Juggling vices.

[Metalhead]

I gave up hard drugs and alcohol. I replaced them with retail therapy and the Internet. Why can I not be addicted to exercise? Why are potato chips more addictive than vegetables? Why is procrastinating more addictive than the more fulfilling moments of accomplishment? Why are the cheaper thrills more enticing than the more meaningful moments?

We could start a philosophical debate about this here.

 

[Thinx]

Shopping and Internet use. There are some more benign ways to use these, get art and craft materials and make things? Or learn about writing or other creative pursuits? Collect free stuff like beach pebbles. Arranging them is very soothing I find. Beachcombing is great. And free. Gardening is free. Grow salad or other fruit or veg. And pumpkins of course. Make soup.

You can be addicted to exercise, so it's great that you aren't. But actually it can be enjoyable and fun as well as helping with fitness. I love walking and looking at views.

I think it's the salt that makes those crisps and snacks so addictive. But they are avoidable if I don't buy them... difficult though.

Procrastination instead of working towards goals is probably due to anxieties that underlie addictions. Maybe do therapy on this?

Well, I don't find cheap thrills enticing , but maybe you are denying your needs and these distract you from how unfulfilled that can leave you feeling?

 

[Misery]

Why are the cheaper thrills more enticing than the more meaningful moments?

Well, sometimes the meaningful moments arent quite so meaningful, and THAT doesnt help... Like, exercise is nice and all, but it's made a million times harder if it takes a form you dont like or is boring.

Have you tried looking for different methods of exercising? Like, I know if I were using a gym, I wouldnt last more than a couple of weeks... because it'd be super boring (it never exactly changes much) and there'd be a bunch of people there.

But, going hiking through forests and such? I aint gonna tire of that.

It's the same with other things.

Why not try looking for a constructive hobby? I mean, a hobby that involves the making of something. Could be art, could be, I dunno, origami pigs, whatever. Something that takes time and skill but results in something that you can hold and show to others, and gain more skill at as you go.

It's something I have to deal with as well, for what it's worth. That tendency to sort of get "stuck" to the internet. And indeed, getting additional hobbies was what I needed to get out of it.

Overall, give your mind more to do, and you may find yourself doing the "nothing" of watching the internet less and less.

 

[Metalhead]

Well, sometimes the meaningful moments arent quite so meaningful, and THAT doesnt help... Like, exercise is nice and all, but it's made a million times harder if it takes a form you dont like or is boring.

Have you tried looking for different methods of exercising? Like, I know if I were using a gym, I wouldnt last more than a couple of weeks... because it'd be super boring (it never exactly changes much) and there'd be a bunch of people there.

But, going hiking through forests and such? I aint gonna tire of that.

It's the same with other things.

Why not try looking for a constructive hobby? I mean, a hobby that involves the making of something. Could be art, could be, I dunno, origami pigs, whatever. Something that takes time and skill but results in something that you can hold and show to others, and gain more skill at as you go.

It's something I have to deal with as well, for what it's worth. That tendency to sort of get "stuck" to the internet. And indeed, getting additional hobbies was what I needed to get out of it.

Overall, give your mind more to do, and you may find yourself doing the "nothing" of watching the internet less and less.

I do not mind doing cardio in a gym. I keep things interesting by listening to music I never heard before on my Apple Music subscription. I do want to learn how to speak Spanish fluently to make myself more valuable at my job, though.

 

[Bolletje]

very relatable. I also quit drugs and alcohol and now I have come to the realization I am a literal shopaholic. It takes so much effort not to buy things, especially through ads I see while aimlessly browsing social media. Or paid content for video games.

I remember my boyfriend’s addiction counselor telling him that when he gave up drinking he would need to replace it with another activity to trigger his brain, like sex or cooking or working out, but I seem to have forgotten to do this for myself.

 

[Fino]

It seems that the only thing that can keep me from purchasing things is having absolutely no money.

 

[Slime_Punk]

You just have to tweak your brain a little bit. Trust me, it's easy!

The whole trick for me was to find the short-term benefit in doing what's right for me. For example, instead of focusing on exercise helping me lose weight and gain muscle, I focused on how good I felt if I continued to do it daily (this alone was strong enough to pull me out of alcoholism years ago, since the two couldn't coexist). I just started with 10-20 minutes per day and now it's just part of my routine to get 45+ minutes (although some days, out of necessity, I get way more, due to other things that require daily upkeep).

The same goes for eating healthy; if you try it for a consistent 2 weeks - 2 months, you'll never want to go back. And if you do, you'll realize how needlessly depressed or anxious you feel (these seem to be way more common than you'd think). I have a little help in this department because of medical issues making absolute sure I do no wrong, but I wouldn't exactly consider myself 'lucky'. There are plenty of people in my position who don't do this, too.

You can just start by having a smoothie each day, mowing your own lawn (if applicable), or getting 10 minutes of structured exercise in per day (stretching counts!). I can bust any time / money myth that people throw around, too. You don't need extra time or money; most of the time, it takes less money to eat healthy than eating unhealthily and less time to exercise than doing leisurely activities that people engage in instead.

Also, if you don't have time to cook, you just need some good crockpot meals you can toss in before work.
How many more myths to go? lol

Even on the off chance I'm wrong and you can survive on less, is the investment worth it? I can answer that one for myself, but that choice is each of ours to make!

 

[Knower of nothing]

Self-reflecting ramble, no practical tips here:
What's the point of being in shape if all your end goal amounts to is envisioning yourself sitting around at age 50-90 without health issues? We aren't as obsessed with eternal self-preservation as that fear of change may make you believe we are. We seek simple A to B goals.
So where do you want to go that requires being in shape? What's your point B? For those who find exercise to be a pain, they usually have no immediate answer to this. They don't want to do anything, they just want to not have health or self-image issues.

Here's common reasons I know of that put people in exercise routines: Bragging rights and personal pride, physically-demanding hobbies and careers, and intrinsic satisfaction within the exercise activities themselves.
Respectively these are rougly the social element, the goalpost element and the instant gratification element. There's a ton of overlap between all of these though.
The "tricks" suggested in this thread, then, are ways to manipulate yourself into discovering some of these elements so your brain learns of them. Like for example building a dependency on the benefits you get from the activity, effectively making quitting something that you'd need to go out of your way to do.

Addiction is only defined as such because of the harm and disruption it brings into our lives and role in serving society, but addiction is also fundamentally an extreme of a thought-hijacking system the brain uses to decide priorities. It's inherent to the pathway construction and reinforcement to draw the links of "this action = feel good". It's just not a very smart system. It doesn't understand the scale of time and consequence that we can grasp logically. It's just chemical reinforcement. Pleasure and fear are king here.

Be shamed for doing something a few times -> build a pathway associating the action with fear of shame -> never show yourself doing that thing around others again. It's a painfully straightforward system of behavior adaptation.
I think recognizing the powerful role it plays in all of our motivations (from which we derive our thoughts and opinions pertaining to what we care about) is the first great step in beginning to work around it. To essentially recognize your desires and their associated thoughts as something you experience, like any other sense, rather than as a part of who you are. If you stare into the sun it creates spots in your vision, if you fill your day with easy pleasure seeking activities you'll have no will to do anything that takes effort. These are the same in that you don't choose to have spots in your vision, it's not your identity or your character or your soul or even your will. It's the raw simple consequence of that moment. Divorce motivation from self. Maybe that way a lethargic procrastination can be experienced akin to a strained muscle rather than some failure of your being. You weren't careful enough that time, you didn't do your stretches. But it's not the end of the world. It's your muscles, but it's not you. I hope these analogies help.

tl;dr: 1) You need concrete desirable goals to generate motivation. 2) Externalizing and understanding motivation and its source may help to view the situation with clarity from the outside rather than as a confusing internal conflict. As well as helping to take care of it like any other part of your body rather than just demanding yourself to be okay.

 

[Jordy]

Humans never had to do dull repetitive exercise for the sake of staying in shape, its unnatural. The best way to get in shape is to find an enjoyable activity where exercise is a fortunate side effect, not the main goal. This week I spend more time sweating beat saber than i ever did on a treadmill.

 

[Aneka]

I gave up hard drugs and alcohol. I replaced them with retail therapy and the Internet. Why can I not be addicted to exercise? Why are potato chips more addictive than vegetables? Why is procrastinating more addictive than the more fulfilling moments of accomplishment? Why are the cheaper thrills more enticing than the more meaningful moments?

We could start a philosophical debate about this here.

Den Weg des geringsten Widerstandes gehen/ Taking the path of least resistance. Seems like the same proverb exists in both English and German? Interesting.

Anyways, it's true: Humans are lazy creatures and laziness is the reason civilization and technological advancement exist.
Wasting as little energy as possible to get the most out of it is a survival technique.

Sugar and fat are rich in calories and cause a dopamine rush: Congratulations human, you have found a nourishing source of food! More! Now! Prepare for bad times.
That doesn't mean it's healthy but we wouldn't be here anymore if we were made differently
Today, no longer being hunterers and gatherers puts as at a disadvantage.

 

[Misery]

Humans never had to do dull repetitive exercise for the sake of staying in shape, its unnatural. The best way to get in shape is to find an enjoyable activity where exercise is a fortunate side effect, not the main goal. This week I spend more time sweating beat saber than i ever did on a treadmill.

Yeah, I'll second this. Definitely the best way: finding something fun where exercise is just a lovely extra bonus, not the whole activity.

 

[Metalhead]

I discovered my gym has a sauna. And a steam room. An hour of cardio while listening to upbeat hip hop followed by fifteen minutes of relaxation in a sauna - I am digging that. The exercise itself is boring, but I am finding that the music makes it enjoyable for me. I am easy to please.

10 pounds lost last month! Hell yeah!

 

[Slime_Punk]

Yeah, I'll second this. Definitely the best way: finding something fun where exercise is just a lovely extra bonus, not the whole activity.

Activity-pairing can be pretty powerful. I don't allow myself to watch YT videos (even the informative ones I'm usually after) unless I'm working out, so mostly the habit was really easy to build the more I was willing to stick to the self-imposed rule. I honestly couldn't exercise without some kind of visual stimulation now.

Even though I'm a huge fan of music and books, I found that those didn't work as well for me as YT videos because they can make you pretty oblivious (depending on your personal mileage / interest) to how much time is passing. I'm sure for others, TV would even work in a similar fashion if they needed that extra motivation to get started.

I have no idea how people just do it staring at a wall of whatever, but that's way too boring for me, too.

 

[Metalhead]

Oddly enough, I am craving an ice cold beer right now. Maybe that’s not so odd because I am a recovering alcoholic. But I have not had that craving for a while. Maybe it’s the heat outside inspiring it.

I am going to the mini mart to buy a Diet Dr Pepper instead. One vice for another. At least the Diet Dr Pepper will not kill my liver.