Exercise is taxing, and healthy food isn't as tasty or easy as junk food.

Humans are natural experts in min-maxing calories spent vs calories consumed. Then we solved food ~100 years ago and its been a kid in a candy shop ever since.

Gotta find exercise that is fun though. Don’t just try one thing and give up, it takes time to find what you enjoy.

I’ve been swimming for 15 years, but only got into bouldering 1.5 years ago. I tried running and cycling but it always felt like a chore so I could not stick with it.

The food problem is much harder to solve for IMO, even shops are designed to get you to impulse-buy junk. Although one minor tip is to do groceries when you’re full, not when you’re hungry.

> healthy food isn't as tasty

Mediterranean cuisine tasty and healthy. But it’s not as cheap as ultra-processed food.

Except when you start eating real food made fresh from quality ingredients. Or sauces being cooked for proper times. There is so incredibly much more flavour to all of that food. It is seriously rewarding both from a nutritional point of view and a mental health side.

We really don’t need to eat so much as we do for the lives most of us lead. Yes, farmers doing heavy labour and cyclists riding the tour du France need to consume 3000 to 6000 kcal because that is the actual labour they perform.

Take small portions of high quality food that you enjoy. Pay attention to what you eat and how it tastes. They will last you longer both in appetite and in the mind.

I know junk food is almost the only thing obtainable on low budget and that is the real poverty. But not having the time to well prepare meals nor having the money to buy the proper ingredients and store them in a cost-effective manner. It is one of the costs of being poor. And it is a sad thing we have the world in that state while we have multi billionaires roving around as well.