This is the 10% happier podcast. I'm Dan Harris. Hello everybody how we doing you are about to hear an interview that has helped to change the way I think

about exercise particularly on two scores first the idea that I have to go hard in every

workout which research suggests is not actually true and

Second the internal bugaboo I have had sometimes subconsciously around trying to get back the body I had when I was younger, which has

caused me untold misery. Anyway, I'm getting ahead of myself. Those are just two of

the takeaways and I should probably back up and tell you who my

guest is and why she's here. Shannon Paulis is a features editor at

Slate and she covers health, science, and human interest. Last year in

2023 she edited a year-long fitness column at

slate called Good Fit, all about exercise. And she wrapped up the whole thing

with an article called The Last Exercise Column

you ever need to read in which she talks about the five most important lessons

from her year-long dive into the science and psychology of exercise.

In this conversation we cover what she learned, including her new belief that the true benefit of exercise

is not about losing weight, it's about boosting your mood. What she learned about healthism

and the fallacy that our health and fitness

is entirely within our control.

Why she says we should not drive ourselves crazy

following the latest science, even the off to repeated device to take

10,000 steps a day. Why you don't need fancy equipment, why tracking your

workouts is sometimes a bad idea, how she came to the conclusion that it's time to ditch the mirror, and much more.

Let me just say this episode is the third interview in a series we're running right now called

...