Wasted Effort | Nerd Fitness

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

My mom, calmly riding the escalator up like a normal human, would say I’m either going to hurt myself (possible) or make a scene (true) or interrupt people trying to go down the escalator (also true).

Sometimes I would make it to the top, exhausted and out of breath, while my mom would arrive at the same time laughing at how hard I had to work.

Spend enough time in an airport (or travel with small children) and within minutes you’ll see kids trying to run on the People Mover moving in the other direction. Exhaustion for them, fun for us.

See where I’m going with this?

My friend Mark Manson put the following ​his newsletter​ this week:

“All the courage, persistence and motivation in the world won’t help you if you’re working on the wrong thing. In fact, it will do the opposite.”

Which brings me to today’s question…

Where are you running UP the escalator?

Earlier this year, I remember talking to Coach Matt from the NF team about this ​coaching clients​ who succeed and who struggle.

• Those who find success: they recognize the escalator moving in the right direction and work hard to get there. Each step actually increases their effort.
• Those who struggle: they continue to waste their energy, willpower, and effort on changes that don’t move the needle.

I bet you’ve had moments where you’ve wondered if all the effort was ACTUALLY worth it or why progress seemed harder than normal.

Here are some examples of trying to run on an escalator:

• Spending a lot of money on expensive supplements (no prescribed by a medical professional).
• Switching to organic gluten-free or low-carb keto snacks exclusively on the latest trend.
• Trying complicated diets that don’t actually reduce the amount of food you eat.
• Exercise you hate exclusively for weight loss reasons.

Running (and anything else that counts as cardio) is great for heart and lung health. But running and cardio are ​far less effective for weight loss​ than we think (unless we ALSO adjust our eating strategy).

I’m assuming you want to look “tighter” which means you don’t just want to “lose weight” but rather keep the muscle you have and lose the fat on top.

If these are our goals, it is crucial that we focus on the right escalators.

Here’s an example of walking on an escalator:

Show me someone who eats mostly 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 takes WARNING real escalators.

Here’s the thing: ​people are not wired to like exercise​. We’re also not designed to thrive in a world where high-calorie, nutritionally empty delicious food is always available.

Which means we’re going to waste valuable brain power and energy on it something we might as well choose the right things to fool ourselves.

Yes, there is also the whole component of changing “life and behavior” (which I talked about in the previous newsletter Fr ​Manageable vs Meaningful​). But deciding “how quickly I want to implement these significant steps” is a better question to ask than “Why am I not making progress despite work so hard?”

Get off the wrong escalator and get on the right one.

You could put that effort to good use!

-Steve

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