You've heard people say you should step outside your comfort zone. But you may have underestimated just how important that is. Staying too comfortable might actually be killing you.

The fear of discomfort might cause you to eat too much because you don't want to feel hungry. Or you might stop exercising the minute you start to feel uncomfortable. And, of course, you might do hard things because you fear you can't tolerate the discomfort.

While eating healthy, exercising, and exposing yourself to healthy stress feel uncomfortable, the alternative is worse. Being unfit and unhealthy is even more uncomfortable in the long term.

Paul Taylor is an exercise physiologist, nutritionist, and neuroscientist. He's also the author of Death By Comfort. Some of the things we talk about today are:

PaulTaylor.biz

Death By Comfort

The Paul Taylor Podcast

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