I’m running a personal experiment to see if “an hour of cardio a day” will result in an increase in my physical attractiveness, AKA HOTNESS. I’ve always been overweight, though I’ve slimmed down more in the past year. I’m at the point where I want to start wearing more interesting fashionable clothes, and my options would increase if I lost more inches off my middle.

An hour of cardio on the elliptical is about what I can manage at the moment, though I was loathe to devote “so much time” to a boring activity. But to become hotter is a compelling goal for me right now, so I’m running a 14 day experiment to see what additional spiciness I could attain. I like the idea of a simple activity that results in hotness, rather than a more complicated routine. I’m not interested in developing muscle mass at all. I want to be leaner and more evenly shaped in the middle.

In the past I’ve done challenges for 15-30 minutes of high intensity cardio a few times per week over a period of several months. The improvement in my cardiovascular endurance was notable. How would an hour every day compare?

The First Seven Days

I started last Tuesday, and today marks the first 7 days. The results have been very good and also quite surprising!

• It’s a nice way to start the day. I get dressed for the gym at home and drive five minutes. The less time I spend in the locker room fiddling with clothes and shoes, the better. I just dump my bag in a locker. Afterwards I get a breakfast sandwich and coffee and then drive home to shower. I do it no matter when I wake up, because I’m terrible at maintaining any kind of regular waking schedule. By just making myself go first thing to officially start the day, that simplifies things for me.

• 60 minutes is not a lot of time if you are reading Twitter, Instagram, and great professional newsletters. After the first 15 minutes of just focusing on getting my body moving well, I’ve worked out a routine that helps pass the time. First, I scan my email and also my notes from the day before on my iPad. I then try to formulate a starting action item that I will do once I start the day. Then, I spend about 15 minutes catching up on Javascript news (relevant to my work at the moment), and after that I catch up on the last day of Twitter and Instagram. I avoid Facebook.

• Physically, there has been a significant performance difference between 30min 3x a week and 60min of cardio everyday. The performance metric I use is how long it takes my body to do one mile on the Life Fitness elliptical I use without feeling like I’m going to die. When I’m out of shape, it takes about 15 minutes. Doing 15-30 cardio 3x a week will get that time down to about 12 minutes after 3 weeks, and 10 minutes after 6 weeks. I hit 10 minutes after 4 days this time. I hit 9 minutes the day afterwards. I guess intensity and daily cardio really does matter.

• The big surprise is that instead of losing an hour, I’ve gained an hour. Originally, I was concerned that I didn’t have time to spend doing a whole 60+ minutes on myself, but I chose to prioritize health (and HOTNESS) over work. After just 7 days of this, that hour of cardio has resulted in feeling rested after fewer hours of sleep, better quality of alertness throughout the day, and a feeling of contentment that elevates my mood. The net result of all these effects is that I have lost no time at all, and the quality of that time is noticeably better.

I am very encouraged. The true measure, though, will come from measuring my waist and weight next week. I’ll followup with more detail then.