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Wellness Wednesday for October 4, 2023

The Wednesday Wellness threads are meant to encourage users to ask for and provide advice and motivation to improve their lives. It isn't intended as a 'containment thread' and any content which could go here could instead be posted in its own thread. You could post:

  • Requests for advice and / or encouragement. On basically any topic and for any scale of problem.

  • Updates to let us know how you are doing. This provides valuable feedback on past advice / encouragement and will hopefully make people feel a little more motivated to follow through. If you want to be reminded to post your update, see the post titled 'update reminders', below.

  • Advice. This can be in response to a request for advice or just something that you think could be generally useful for many people here.

  • Encouragement. Probably best directed at specific users, but if you feel like just encouraging people in general I don't think anyone is going to object. I don't think I really need to say this, but just to be clear; encouragement should have a generally positive tone and not shame people (if people feel that shame might be an effective tool for motivating people, please discuss this so we can form a group consensus on how to use it rather than just trying it).

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I've always hated cardio...

Not to be too tedious, but what have you tried? Have you biked anywhere cool? Tried trail-running anywhere that's beautiful? Gotten fit enough to feel competitive in local races? I know it's ultimately not going to be for everyone, but it sure seems like a lot of the hating cardio that people experience is dealing with the initial stages of it just generally feeling shitty until you're fit enough to do it easily. I would encourage you to try out some of the more interesting modalities and above all slow down until it genuinely feels easy. Half-assing HIIT (which really should be a physically and mentally difficult and draining activity) is basically just not doing HIIT, as where aerobic fitness gains can come from surprisingly easy efforts.

I have. Of the cardio sports I come closest to enjoying, I enjoy swimming the most, but don't have a pool I can use that's within a reasonable range. I'm not a very competitive person, and much prefer personal challenges.

If I had a really nice bike I would consider it, but I don't live in a terribly bike-friendly area.