Relatedly: I hate, hate, hate going to the gym. However, it is the most productive use of one hour a day I can think of. I have more energy and get more done when I go, and the benefits appear to compound in those months when I'm very consistent about going. (Can one of you guys invent a way for this to suck less? I'll pay you money. At the moment I just give myself EpicWin points for going, trying to trigger the WoW neurotransmitters...)
Try Rock Climbing. You get all the benefits of the gym (it works pretty much everything), plus all the leveling up benefits from WoW.
Every sport climb and boulder problem is graded. Most of them you won't be able to do. You'll need to spend weeks at first to get good enough to even do the easy ones. The hard ones will take years to get strong enough for, and even then will still require you dedicate a month of specific training for that one single route.
Leveling up? It's got that too. Climb at the gym for a while and soon you'll get to the point where you've done your first V1 problem. V2 is an order of magnitude harder, as is V3. The scale goes to V16 (at the moment), and 15 years of motivation have thus far only gotten me as far as V8. Given the dedication of a recovering WoW addict, I think climbing would fit your psyche perfectly.
Oh, and it's crazy fun too, so no more of this "I should go to the gym" crap. You'll go. You'll be upset if work intrudes on your climbing time. You'll start taking climbing trips instead of vacations, and eventually forget when it was that you last boarded a flight without your rock shoes.
You'll start spending your winters climbing rocks at Tonsai beach [1] in Thailand. I'll buy you a beer when you get there.
Definitely agree that some kind of sport which is fun and requires and rewards fitness is the way to go. Rock climbing is great, but biking, hiking, kayaking, etc. would all work as well.
SCUBA sort of works, but isn't really strenuous enough.
Biking would also work, since performance is measurable. Though probably not to the same degree as climbing. Hiking and Kayaking are great, but probably wouldn't fit the World of Warcraft-esque requirement for measurable improvements to simulate leveling up.
SCUBA has measurable goals, but alas they mostly just measure how much money you've spent on SCUBA diving instruction. (I've spent enough to get myself to Rescue Diver.)
Chances are your town has a climbing gym (or a half dozen of them). They'll have a section of low walls over big fat pads that you can play on without ropes (known as bouldering, and actually more popular than roped climbing in places). They'll also rent you a pair of rock shoes and a chalk bag. You can just turn up and they'll hook you up with everything you need to try it out.
Come back with a friend when they're not busy and get them to teach you how to tie knots and stop each other from hitting the ground when you fall, then give toproping a try.
While you're there, notice that most people around you aren't taking it too seriously, and are mostly there to socialize. Talk to some of them and you'll quickly find yourself invited out on the rock next weekend.
Really? I think SCUBA can be one of the most exhausting. You work your legs hard if there is a current. Not a cheap sport you can do anytime you want though.
If you're working your legs that hard, you're going to have a short dive. With jet fins, even in "strong" currents, exercise has never been my limiting factor -- just concern that I'd be using up my air too quickly for a good dive. In really strong currents (Atlantic wrecks), you use lines and otherwise try to minimize current swimming).
It's not zero energy, but I get more exercise loading and unloading cylinders on the boat than I do actually diving.
Oh man I agree with this so much. I actually hate it when other parts of my life intrude on my climbing. I have trouble thinking about vacations unless it's a climbing trip. It's also a very social thing to do. Many(most?) of the climbers at my gym are highly educated and employed in some form of engineering, programming, law work, etc....
Great exercise and addicting in a good way. It's a side benefit that the girls that climb regularly are very fit and attractive.
Start doing things that are very physical but aren't repetitive or boring. I climb. Gymnastics works. Swimming is great for you. Start running outdoors. If you go to a normal gym, listen to podcasts or good music while you're there, or talk to new people.
Or boxing! I prefer Muay Thai, but any competitive fighting sport is good, and almost any city will have some variety of boxing gym available.
It's a good skill to have in general, but it's difficult to beat in terms of a workout (especially if you go to a gym that doesn't coddle). When I run, sometimes I get lazy and go slowly for a bit. When working the bag, though, I slow down and the guy that runs the gym will notice and yell. Even better, when sparring, if you slow down and get lazy, you will get hit, so you squeeze every ounce of energy out. It's valuable for the mind, too, as it keeps your mind from wandering and forces you to pay attention to what you're doing because if you stop thinking about strategy or recognizing patterns the other fighter is showing, again, you get hit. And it begins to be the most relaxing thing you do, when you go into a room where there is no computer, no cell phone, no distraction, just what you're doing now. (It's also surprising how much strategy goes into hitting people; it broadens the mind.)
I've found that increasing the demands I make on my body causes me to naturally eat better. Your body makes demands; for example a lack of iron may cause you to crave beef. Training made me start drinking more water and less coffee, and fast food started to actually taste bad. It's like turning up the volume on your body's demands, so what is healthy and what tastes good to you start to align.
The first two weeks are the worst, but it's addictive after that.
I also found martial arts to be a great workout! Sparring was a lot of fun (especially against people from different styles) and burned a lot of calories. Now, I play badminton--it's not sparring, but it does move quickly :>
In all seriousness? Why not enter into a social contract with me. I will repay you a percentage of a lump sum for every time you go to the gym. When you don't go, I'll donate it to the RSPCA instead.
Money is empirically less effective at motivating me than magic purple pixels. Seriously, the subjective experience of being offered $X00,000 was a lot less fun than most WoW loot upgrades. Offering me $10 of my own money won't get me to go to the gym.
I quit WoW a while ago, and restarting WoW to get me to go to the gym more often sounds like it will be as effective as addressing tooth decay with an icepick. But if you can capture the magic of "Ding! Gratz!" for me when I'm at the gym, I'd pay you a substantial portion of the hmm $6k I have spent at my gym.
You can do the same contract on yourself but switch the "don't go" to donating to the BNP/Republican Party/similar. A great way to ensure you never give in.
Putting the BNP alongside the US Republican Party is a bit controversial. I'm not sure American politics permits a fair comparison to the BNP (a party that were taken to court before the last general election because their rules essentially didn't permit black people to join) - the Klan are essentially a terrorist/paramilitary organisation. Is there an American Nazi political party?
Putting the BNP alongside the US Republican Party is a bit controversial.
Though not in the context I was under. I was listing organizations that the general swarm of liberal types on sites like HN may feel strongly polarized against.
I could extend the list to something like BNP/Republican Party/Microsoft/SCO's legal fund/the Nazi party - the list is valid even though comparing Microsoft to the Nazi party makes little sense in any other context.
Er, yes? Guess what the first results are when you type in "American Nazi Party?" That's right - the homepage of just such an organization.
I rather doubt they have any real influence or electability, though. As bad as the dichotomy in US politics is /now/, there are some levels to which we just can't quite stoop to.
I find just going for a brisk walk in the morning and potentially running while listening to some audio I find positive very helpful. Either stuff like Tony Robbins, technical podcasts, or something to remind me of all I have to be grateful for.
I think a lot of it is the routine or your habits... for example, I know without a shadow of a doubt that I perform better at my work when I take at least 30 minutes in the morning to walk and listen to something positive. More bonus points for taking even 5-10 minutes to meditate. Yet historically my stick-to-it-iv-ness for those activities always seem to go away when presented with the days urgencies or more mindless 'busymaking' like random surfing.
I recommend finding a personal trainer who's company and conversation you enjoy and look forward to. They're hard to find, but they do exist. The last time I had to move, out of everything, I was the most reluctant about leaving my gym/trainer.
You've gotten a lot of answers, but nobody's given you the best one yet: Dancing. With others of the opposite sex.
For exercise purposes, you might want to look into energetic dances, like collegiate shag or the lindy hop. But even slow waltzes provide a surprising amount of exercise, and nothing motivates like interacting on a physical basis with the opposite sex.
Crossfit. (crossfit.com) You'll never get bored and it'll even take less time. One caveat: It works way better if you can join a group of crossfitters.
It's expensive, but it works. Also, there is the social factor. You have an entire team at a Crossfit gym who you work out with that expect you to be there, and push you while you are there.
It's definitely expensive, but with a pretty small investment you can do a good fraction of workouts at home (e.g. pullup bar + 1-2 kettlebells + a jump rope). As you and others are saying though, the social element justifies the cost.
