[gcheong]

The one thing I've found that has helped me the most is exercise. I wouldn't have believed it myself and most of the evidence I have is just my own subjective experience, but there is one incident that stands out where one day my boss mentioned that my attitude had completely changed for the better at some point. I didn't think it had, but apparently there was enough of a change for him to mention the observation. Of course, I can't say for sure it was the result of exercise, but I couldn't place it on anything else I had been doing at that point. It was enough to convince me that exercise is something I just need to do regularly.

[dusklight]

I can second that. You feel more energetic, you need less sleep, you think faster, your memory recall is better.

Perhaps more importantly, by exercising regularly you will learn discipline and focus, and my life has benefited so much from having more of that.

[ruby_roo]

If only I had the discipline to keep myself going to the gym. I am always glad that I did, but with that in mind, I don't know why I can't seem to keep it consistent.

What is it that fuels fitness freaks? And where can I get some? Not talking about roids or HGH, here. :)

[dkarl]

Consistency doesn't matter. Persistence does. (Of course, what I mean is, "Don't think about consistency. Think about persistence.") Never let past slips become an excuse not to exercise today. Too many people try really hard until they miss a workout, which creates a bit of a letdown, but they keep going, and then they miss another, which discourages them a little bit, and so on, with each missed workout weakening their resolve until they quit altogether.

This is because people only want the long-term goal of fitness, weight loss, happiness, and attractiveness. That's all they think about. They only feel positive feedback when they see their actions as part of a pattern that leads to long-term results. This is logical, but it only works as long as you stay confident and optimistic. Therefore, for many people, it's emotionally tenable.

An easier way is to forget about the long term results (to the extent possible) and focus on the short term. If you want to exercise now, no matter whether it is part of a longer-term pattern of performance leading to life-changing benefit, then it's a lot easier to do it. Your decision doesn't have to run a gauntlet of skepticism about your past and future performance. Concentrate on appreciating the immediate benefits of a single workout: you'll elevate your mood, feel better about yourself, like yourself more, burn some calories, and shake off some rust. If you can't help thinking beyond today, just think that you're strengthening the behavioral and physical foundation for future exercise, which is all you can do today. Let tomorrow's you worry about tomorrow's exercise.

[ahpeeyem]

" Let tomorrow's you worry about tomorrow's exercise."

I've had more success in getting myself to exercise the past month or two than I had previously, and I think this sentence sums it up pretty well. Don't start thinking about yesterday or tomorrow, just focus on how good you're going to feel in an hour when you're finished today.

[tdavis]

You need to approach it like any other habit. Take smoking. At first, smoking sucks so you actually have to work at it to make it a habit. Eventually it becomes rewarding to smoke. Exercise is no different, except for the fact that it's actually healthy for you, but I've never found that to be a convincing argument (just like nobody ever convinced me to stop smoking by telling me it was unhealthy). With that in mind, here are some tips:

1. The most important tip is simple: Exercise six days a week. What you do in the beginning is basically irrelevant. Your job is to form the habit which is much harder to do if you only go three days a week (who smokes only three days a week?)

2. Some may disagree, but I also highly recommend doing your exercise in a gym. It's too easy to put off if all you're doing is going for a run outside or some sit-ups inside. If you fail to go to the gym, you'll feel worse. This is mostly about making yourself feel bad for not going. Also, other people exercising around you will help motivate you (and the scenery is nice... unless it's an all-male gym ;)

3. It helps to be somewhat vain and narcissistic, both of which I admit to being. I don't like being flabby because it presents a poor image. Even if I have nobody else to impress, I still have to impress myself, which when it comes to physicality is not a trivial task.

4. If your discipline is based on seeing quick results, you will fail. Nothing happens quickly at the gym, except injury. It takes about six months to transform yourself, anybody who says differently is wrong. You need to find the granular results; weight lifting helps with this. If you gain weight, even a little weight, every week in your exercises, that should be enough.

5. It's hard being a "noob", especially at a gym. Don't let it get you down. You need to quickly learn one very important fact: at the gym, everybody is always in better shape than you, no matter what shape you're in.

Sooner or later, and probably without noticing, you'll have a fitness addiction. You'll begin feeling terrible if you don't exercise every day. You'll feel bad unless you're slightly sore. Oh, and you'll have a body worthy of admiration (or at least fear ;)

That being said, I've been awake almost two hours so I really should get to the gym... it's back and shoulders day! Good luck!

[dkarl]

"at the gym, everybody is always in better shape than you, no matter what shape you're in"

Yes! It's hilarious. I learned this on the running trail near my house. Only a narcissist (which I doubt you really are) naturally compares himself or herself to weaker people. Most of us only see the people who are better than us. It feels exactly as it would if the others weren't there at all. Even when I consciously look at a fatter guy and tell myself I'm better off than him, my reaction is emotionally blank: "So?" But when I see a buffer, faster guy, the fact that I'm less fit than him seems extremely important.

[triggersmith]

Agreed.

I've found that martial arts (Tae Kwon Do in may case) are great if you're not a gym person. With Tae Kwon Do I didn't have to think about "a plan". It was all pretty much laid out for me. First I get yellow tag, then yellow belt and so on. Having these goals is a great way of keeping motivated.

[unexpected]

I trained for a marathon to get me going- It was a personal challenge of sorts, and my friends had placed heavy peer pressure on me, by telling me that there was no way I'd ever be able to do it.

Now, I just see exercise as part of being a complete person. we're supposed to have a sound body in addition to a sound mind. Most techies that I meet don't seem to care for physical fitness. It's the nerd role in reverse. Just as we thought it stupid that athletes never studied, we're pretty stupid if we don't get off our butts and exercise.

My personal philosophy is that we're here for a limited time period- I want to spend that time maximizing my genetic potential as much as possible - in the classroom, with my interactions with other people, and in the gym.

[dusklight]

What helped me a lot was to get a workout partner, someone who is close to your own level of fitness, and doing it for the same reasons. That way some days you will feel lazy, and some days he will feel lazy, but if you don't both feel lazy on the same day you end up going :)

Also weight training is in many ways like programming. You know how when you first started, you didn't really know anything, and it was a frustrating experience? If you have ever tried to teach any of your non-technical friends any programming, you would know what I mean.

But if you are any good at programming, you have been "in the zone" where it feels like your brain is working at more than peak capacity and you just know exactly what algorithm you need, where to write it, what library methods to call, etc. Feels good right? Ever want to give it up?

But you had to get past the newbie frustration phase in order to get there.

Same thing with working out, once your body gets used to it and starts getting into gear. Let's say you go 3 times a week for 1 hour each time, I would guess maybe about 6 months .. by then you will start finding yourself "in the zone" and once you start being able to get there consistently, you won't want to stop, and then it just snowballs from there.

[gcheong]

It certainly has been a long road for me to get where I could exercise consistently. I had always viewed exercise as something people did to lose weight which was never enough to motivate me to do it consistently. Then I read "Spark" by John Ratey. The idea that one could use exercise specifically to increase and maintain brain health motivated me enough to give it a shot again. It took me a while, but I eventually found a combination of things I could work into my daily schedule (Getting off the train a stop early, quick lunches followed by long walks on the embarcadero or to coit tower, running around the park near where I live and around the block in my neighborhood, etc.). Now that I've made some progress I've become more of a "fitness freak" but I certainly didn't start out that way and it wasn't my goal to become one.

[dmm]

The best advice I can offer is to make exercise and physical activity a regular part of your life. The easiest way to keep up with something is to make it a habit.

Get up early and do something every day. Don't spend time with people who impede you. Surround yourself with active people. But don't push yourself too hard. Always get plenty of sleep.

[rjurney]

Don't go to the gym, the reason you have trouble doing that is because it is boring.

Find an activity you enjoy that involves physical labor, and do that thing. Since you enjoy it, the 'work' of exercise won't feel like work - it will be something you want to do because you enjoy it. Explore different outdoor activities and sports, and you'll find one that suits you.

Presently for me this is building a small farm. Before that it was learning to surf. Before that it was cycling for distance. The neat thing about all these is unlike gym time you are building real skills as you do them and they are rewarding beyond the calories burned and the physiological changes.

The gym is hard because other than the physical effects it is dead time, and you know it.

Although for some people the iron is that thing that is quite soothing: http://www.gittlen.com/rollins.htm

[pxlpshr]

I'll third this. However, I've always had a challenge of mixing work (which i do a lot of), and finding time for things like going to a gym, etc. I'm also not one looking to bulk up w/ weights, and when I'm away from work I like meditative things. Using the computer 12+ hours a day is an intense amount of information / brain processing. I think thats why tech people get depressed — they're often mentally exhausted and therefore vulnerable.

Yoga <3 combined with an exercise app I made for the iPhone is working great for me. I'm making this app for myself, and trying to productize it for hackers, life hackers, travelers, etc. It's available on the store now but we've got another few major iterations before it's where we'd like it to be.

[HeyLaughingBoy]

I'm also not one looking to bulk up w/ weights, and when I'm away from work I like meditative things

I find it a bit funny you say that because I used to be "bulked up with weights" (now I mostly walk/run with a little weightlifting added) and I found it to be a very meditative experience. The euphoria of pushing a barbell off your chest, the total physical drain at the end of a set of heavy squats led me to a place where I was completely focused inward and totally at peace.

In fact I think it was that mental relaxation that kept me doing it for all those years.

[rjurney]

I was the same way for several years, but nowadays I find lifting quite boring and not relaxing, so I had to find other activities.

[dave_au]

For anyone struggling to find the time to get some exercise in, http://www.simplefit.org is pretty nice.

The workouts are quick, can be pretty intense, and are staged based on your progress. Not for some people, but I've been doing it combined with some running and have found it to be pretty good so far.