Fool Yourself Fitter

Your mind is stupid. It’s nothing personal. Your mind is roughly as stupid as everyone else’s. Because for all the brain’s circuitry and neurons and spongy folds of wonder meat, your mind can still be manipulated, every time, by the simplest of tricks - even when your mind knows they’re coming.

Here’s one: simply recording your activity will make you change your behavior around that activity, whether you consciously mean to or not.

Keep a record of all the money you spend and those expensive little indulgences will lose their luster. Log all of the time you waste with pointless bullshit online and you won’t be quite so tempted to click over to that Facebook tab.

Studies show that you’re more likely to watch what you eat when you keep a diary of everything you eat. And recording your weight every single day will give your better angels a little boost in their eternal wrestling match with your appetite. It’s scientifical.

We know, we know, weight isn’t the ideal measurement of fitness, just the easiest one to remember. For completists, this Escali digital scale not only gives you a readout of the raw poundage (or kilogramage), but uses “advanced digital weighing technology” to take a decent guess at your body fat, body hydration, muscle, and bone mass. Just keep a little notebook (not included) nearby and write as many of those numbers every day as you think you need to know.

Then, even if you don’t do anything different - even if you don’t think about doing anything different - your stupid mind will squirm and sigh the next time you reach for a second brownie or a seventh piece of pizza. Those numbers will flash in your mind. Those treats won’t taste quite so delectable. You’ll start pulling that hand back empty some of those times. Those digital numbers, day by day, might start creeping downward. If nothing else is doing the trick, what’s the harm in trying it, especially at this price?

We can’t guarantee any results, of course. It’s not our fault if it turns out your mind isn’t quite as stupid as we thought.