Keep Going. Don’t stop! Create Inertia!

Let’s talk how I have lost weight in the past multiple times. I did it by creating inertia. I used the power of habits, and I realized that exercise is a keystone habit. Naw, I stumbled on it. I didn’t know exercise was the keystone of anything much less habit. Speaking of keystones, what’s that. Let me google that for you. Anyway, I wanted to lose weight. I realized food in = food out. So, I changed my eating habits. Yet, it never really stuck. I’d lose weight, but it would bottom out. I would gain it back. When did it work and stay off for longer periods of times? As long as I created inertia with exercise and eating healthy, it would work.

Sometime 10 to 15 years ago, I was very motivated to lose weight, and I was getting desperate.  I decided to try consistent exercise. I heard from someone, maybe my brother, that had tried the eight minute workout.

As an aside, We all make fun of it. In fact, if I recall properly, There’s Something About Mary, takes jabs at the workout. Still. It works. Why? You go from being sedentary, to increasing your muscle. You burn more calories. Its easy. Doesn’t everyone have room for 10 minutes to exercise? We can squeeze that in?

Really, though, that was the key for me. I made the exercise goal so ridiculously easy for me, that I could not say no. I had to do it. Exercise for two minutes everyday after you wake up in the morning, and before you shower. You can do that, can’t you? throw on some shorts and a shirt (don’t bother with socks and shoes) and do some exercise at home/hotel/anywhere for two minutes. Do that for a week, then expand to 5 minutes, 10 minutes as your body allows.

This is the exact way I worked myself into triathlon shape. I first started with the 8 minute workouts. I did these workouts regularly for a period of three months. I was liking my results, and I realized I was starting to plateau, so I decided to try a different set of exercise. I moved to the Abs Diet workout which was more like 20 to 40 minutes. I did that regularly for a while, then I decided to move up to Triathlons. So, I started walking slowly and swimming slowly. Then, I expanded to running, and biking at short distances, and I slowly increased duration and distance Nice and Easy. I was hooked on the exercise. I had a goal of competing in the Triathlon and I had a plan to follow. I made it dead easy for myself.

I created Inertia and not momentum. Now, time for the science lesson. Let me explain. We often say, I need to keep exercising. I need to keep the momentum going.

Momentum is mass times velocity. In other words, If I have a heavy ball, and I start rolling it, the ball will take a large quantity of force to get it moving. Once the ball is moving, it will take a large quantity of force to stop it from moving. If I have a light ball, it will obviously take less force to start and to stop. The lighter ball has less momentum.

What we really want is inertia. An object doesn’t like to change motion. That’s what inertia is. For example, when I am sedentary for multiple days in a row. The inertia of not exercising kicks in, and my body has to overcome that force before I can even start exercising. The opposite is true. If I can keep exercising, Its better for the body to stay consistent with exercise.

When people say, exercise gets easier the longer you do it. They are talking about inertia. Exercise gets easier to start and complete the longer you do it especially when you exercise at the same time everyday. Your body and your mind, don’t want to compete with the inertia of your exercise force. Its similar to the Jerry Seinfeld Productivity Hack. We can use this Inertia to our advantage in any task we want to achieve. The key is to start so ridiculously small and be so motivated, that you’d be ashamed to not exercise. Exercise and Eating and being healthy much of it is a matter of overcoming inertia and bad habits.

Weight Loss is 80% mental and 20% physical.

The key really is not to have screwed up psyche. Many of us do, and if you are overweight, don’t be ashamed to reach out to a professional psychologist and/or a professional mind-coach. I’d suggest cognitive behavior therapy as away for you to change your mental state to become more successful. Now, How do we do it?

Put Inertia in practice.

  1. Pick a time of day to exercise.
  2. Pick a type of exercise.
  3. Pick a quantity of time.
  4. Put it on your schedule, Make alarms in your phone to remind you. Write it on your shower curtain, your shower door, the bath-tub. Put your clothes out the night before. Make it so easy, that Exercise becomes immutable.

If you don’t know what exercise to pick, I’d suggest the 7-minute workout. you might need to adjust the exercise, for example, doing push-ups on a chair or whatever, but you can do the exercises. If you feel your muscles are really tight and have difficulty moving after you sit for a while, Maybe for you, the exercise is 10 minutes of yoga stretching. Heck, if it has to be 2 minutes of walking. Then, so be it, make it so easier that you can overcome the inertia of your exercise-less force. Soon, the inertia will switch to consistent exercise.

Now, I just need to realize I fell off the horse, and we all do it. The best thing for me is to follow my own advice, start small, and get back up on the horse. Two minutes of exercise here I come.

May the Inertia Be With You!