Finding your middle ground: How to apply lessons from Philosophy to everyday choices

 

Picture of my daughter's preschool class project. photo taken by author

 

Do you sometimes find yourself lost and confused by popular advice? Where it seems you must either take one position on something or you are doing it the wrong way. Or worse still losing out on some benefit?

 I see this all the time, usually in the fields of physical fitness, financial wellness and self-improvement. Experts or even social media influencers will swear by this or the other proven method to achieve results only to be countered by another lot arguing for the opposite position.  

 Here are some of the commonest “all-or nothing” takes I have found:

 

When to wake up: The 5 am club

I am pretty sure human beings have woken up early for as long as they have existed. But the “new” idea of having an  early start to the day   took on a  new meaning with  leadership guru Robin Sharma’s book The 5am Club.  Fueled by social media, it quickly became a cultural phenomenon, inspiring 17.5m TikTok posts, based on Sharma’s catchphrase “own your morning, elevate your life”.

According to Sharma, waking up at 5 a.m., doing 20 minutes of exercise, 20 of reflection, and 20 of planning or study, will help you unlock your talents, and hidden personality traits. 

When to exercise: ‘morning workouts are more effective’

Some fitness advisers swear by working out in the morning, claiming it yields better results than exercising later in the day. A 2023 study found  that early morning exercise — between 7 a.m. and 9 a.m. — could help with weight loss.  “My cautious suggestion from this study is that if we choose to exercise  in the early morning, before we eat, we can potentially lose more weight compared to exercise at other times of the day,”  lead researcher Tongyu Ma, a research assistant professor at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University said at the time .

 

 How to exercise: ‘ditch cardio, choose resistance training’

Cardio includes running, walking, swimming, cycling and hiking, while resistance training, as the name suggests, is anything that requires you to work against resistance to build strength. It includes weight lifting, strength training and circuit training.

 The amount of time people spend arguing the merits and demerits of each type of exercise can be really confusing for someone trying to build healthy habits around exercise.

 

 How to lose weight: diet vs exercise 

“Ditch the gym membership, focus on nutrition,” the experts (or influencers) will advise those struggling to lose weight.

 

So what works? My take:

None of these perspectives is fundamentally wrong.  What is problematic is the content of the premise—specifically, the assumption that out of the options being presented, only one must be true or can be picked,  a concept  known as the false dichotomy or false dilemma.

 False dilemma is an oversimplification: it hides the fact that multiple propositions can be true at the same time or that other possibilities can also be true. This lack of nuance is very common on social media platforms.

   To find what works I tend to look to the middle. By looking at the science behind each extreme position, I am able to weigh the pros and cons of each argument and then come to my own conclusions. I also consider how practical the advice is and how likely I am to work it into my routine and sustain it.

 And, it would seem there is a method to my madness, the concept of  the golden mean:

Based in the study of philosophy,  the golden mean is an approach to ethics that emphasizes finding the appropriate medium, or middle ground, between extremes. 

It is most frequently applied to the ethical ideas described by the Greek philosopher Aristotle, and in teachings from  Buddhist philosophy and Confucianism.

The golden mean… is not, like the mathematical mean, an exact average of two precisely calculable extremes; it fluctuates with the collateral circumstances of each situation, and discovers itself only to mature and flexible reason.

Will Durant, Story of Philosophy

 

For instance, when it comes to timing exercise, the point is not when you do it, it is that you exercise at all.  Exercise has well known benefits: it helps to control weight, strengthen muscles and bones,  prevents certain  diseases and promotes mental health. The data from the study referenced earlier showed that people who did moderate to vigorous exercise in the morning had lower body mass indexes than people who exercised at other times. However, the study lead said this could be due to a number of factors beyond exercise timing: Morning exercisers had a college degree and had never consumed tobacco or alcohol. People who exercised in the morning consumed fewer calories than those who exercised later and, interestingly, spent more time sedentary.  They also tended to be older.

When do I exercise? In the evening on weekdays and on Saturday morning at 10 a.m. Go figure.

 

When it comes to the type of exercise, the number of calories you burn during exercise depends on your body size and how intensely you exercise.

·  Typically, a cardio workout burns more calories than a weight training workout of the same duration.  

·  Weight training is better for fat loss and building lean muscle. However, cardio will help with weight loss, and improving cardiovascular health

Clearly doing a variety of each, is the best way to lose weight, tone your body or whatever your goal may be.  Basically, keep your body moving in a balanced and varied way, while also maintaining a healthy diet. You get the best of both worlds by combining the two, not choosing one. And the more time you spend debating the pros and cons the more likely  you are to do neither.

 

Diet or exercise?

Both diet and exercise are important for weight loss.  While diet affects weight loss more than exercise does, exercise has a stronger effect in keeping the weight off after weight loss.

Losing weight with diet alone without physical activity can make you weaker, because of losses in bone density and muscle mass. Adding resistance training and aerobic exercise to a weight-loss program helps prevent the loss of bone and muscle.

Why then should we have to choose between the two? Why not do both and benefit from the positive effects good diet and exercise have on our bodies?

 The early bird doesn’t always eat the worm

Image from Pinterest

Waking up early (early is really subjective and there is no scientific explanation as to why it should be a particular time such as 5 a.m.)  can be beneficial.

It can provide you a window to enjoy some alone  time before everyone else  is up and you have to deal with the demands of the day. You have that extra time to do your morning rituals such as journaling or meditation, just as Robin Sharma advocates.

The thing is, in order to get up early you will likely have to go to bed early. Unfortunately, most of us aren’t able to do that because of our schedules including  things like  helping kids with homework, going to the gym  or catching up on chores.

The other thing is we simply are not wired the same. Night owls will stay up late because that is their ideal time to be productive. Early birds on the other hand will wake up bright and cheerful and hit the ground running.

I am neither a morning person nor a night owl. I will wake up at 5 if I have something specific to do, but generally I wake up at 6 when my daughter wakes up. By some miracle we get to school and work on time.

 The best way to avoid the false dilemma fallacy  is to always have a healthy dose of skepticism about “either-or” situations coupled with a willingness to always be curious . And to be different.  If something is presented as either X or Y, with no other possibilities, think about what may have been left out from the situation and what the owner of the idea may stand to gain by fronting their position.

That sweet spot, the middle ground between ideas and arguments is where you will likely find the truth.

Written by Martha Songa