Personally, I’d rather not cry at all.

As Gilbert notes, our inability to figure out what makes us happy before it happens causes problems:

“The fact that we often judge the pleasure of an experience by its ending can cause us to make some curious choices.”

We pick up extra shifts to buy a new computer instead of spending time with our family. Or skip the gym because we just aren’t in the mood and need to relax.

Again, I’m personally guilty of this too. There are absolutely days where I’m tempted to skip the gym and go eat dinner. Or, more often, skip the post-gym sauna and get home quickly.

But after I spent some time recording my expected happiness and comparing it to my actual happiness, a technique borrowed from cognitive behavioral therapy [10], I realized that I was actually happier when I followed through.

Bottom line? People are terrible at predicting happiness.

Materialism won’t make us happier, but there are (fortunately) other things that do. These are the things exercise contributes to.

Things That Do Make You Happier

We may be bad at predicting what makes us happy, but research has helped us identify the things that really matter.

Gretchen Rubin, author of The Happiness Project, has talked about how exercise makes her feel. Notice the lack of material explanations:

“When I’m feeling blue, exercise helps a lot. Perhaps that’s because when I’m exercising, I’m distracted and not ruminating on anything that might be upsetting me.

Maybe it’s because exercise boosts energy, and feeling energetic helps people feel cheerier.

Maybe it’s because I know that exercising will help keep me healthy, so I feel good about doing something that’s good for me.

Maybe it’s because just the sheer ticking-an-item-off-the-to-do-list is satisfying.

Or maybe it’s just that I expect that exercise will make me feel better, and so it does.”

All of these explanations are relevant, and some will be discussed in the next section. For now, the key psychological factors that increase long-term happiness, and that exercise can affect, are:

• Consistent progress towards goals
• Personal control and self-efficacy
• Removal of negative influences
• Strong relationships

Consistent Progress Towards Goals

When you work towards a goal, there are two kinds of satisfaction: the satisfaction of achieving the goal, and the satisfaction of every single step you take along the way.

The saying “it’s the journey, not the destination” is almost a cliche—but as YouTube personality Shay Carl says, “The secrets of life are hidden behind the word cliche.”

The problem with the destination is that there is usually only one destination. When you achieve your goal, you get a quick hit of pleasure and achievement…but you then adapt to your new level of achievement the same way you adapt to everything else.

When you focus on the journey, on the other hand, every single step is a reward. You adapt to each step, sure, but there’s always a next step to take.

This is borne out in the psychology research. In comparing pre-goal positive affect (good feelings during the journey) and post-goal positive affect (feelings caused by the destination), research found the pre-goal effects to be more enduring and to have a larger effect overall [11].

And as anyone that’s consistently worked out will tell you, progress in fitness feels amazing.

When you start out, adding weight every session makes you feel strong and capable. You can see your progress easily.

When you are more advanced, every PR is a huge accomplishment.

You can also experiment with more challenging exercises. Scott Young writes about mastery and personal development, and once wrote about his experience learning handstand push-ups:

“Part of the reason I’ve enjoyed bodyweight fitness is that it is very satisfying to complete a particular exercise for the first time.”

Nerd Fitness’ Steve Kamb says something similar:

“Ensure with each workout you are doing something better, stronger, or faster than the previous workout. Just as importantly, make sure you recognize that you are improving.”

Exercise makes you happy because you are constantly working towards a goal, constantly bettering yourself.

Every workout carries with it a sense of achievement.

Importantly, the kinds of goals exercise creates magnify the effects of happiness from progress. More on that in the next section.

Personal Control and Self Efficacy

People have a psychological need for control [12].

If you think about the most stressed you have ever been, it probably coincides with a time where there was something worrying that you couldn’t control.

It is unsurprising, then, that people who perceive things as out of their control — which is called having an “external locus of control”— are more likely to suffer from depression and anxiety [13].

Self-efficacy is related, and is your belief in your own abilities regarding a specific task or topic. Believing in your own abilities makes you more likely to achieve goals [14].

via GIPHY

In situations where you feel powerless, it is sometimes valuable to seek out some, any, form of control.

In my last week of college, I received terrible news over email — I needed to completely rewrite a semester-long research paper, from scratch, in the next 48 hours. Not doing so would prevent me from graduating.

This was a research-based paper. I had zero sources in-hand and little background knowledge on the topic. Before getting this email, I was one (easy) final away from being finished with undergrad.

I needed to write 15 pages in 48 hours, and the paper was worth something like 70% of my final grade for that class. So what was the first thing I did?

Shave.

I needed to do something normal. It felt like things were spiraling out of control, so I took a step back to do something I knew I could control.

Of course, terribly ironically, my hands were shaking so much that I took a huge chunk of skin out of my head and had blood pouring down my neck.

But even dealing with that gave me something to do, something to control. It helped me calm down, I busted out the paper in 12 hours (for a B+. Could have been worse), and I graduated no problem.

What does that have to do with exercise? Exercise is something you can control.

When you go to the gym, you decide what you do. You decide when you do it. There is no one to boss you around and no obligations to fulfill. Just you and the workout.

Tying this back to goals, research shows that you’re more likely to get long-term satisfaction from goals if they are goals that you set independently, goals that you have complete control of and ownership over [15, 16].

via GIPHY

Remember the Henry Rollins essay I mentioned earlier? Part of what makes “the Iron” so important to Rollins is the control:

“I saw a body, not just the shell that housed my stomach and my heart. My biceps bulged. My chest had definition. I felt strong. It was the first time I can remember having a sense of myself. I had done something and no one could ever take it away.”

In most spheres of your life, you have to give up some control. Exercise is a rare time that isn’t true, and that makes it incredibly therapeutic.

Control is the second reason exercise makes you happy.

Removal of Negative Influences

Remember what Gretchen Rubin said earlier about exercise?

“When I’m feeling blue, exercise helps a lot. Perhaps that’s because when I’m exercising, I’m distracted and not ruminating on anything that might be upsetting me.”

This turns out to be remarkably accurate.

One of the prominent ideas about why exercise makes you happy is the distraction hypothesis.

The idea is simple: when you are exercising, you aren’t worrying about your problems [17]. You’re focused on the task at hand, and there isn’t room to think about other things.

This idea has some credibility based on what psychologists know about worrying. Ruminating, or thinking endlessly about your problems, is associated with higher rates of depression and anxiety [19].

If exercise can stop you from ruminating, it makes sense that it would improve your overall happiness.

The research on meditation and mindfulness has similar findings; a major reason mindfulness is helpful is that it takes your attention away from things you can’t control [19].

Frankly, it’s hard to stay upset during a workout.

Another possible explanation is that exercise can actually entirely remove some negative influences.

I mentioned earlier that physically attractive people are not happier than physically unattractive people, and that’s true. But people that become physically attractive do experience a marked increase in happiness [20].

The reasons for this are not entirely clear, but one possible explanation is shame. If you are ashamed of your appearance and your appearance improves, you’ve removed a major source of stress.

It’s no secret that exercise can improve physical attractiveness; it’s one of the biggest reasons people work out.

Improving your appearance alone probably won’t improve your happiness hugely. But, combined with these other factors, it can contribute to making you happier overall.

Personal Relationships

There may be nothing more important to happiness than personal relationships.

Close personal relationships have an enormous effect on our psychological well-being, to the point where they can even be considered a psychological need [21].

As importantly, personal relationships are something you never adapt to. Unlike material possessions, a relationship doesn’t get less satisfying the longer it lasts [22].

Although I’m noting that personal relationships are the biggest driver of happiness on this list, I’ve marked it last on the list because exercise doesn’t necessarily lead to close relationships.

It’s true that exercise can be a great way to meet people, but if you just go to the gym, work out, and get out, you probably won’t actually meet anyone or get close to anyone.

And that’s fine.

These days, I work out alone 99% of the time. I probably won’t even say a word the entire time I’m at the gym, other than “are you using this” or “do you know if this bench is taken.”

And personally? I like it that way. It’s fine to work out like that.

But there are also ways you can build those personal relationships if you want to.

When I first started working out, I had a lifting buddy. I’ve had several lifting buddies over the years, and some of them are still close friends.

I’ve made some of my best friends through my college ultimate frisbee team.

I’ve had short-term roommates that I was able to bond with because we both worked out, and occasionally I’ll get on head-nod terms with a dude I see at the gym all the time.

Some people have a lot of success with group fitness classes at the gym, yoga sessions, or running groups. Social connections can be a powerful motivator.

So if your goal for fitness is well-being, it might make sense to work out with someone else.

Part One Summary

People suck at figuring out what makes them happy, and there are a few things we spend time pursuing that don’t actually make a difference.

Examples include:

• Material possessions
• Money

Our psychology is such that we habituate to these kinds of things. That is, we get used to them, and an initial surge of happiness fades over time. This is called the hedonic treadmill.

On the other hand, there are some things that lead to lasting happiness. Exercise can make you happy because it affects each of these things.

• Consistent progress towards goals: It’s easy to set up and eventually achieve skill and strength goals for exercise.
• Personal control and self-efficacy: Exercise is something that you have complete control over.
• Removal of negative influences: Exercise can prevent you from worrying about stuff you can’t control.
• Strong relationships: If you want, exercise can lead to powerful personal connections.

These are psychological reasons that exercise can lead to short and long-term happiness. In part two, let’s take a look at physiology.

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If you need help getting to the gym in the first place, check out my free Roadmap to Fitness. It gives you a simple, 5-step process that uses psychology to get you in the gym consistently.

Send me the guide

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Part 2: The Physiology of Why Exercise Makes You Happy

The physical side of exercise and happiness is enormously complicated, and an enormous subject of debate.

Although there are dozens of potential causes, most of the research [2] circles back to two main ones:

1. Neurotransmitters (especially serotonin)
2. Endogenous opioids (aka endorphins)

This section will focus on these two, then mention some of the other interesting contributors.

If you don’t really care about what’s going on in your brain, feel free to gloss over this. If you have a PhD in neuroscience, this is probably going to bore the shit out of you.

Anyone else, keep reading!

Neurotransmitters

Neurotransmitters are how your brain cells talk to each other.

Essentially, one brain cell releases a chemical in the direction of another cell. That other cell receives that chemical through special doors that only specific chemicals can fit through. The first cell then reabsorbs any leftover neurotransmitter.

It vaguely looks like this, via GIPHY

The steps are:

1. Release neurotransmitter
2. Receiving cell snags some neurotransmitter
3. First cell takes back the leftover neurotransmitter

On its face, the process isn’t that complicated.

It gets a little more complicated once you consider that different neurotransmitters do different things.

It gets a lot more complicated once you consider that the same neurotransmitter has different effects in different parts of the brain.

And it gets almost impenetrably complicated once you consider that the effects of neurotransmitters can overlap and influence each other.

One of the major roles of neurotransmitters is in changing your mood. The most commonly prescribed class of antidepressant drugs, SSRIs, have an effect on the neurotransmitter serotonin.

Interestingly, exercise affects serotonin levels similarly to SSRI drugs [23].

From there it gets tricky. SSRI stands for “selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor.” These drugs interrupt step three of the neurotransmitter process (hence, “reuptake inhibitor”), they do it to serotonin, and they do it to only some parts of the brain.

That lets the receiving cells pick up more serotonin than usual, affecting mood.

But with both exercise and drug research no one actually knows why that improves mood. Sure, there’s more serotonin just chillin’ between cells (and the effects are also a little more nuanced than that). But what happens next?

One of the more popular theories is that the change in neurotransmitter levels helps you make new brain cells [24]. The idea is that depressed people have an unusual amount of cells dying…for some reason… and that this specifically happens in the hippocampus, the brain area related to long-term memory and navigating physical space.

The increase in serotonin might help those people’s cells not die, and help them make new brain cells.

Of course, this explanation probably wouldn’t explain the immediate “high” you get from exercise; your new cells don’t suddenly wink into existence with every rep. Man-made versions of this effect (i.e. drugs) take a few weeks to really kick in.

And if that isn’t mysterious enough, there are other neurotransmitters affected by exercise.

Exercise has been shown to increase levels of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), which helps you make new brain cells [25].

But of course, it couldn’t be that simple. Even if BDNF levels change, if they change without a change in serotonin it’s still possible for there to be no change [26].

So when it comes to the role of neurotransmitters in exercise and happiness, it seems like part of the effect might be because of new brain cells.

The point of all this? This is complicated. We have a sense of some things that are relevant, but it’s going to take a lot more research to figure out what’s actually happening.

Endorphins

Endorphins are the explanation that shows up on every fitness blog on the internet.

via GIPHY

And it’s true: endorphins are one of the leading proposed explanations for why exercise makes you happy. They are, after all, literally opioids.

But again, science is complicated. It’s too simple to say that endorphins are “the” reason exercise makes you happy.

What we can say is that they play a role, specifically with regards to exercise related “highs.”

In one study, researchers tested runners after a workout to see if there were differences in how opioids affect different brain regions. There were, and those changes were related to post-run euphoria [27].

In an even more convincing study, researchers gave participants a drug that blocks opioid receptors (preventing opioids from affecting the relevant brain areas). They found that people that took the drug didn’t have an exercise-related mood change compared to a placebo group [28].

And of course, although I’ve separated out neurotransmitters and endorphins, the two almost certainly interact. One common explanation for the role of endorphins is that they increase level of dopamine (another neurotransmitter) in the brain [29].

But can quick hits like this explain the long-term effects of exercise and happiness on their own? Maybe, maybe not. The science is still unclear.

Other researchers suggest that endorphins may impact mood by functioning as painkillers, changing pH levels after exercise, or regulating insulin levels [30].

Yet again, this research is complicated. If the answer were just serotonin or just BDNF or just endorphins, science would have already cured everyone and no one would be depressed. Everyone would be constantly elated by our non-addictive euphoria drugs.

And there are even other factors that are less well understood.

Quick Hits: Some Other Possible Causes of Mood Change

As I’ve been stating repeatedly, the human body is incredibly complicated, and that complexity makes it hard to root out a single cause of mood change.

In fact, there probably isn’t one.

There are several other possible causes in addition to the two most popular explanations above. In one review article, the authors list the following possibilities:

“Neurotransmitter processes, immuno-inflammatory pathways, hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis disturbances, oxidative stress and antioxidant defence systems, neuroprogression, and mitochondrial disturbances [31].”

The authors of the article conclude that exercise can reduce long-term inflammation, which is associated with depression.

They conclude that exercise can be considered an antioxidant, because doing it creates more antioxidant enzymes, and oxidizing free radicals may help depression.

They conclude that exercise has an effect on stress hormones, which are associated with depression.

Even if endorphins and neurotransmitters explain the bulk of the effect of exercise on mood, they probably don’t explain all of it.

The reason that this question is so difficult to answer, and the reason that it’s so hard to create effective antidepressant drugs, is that there are dozens of little changes that can affect mood.

And they all work together to change your mood post-exercise.

Part Two Summary

People are complicated.

Exercise is a complicated physiological event, and there are a lot of potential contributors to an increase in mood.

Endorphins and neurotransmitters are the two most frequently studied effects, but even then research tends to focus on distance running over other forms of exercise.

Exercise probably also decreases long-term inflammation and reduces free radicals, and in some circumstances (an intense competition or super heavy PR) it would even make sense for adrenaline to play a role.

In summing up, science has identified some processes that are probably related to mood, but it’s still unclear how many processes there are and how they interact.

For you, as someone who exercises, remember that exercise should feel good. If you feel miserable after exercise you are working out so hard that you’re overriding dozens of physiological responses designed to make you feel good.

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If you need help getting to the gym in the first place, check out my free Roadmap to Fitness. It gives you a simple, 5-step process that uses psychology to get you in the gym consistently.

Send me the guide

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References:

[1] Byrne, A., & Byrne, D. G. (1993). The effect of exercise on depression, anxiety and other mood states: a review. Journal of psychosomatic research, 37, 565-574.

[2] Peluso, M. A. M., & Andrade, L. H. S. G. D. (2005). Physical activity and mental health: the association between exercise and mood. Clinics, 60, 61-70.

[3] Blumenthal, J. A., Smith, P. J., & Hoffman, B. M. (2012). Is exercise a viable treatment for depression?. ACSM’s health & fitness journal, 16, 14.

[4] Russo-Neustadt, A., Beard, R. C., & Cotman, C. W. (1999). Exercise, antidepressant medications, and enhanced brain derived neurotrophic factor expression. Neuropsychopharmacology, 21, 679-682.

[5] Gilbert, D. (2009). Stumbling on happiness. Vintage Canada.

[6] Brickman, P., & Campbell, D. T. (1971). Hedonic relativism and planning the good society. In M. H. Appley (Ed.), Adaptation-level theory (pp. 287-305). New York: Academic Press.

[7] Diener, E., & Oishi, S. (2000). Money and happiness: Income and subjective well-being across nations. In E. Diener & E.M. Suh (Eds.), Culture and subjective well-being (pp. 185-218). Cambridge, MA:MIT Press.

[8] Brickman, P., Coates, D., & Janoff-Bulman, R. (1978). Lottery winners and accident victims: Is happiness relative? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 36, 917-927.

[9] Diener, E., Wolsic, D., & Fujita, F. (1995). Physical attractiveness and subjective well-being. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 69, 120-129.

[10] Burns, D. D. (1980). Feeling good: the new mood therapy. New York: William Morrow and Company. Inc.(2).

[11] Davidson, R.J. (1994). Asymmetric brain function, affective style, and psychopathology: The role of early experience and plasticity. Development and Psychopathology, 6, 741-758.

[12] Haidt, J., & Rodin, J. (1999). Control and efficacy as interdisciplinary bridges. Review of general psychology, 3, 317.

[13] Cheng, C., Cheung, S. F., Chio, J. H., & Chan, M. P. (2013). Cultural meaning of perceived control: a meta-analysis of locus of control and psychological symptoms across 18 cultural regions. Psychological Bulletin, 139, 152-188.

[14] Zimmerman, B. J., Bandura, A., & Martinez-Pons, M. (1992). Self-motivation for academic attainment: The role of self-efficacy beliefs and personal goal setting. American Educational Research Journal, 29, 663-676.

[15] Sheldon, K. M., & Kasser, T. (1998). Pursuing personal goals: Skills enable progress, but not all progress is beneficial. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 24, 1319-1331.

[16] Sheldon, K. M., & Houser-Marko, L. (2001). Self-concordance, goal attainment, and the pursuit of happiness: Can there be an upward spiral?. Journal of personality and social psychology, 80, 152.

[17] Morgan, W. P. (1985). Affective beneficence of vigorous physical activity. Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise.

[18] Lyubomirsky, S. (2001). Why are some people happier than others? The role of cognitive and motivational processes in well-being. American psychologist, 56, 239.

[19] Cash, M., & Whittingham, K. (2010). What facets of mindfulness contribute to psychological well-being and depressive, anxious, and stress-related symptomatology? Mindfulness, 1, 177-182.

[20] Reis, H.T., & Gable, S.L. (2003). Toward a positive psychology of relationships. In C.L.M. Keyes & J. Haidt (Eds.), Flourishing: Positive psychology and the life well-lived (pp. 129-159). Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association.

[21] Baumeister, R.F., & Leary, M. R. (1995). The need to belong: desire for interpersonal attachments as a fundamental human motivation. Psychological Bulletin, 117, 497-529.

[22] Acevedo, B. P., & Aron, A. (2009). Does a long-term relationship kill romantic love?. Review of General Psychology, 13, 59.

[23] Wipfli, B., Landers, D., Nagoshi, C., & Ringenbach, S. (2011). An examination of serotonin and psychological variables in the relationship between exercise and mental health. Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports, 21, 474-481.

[24] Campbell, S., & MacQueen, G. (2004). The role of the hippocampus in the pathophysiology of major depression. Journal of Psychiatry & Neuroscience, 29, 417-426.

[25] Cotman, C. W., & Berchtold, N. C. (2002). Exercise: a behavioral intervention to enhance brain health and plasticity. Trends in Neurosciences, 25, 295-301.

[26] Klempin, F., Beis, D., Mosienko, V., Kempermann, G., Bader, M., & Alenina, N. (2013). Serotonin is required for exercise-induced adult hippocampal neurogenesis. Journal of Neuroscience, 33, 8270-8275.

[27] Boecker, H., Sprenger, T., Spilker, M. E., Henriksen, G., Koppenhoefer, M., Wagner, K. J., … & Tolle, T. R. (2008). The runner’s high: opioidergic mechanisms in the human brain. Cerebral Cortex, 18, 2523-2531.

[28] Daniel, M., Martin, A. D., & Carter, J. (1992). Opiate receptor blockade by naltrexone and mood state after acute physical activity. British Journal of Sports Medicine, 26, 111-115.

[29] Dishman, R. K., & O’Connor, P. J. (2009). Lessons in exercise neurobiology: the case of endorphins. Mental Health and Physical Activity, 2, 4-9.

[30] Goldfarb, A. H., & Jamurtas, A. Z. (1997). β-Endorphin response to exercise. Sports Medicine, 24, 8-16.

[31] Lopresti, A. L., Hood, S. D., & Drummond, P. D. (2013). A review of lifestyle factors that contribute to important pathways associated with major depression: diet, sleep and exercise. Journal of affective disorders, 148, 12-27.

 

A lot of former athletes don’t work out.

I know one guy, a former high school and collegiate athlete, who fell into this trap. If you talk to him, he’ll still tell you about the importance of athletics and staying in shape. He’ll still tell you about the kid’s team he coaches, because of the valuable life skills sports teach.

If you ask him when he works out, he’ll say “I’ll work on that once the season is over.” And never does.

He’s never exercised outside of a team, and has no idea what to do. And that feeling of needing a plan — or even needing more time to plan to work out — holds him back. Uncertainty leads to fear.

Contrast that with a former roommate of mine.

He ran cross country in college, but hadn’t trained much in the five years since graduating. He had a full time job as an engineer and was teaching himself programming at night in the hopes of a career change (which he’s since made).

And he decided to run a marathon.

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It doesn’t need to be a marathon—you can still take action

This free guide uses 5 steps based on psychology to help you work out consistently—even if you’re tired, have no idea what to do, and don’t feel like you belong.

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He knew a little about running, of course, but he’d never run a marathon. When I met him, he had just finished his first marathon and qualified for the Boston Marathon. He was training for it in the middle of a Chicago winter.

I remember getting all layered up to hit the gym and seeing him prepare for a run. I was packing like eight separate layers of clothes, just to take a train! He was wearing two and about to run 20 miles in ice, snow, wind, and subzero weather.

He had a running group that he used for support. They met a bar 10 miles away from our house, so we would layer up, run there, drink with them, and then run back. Still in subzero weather.

What’s the difference between these two people?

One guy is constantly in search of the perfect moment. He’s busy and doesn’t have time now, but once he figures everything out, he’ll totally start working out.

The other guy started running.

It didn’t matter that he was working a full time (really more than full time) job with a varying schedule, while also trying to switch careers. He decided to run and started running.

At this point, it probably sounds like I’m dangerously close to “Just Do It” territory. You might know that I’m not a fan of “Just Do It.” I’m still not, and a “bias for action” is different.

A Bias for Action: Definition and Importance

In the “jobs” section of Amazon’s website, there’s a single page outlining the company’s leadership principles.

Among self-explanatory ideas like “Think Big” and “Earn Trust,” there’s one principle that stands out to me as underrated: “Bias for Action.”

The page doesn’t give much explanation or definition, saying simply:

“Speed matters in business. Many decisions and actions are reversible and do not need extensive study. We value calculated risk taking.”

At the same time, this page is far from the only one that argues in favor of a bias for action. Entrepreneur Ramit Sethi frequently mentions a bias for action in his emails, in his articles, and on his careers page.

Jay Acunzo, a marketer renowned for his somehow-controversial belief that marketing should be about creating things that are truly valuable and interesting instead of blindly checking boxes, has an entire episode of his podcast devoted to a bias for action.

On the whole, “bias for action” is a phrase that gets a lot of attention in the marketing and startup scene. But it’s valuable for fitness and personal development too.

A bias for action is this: when you have a choice, you choose action over inaction.

It means that you don’t spend much time debating whether your approach is the 100% optimal one. You don’t wait until you “finally have enough free time” (we both know that will never actually happen). You act.

As importantly, a bias for action means that taking action is your default state. When most people do things, they have to decide to do them. When you have a bias for action, you automatically do things; not doing things is what takes a decision.

I talk a lot about planning, about preparing to go to the gym, about putting a system in place that helps you work out without needing to force yourself. And I stand by those things as important.

But none of them matter if you never actually work out.

You can plan endlessly. You can tell yourself that you’ll start actually working out once it gets warmer outside, or once this big work project is finally over.

But will you really?

via GIPHY

A lot of people make these kinds of promises to themselves and never follow through. They aren’t actually too busy to work out: they’re just scared.

Former athlete guy? That dude was scared of going to the gym. He didn’t know what to do, he didn’t want to be judged, and he was embarrassed that his formerly athletic body had become so out of shape. So he invented the idea of not having enough time.

And to note: there’s no shame in that. Many, many people do that for fitness, and all of us do it for something.

The sub zero marathon runner? That dude realized that there would never be a perfect time, so he made it work.

Why is a “Bias for Action” Different from “Just Do It?”

“Just Do It” ignores and discounts your problems. A bias for action accounts for them.

One of my readers explained the problems with “Just Do It” better than I could ever hope to:

“’Just do it’ rubs me up the wrong way because it inherently implies that I’m lazy. Every time I hear someone tell me to “Just Do It” this is what goes through my head:

I work full time, study part time, play 2 D&D games a week and manage to fit in time for my family and my partner’s family as well as at least 1 gym session a week and meal prep for 2 people. Some weeks I even have some time for myself to read for fun!

But some days I am exhausted from my life and go get something quick and easy to eat rather than cook. Or I can’t get to the gym for more than one workout a week. “Fitspo” then tells me I’m lazy or not dedicated enough. Like if I don’t go to the gym 2 hours a day every day I’m somehow not even trying.

I have people at work where their entire life is: work, gym, meal prep, repeat. And they are on my case because I plan 14 of my 21 meals a week (plus snacks) and leave the rest to chance / whatever i feel like those days. I fit in a midweek session, proudly share this and they’re questioning why I don’t get up early and do it every day. When I say “Life gets in the way” suddenly I’m a wannabe, a try hard, or subject to a lecture on motivation. Just do it, to me, is a put down.

That’s why “JDI” rubs me the wrong way. Because I’m not always lazy, but I’m doing better than I was a year, 2 years, or hell even last week. I’m making lifestyle changes in a manner that will make them stick long term and in a way that I won’t cause physical harm to myself. Yes I could probably push harder, but I like a life balance. And…life is the reason I try to be better. I want a life back. JDI undermines the effort I put in.”

A bias for action is different. Instead of saying that you need to be constantly doing everything you could possibly do, a bias for action is the idea that you just need to do something.

If you want to work out, you may not have time for a super intense “Just Do It” workout. But I bet you can do one pushup.

A bias for action accounts for the fact that you have a life. You don’t always have to take action: sometimes you really are too busy and there really are other things to worry about.

But it also acknowledges that it’s possible to do too much planning. That, as Jay Acunzo says in his podcast, “it will never be the perfect time to [do] something, but it’s always the right time.”

Even if you can only do one pushup, that’s one pushup more than you did yesterday. It shows can workout, even if only a little, and it’s something you can build from.

And a lot of the time doing one pushup turns into a bigger workout anyway.

How Can You Develop a Bias for Action?

Developing a bias for action actually does take a little bit of planning. But it’s key that it takes only a little bit.

This what Amazon means when they say that business moves quickly. Too many businesses spend hours in meetings and boardrooms, debating layouts and formats and messaging and color schemes before anything has been created.

Amazon is saying “Stop. Let’s start by making something, and work from there.”

There’s still planning that goes into the process, but that planning is much simpler. The plan doesn’t need to be perfect up front.

I used to be a little intense about chess, and there’s a lesson from former World Champion Gary Kasparov that applies here: “It is better to have a bad plan than no plan.”

With a bad plan, you can start doing stuff. You’ll learn to make better plans over time.

With no plan you’re just spinning your wheels (if that).

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There’s a specific workout plan below, but how can you stay motivated to go to the gym in the first place?

This guide uses 5 steps, based on psychology, to help you work out consistently—even if you’re tired, don’t know what to do, and don’t feel like you belong in the gym.

Send me the guide

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Ok, so what should your plan look like when you first start working out? How complicated does it need to be?

Not complicated. You need to know two things:

1. What workout to do
2. When

The workout doesn’t need to be 100% perfect. It can be one pushup if it needs to be. If you need a workout to start with, I included a super simple one in my article about what to do one your first day at the gym.

Here it is (there’s more explanation in the article):

Goblet Squats 3 sets of 6 reps

Push-ups 3 sets of 6 reps

Romanian Deadlift 3 sets of 6 reps

Inverted Row 3 sets of 6 reps

Plank 3 sets of 25 seconds

You can do more than this eventually, and there are lots of great beginner programs that are more complicated.

Similarly, you can spend time using other techniques to build the habit of going to the gym.

And I think it’s worth doing that. If you feel anxious about going to the gym, or if you keep deciding to skip workouts, there are specific thing you can do to deal with that.

But it all starts with action.

Do You Have a Bias for Action?

I have two questions for you to think about.

1. What’s one way you can take action right now?
2. What’s an excuse you’ve made for inaction that’s actually pretty weak once you think about it?

Week 1: Focus on cutting out soft drinks

Week 2: Stop buying junk at the grocery store

Week 3: Cook at home at least three times

Week 4: Prepare a week of lunches in advance

It’s a fictional syllabus, but it might be familiar to you.

If you’ve ever taken an online course focused on nailing down your nutrition and improving your lifestyle, there’s a good chance you’ve seen advice like the above.

The template is more or less standardized at this point: pick 1-2 things you want to stop doing and 1-2 things you want to start doing, then focus on them individually over the course of however many weeks. And then boom: you’ve learned good habits, and how to break a bad habit permanently.

And the thing is, this advice isn’t actually bad. It’s better advice than you’ll get from a lot of people and coaches, both online and in person.

It’s better advice than “exercise more so you can eat more.”

It’s better advice than “cook all of your meals a week in advance.”

It’s better advice than “figure out your macros and count every calorie.”

I’m not saying any of these are bad habits. Exercising more and changing your body composition will definitely change the number of calories you need to eat (look no further than Michael Phelps’ insane xxxx calorie diet).

But exercise alone is probably not going to help you lose or gain much weight.

Meal prep is great, especially if you’re someone that comes home from work late or exhausted. But which meals should you make? What if you don’t know how to cook? What should you store them in, and how can you reheat them?

The idea of cooking 14+ meals every week is daunting to the new meal prepper.

Counting calories will almost definitely work. Yeah, it can be tricky to accurately track calories, but tracking calories should give you a pretty good idea of what’s going into your body and what adjustments you need to make to change your weight.

But it’s also super boring and tedious. It gets old quickly, and makes it hard to go out to eat with friends.

(especially if you’re friends with this guy) via GIPHY

Each piece of advice is actually great! If you can figure out how to do it. But that’s the hard part for most people.

How to Change Habits

That four week syllabus tries to deal with a lot of the problems with popular nutrition and lifestyle events.

Instead of saying “track all of your calories now!” it says “let’s work on cutting out calories from this one source.” Soft drinks.

Each week it adds a new source. Junky snacks, pre-made food, and eating out are tackled one at a time. That’s one approach that teaches you how to break a bad habit permanently.

And I actually like that. It’s important to recognize that habits rarely change all at once. Huge, life-altering moments are life-altering because they don’t happen all the time, and snap us quickly out of routines.

If you want to change your bad habits (or good ones!), you don’t want to rely on a single life-altering moment. You want to use thousands of tiny life-altering moments. You want to learn how to break a bad habit permanently, so that when you look back a year, or 10 years, you don’t even miss your old bad habits.

So yeah, I like the gradual approach changing your habits.

Can you feel the “but” coming?

The But: Why is Change So Hard?

There are still problems with the standard syllabus for habit and nutrition change.

The biggest problem: it’s not as simple as just stopping habits. This is not how to break a bad habit permanently.

In week one, you try to stop drinking soft drinks. Maybe you even succeed.

But you definitely still have the urge to drink soft drinks. When you get home from work, you still want to reach into the fridge for a can of Coke. When you go out to lunch and the waiter asks if you want drinks, you start put in your usual order before uncomfortably stammering “just water.”

When week two comes around, you start to go to the next level. You walk around the grocery store consciously avoiding the Doritos and still fighting the urge to pick up a two-liter of 7-Up.

When you start cooking more healthy food in week three, you still aren’t over soft drinks. Maybe you were good the last two weeks, maybe you haven’t had any soda. But one day in the store you cave and grab a bag of Lays potato chips, and you know you can’t eat just one.

In week six, after you’ve started meal prepping, you have a bad day at work. You miss a day of cooking and get McDonald’s. You can almost feel the grease seep into your skin as you walk in the door, and you definitely want fries with that.

Hell yeah I want fries! via GIPHY

Gradually, your new “habits” start to spin off the rails. One missed day of cooking turns into two, then 10. Your meal prep is gone. Your pantry is filled with junk food. And, finally, you start drinking soda again.

There are a dozen different ways the plan can go awry; this is just one example. The point is this: dropping an old habit is so much more than just “deciding” to do it.

You need to train yourself to not want it anymore, or organize your surroundings to prevent you from getting it.

When you try to quit soda cold turkey, you still want it. And as the new “habits” start piling up, the pressure rises. All it takes is a small disturbance—a bad day at work, an argument with a friend, a poor night’s sleep—to send it all tumbling down.

This approach teaches you how to change actions for a little bit, but it doesn’t teach you how to break a bad habit permanently.

What can you do instead?

How to Break a Bad Habit Permanently: Swap, Don’t Stop

Habits don’t happen in a vacuum. Starting a new habit or stopping an old one will affect other things.

Every habit you have is cued by something in your environment or one of your own internal feelings. These cues are the key to habit change.

When you try to quit drinking soda, or any other habit, you are trying to ignore these cues.

They are still there, clamoring at the edge of your awareness for attention. They are the reason you reach into the fridge without thinking. And they are the reason you eventually fail.

If you want to learn how to break a bad habit permanently, you really have two options:

1. Remove the cues
2. Change the action they trigger

I’ve covered the full psychology of habits and environments before. Removing cues is sometimes easy and sometimes difficult, but even being aware of them is helpful.

Changing actions is a different approach, one better suited to combatting habits that come up in your everyday life (where cues are harder to delete).

If you are trying to lose weight, replace your soda habit with a diet soda habit. When you get home from work and flop down with a can of Coke, make it a diet and you’ll start losing weight.

Is diet soda good for you? Probably not, but reaching a healthy weight is. If you are overweight, it’s better than drinking regular.

People often object to this. Fitness pro Dick Talens relates his experiences:

“Let’s say that a person is experiencing health issues, and their doctor tells them that it’s primarily due to their weight. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had the conversation below with a client:

Me: How much soda do you drink?

Client: I drink about 5 sodas per day, but I really like soda.

Me: Could you switch to diet soda? That would save you about 600 calories a day and you’d lose one pound per week.

Client: Not really… I’m really worried about the health effects of aspartame and diet soda in general.

Failure to lose weight may very well kill this person. But instead of making a simple substitution that could help them achieve life-changing results, they’re too busy worrying about the unverified and oft-debated effects of the sweetener. They’re focused on the second order problem and not the first order one.”

What do you do after diet soda? What if you’re already drinking diet? What if you still just can’t bring yourself to drink diet?

Switch to soda water, then water. Switch to juice (also not great), then something like Vitamin Water, then water.

When the cue triggers you to crave something, give it something different. The urges will go away over time.

How Do You Change Other Bad Habits?

Soda was only one of the week’s in my example syllabus, but these principles of breaking habits apply to all habits. Again, if you want to know how to break a bad habit permanently:

1. Remove the cues
2. Change the action

Do you want to stop buying junk at the store? Eat before you go shopping (removed hunger cue), shop around the perimeter of the store (remove visual cue of junk food), and build a shopping list in advance (which removes several cues and changes several actions).

Aren’t there some people that can just quit cold turkey?

Maybe, but that isn’t most of us, and those people are often still using these tactics without realizing.

If you want to drop bad habits, you need to remove both the habit and the urge.

Remove the cues. Swap actions instead of stopping.

What bad habits are you trying to break?