Being born in the 80s and growing up in the 90s, access to a computer was a novel concept as a kid, and we were typically limited to short durations of that in what was deemed “computer lab” in school. These 30-45 minute blocks once a week or so were supposed to expose us to the wonders of the modern world which, of course, to us kids, really meant a way to play video games in school. Selections were extremely limited back then, and aside from Oregon Trail (which BOY could I write about some lessons learned from that as well), the other classic staple was a game called “Lemmings”. The premise was simple enough: you had to guide a group of “lemmings” (which looked nothing like an actual lemmings) through a series of obstacle courses in order to get to the stage’s exit. Stages were become increasingly more complex over time, requiring increasingly complex strategies to achieve the objective. What did NOT grow in complexity over time were the lemmings themselves. They only possessed the capacity to move forward and, should they run into an obstacle: turn around and move the other way. The player has the ability to assign skillsets to certain individual lemmings (climbing, parachuting, demolition, building, etc), but he can not dictate WHEN the lemming employs this skillset: the lemming will simply use these skills when they encounter an objective where their skillset is relevant. That is to say, the player couldn’t tell a demolition lemming “plant the bomb…NOW!”, but instead, he selects a lemming to be the “demolition lemming”, and as soon as that lemming runs into a destructible object, it will use its skillset. This incredibly long explanation of a computer game from 1991 is here because the lessons this game taught us are SO incredibly relevant as it relates to matters of physical transformation. Ultimately, our bodies are on a fixed trajectory: it’s up to our minds to do the necessary strategic implementation to ensure that, as we mindlessly shamble forward in hopes of reaching the objective, we don’t run into resistance that forces us to turn around and walk the other way.
This was the Fortnite of Second Grade 1992
Ultimately,
and perhaps unfortunately, free will is an illusion. Yes, that’s quite a deep proclamation on a
blog about physical transformation, but allow me to demonstrate with a personal
story. Once again: I was born in the
80s, during a time when smoking was still pretty prevalent in American
culture. My mother was a smoker (note
the past tense: she quit when I was in middle school and has never lit up
again, I’m incredibly proud of her).
When she found out she was pregnant with me, the prevailing wisdom at
the time was for smoking mothers to NOT quit smoking during the pregnancy,
operating under the premise that the shock to the system of withdraw could
damage the fetus. For one: this is one
of the many reasons I’m never too keen on the “latest scientific
understanding”. But, in turn, I was a
low birthweight baby, because that’s kinda what happens when you smoke during
pregnancy. But not to worry, because the
OTHER prevailing wisdom at the time was to put cereal in the formula bottle of
low birthweight babies to help fatten them up so that they’d sleep through the
night (on our stomachs, surrounded by soft pillows, to simulate the womb…SIDS
was a real issue for my generation).
THIS meant I went from a low birthweight baby to a CHUBBY baby in rather
short order, which perpetuated into me being a chubby toddler, and eventually a
chubby kid. And I stayed “90s fat kid
fat” until high school, wherein I righted the ship effectively through sheer
willpower and overcompensation and became the fitness addict/nut I am today.
None of the
above is meant to be a sob-story, but more a demonstration of what I mean when
I say free will is an illusion: I had NO say in the condition of how I was
born, and we can see how it already set me on a path early in life that I had
no control over. I eventually gained the
agency necessary to be able to implement INTERVENTIONS to overcome my
condition, but all I was doing at that point was course correcting the
trajectory that my body was sent on from day 0.
And I’m only discussing “nurture” here in the nature vs nurture: just
imagine how deep this discussion can go as it relates to genetic
predispositions.
Thanks again mom!
Bringing up
my mother again (I’m so blessed to have her as a mom): her blood has been
studied by Princeton, primarily because her HDL was 125. I did NOT inherit the fitness bug from this
woman: she proudly tells the story of how, in her 4 years of serving in the Air
Force, she managed to never have to do the annual physical fitness test and, to
this day, is unsure if she ever COULD run a mile if called upon. She pioneered intermittent fasting, because
growing up she only ever ate dinner, and when she DID eat it, one of her
favorite things to eat was either a loaded baked potato or bacon cheese fries
from “Hot Dog on a Stick” at the mall.
And as a fat kid, I was envious of her BECAUSE she ate this stuff and
maintained what was referred to as a “petite” frame at 5’1 and barely breaking
100lbs. Her mom had a similar blood
profile, and THAT woman grew up in that interesting generation that didn’t seem
to care to eat any meat aside from hamburger patties, boiled hot dogs and lunch
meat (I always knew when Grandma was coming to visit because suddenly our house
was LOADED with the most incredible junkfood).
And, in turn, whenever I get my bloodwork taken, my docs, at first,
scold me over my LDL (yup, got that from them too) and then go “Holy crap, what
is going on with your HDL?! How do you
get it that high?”
Now that you have a long and unasked for detailing of my family history, reflect on your own and realize, again: you had no say in any of this. The day you were born, you were set on a path, you loyal lemming you. There is an objective to be reached at the end of the level, and your goal is to arrive there, knowing full well that, as soon as you bump into resistance, you’re going to walk yourself back instead of forward. With this understanding, it means that the only tools you have at your disposal is your ability to CLEAR THE PATH. You cannot give the lemming directions, it has no ability to listen to you, all it knows how to do is walk forward until it either reaches the goal or runs into resistance that forces it to turn around. You have to find a way to clear all the resistance so that the only option it has is to reach the end goal. This means having an understanding of WHERE your body is heading so that you can find the obstacles that are in the way and implement interventions to clear them BEFORE you get to them.
Knowing where you are is helpful in knowing where you are going
Because,
quite frankly, if there is no free will there is no willPOWER. Which is why we see Nietzsche refer to the
notion of “will TO power” instead: the idea of an instinctive drive to
overcome. Will TO power removes the
notion of agency and, ironically enough, makes it that our actions DO exist
outside of our control and that it’s some instinctive drive that compels us to
overcome. But in either instance, the
takeaway is that we cannot rely on our ability to MAKE ourselves to do
something as a means of achieving physical transformation. At best, this is a short term “fix” which has
long term and significant consequences downstream. You may think that you found a cheat code for
the game, but then you go on to discover that your lemmings have simply all
walked off the cliff and died. They
bumped into resistance, you tried to just force them to walk through it, and it
just made them turn around even HARDER and walk away faster.
All is not lost here though: it simply means that we have to appreciate that ALL of us are playing a different stage of lemmings, so, in turn, we’re all going to need to employ a DIFFERENT strategy to be able to get to the end objective. Sure, we can borrow tips and strategies from others, but if we try to just copy them directly, we’re not going to get to the end of OUR level. We need to appreciate what our predispositions are as they relate to nutritional preferences and strategies (are we fasters, grazers, meat eaters, grain munchers, etc), training (do we need variety, do we need numbers, do we need freedom, etc), along with the tools we’ve been given (are we hinge/pullers, squat/pushers, etc). And once we get a lay of the land and an understanding of what the level looks like, we need to implement the correct and appropriate interventions to get us to the end of the level. If we try to use someone else’s intervention because they swear “it’s the best one” but it does NOT fit our current situation, our little lemming is just going to run into an obstacle and turn around on us. We need to clear their path so that they can keep walking forward.
That, or work out a deal with Cyttorak
But hey, at
least in this game we don’t die of dysentery.
