Your buddy Dave has been single for three years and thinks "hey u up" is a valid strategy. Your other buddy Mike just got dumped and told you to "just be yourself."
You showed them her text. You asked them to decode the emoji. You drafted four responses and sent the screenshot to the group chat for a vote.
She's been waiting forty minutes.
Put the phone down. Stop crowdsourcing your love life. Type something that sounds like you. Hit send. Then go do literally anything else with your evening.
I could talk to any woman I wasn't attracted to. Charming, funny, relaxed. Then a gorgeous woman looked my way and I'd become a sweating, babbling mess.
The fix took me years to find and ten minutes to learn. Nervousness and excitement are the same physical state — pounding heart, adrenaline, flushed face. Your brain just picks the label. And you can pick a better one.
Rule 16 shows you how. You feel the nerves, relabel them as excitement, and let that energy pour out as enthusiasm. Women notice the guy radiating it. They always do.
What do you mean by getting back into shape? What is your objective? Once you define your objective do some introspection and figure out why you got out of shape. If you have access to weights then the LP program that Money & Muscle posted is solid and will suit most men. IMO, if your objective is to lean out and build muscle and strength I would drop the running for now. Running and lifting are antagonistic to one another. I would do a brisk walk or ruck before lifting. If you love running do it on an alternate day and no longer than 15-20 minutes in the upper ranges of heart rate. If you insist on running you will need to up your food and protein intake. But, resistance training and diet are superior to optimal body composition.
What is your height and weight currently? 1RPM on Squat, Bench, Deadlift?
You paid for dinner. You drove. You said "whatever you want is fine" every single time. All the effort, no expectations.
And she left anyway — probably for a guy who makes her pick up the pizza.
Painful. Also predictable. Her mind quietly concludes that anything requiring zero effort from her is worth exactly zero. You became a free sample, and free samples get taken for granted.
The 22 Rules flip the dynamic. Small shifts that get her investing effort, money, and time in you — until SHE'S the one afraid of losing YOU.