This reminds me to a good friend... I've been weightlifting for a couple years using every kind of tracking app, progressive overload strategy, number go up... you name it but I was not even close to my friend strength/muscle wise. I asked him what he used to track his exercise journey and his response has been with me since then: nothing, I just listen to my body. I feel like he learnt to live in the middle.
Your friend might just be genetically gifted or on juice and you might not know that. You are just comparing ine facet of your life to him. If you want to compare, compare your training to his, your nutrition to his, your recovery and cardio to his. Most people track their training, it is perfectly reasonable. And did your consider the fact that your friend might be lifting longer than you?
As a recovering orthorexic extremist myself who now walks the middle path with joy, recalibrating minute by minute, I really related to this! And I plan to share it far and wide with my subscribers (once I have some! 🤣) I am saving the link.💕💕
I’ve always said this about the “going cold turkey” approach. Much of the motivation is rooted in avoidance of one’s failure to self-moderate.
Which makes it merely evading your problem rather than confronting it head-on. Like the tragic trope of the gay man joining the priesthood to “cure” himself of his homosexuality.
I read this hoping with all my heart you mentioned not just lifestyle but opinions and politics. Some people use “lukewarm” when you don’t agree, word for word to what they or their ideology say. But sometimes having critical thinking skills means that you always evaluate both sides. I think truth lies somewhere in the middle, almost always.
Your essay also encapsulates the "locked in" and "locked out" culture.
I am a fitness enthusiast. I consume fitness content religiously trying to optimise for 1 % while the 99% rots in the corner. I often see people who have seasonal ABS, at one time, they have eating habits of a monk, at one time, they are the very definition of gluttony. Technically, if you have had abs for once, you should not be able to gain 10 kgs in 2 months. But it happens, happens more often than not. They go from one extreme to another. Because they never learnt to practice in real life. They did it in laboratory settings. No stress. No life responsibilities. Nothing.
Also, i have an exam coming up. So, i thought i should give up everything. Instagram, gym, nutrition and every net positive habit i have. And at times, I think that i don't need to leave anything. But both approaches are very wrong. I always knew that. But now i know why. I should practice moderation now. Maybe a private small account rather than a full blown public account. Maybe leaning more towards working out rather than training. Maybe finding a nutrition approach that does not abandon protein all together. Maybe lifting at a time where it doesn't interfere with my studies....i am just rambling.
But i get the gist. In bodybuilding, there is a thing called evolving the program. You run a regime for 3 months, you see that some part of it didn't work or you get some data, you change it like for 10 percent, and so on. You never jump programs. Otherwise you will never be able to know your own body. Maybe life approaches are pretty similar to that too, evolving the approach rather than jumping to another extreme. It also ties into the assumption of thinking that you can find optimal for yourself with only 1 draft of nutrition, training, studies or something. It would take many drafts ans a long time and never be fully optimised but it gets better with time.
Also, your essays are truly insightful. Thank you.
Parallels Ellen Langer's mindful and mindless distinction, noticing and missing what's new. Unquestioned rules are mindless; questioned rules are mindful.
Side note: I’ve also come to question whether anything actually becomes “viral” anymore.
Viral appears to have died when social media replaced our friends with the algorithm feed. There is no lateral ‘contagion’ anymore and very limited network effects. It’s all clicks to the central algorithm now. And like a phantom limb, we’re confusing engagement bait made algorithmically popular with 'viral' ever since.
I’ve come to believe part of that is rooted in a desire for agency to potentially outwit the algorithm. That our clicks act like meaningful votes in a healthy democracy. The alternative would mean acknowledging the game is rigged by the algorithm owners and we are merely their free labor.
Thankyou for writing this. I feel a lot of the words on the page. Nuance and moderation don’t make headlines or grab attention, but I believe as you do, that it’s where the real courage lies.
I’ve had an addiction to optimisation. Chasing a goal relentlessly and without balance is that in my opinion. Virtuous is exactly how I’ve felt through it too. The idea that if you commit to suffering through discipline you can touch a kind of holiness in your existence.
In the end, all it was, was suffering. Especially because oftentimes the extreme position was marketed by someone else as the answer, and adopted by me as truth. In that sense, the struggle felt empty twice - because it was joyless in process, and because the destination when reached changed nothing for me.
There are no answers, and the truth is your own to feel rather than a prescription to be received.
This reminds me to a good friend... I've been weightlifting for a couple years using every kind of tracking app, progressive overload strategy, number go up... you name it but I was not even close to my friend strength/muscle wise. I asked him what he used to track his exercise journey and his response has been with me since then: nothing, I just listen to my body. I feel like he learnt to live in the middle.
Your friend might just be genetically gifted or on juice and you might not know that. You are just comparing ine facet of your life to him. If you want to compare, compare your training to his, your nutrition to his, your recovery and cardio to his. Most people track their training, it is perfectly reasonable. And did your consider the fact that your friend might be lifting longer than you?
As a recovering orthorexic extremist myself who now walks the middle path with joy, recalibrating minute by minute, I really related to this! And I plan to share it far and wide with my subscribers (once I have some! 🤣) I am saving the link.💕💕
This helps with understanding - Thanks
I’ve always said this about the “going cold turkey” approach. Much of the motivation is rooted in avoidance of one’s failure to self-moderate.
Which makes it merely evading your problem rather than confronting it head-on. Like the tragic trope of the gay man joining the priesthood to “cure” himself of his homosexuality.
I read this hoping with all my heart you mentioned not just lifestyle but opinions and politics. Some people use “lukewarm” when you don’t agree, word for word to what they or their ideology say. But sometimes having critical thinking skills means that you always evaluate both sides. I think truth lies somewhere in the middle, almost always.
Your essay also encapsulates the "locked in" and "locked out" culture.
I am a fitness enthusiast. I consume fitness content religiously trying to optimise for 1 % while the 99% rots in the corner. I often see people who have seasonal ABS, at one time, they have eating habits of a monk, at one time, they are the very definition of gluttony. Technically, if you have had abs for once, you should not be able to gain 10 kgs in 2 months. But it happens, happens more often than not. They go from one extreme to another. Because they never learnt to practice in real life. They did it in laboratory settings. No stress. No life responsibilities. Nothing.
Also, i have an exam coming up. So, i thought i should give up everything. Instagram, gym, nutrition and every net positive habit i have. And at times, I think that i don't need to leave anything. But both approaches are very wrong. I always knew that. But now i know why. I should practice moderation now. Maybe a private small account rather than a full blown public account. Maybe leaning more towards working out rather than training. Maybe finding a nutrition approach that does not abandon protein all together. Maybe lifting at a time where it doesn't interfere with my studies....i am just rambling.
But i get the gist. In bodybuilding, there is a thing called evolving the program. You run a regime for 3 months, you see that some part of it didn't work or you get some data, you change it like for 10 percent, and so on. You never jump programs. Otherwise you will never be able to know your own body. Maybe life approaches are pretty similar to that too, evolving the approach rather than jumping to another extreme. It also ties into the assumption of thinking that you can find optimal for yourself with only 1 draft of nutrition, training, studies or something. It would take many drafts ans a long time and never be fully optimised but it gets better with time.
Also, your essays are truly insightful. Thank you.
Parallels Ellen Langer's mindful and mindless distinction, noticing and missing what's new. Unquestioned rules are mindless; questioned rules are mindful.
«feeling over thinking» is actually the best way to integrate unconsciousness which directs our lives
Side note: I’ve also come to question whether anything actually becomes “viral” anymore.
Viral appears to have died when social media replaced our friends with the algorithm feed. There is no lateral ‘contagion’ anymore and very limited network effects. It’s all clicks to the central algorithm now. And like a phantom limb, we’re confusing engagement bait made algorithmically popular with 'viral' ever since.
I’ve come to believe part of that is rooted in a desire for agency to potentially outwit the algorithm. That our clicks act like meaningful votes in a healthy democracy. The alternative would mean acknowledging the game is rigged by the algorithm owners and we are merely their free labor.
Thankyou for writing this. I feel a lot of the words on the page. Nuance and moderation don’t make headlines or grab attention, but I believe as you do, that it’s where the real courage lies.
I’ve had an addiction to optimisation. Chasing a goal relentlessly and without balance is that in my opinion. Virtuous is exactly how I’ve felt through it too. The idea that if you commit to suffering through discipline you can touch a kind of holiness in your existence.
In the end, all it was, was suffering. Especially because oftentimes the extreme position was marketed by someone else as the answer, and adopted by me as truth. In that sense, the struggle felt empty twice - because it was joyless in process, and because the destination when reached changed nothing for me.
There are no answers, and the truth is your own to feel rather than a prescription to be received.