Your Body is Not a Mystery Box

“Write off your hopes, and if your well-being matters to you, be your own savior while you can.”
– Marcus Aurelius

Today is my birthday, so I want to take an excuse to be a little philosophical about a skill I learned in adulthood: physical agency.

Much of our culture implies that we don’t have control over the outcomes of our lives. Identities and physical traits are treated as immutable. Even in fiction, heroes are often pre-destined to their grand achievements, regardless of the efforts they make.

I was a skinny-fat nerdy kid growing up, and I thought I was simply destined to be out of shape forever. It wasn’t until I was 18 that I grew frustrated with not feeling good about myself, and decided I wanted to change. Even then, I was aimless in my pursuit of better health, and no matter how much effort I put in, I didn’t see any results.

I felt like my body was a mystery box, where the inputs and the outputs seemed uncorrelated. No matter how much Subway I ate and how many supplements I took, I was not in great shape. Unfortunately, I didn’t know that I was doing everything wrong.

It wasn’t until I was 21 that I stumbled upon the quantified-self movement, and I learned that my body is a mostly predictable machine. I learned to run experiments with different inputs, and those inputs would create different outputs. Within 6 months, I had abs for the first time, and learned shredded abs are boring and not worth the trouble.

We all have different bodies. Some people gain muscle easy. Some people gain fat easily. Some people are tall, some people are wide. We will all move and look and feel differently. There are some things we simply must accept. But that doesn’t mean we have to be resigned to the worst default outcomes.

Inputs matter. Importantly, you control the inputs. Maybe you’re never going to have a body like a swimsuit model, but that doesn’t mean you have to accept running out of breath when you play with your kids: putting exercise into your body will improve your cardiovascular health, and you’ll be able to move more without running out of breath. The input is exercise, and the output is more playtime.

If you learn how the things you put in affect the body you get out, then you can work with what you have to get closer to who you want to be.

Related Resources

The book that introduced me to the quantified-self movement and dramatically changed my life is The 4-Hour Body by Tim Ferriss. Don’t let the title fool you, it has incredibly valuable tips on changing your body.