It may please you to hear that I read your post shortly before arriving at the stores that were the theoretical destination for my walk today... and after some consideration, I bought a set of adjustable wrist/ankle weights to help improve the effectiveness of my exercising.
(Even if I were to entirely drop the actually-painful parts of my routine - the push-ups and planks - I seem to be doing well with the gradual increase of the other exercises, and such weights seem reasonably likely to improve those exercises' effectiveness.)
PS: I only want to tile the Solar System with myself to the degree necessary to mine He-3, or whatever other fuel source is most viable to start launching myself elsewhere. As long as you don't want to hoard so many resources for your mecha that you keep me from sporing, I'm sure we can get along, and that our epic wars will involve boffer nukes. ;)
For just a few minutes, I've earned the privilege of wearing Kamina-sama's flag as a cape. Thank you.
So, you're just aiming for a bit of lonely star sailing, eh? No need to tile, then. We'll have plenty of infrastructure to give you a lift. Seems a pity, going out into the black all alone, though. You should take a friend.
"Cryonics has a 95% chance of failure, by my estimation; it would be downright /embarrassing/ to die on the day before real immortality is discovered. Thus, I want to improve my general health and longevity."
That thought has gotten me through three weeks of gradually increasing exercise and diet improvement (I'm eating an apple right now) - but my enthusiasm is starting to flag. So I'm looking for new thoughts that will help me keep going, and keep improving. A few possibilities that I've thought of:
Pride: "If I'm so smart, then I should be able to do /better/ than those other people who don't even know about Bayesian updates, let alone the existence of akrasia..."
Sloth: "If I stop now, it's going to be /so much/ harder and more painful to start up again, instead of just keeping on keeping on..."
Desire: "I already like hiking and camping - if I keep this up, I'll be able to carry enough weight to finally take that long trip I've occasionally considered..."
Curiosity: "I'm as geeky a nerd as you can find. I wonder how far I can hack my own body?"
Pride again: "I already keep a hiker's first-aid kit in my pocket, and make other preparations for events that happen rarely. How stupid do I have to be not to put at least that much effort into making my everyday life easier?"
Does anyone have any experience in such self-motivation? Does this set of mental tricks seem like a sufficiently viable approach? Are there any other approaches that seem worth a shot?