To abuse the metaphor, telling the obese to cut calories may not help, but all the same cutting calories is exactly what they need to do to get better. Anecdot

To abuse the metaphor, telling the obese to cut calories may not help, but all the same cutting calories is exactly what they need to do to get better. Anecdotally, when I'm exercising all the crap in my life just fades away to where just putting one foot in front of the other is all that matters. It's not a state of not caring, it's more that it doesn't exist in my head the same way The Game doesn't. It's Zen almost - calming and peaceful. Less anecdotally, you can rationalize the release of endorphins as an evolutionary trick to get us to do something that while unpleasant used to be very necessary for survival. (Imo, whether this is true or not is not important. Rather it is a rational for productive self-delusion).