Fitness Tips From a Writer's Cave

Socrates was jacked. You can be too.

Note: I get a lot of requests to write about my fitness routine and diet. While normally I write about things like robot consciousness, human psychology, and how The Sims gave me an existential crisis, I thought I'd switch it up and try something a bit different. Most of this advice is pretty basic, as there isn't a ton of variation in fitness, but maybe you'll find something useful.

Every day I wake up and choose violence, it's a good day.

One of the best things I did for myself was get a good fitness and exercise routine. There's no feeling quite like pushing your body to its absolute limits, breathing in the salt and blood of your lungs, and then seeing the changes in your physique. What started out as a punishment and a denial of the foods I enjoyed became a celebration of just how much the human body was capable of, and the strength and trust I had in myself.

So here are my (Common and uncommon) tips for anyone who wants to get fit and might not know where to start.
 

Recognize What You Want

I stay fit because it's a good barometer for where I'm at mentally. If my diet and physique looks good, it means I'm thinking clearly, organized, optimistic, and productive. Everything in my life is aligned properly and I tend to write more, have better interactions with my family and friends, and in general keep myself from falling into entropy.

And this tends to go in a feedback loop. If I take the time to make sure my diet is healthy and that I'm on top of my exercise game, then everything else falls into line. It's difficult to write at peak performance when I feel bloated, gross, and lazy.

If you want to start exercising, you have to have the goal crystallized in your mind. Although exercise is very healthy for you and improves your lifespan, I don't know many people who can be motivated by "health" alone. Lots of research studies show that people are bad at prioritizing their future selves. They need to see progress and benefits in the now.

Sometimes you might stop and start several times before exercise "clicks" for you. I on and off exercised for years before I made it consistent. But once you realize why you're doing it, and come to appreciate the benefits, it'll be much easier to stay consistent.
 

Go Hard

Sometimes when I feel like I can't go harder, I imagine a gun pressed to my head.

So much of exercise is mental. The part of our brain that tells us "we can't" is a powerful factor in determining how far we can really push ourselves. There's a line you can cross from trying, to "will." That part of you that kicks in that allows you to push out 1 or 2 more reps. To go another 20 minutes. 

A lot of people say that you should gradually get into exercise, but that's never worked for me. If I'm going to do it, I want to go hard, and I want to be consistent. Sure, you'll be sore, hungry, and tired for several weeks until your body adjusts. But it'll show you that you can push past the limits you had in your mind. That you're capable of more than you ever realized.

We so rarely have the opportunity to truly push ourselves. To experience a true challenge. Our society is set up that many of us can just kind of cost by. We don't even have to walk a single block if we don't want to. Exercise is one of the things we can do to get right up to the edge of what it means to be human. To feel the pulse pound of our bodies as they crater through existence.

And I find that if I'm running on the treadmill so hard that I end up vomiting and having to swallow it back down, suddenly things like sending an email or writing another hundred words doesn't seem so difficult. Understanding how hard my body can actually go puts a lot of things in my life into perspective.

I never want to coast or take the easy way. That way lies mediocrity. I want to be excellent, so I try to make everything I do excellent. Nothing exists in a vacuum.

Understand The Mind-Body Connection

The Greeks understood something that people in popular culture today don't. Fitness buffs are seen as lugheads. Stupid. Vapid. If you go to your average writer conference, most of those people don't work out. Oftentimes I go down to the hotel gym in the morning and it's completely empty. It's often frowned upon. It's almost seen as taking away from the art. If you're at the gym, that's less time you have to write. And that's less "points" you put into your brain.

But this is a false mind-body dualism. Tons of research shows how fitness improves brain function and intelligence. Nothing exists in a vacuum. If you don't pay attention to your fitness, your mind will suffer too.

I think we should bring back the weight lifting philosopher. The jacked intellectual. Lift weights in the morning. Write brilliant dissertations in the evening. Learn that everything we do is a circuit, a conjoined union, and we are our bodies as much as our brains.
 

Lift Weights

You don't have to read a lot of fitness advice, because the physics of losing weight and getting fit is pretty simple. People who tend to overcomplicate it are either in the top 1-5% of fitness and strength and are trying to maximize gains as much as possible, or are trying to sell something.

People say that the type of exercise you do doesn't really matter. But if you want to look good, you need to lift weights. Muscle mass will change your composition for the better.

If you don't believe me, go to any gym and look at the people who do cardio versus the people who primarily weight lifts. People who do primarily cardio are often slender, but tend to not have as much of a shape.

You don't have to do Crossfit and you don't have to be a powerlifter. I use the Fitbod app, but you can grab lots of weight lifting programs for free online, and there are plenty of fitness Youtube videos. You don't even have to join a gym if you don't want to. I gained a lot of muscle just with 50 lbs of dumbbells at home.

And the exercises don't have to be complicated. Squats. Bench press. Curls. Shoulder press. Lunges. Just make sure you lift until you're sore, and then keep adding weight when it gets easy. If you stick with it you'll see dramatic gains even in just a month or two.

There's also nothing more satisfying than being able to carry in all the groceries in one go as your neighbors marvel at your newfound, inhuman strength.
 

Do Cardio 

That being said, you should also probably add in some cardio. Everyone hates cardio and I've seen these staggeringly dumb mathematical calculations online to "prove" that cardio is unnecessary or that you stop burning calories. But cardio requires mechanical movement. You can't get so efficient that it stops burning calories. It's simply not possible. It would break a law of physics.

Cardio isn't that great for losing weight by itself, 80% of that will be diet, but if your diet is already on point it can give you that little push you need to see more dramatic results. It's also great for regulating weight when you hit your maintenance goal. Not to mention heart and lung health.

Just be careful if you're significantly overweight. This is one place where you should go slow, as too much pressure on joints that are already overloaded can cause some bad injuries.

I do lots of different things for cardio. Running. Hiking. Stairmaster. I just did a spin class for the first time yesterday, and I think I might have found a new religion in the dark room, pedaling toward my death to the pulse of the beat. After a while the pain becomes a kind of pleasure, and my heartbeat folds into itself. It's one of the few times I can stop thinking and overanalyzing everything, and simply be.
 

Eat Protein

If I can crystallize all the diet advice I've learned in the last decade down to one sentence, it'd be "Eat protein."

At the beginning of my "fitness journey" I mostly just counted calories. I got skinnier, but I didn't get much muscle definition. If I were to do it differently. I'd prioritize making sure each meal was protein heavy. Protein is the building blocks of muscle. Only when I started eating enough protein did I see a significant change in my body composition. My fat redistributed more to my hips, and the muscle gave my body more of a shape.

And not just any protein. Animal protein. Eggs. Salmon. Chicken. Steak. Yogurt. Full fat milk. Jerky. Cottage cheese. I won't get into the science here but it's the only kind that has all the building blocks required to build muscle. 
 

And Don't Eat Like an Idiot

You don't have to do Keto. You don't have to do the carnivore diet. You don't have to eat Paleo, or do Raw 30. Sure, you will lose weight on these diets because you are probably intaking less calories, but I would only recommend them for short periods. They're rarely sustainable and not necessary. Cutting carbs can be good for hunger management, but there is nothing special about carbs that causes weight gain specifically.

So many people want to find the "holy grail" of diet. There isn't one. Experiment with different things and see what feels good to you. Genetically, we come from different regions with different food sources and so the ideal diet for each person will be different. Some people like to eat breakfast. Some people like to fast. Some people like to have their biggest meal in the middle of the day. Others at the end. Some like one big meal. Others like five small meals. 

I find that I feel best when I eat small meals throughout the day. I've experimented with lots of different things but I like simple, whole foods like chicken, eggs, steak, rice, potatoes, tuna, broccoli, spinach, yogurt, bananas, carrots. I used to eat oatmeal and Kodiak cakes but I found I didn't feel as good when I had a lot of carbs at once. Same with protein shakes. The whey tended to hit my stomach hard.

The more you experiment, the more you'll be able to see what makes you feel good, and what feels bad. Your body is a great heuristic. You can discover a lot about what works for you not from merely following research, but by studying the results in your own mood and energy levels.

If after eating healthy and cutting down portions, you're not losing weight, buy a $10 kitchen scale and start weighing your food. You can use a calorie counter like MyFitnessPal to log it. Calculate your TDEE using an online calculator to figure out how much you need to eat to get to your ideal weight.

And if you have trouble with diet, or find yourself binging, you may want to look into the emotional reasons why you're eating so much. Many people eat food as a comfort thing or a trauma response, so it can be difficult to reduce portions without addressing the psychological aspects
.

Understand What You Lose If You Don't Do It

Sure, you don't have to work out. You don't have to care about your body. You don't have to regulate your weight. Plenty of people don't. And it's important to remember that people have different priorities, stressors, and medical conditions. I think the idea that people who are less fit are somehow morally deficient a pretty reductive way of looking at the world. It's like thinking that someone is more "right" just because they're pretty. If you're good at working out, all it really says is that you're good at working out. 

But, if you feel you should workout and get fit, or want to, but keep putting it off for some reason - you may feel as if you aren't gaining anything, but you aren't losing it either.

This isn't true. Every time you refuse to do something you want to, you're losing out on the potential self you could be. And every day it continues you stray further. It isn't just working out. That's not the most important thing. It doesn't even have to be fitness specifically.

It's proving to yourself that you're capable of something, even when it's difficult. It's allowing yourself to trust yourself and resist your worst impulses. That cultivates a strong personality that allows you to sustain and be proud of yourself.