And Learned Why I Was Sabotaging Exercise in My Life

I’m sitting on a park bench, my gym bag beside me.

I was actually on my way to the gym, but somehow I just didn’t feel it. I took a walk in the park instead.

Why Did I Blow Off the Gym?

I was disgruntled. “I should be in the gym,” I thought. But I just didn’t feel like it.

How did I get here? I can’t remember the last time I sat on a bench in the park looking at the water.

It was warm, not hot with a sweet breeze and a cloudless sky. That felt good. At least I was getting some fresh air. But I felt guilty. I’d vowed to start an exercise program and had done only three sessions.

Absorbed in my own thoughts, I was startled when a woman sat down at the other end of my bench. She smiled slightly and said, “Good morning,”

I nodded and returned the greeting.

“Couldn’t do the gym today?” she asked.

What the hell? How does this strange woman know what I’m thinking?

She was dressed in a pantsuit with a military style tunic that buttoned to her neck. Her hair was pulled back in a tight, neat bun.

She sat with her legs crossed looking at the Bay. Her hands rested on her thigh.

“Who the hell are you?” I blurted. I was angry and a bit frightened at the same time.

“Your Auto-Brain.

The Auto-Brain Knows Everything About Me

“I control 90% of the activity in your physical body. I’m the reason you are sitting on this bench and not working out.”

“That’s bullshit! I decided that on my own.”

“Did you? Or did you just feel a sudden ‘heaviness’ when you looked at your gym bag?”

“That was me applying the brakes.

“I operate in the background of everyone’s life. You are lucky I sat down here. Knowing me and about me and how to treat me will make it possible for you to do things like make a durable exercise habit. I can make your life fulfilling or make it one dead end after another.”

“That’s preposterous! This is a joke, right!”

The Auto-Brain Manages Everything (almost)

“No. I’m going to explain it to you,” she said and turned to face me fully. Her eyes were sharp, evaluating me like a mechanic looking at a broken engine.

I withered under the gaze.

“I am the Chief of Operations for this vessel,” she said, gesturing vaguely at my chest. “I manage your respiration, your digestion, your waste removal, your temperature regulation. I keep the blood moving.”

She leaned in closer. “And do you have any idea how resource hungry that is?”

I shook my head.

“That three-pound lump of gray matter between your ears burns through twenty percent of your total energy reserves. Twenty percent! It is a glutton for fuel. If I don’t ration that energy—if I don’t lock down the budget—the system crashes. You die. My mission is to prevent that.”

“So… you stopped me from working out?”

“I conserved resources,” she corrected sharply. “I automate everything I can to save fuel. I don’t ask you to breathe; I handle it. I don’t ask you to extract nutrients from your breakfast; I handle it. These are automated scripts. Low energy. High efficiency.”

“But the gym—”

“The gym is a sudden, massive spike in energy expenditure!” she snapped. “You wanted to go from a resting state to high-intensity output without a pre-approved flight plan. So, I overrode the request. I diverted you to the bench. Sitting is cheap. Sitting is safe. The system is stable.

Trying to Make Habits and Failing

“I also participate in managing your free will, those activities that you consider your choice.

“So when you decide to go from a couch potato to a bench presser, you are changing your energy requirements. First, you don’t have the muscle capacity to go from lying on the couch to bench pressing. That takes a lot of energy that I have allocated to other needs.

“And your old habit of hitting the couch has been programmed and is working fine. It takes a lot of energy and time to program and install the gym habit.”

“You don’t have my best interest at heart. Exercise is good!” I protested.

“You’re alive,” she said coldly.

How to Form Habits in Concert with the Auto-Brain

“You are not making sense! Plenty of people form gym habits. I know some of them and they’ve been doing it for years. Why can’t I ?”

“You can,” she said.”You just have to work with me. You have to start slow. You have to make it easy. And do it often.

“If you were doing it that way, you would not have paid any attention to me when I suggested to your subconscious, ‘Go to the park.’

“Or you might have said, ‘That’s a great idea, but first I need to go to the gym. It won’t take long.’

‘You can get what you want by practicing it gradually. It gives me time to adjust, allocate resources and keep the rest of you operating safely and efficiently.

“Over time, I will program a gym program for you that will make it easy for you and your system.”

I turned away and looked at the Bay. I was unsure if I understood what she had told me, but I did like the idea of making my gym project easier. I felt myself smiling and turned to tell her what I was thinking.

But she was gone.