Physical Activity
Once in a while, I get pretty down. Things that don’t usually bother me, well, start bothering me. I don’t get excited about working to become a billionaire anymore. I get second doubts about things I’m confidant about. When it gets bad enough, I drop everything I’m doing and go for a run.
I stopped regular physical activity after elementary school and paid the price in middle school and high school. Being fat is the worst thing that’s happened to me. No matter how good the other aspects of my life were, I was limited by my weight.
For being a smart guy, it took me a pretty long time to figure out that being fat sucked, and even longer to realize that I could do something about it. For my 17th birthday, I bought a first-generation iPod and made a commitment to a fat-free future. I loaded up some 80’s music and went running.
Looking back, it’s pretty funny to think about how bad I was. Let’s look at the path I started out on:
I ran the Freeman-Staniford-Lexington loop. It’s exactly 0.7 miles per loop. When I started out, I could barely run half of one loop without stopping. Everyday, I would run 2 loops, a whopping 1.4 miles, in about half an hour! That’s pretty slow.
Luckily, the human body does not care how comically slow you’re running. The weight started going away and I soon felt like a young Octavian, and have ever since. The scientists will lead you to believe that exercise releases epinephrine, which makes you feel good, blah blah. Getting a natural high is definitely a good reason to exercise. However, a better reason is so that you don’t become fat. Because being fat sucks. And the fact that you’re working on not becoming fat should make anyone’s day.