Sometimes it’s not a matter of what you do, but what you don’t.

Don’t exercise, for instance, and you die.

The World Health Organization isn’t quite that point-blank about it, but about a dozen years ago it did report 3.2 million “physically inactive” people die each year as a result of their inactivity.

While the WHO’s update in 2024 is more disheartening, it is more tactful. If only the global population was more physically active, it announced, up to 5 million deaths could be “averted” each year.

But why rehash all this now and especially with you? After all, the odds are low you’re one of the 1.8 billion adults who fail to meet the WHO’s recommended levels of physical activity.

Because the odds are high you’re one of the billions who do something else. Give up on some other clearly helpful health and fitness practice when it proves to be impractical.

The likelihood is so great, in fact, that no gambling establishment would ever allow you to place a bet on that. Yet you can’t really place the blame on yourself when you do so, either.

It’s human nature.

As is the sense of disappointment in yourself over the abandonment. I know. I experience it many early mornings as I stand, stretch, see the sun beginning to rise, yet return to composing a column instead of going outside to get a healthy dose of early sunlight.

Experts will tell you that getting an hour of daylight every day is a great way to keep your brain’s biological clock running efficiently and your body’s circadian rhythms in sync (as well as the switch to Daylight Saving Time early tomorrow morning is a great way to disrupt both for up to a week). One in particular sings the praises of getting about five minutes of early morning UV light exposure from the sun on clear days, or 20 to 30 minutes of it if it’s cloudy.

That expert is Dr. Andrew Huberman, a professor of neurobiology and ophthalmology at Stanford School of Medicine and the host of the exceptionally popular the Huberman Lab podcast. So exceptional that his podcasts have been viewed on YouTube more than 150 million times — even though a full broadcast can go on for longer than a Springsteen concert with two encores.

Because of that, Huberman summarizes his beliefs in snippets on Instagram where he has seven million followers. There and on his website, you’ll read he considers viewing morning sunlight to be “in the top five of all actions [along with sleep, movement, nutrient intake, and relationships] that support mental health, physical health, and performance.”

To illustrate Huberman’s no lone wolf howling at the moon on this matter, consider what Mariana G. Figueiro, professor and director of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai’s Light and Health Research Center, shares with Kelsey Vlamis in a 2023 Business Insider article about Huberman. That when it comes to your overall health, outdoor light is “just as important as diet and exercise.”

So why did I stop going outside to watch the sunrise or stare at the clouds fully aware either creates a 50 percent increase in cortisol? Though excessive cortisol secretion has been linked to anxiety, inflammation insulin overload, weight gain, and even some cancers, its release at this specific point in the day enhances your health by improving alertness, aiding immune function, and working in conjunction with your biological clock to make it more likely you sleep soundly about 14 hours later.

Because it just wasn’t practical. At least it’s not for me for most of the year.

For most of the year, I’m an hour or more into researching or writing an article for some publication at the break of day. And although I do stand and stretch for a minute or so two or three times an hour to help my thought process, I found going outside, especially for the amount of time needed on cloudy days, was doing the opposite.

The break was often long enough I’d lose my train of thought or even encounter writer’s block. Meeting deadlines, something that had never been a problem before, became one.

That led to me giving up on a helpful health and fitness practice, experiencing the accompanying disappointment, and feeling the need to share my story — as well as a bit of advice.

That it’s perfectly okay to pooh-pooh a solid health and fitness practice that proves to be impractical for you, provided you never pooh-pooh the importance practicality plays in your health.

Case in point: weight loss.

Any diet at its start produces weight loss, but for the weight loss to stay lost you need to stay on that diet. And no matter how psyched you are to be 30 pounds lighter, you won’t continue that diet long term unless you find it be what an early dose of sunshine was not for me: practical.