Start Working Out.

So it’s Tuesday today and I’m turning 27 in two days.

Every birthday is an excuse to reflect and reset on your goals. So I’ve been thinking recently about what some good birthday goals might be.

There’s really one thing I’d like to focus on for this go-round the Sun: my health.

I’ve gone through plenty of health-kicks and phases throughout my life, but the past few months I’ve especially neglected my physical fitness. And I want to fix that.

It’s the easiest thing to set excuses for, probably because for most people the most painful thing you can do is willingly exert yourself to exhaustion on a regular basis.

I’ve made plenty of excuses. “I just moved to a new city”, “I’m too busy to work out”, or the classic “I’ll do it tomorrow”

So I think the most important part of getting physically fit is simply establishing some fool-proof systems for staying committed. It’s easy to overcomplicated this.

I recently discovered a few hacks to staying disciplined, and the proof has been this very blog.

Back in September I decided I wanted to get better at writing and posting content. So I figured out that the best way to force myself to do that would be to start a daily blog.

It’s simple: just write. Every day. No other rules.

Doesn’t matter how long or what it’s a bout, or if it’s shitty, all that matters is I click publish every day. A blog is great because everyone can see it. There’s built in peer-pressure.

I think I need to do something similar with my physical fitness as well. So, here are the ground rules:

1. Exercise for at least 15 minutes, every day.

2. Doesn’t matter what you do, just matters that you do it.

3. Build in peer pressure (join gym, post to groupchat, or tweet about it, idc)

Right now this is a bit of a work in progress. As for types of exercise, I am focused on 3 main vehicles — dumbbells, pull-ups, and jogging. I have a 50lb dumbbell and I just ordered a pull up bar, so my plan is to probably rotate through KB + pull up workouts some days and jogging other days until I get more comfortable.

(The kettlebell swing might be the most robust singular full-body workout you could ever do. If you have never read “Enter The Kettlebell” by Pavel Tsatsouline you must)

The next part, which is equally as important, is finding a way to hold yourself accountable. It’s really hard to stay accountable by just saying “im going to workout everyday” unless you’re an inherently disciplined person (I am not)

So usually you need to establish some external accountability. Part of this can be creating a list or spreadsheet where you track workouts. I’ve done this, it works okay.

But even better is to put your reputation and personal image on the line by telling everyone you know about your exercise goals. That way if you fail you will maximize the potential for embarrassment. And embarrassment is the world’s best motivator.

So I think I am either going to find a groupchat of people I can send a video of my workout to everyday, or maybe there’s an app for that. Worst case I will just post it on Twitter every day (no wonder all these fitness bros are constantly posting about their workouts… they’ve inherently mastered the art of external accountability!)

Anyways, I think this will be fun, and part of doing it is writing about it here in this blog. If you’re reading this and you’re looking for an excuse to prioritize your own personal fitness, message me back and we can keep each other honest. I think we’d both appreciate it.

Will keep you updated as I iron out the details. Maybe another piece will be improving my diet too, but I am always weary of committing to too many new habits at once.

Peace,

Ramsey