Reddit mentions of The Happy Body: The Simple Science of Nutrition, Exercise, and Relaxation

Hey there!

I saw your post a month or so ago and meant to respond but have had a rather full schedule. Better late than never, right? Thanks for sharing as much as you have; it seems like you really do want to turn things around and simply need to be advised which direction to go in.

RE: thewayipray's comment

First, let me address the previous comments, which seem to be based mainly on emotion and personal experience without much regard for logical or scientific reasoning. The first Redditor provides some good advice (and a bit that I disagree with).

Point #1

Exercise is necessary, but running is not the best choice starting out- especially if you've had trouble sticking to exercise in the past. In fact, exercise is not the first thing you should focus on.

If you want to lose weight, all you have to do is eat less calories than you expend. Exercise "burns" less calories than most people think; the majority of weight loss comes from proper nutrition.

Once you start eating right and can consistently do so for about a month, slowly phase in some exercise that gets your heart pumping. I am well aware of the fact that this can all be A LOT to apply at once and that nutrition and exercise are a necessary evil for people instead of a fun hobby.

With that in mind, I'd recommend throwing away any other fitness advice you've been given and follow the advice from Aniela and Jerzy Gregorak, former olympic weightlifters that have trained the young, the middle aged, the old and even people with physical disorders to do AMAZING things.

Their book, the Happy Body is the best program you will find for someone just venturing into nutrition and exercise.

Points #2 & #3

As far as this Redditor's points #2 and #3, I have not read the book or watched the video so I can not comment on either of those specifically. However, I have heard that the book has helped many people.

What I will say is that you should focus on improving yourself and overcoming your anxieties before you can hope to find a healthy relationship with someone else. If you don't know and understand yourself, how will you connect deeply with someone else?

Point #4

On to point 4, I agree with the suggestion to attempt some form of meditation. Further, the Take 10 meditation from Headspace is what I personally used to get into meditation. As to your question: religion does not factor into the practice of meditation AT ALL. You can (and the Take 10 program is) completely secular and devoid of any "woo."

Scientific studies have suggested meditation helps with stress, focus, cardiovascular health and more.

RE: shunny14's comment

The second Redditor doesn't provide much good advice aside from echoing the sentiments of the first regarding the benefits of meditation. As I noted before, you need to work on yourself to some extent before pushing into the dating world.

How I went from 12hr/ day to 10 minutes/ week on electronics

The only thing I'd like to add (as opposed to the clarifications I posted above) is that it seems that the two things you wish to work on come down to cutting out some electronic media out of your "entertainment diet." I used to struggle with it extensively (8-12+ hours daily) and now am at a point where I go weeks where I cumulatively watch maybe 5-10 minutes of video- so I have some experience with this.

I won't go into the science, though there is MUCH on understanding habits (such as the phenomenal book by Duhigg) and porn addiction). There is more, but I think I've provided enough and can substantiate what I'm about to say if need be.

Because television (internet television show and movie streaming platforms specifically) was so difficult a crutch to stop leaning on, I ended up cancelling my subscriptions ENTIRELY. No Netflix, no Amazon, etc. What about video games? Since I also could not control myself with those, I sold the ones I most enjoyed to GameStop.

THE NEXT STEP IS CRUCIAL: I found other more productive or gratifying activities to replace these unproductive, energy sapping, time sucking activities That includes things like reading, radio-control collective pitch helicopters (not mall heli's... ones that can do this: fast-forward to 2:40), and bonsai trees.

It's absolutely important you replace one activity with another that you enjoy, or you'll feel cheated and likely revert back to your previous interests. Again, I can go into a LOT of depth here, but I won't.

I hope this helps and please let me know if you'd like any further clarification :)