[watwut]

Regular moderate exercise improves your health results whether you loose weight or not. It is one of the few interventions that actually have statistical results. It also affects your life positively by making you stronger or faster or just able to walk longer depending on how exactly you exercise.

If you dont care about health or improvment in things like strength stamina, then the "dont exercise it is waste" knee jerk response makes some sense. If you care about health, it does not at all.

[hinkley]

I’ve only lost a few pounds but inches off my waist. To the point I’m wondering if I’m going to have to repurchase running shorts next year. Muscle is heavy.

To your point on mood: there’s definitely a feedback loop or three there. Once you say “fuck it” a lot of things unravel and everything spirals. Better mood means more chores get done, which is both more exercise and improves self image and mood. Being happier about the mirror does the same thing.

Before the pandemic I wanted to walk a 10k. Now that’s practically my baseline, and new goals I wouldn’t allow myself are popping up. You can get a lot of places in 10k round trip, especially if you aren’t a sweaty mess on the other end. That’s 75% of the way to downtown for me.