SOMETHING INTERESTING: "It is not your fault for wanting to stay on the couch."

Don't be too hard on yourself for wanting to stay on the couch. Research shows that our tendency to be inactive is due to our inherent drive to conserve energy. In the past, our ancestors had to expend energy while hunting or searching for food and shelter, meaning they would have had short bursts of physical activity for immediate gains. It's unlikely that our nomadic ancestors would have gone for a jog or run just for pleasure. Our biology evolved to be efficient with energy usage. However, in today's world, where high-calorie food is readily available, and we no longer have to hunt for food, inactivity has resulted in obesity and many chronic diseases, such as diabetes and high blood pressure.

Since we are wired to conserve energy, we choose the easiest path with the least resistance or friction. This is why relying solely on willpower is not sustainable for long-term change if there is too much resistance to making good choices. If you want to eat healthier, it's best to make healthy snacks easily accessible and put the unhealthy snacks in harder-to-reach places. This way, healthy snacks become the default choice. Attaching a reward to exercise can increase motivation. For instance, I plan to reward myself with a few blocks of dark chocolate after completing 30 minutes of exercise.

Companies take advantage of people's tendency to choose the easiest option, making it difficult to return goods and terminate memberships, so we tend to resist doing so.Too much friction can discourage you from making healthy choices. For example, cooking a healthy meal can be discouraging when most of the pots need washing or when I need to go to the store for more ingredients. When there is too much resistance, we tend to choose the path of least resistance, which is why we often end up choosing microwave dinners and fast food drive-thrus. I hope you will start identifying the frictions that take away your motivation for achieving your goals.You can begin by removing the friction causing the most distress in your life today.

Thank you for visiting my post. I would love to hear your thoughts on this topic.

References

Oaklander, M. (2015, September 10). Here’s proof that you are wired to be lazy. TIME. https://time.com/4027942/lazy-walking-exercise/

Selinger, J., O’Connor, S., Wong, J., & Donelan, J. . (2015). Humans can continuously optimize energetic cost during walking. Current Biology, 25(18), 2452-2456. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2015.08.016