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This is not rocket science. You need only to take a glace around the office to notice that our industry is not exactly the healthiest. We are sitting all day, e

This is not rocket science. You need only to take a glace around the office to notice that our industry is not exactly the healthiest. We are sitting all day, eat pizza, and guzzling energy drinks (mind eye: google "cartman gamer"), obviously this is an exaggeration, but in some cases, it isn't! Adding exercise can go a long way, you do not have to think of this as wasted time, you can listen to audio books, podcasts, etc while you are doing your thing. My main gripe is that as engineers and measurement freaks, I want to research exercise before actually doing anything, and then want to measure my results. There is no clear action path down this road. Diet and exercise are two side of the same coin. Maybe I'll produce some content on this topic since I have spent the last couple years getting my house in order. For example, say, starting tomorrow, you wanted to "eat healthy" and "workout". What would you do? There is nothing that will give you a grocery list + meal plan, along with a workout routine. You need to do all this research first!

jgrahamc 13y ago
I would urge you to very much think of it as 'wasted time'. There's an obsession here from some people with filling every moment with information (such as audio books, podcasts, etc.). While exercising it's a perfect time to have no other stimuli and let your mind wander. Just let it wander. It's really useful to do that because rather than listening to other people's thoughts you'll have thoughts of your own. Unexpected thoughts at that.
- acchow 13y ago
  Daily exercise can be very efficient if you're doing something like T25 or Insanity. It also improves the quality of your other time.
- jacquesm 13y ago
  Or better still instead of doing pointless exercise: do something useful. Help someone build a house, go shopping for old ladies in the neighbourhood, chop wood for your stove (or your neighbours stove), chase pickpockets, and if you have them play with your kids (or someone else's kids!). Anything as long as it is useful and you get your exercise.
  - samstave 13y ago
    I've been standing on the corner all morning. Zero pickpockets. I went to the construction site across the street - and they threw me off when I was asking to borrow a hammer. (Those were really weird examples of "useful exercise")
    - jacquesm 13y ago
      I helped my neighbour build his house, plenty of exercise there, and I re-built my own as well (even more exercise). Nice fringe benefit: I got to know my neighbours really well.
- halostatue 13y ago
  Or social time, if your preferred exercise is either a team sport or a competitive sport (like squash).
- eli_gottlieb 13y ago
  Well damn. I just lift weights, bike, and listen to metal music.
acchow 13y ago
Curious, pizza seems really healthy to me: Cheese, tomatoes, veggies, maybe a tiny bit of meat, the dough isn't really worse than normal bread (get whole wheat dough!)
- mason240 13y ago
  I think the problem is calorie density - 1 piece of a Papa Johns pepperoni pizza has 330 calories.
  - knome 13y ago
    Which would be fine if people ate a slice of pizza as the main course to a meal, instead of half a pizza as a meal.
- jackaltman 13y ago
  It's unhealthy and will make you fat - the dough is normally white bread which is awful for you, wheat bread has a slightly lower glycemic index but more calories and it is still bad for you. Cheese which is incredibly calorie dense and really fattening, tomato paste is basically water. Stay away!
  - hackula1 13y ago
    Still not inherently unhealthy. There is nothing wrong with calorie dense foods, provided you consume them in reasonable portions.
- 001sky 13y ago
  Healthy is perhaps the ~wrong word. You're right in what you say. For example, if you are starving in the sense of being calorically depreived, (american) pizza is quick, efficient, and cost effective nutrition. The problem with pizza is that most people that eat it, are not like the above example. In that case, they need to me more concerned about the effect of the pizza on their sense of satiation and metabolism. That is in addition to stopping eating pizza. While the latter are grey areas, the slope is slippery toward indulgence. Which is simply eating to get the rush/endorphins of eating such a calorically rich and diverse foodstuff. Which sucks if you are a sedentary person, but is NBD if you are michael phelps. =D
drcode 13y ago
Annoyingly, "eat healthy" and "workout" also draw from the same reservoir of will power, making it even harder to address both at once.
- 1123581321 13y ago
  That is why I start with exercise. It makes me feel bad when I eat poorly, so I get the beginnings of diet change for free.
- eli_gottlieb 13y ago
  Really? Might work that way for you, but for me, I use willpower for controlling my diet but receive extra physical and psychological energy from exercising.
- enraged_camel 13y ago
  They only draw from willpower at the beginning. Once they become habits, it takes very little to no effort to do them.
- geoka9 13y ago
  It's actually easier than it sounds. First, start working out regularly; the goal is to get to the point where not working out makes you uncomfortable the way, for example, not brushing teeth does. Once you reach that point, you're all set on the excercise front, because the will power required will be little, just like you don't need much will power to make yourself brush your teeth (I assume). Now you can approach changing your diet. Start by making sure you don't have any "bad" food in your pantry. If you WFH, that's fairly easy. If not, take brown bag lunches with you (and don't work in fancy startups that offer free meals and snacks :p). Some people allow themselves one day per week when they can eat whatever they want to make it easier on themselves. After a while of this you start noticing that you don't crave sugar, carbs, starch, etc. at all. You still enjoy it, you just don't get so much kick out of it. For example, you start noticing that the desserts you used to eat before have become too sweet for your taste.
scotch_drinker 13y ago
If you want measurable results, try CrossFit. It is built around measurable results. Every workout is done in comparison to the last time you did that particular workout. By tracking your results over time, you can quickly measure the progress you have made.
- freyr 13y ago
  If you want measurable results, just start measuring your results. You just need a pad and pencil, and it won't cost you $150 to $200 per month in membership dues.
  - scotch_drinker 13y ago
    Sure but someone coming to fitness as a beginner has no idea what to do much less what to measure. Also, for $1000, you can have a pretty well stocked garage gym (I do) if you are comfortable with most of the exercises. Of course, many of the CrossFit exercises are technically challenging and most people aren't going to feel comfortable teaching themselves. That $150-200 a month isn't just for the equipment. At a good gym, it's for quality coaching. The problem with most exercise plans, professional and amateur alike is that there is no concept of measurement. CrossFit has that built in.
    - smsm42 13y ago
      It's not only coaching - though it's important too. But also both challenge and support. It's one thing trying to do some workout alone and completely other thing doing it with people around you - you could both challenge yourself (this guy can lift this 25 times - why wouldn't I be able at least 10 times? Maybe I should try harder!) and be supported (it's east to tell yourself "ok, I can't do it" when you are alone, but when people around telling you "yes, you can do it!" you have better motivation - and frequently it turns out you indeed can). I discovered that I can't push myself nearly as efficiently in solitary setting as I can in group setting, and that gives results too. I think it is well worth it.
- gknoy 13y ago
pavel_lishin 13y ago
> What would you do? Come up with a minimum viable plan, then iterate, obviously! But seriously, you can start doing simple exercises and improving your diet while you're researching the next step of the plan. Take the stairs instead of the elevator; get off one stop earlier on the bus/train, and walk a little further. Park in the far corner of the parking lot. Do push-ups at home. Eat at least one salad a day. Cut your soda consumption in half, then to nothing. Is there a term for the paralysis you work yourself into because you don't want to start something until you've perfectly researched it?
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
- knome 13y ago
  I can't tell if you're making a reference or genuinely asking. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analysis_paralysis http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analysis_paralysis
  - pavel_lishin 13y ago
    Genuinely asking, thanks!
- bradleysmith 13y ago
  relavant Calvin & Hobbes: http://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/1993/09/21 http://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/1993/09/21
PhrosTT 13y ago
My advice would be to wear a polar heart monitor to the gym and just shoot for X calories per visit. I AM NOT advocating "calories in calories out" but just that it's a constant metric regardless of how you exercise. I'd also say google "starting strength" and do that. It's the first lifting program that's actually been really transformative to my body comp. If you wanna log strength progress try fitocracy or something.
- wrl 13y ago
  Seconding the "Starting Strength" recommendation. It's pooh-poohed by some in the greater strength training community, but for somebody without any prior lifting experience, it got me off to a great start. Some excellent official forums for the book over at http://startingstrength.com/resources/forum/forum.php http://startingstrength.com/resources/forum/forum.php too.
bdunbar 13y ago
> then want to measure my results. I do this. I have a pair of jeans shorts, size X. When the waistband is tight, I'm not exercising enough. When I need a belt, I'm doing 'enough'. It's rough but it works.
kyro 13y ago
That is you rationalizing your procrastination. I'm guilty of it more than anyone. You read and read because you want to do it right. But if I were to put a table of various foods in front of you and asked you to point out the healthiest, you'd succeed. You know what's healthy to eat. You know what simple exercises there are to get started with. You researching so that you can optimize every second is likely a bigger waste of time and energy than eating healthy meals that may not have perfectly optimal macronutrient ratios, or doing exercises that aren't fully isolating a specific muscle group. Just get started.
- jlees 13y ago
  So true. nerdfitness.com has some great articles on this mindset, especially 'Underpants Gnomes': http://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/2012/04/05/underpants-gnomes/ http://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/2012/04/05/underpants-gnomes... There are many, many books, videos and sites that will tell you exactly what to do. The issue is not that "there is nothing that will give you a grocery list and workout plan"; the issue is that you don't think that the ones you find are 100% optimized for your specific situation, so you research and research and research and never make a single change.
jaredsohn 13y ago
As others of said, start by just doing something. In a way, it is similar to coding in that you don't have to know every detail of a language before starting to program. But with respect to your questions: You can figure out how many calories you can eat based on your gender, age, and weight by calculating your TDEE (various calculators can be found online. Advice I've heard is to tell it that your activity level is sedentary since those calories can often be overestimated.) http://www.eatthismuch.com http://www.eatthismuch.com is a website that will plan out meals for you based on calories. I have spent a lot of time researching improving my health over the past year (and have done so) and found the reddit fitness FAQ (http://www.reddit.com/r/Fitness/wiki/faq http://www.reddit.com/r/Fitness/wiki/faq) to be very educational and reasonably short. Highly recommended that people read it. You may also want to check out the myfitnesspal (or similar) mobile app which helps you track your calories. I personally just google foods and use a text file but many people like the app.
tomjen3 13y ago
My big issue with exercise (other than that it sucks) is that it is so 'ungeeky' - it is mostly brainless and you do the same thing over and over again, while you learn very little new and you solve no interesting problems.
- samatman 13y ago
  This is untrue of huge classes of exercise, from team sports to rock climbing to dancing to martial arts. The class of exercises which are boring and repetitive is a tiny subclass of all possible ways to exercise ones body.
  - tomjen3 13y ago
    I never really considered dancing exercise - I just find it fun, but I am so bad at following rythm than I gave it up.
- lutusp 13y ago
  Fair enough, except for three things: 1. If you go out and exercise, by being away from your project, you may acquire a perspective on it, maybe a different way to look at any problems or bugs that may have come up. This has happened to me more tines than I can count. 2. If you want to eventually be a revered sage and teach young people how to code, you have to live long enough to become a sage in the first place. Exercise is a first-rate way to extend your life. 3. You'll experience the so-called "runner's high" that accompanies vigorous exercise. It's better than drugs. I know -- I've tried both -- exercise is better.
smsm42 13y ago
There are a lot of tools, from fitocracy to more specialized sites, which allow you to measure all the aspects of the exercise you'd like. Prerequisite for it would be, of course, actually exercising :) >>> There is nothing that will give you a grocery list + meal plan, along with a workout routine. Why not? There are a lot of gyms and online resources offering workout programs. Same with meal plans - there are tons of diets, from Atkins to Paleo to hundreds in between - each with meticulous meal plans. If anything, for me they're too planned (what if I have to work late? What if I can't eat specific meal at specific time because I need to do something else?) but if it's your cup of tea, there's tons of stuff out there. And there are a lot of exercise plans or organized exercise gyms. You can just come there, do whatever the trainer says and turn you brain off completely, if you'd like.
enraged_camel 13y ago
Shameless plug: I'm actually almost done writing an ebook that tackles this very problem. It is going to be a practical, no-bullshit guide that will give a beginner all the essentials without overwhelming them with useless detail. As an example, one of the things I talk about in the ebook is the value of simplifying your diet as much as possible. I eat the same small group of foods over and over[1], which not only completely eliminates the risk of overeating, but also makes it possible for me to cook an entire week's worth of meals on a Sunday night so that I don't need to worry about it during the week. The latter is particularly useful because I never come back from work and get into the self-destructive "gosh, I'm too tired to cook, I guess I'll just order take-out" mindset. [1]I've learned different ways of cooking them so it never gets boring, at least for me.
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
- tomjen3 13y ago
  Please don't. The problem isn't that there aren't a good exercise plan out there, the problem is that there are too many. Your ebook, rather than try to help that problem, you are only making it worse.
  - enraged_camel 13y ago
    Thank you. I appreciate your vote of confidence. :)
tankbot 13y ago
The best advice I can give for exercising is to turn off your brain (or part of it) for a while. Concentrate on visceral things like breathing and posture, not performance metrics or meal strategies. Let your subconscious chew on technical stuff and focus your attention on being a physical machine that pulls in oxygen and burns fuel to produce energy. Also, try not to get hit by cars! (I ride a bike) This isn't something that needs to be researched, it just needs to get done. Put something together and push it out, gain domain knowledge, refactor, repeat. Experience will be your guide and most of what you read during 'research' won't relate anyway, but you won't realize this until you have the experience. That's assuming the research phase doesn't paralyze you with options and statistics and metrics. You don't need a comprehensive prospectus, just change one thing. Then change another when you feel like it or it makes sense to do so. I could expand on this if anyone is interested. I actually wrote a lot more here but decided it was probably irritating and chopped a bunch off.

jgrahamc 13y ago

I would urge you to very much think of it as 'wasted time'. There's an obsession here from some people with filling every moment with information (such as audio books, podcasts, etc.). While exercising it's a perfect time to have no other stimuli and let your mind wander. Just let it wander. It's really useful to do that because rather than listening to other people's thoughts you'll have thoughts of your own. Unexpected thoughts at that.

acchow 13y ago
Daily exercise can be very efficient if you're doing something like T25 or Insanity. It also improves the quality of your other time.
jacquesm 13y ago
Or better still instead of doing pointless exercise: do something useful. Help someone build a house, go shopping for old ladies in the neighbourhood, chop wood for your stove (or your neighbours stove), chase pickpockets, and if you have them play with your kids (or someone else's kids!). Anything as long as it is useful and you get your exercise.
- samstave 13y ago
  I've been standing on the corner all morning. Zero pickpockets. I went to the construction site across the street - and they threw me off when I was asking to borrow a hammer. (Those were really weird examples of "useful exercise")
  - jacquesm 13y ago
    I helped my neighbour build his house, plenty of exercise there, and I re-built my own as well (even more exercise). Nice fringe benefit: I got to know my neighbours really well.
halostatue 13y ago
Or social time, if your preferred exercise is either a team sport or a competitive sport (like squash).
eli_gottlieb 13y ago
Well damn. I just lift weights, bike, and listen to metal music.

acchow 13y ago

Curious, pizza seems really healthy to me: Cheese, tomatoes, veggies, maybe a tiny bit of meat, the dough isn't really worse than normal bread (get whole wheat dough!)

mason240 13y ago
I think the problem is calorie density - 1 piece of a Papa Johns pepperoni pizza has 330 calories.
- knome 13y ago
  Which would be fine if people ate a slice of pizza as the main course to a meal, instead of half a pizza as a meal.
jackaltman 13y ago
It's unhealthy and will make you fat - the dough is normally white bread which is awful for you, wheat bread has a slightly lower glycemic index but more calories and it is still bad for you. Cheese which is incredibly calorie dense and really fattening, tomato paste is basically water. Stay away!
- hackula1 13y ago
  Still not inherently unhealthy. There is nothing wrong with calorie dense foods, provided you consume them in reasonable portions.
001sky 13y ago
Healthy is perhaps the ~wrong word. You're right in what you say. For example, if you are starving in the sense of being calorically depreived, (american) pizza is quick, efficient, and cost effective nutrition. The problem with pizza is that most people that eat it, are not like the above example. In that case, they need to me more concerned about the effect of the pizza on their sense of satiation and metabolism. That is in addition to stopping eating pizza. While the latter are grey areas, the slope is slippery toward indulgence. Which is simply eating to get the rush/endorphins of eating such a calorically rich and diverse foodstuff. Which sucks if you are a sedentary person, but is NBD if you are michael phelps. =D

drcode 13y ago

Annoyingly, "eat healthy" and "workout" also draw from the same reservoir of will power, making it even harder to address both at once.

1123581321 13y ago
That is why I start with exercise. It makes me feel bad when I eat poorly, so I get the beginnings of diet change for free.
eli_gottlieb 13y ago
Really? Might work that way for you, but for me, I use willpower for controlling my diet but receive extra physical and psychological energy from exercising.
enraged_camel 13y ago
They only draw from willpower at the beginning. Once they become habits, it takes very little to no effort to do them.
geoka9 13y ago
It's actually easier than it sounds. First, start working out regularly; the goal is to get to the point where not working out makes you uncomfortable the way, for example, not brushing teeth does. Once you reach that point, you're all set on the excercise front, because the will power required will be little, just like you don't need much will power to make yourself brush your teeth (I assume). Now you can approach changing your diet. Start by making sure you don't have any "bad" food in your pantry. If you WFH, that's fairly easy. If not, take brown bag lunches with you (and don't work in fancy startups that offer free meals and snacks :p). Some people allow themselves one day per week when they can eat whatever they want to make it easier on themselves. After a while of this you start noticing that you don't crave sugar, carbs, starch, etc. at all. You still enjoy it, you just don't get so much kick out of it. For example, you start noticing that the desserts you used to eat before have become too sweet for your taste.

scotch_drinker 13y ago

If you want measurable results, try CrossFit. It is built around measurable results. Every workout is done in comparison to the last time you did that particular workout. By tracking your results over time, you can quickly measure the progress you have made.

freyr 13y ago
If you want measurable results, just start measuring your results. You just need a pad and pencil, and it won't cost you $150 to $200 per month in membership dues.
- scotch_drinker 13y ago
  Sure but someone coming to fitness as a beginner has no idea what to do much less what to measure. Also, for $1000, you can have a pretty well stocked garage gym (I do) if you are comfortable with most of the exercises. Of course, many of the CrossFit exercises are technically challenging and most people aren't going to feel comfortable teaching themselves. That $150-200 a month isn't just for the equipment. At a good gym, it's for quality coaching. The problem with most exercise plans, professional and amateur alike is that there is no concept of measurement. CrossFit has that built in.
  - smsm42 13y ago
    It's not only coaching - though it's important too. But also both challenge and support. It's one thing trying to do some workout alone and completely other thing doing it with people around you - you could both challenge yourself (this guy can lift this 25 times - why wouldn't I be able at least 10 times? Maybe I should try harder!) and be supported (it's east to tell yourself "ok, I can't do it" when you are alone, but when people around telling you "yes, you can do it!" you have better motivation - and frequently it turns out you indeed can). I discovered that I can't push myself nearly as efficiently in solitary setting as I can in group setting, and that gives results too. I think it is well worth it.
gknoy 13y ago

pavel_lishin 13y ago

> What would you do? Come up with a minimum viable plan, then iterate, obviously! But seriously, you can start doing simple exercises and improving your diet while you're researching the next step of the plan. Take the stairs instead of the elevator; get off one stop earlier on the bus/train, and walk a little further. Park in the far corner of the parking lot. Do push-ups at home. Eat at least one salad a day. Cut your soda consumption in half, then to nothing. Is there a term for the paralysis you work yourself into because you don't want to start something until you've perfectly researched it?

deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
knome 13y ago
I can't tell if you're making a reference or genuinely asking. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analysis_paralysis http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analysis_paralysis
- pavel_lishin 13y ago
  Genuinely asking, thanks!
bradleysmith 13y ago
relavant Calvin & Hobbes: http://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/1993/09/21 http://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/1993/09/21

PhrosTT 13y ago

My advice would be to wear a polar heart monitor to the gym and just shoot for X calories per visit. I AM NOT advocating "calories in calories out" but just that it's a constant metric regardless of how you exercise. I'd also say google "starting strength" and do that. It's the first lifting program that's actually been really transformative to my body comp. If you wanna log strength progress try fitocracy or something.

wrl 13y ago
Seconding the "Starting Strength" recommendation. It's pooh-poohed by some in the greater strength training community, but for somebody without any prior lifting experience, it got me off to a great start. Some excellent official forums for the book over at http://startingstrength.com/resources/forum/forum.php http://startingstrength.com/resources/forum/forum.php too.

bdunbar 13y ago

> then want to measure my results. I do this. I have a pair of jeans shorts, size X. When the waistband is tight, I'm not exercising enough. When I need a belt, I'm doing 'enough'. It's rough but it works.

kyro 13y ago

That is you rationalizing your procrastination. I'm guilty of it more than anyone. You read and read because you want to do it right. But if I were to put a table of various foods in front of you and asked you to point out the healthiest, you'd succeed. You know what's healthy to eat. You know what simple exercises there are to get started with. You researching so that you can optimize every second is likely a bigger waste of time and energy than eating healthy meals that may not have perfectly optimal macronutrient ratios, or doing exercises that aren't fully isolating a specific muscle group. Just get started.

jlees 13y ago
So true. nerdfitness.com has some great articles on this mindset, especially 'Underpants Gnomes': http://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/2012/04/05/underpants-gnomes/ http://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/2012/04/05/underpants-gnomes... There are many, many books, videos and sites that will tell you exactly what to do. The issue is not that "there is nothing that will give you a grocery list and workout plan"; the issue is that you don't think that the ones you find are 100% optimized for your specific situation, so you research and research and research and never make a single change.

jaredsohn 13y ago

As others of said, start by just doing something. In a way, it is similar to coding in that you don't have to know every detail of a language before starting to program. But with respect to your questions: You can figure out how many calories you can eat based on your gender, age, and weight by calculating your TDEE (various calculators can be found online. Advice I've heard is to tell it that your activity level is sedentary since those calories can often be overestimated.) http://www.eatthismuch.com http://www.eatthismuch.com is a website that will plan out meals for you based on calories. I have spent a lot of time researching improving my health over the past year (and have done so) and found the reddit fitness FAQ (http://www.reddit.com/r/Fitness/wiki/faq http://www.reddit.com/r/Fitness/wiki/faq) to be very educational and reasonably short. Highly recommended that people read it. You may also want to check out the myfitnesspal (or similar) mobile app which helps you track your calories. I personally just google foods and use a text file but many people like the app.

tomjen3 13y ago

My big issue with exercise (other than that it sucks) is that it is so 'ungeeky' - it is mostly brainless and you do the same thing over and over again, while you learn very little new and you solve no interesting problems.

samatman 13y ago
This is untrue of huge classes of exercise, from team sports to rock climbing to dancing to martial arts. The class of exercises which are boring and repetitive is a tiny subclass of all possible ways to exercise ones body.
- tomjen3 13y ago
  I never really considered dancing exercise - I just find it fun, but I am so bad at following rythm than I gave it up.
lutusp 13y ago
Fair enough, except for three things: 1. If you go out and exercise, by being away from your project, you may acquire a perspective on it, maybe a different way to look at any problems or bugs that may have come up. This has happened to me more tines than I can count. 2. If you want to eventually be a revered sage and teach young people how to code, you have to live long enough to become a sage in the first place. Exercise is a first-rate way to extend your life. 3. You'll experience the so-called "runner's high" that accompanies vigorous exercise. It's better than drugs. I know -- I've tried both -- exercise is better.

smsm42 13y ago

There are a lot of tools, from fitocracy to more specialized sites, which allow you to measure all the aspects of the exercise you'd like. Prerequisite for it would be, of course, actually exercising :) >>> There is nothing that will give you a grocery list + meal plan, along with a workout routine. Why not? There are a lot of gyms and online resources offering workout programs. Same with meal plans - there are tons of diets, from Atkins to Paleo to hundreds in between - each with meticulous meal plans. If anything, for me they're too planned (what if I have to work late? What if I can't eat specific meal at specific time because I need to do something else?) but if it's your cup of tea, there's tons of stuff out there. And there are a lot of exercise plans or organized exercise gyms. You can just come there, do whatever the trainer says and turn you brain off completely, if you'd like.

enraged_camel 13y ago

Shameless plug: I'm actually almost done writing an ebook that tackles this very problem. It is going to be a practical, no-bullshit guide that will give a beginner all the essentials without overwhelming them with useless detail. As an example, one of the things I talk about in the ebook is the value of simplifying your diet as much as possible. I eat the same small group of foods over and over[1], which not only completely eliminates the risk of overeating, but also makes it possible for me to cook an entire week's worth of meals on a Sunday night so that I don't need to worry about it during the week. The latter is particularly useful because I never come back from work and get into the self-destructive "gosh, I'm too tired to cook, I guess I'll just order take-out" mindset. [1]I've learned different ways of cooking them so it never gets boring, at least for me.

deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
tomjen3 13y ago
Please don't. The problem isn't that there aren't a good exercise plan out there, the problem is that there are too many. Your ebook, rather than try to help that problem, you are only making it worse.
- enraged_camel 13y ago
  Thank you. I appreciate your vote of confidence. :)

tankbot 13y ago

The best advice I can give for exercising is to turn off your brain (or part of it) for a while. Concentrate on visceral things like breathing and posture, not performance metrics or meal strategies. Let your subconscious chew on technical stuff and focus your attention on being a physical machine that pulls in oxygen and burns fuel to produce energy. Also, try not to get hit by cars! (I ride a bike) This isn't something that needs to be researched, it just needs to get done. Put something together and push it out, gain domain knowledge, refactor, repeat. Experience will be your guide and most of what you read during 'research' won't relate anyway, but you won't realize this until you have the experience. That's assuming the research phase doesn't paralyze you with options and statistics and metrics. You don't need a comprehensive prospectus, just change one thing. Then change another when you feel like it or it makes sense to do so. I could expand on this if anyone is interested. I actually wrote a lot more here but decided it was probably irritating and chopped a bunch off.