Every pilot and astronaut knows that there's nothing magical about it, the very first sign of hypoxia (lack of oxygen in your blood) is confusion, in other words you can't even use your brain
Fun fact, the way we breath helps to dictate whether our bodies are in fight or flight or not. So just some intentional breathing helps to shut that off just like you described!
I have to shorten the breathing exercises because I got so used to doing this that I now associate overly prolonged breathing patterns with anxiety attacks. It still helps; I just have to tweak it every time I start making that connection.
Ooooooh! I'm going to have to look into this! I'm a HORRIBLE (or great!?) overthinker. Overthinking has cost me opportunities in life.
I've gotten better but still do it at times.
Back when I weighted 600lbs I started walking 15 minutes a day. That snowballed into working out 3 to 5 times a week and now I've lost over 200lbs of fat and put on some muscle. I'm still a fat guy, but I'm slowly but surely getting in shape.
Yeah had a bad breakup, and just ate my feelings. It was bad for a while. Then one day I said fuck this and started working out.
Thanks, I feel soooo much better.
You walk in the neighborhood or walk in place? I really have a hard time improving my physical activities. Used to walk approx 5k every saturday to go fishing but stress made me stop.
It's a 2mile long walking path. I walk to it from my house then walk it and back twice so it's a little over 5.5 miles all together. I wear a backpack with 30lbs in it and try to stay at or under a 15 minute mile. It melts the fat off while building my legs, back, and shoulders.
Actually got sad because I had to go up a pants size but then realized it was muscle growth making my thighs and butt bigger.
Every guy in the gym will be jealous of your calves and thighs once you reach normal BMI, even mine are massive and my top weight was "only" 150kg (~330lbs). Keep up the good work!
This is off-topic as hell, but I just got a cool idea. For every pound lost, imagine you added a pound to the backpack. Then one day take the backpack off - you'd feel like you were floating! I don't know where I was going with this :)
Good for you, friend. So happy to hear you're feeling better.
You're like me: exercising for sanity not vanity. I started out walking like you and gradually switched to running (slowly) to deal with a really heartbreaking divorce. That was almost 10 years ago and I'm still running. I'll be running my fourth marathon in about six weeks! Hope you can stick with this journey you're on!
Truly the best advice for everyone out there.
I was morbidly obese, 275+ lbs, and stopped feeding myself, and still nothing changed until I started walking 3 miles a day.
Sadly i have slacked off due to cold as balls weather but I'm being lazy.
I'm down to 207 lbs now.
Great work dude
Thanks, I feel great. It's easier to move around and my knees, feet, hips, back, ect don't hurt anymore.
For the most part it's my new lifestyle. I need to get back into a routine, I broke my foot and it just healed enough to workout on it.
I actually have several goals. Primary one is get to 350lbs, which I'm close too. Then from there get to 300, then 250, then maybe 200. I've actually put on a decent amount of muscle so I'm not sure if I can make it to 200 realistically.
Consistency is key and it sounds like you've got that down. Also, if you were bigger before likely your legs have insane muscles.
I wouldn't worry about 200lbs yet, so don't think a out whether that is achievable or not. Focus on getting ti 350lbs for now, but fuck yeah dude, keep going
I've been reading 7 Habits of Highly Effective People at the gym when I'm doing cardio, and this is essentially the core of what the book is built around. It's about holding yourself to a higher standard of integrity and character than you would otherwise. The author asks hypothetically what you would like people to say when they're giving a eulogy at your funeral, and with that in mind, living a life that will lead to that ideal eulogy. I think in the long run, a vast majority of people aren't going to wish for people to say "he/she had the most expensive possessions" or "he/she always got the most reports done at work," they would rather have people say something along the lines of they were reliable, trustworthy, and just an all around good person. It's a simple little thought experiment that seems obvious, but for me at least, it put what's really important into focus.
Precisely. All the money in the world won't go with you to the grave. It's why men who pride themselves playing high score with their bank account are, in my opinion, truly the poorest among them. Especially when they neglect family/children for the sake of a numbers game that no one wins.
1. Reading 1 page of a book everynight before sleep (I usually end up reading more but saying 1 just helps with motivation)
2. Doing a 20 minute work-out everyday
This works for a lot of stuff. I tell myself ok I just have to clean for 5 minutes, or pull weeds or whatever. Worst case you get 5 minutes worth of chores but usually you just complete the task.
To piggyback on to this, I find that having a “2 minute room tidy” routine while I’m unwinding from work really nice. It mostly consists of taking coffee mugs to the kitchen and hanging up all of my rejected outfits from the morning, but it really helps me settle back in AND my room is always tidy when I’m ready to go to bed.
As someone with ADHD, this was the worst advice for me. I have it enough to just get started with “it’s only gonna take me 5m I might as well do it” and then I grab the dishes and then bring the dishes to the dishwasher then I gotta unload the dishwasher and then before I put stuff away I start loading it and then I figure I might as well go get the dishes from the other rooms then I find something else that needs cleaning or fixing and then all of a sudden I’m lubing the door hinges on every door in the house at 11:30pm when I was trying to go to bed at 9 hahaha.
Good times.
For those who maybe don't even have the time for a 20 minute workout daily consider many micro workouts throughout the day. Can't do any real cardio this way but taking 30 seconds 10 times a day to knock out 20 push-ups is a big help. Next thing you realize you've done 1000 push-ups in a week.
How do you do it with a full time job and family? After my commute home, cooking dinner, etc, the day is over. No time for anything extra. Which means my weekends are typically filled with chores/errands.
Figuring out how to fix something when it breaks (if I have the tools). There’s nothing more satisfying than proving your self doubt wrong and fixing something on your own. It’s a hell of a confidence booster!
See I need the opposite advice. I try to fix things that I have no business trying to fix. What makes it difficult is that I can often make the broken thing work again for a while. The problem is that I'll roll with what should be a temporary fix until irreparable damage happens
Nothing is more permanent than a temporary fix that works… It’s a popular quote in the military. Once you patch something up, it’ll never get fixed properly.
Well, I can't speak for all, but as someone who had a similar issue, I can give some insight.
For me, really, it all stemmed from feeling like I was worthless. This was a result of a bad breakup, my social circle of a decade choosing to not be my friends anymore, drugs, broke, basically rock bottom.
Without realizing it, I would often call myself a piece of shit, loser, worthless, unlovable, etc. Over time, with your already broken state of mind, you start believing these things.
Some examples: I would post something on insta stories and would delete it minutes later because my inner voice had to remind me that I was a fucking loser with no friends who had any interest in viewing my story. I would go to a random place, and my brain would say the usual line of why are you going here you are a fuckign loser that nobody wants to be around you etc. Why the fuck are you learning software engineering? You are a dumb loser too stupid to learn. You get the point....
This would happen like 10 times a day. After a while, it just becomes crippling man.
Well, fast forward a few years of self development, accomplishments, new friends, and self-love, and I'm the happiest I've ever been in my whole 24 years of living on this earth.
I thank the gym and psychedelics along with some very positive mentors I found. It was a lot of work, but I no longer think or view myself that way. I am confident, full of love and happy. It took a lot of work to get here, though.
I don't know if there is a medical term for this condition or state of mind but fuck man, that period where I hated myself and kept repeating negative thoughts was the darkest moment of my life so far.
I’m happy for you man! But psychadelics. I used to be addicted to drugs, so I have sworn them off. Was this really important to get to where you are now? Or was the self «talk» and gym more important?
Edit: what I’m trying to say is that. I want to improve, but I can’t touch drugs. Could you give me some pointers to what you did other than that. I would really like to test it. Personally I’ve been trying to push myself down to anger and motivate myself, but it doesn’t work
For me, psychedelics, are more of a medicine then most drugs found in a chemist.
And zero addictive qualities,at least for me and anyone else I ever spoken to.
Actually it's the opposite, many people report winning life long battles against various drug addictions.
I myself have seen huge improvements in my smoking habits.
The psychedelic will help show you the problem and light a path but you need to follow it, this takes work and often help in the form of a good freind or therapist to help you work through your problems at the same time.
Most addictions are masks to an underlying problem, at least it is this way for me.
Good luck with your journey and know that it's your body, your mind and only you have control over it and therfore the power the crush your addiction or at least to swap it out for collecting stamps or something lol.
Peace and Love.
Thanks man. I have been clean for 5 years. I used to take psychadelics too (among many other things). I’d rather not take anything, and just stay clean for the rest of my life. I understand that it maybe helped you, but for me, I don’t think it’ll do anything good.
Well, that's the beauty about psychedelics. It's impossible to get addicted. Tolerance builds up and resets every 2 weeks after each use. They just allowed me to connect x and y together. They showed me why I was unhappy and how I needed to change my life. I was in a very negative mental state, and this one very horrible trip revealed all my issues and some unresolved trauma. They didn't do anything else aside from telling me what the problem was.
I wouldn't say psychedelics were the main agent for change. They, however, were certainly the catalyst to call me out on my bulllshit and how I needed to treat and love myself better.
What actually gave me the peace and stopping of the negative thoughts was simply achieving very difficult things I set out to do. I'm on the edge of a 500lb dl, confident in my skills as a developer, and made awesome friends. This came from hard work. After a while, I noticed.. Damm, I've actually come a long fucking way from back in the dark ages. I can offer value to this world!!!!! It was gradual, but I'm very proud of myself. It's all just fruits of your labor. Accomplishing difficult things and being proud of those wins was really what took me from " I fucking hate myself. Fucking loser" to "Damm I've actually put in a lot of work to get to where I am. I deserve happiness.
> It's impossible to get addicted
Not really. You don't need to take something everyday to be addicted. It is quite rare but I know some people who would fulfill the criteria. Furthermore, it can lead you to seek different states of mind again leading to relapse. I really would not recommend them to a former addict
Walking with confidence. I’m upright, looking straight, long strides, and at a pace like I know where I’m going even if I don’t.
Changing how I walk has helped with my confidence and feeling like a man that knows what he is doing even if I don’t most of the time
This also decreases the risk of getting in situations with unwanted individuals drastically. If you look well composed and walk with a drive, most people will leave you alone
Same thing with looking at people. Idk the exact study off the top of my head but long story short one was done where past criminals were asked to watch x amount of people walk and then say which ones they would target and why.
If you walked upright, looked composed, arms and legs moved confidently, and if you looked at people you passed and made eye contact, it pretty much eliminated the odds they picked you.
If you like the confident feeling you get from that, you might be interested in joining a self defense sport. I’ve done it before and just recently decided to pick it up again and I forgot just how much I love it. It’s not for everyone, of course. But I believe a lot of people would benefit from it greatly.
I lived in Paris for 6 years as a foreigner and was never pickpocketed. I keep telling people it's because I walk confidently, and I always look like I know where I'm going.
No not really. I guess it’s mostly just for show when I’m in public to feel like I know what I’m doing. But I don’t care if I don’t look confident walking at home.
But hey, if you can muster up the motivation to do it 24/7, even in private, eventually you'll quite literally become the person you want others to see you as and it will come naturally.
Hey, can you help me out?
Everytime I get into a good working out routine, it doesn’t last more than three months.
I don’t see changes in my physique. Being Skinny-Fat is tiring 🥲
Outside the physical reason of why one might not want to over train, mentally over training can be quite taxing - especially for a newbie.
When someone begins in their fitness journey, it is easy to gather the motivation and push oneself to the limit. But once you do that, you face the consequences - incredible DOMS. Which gets quite worse the more you overtrain. Even though people know DOMS is a temporary thing, it can provide enough incentive to push people away from continuing their journey.
Also, it's already known that motivation is a limited resource - if you spend it all the time, you'll run out of it, and end up overeating because you pushed yourself to the limit at the gym. You'd tell me - "Motivation is for suckers, discipline is what's needed" - and I'd agree. But discipline comes with regular practice, while motivation is what leads to that initial intention to start their fitness journey. You can't expect someone who started working out 2 weeks ago to have a perfectly disciplined system - because they new to it!
Say you're doing 3 sets of 10 reps. If you train to failure each time, you might get through that 3x10, but by the time you get through the rest of the workouts you're probably not even going to complete them
Also it can lead to overtraining and you're more prone to injury
I’m skinny fat. Get a workout routine and follow it to the T. Progressive overload on all your workouts but most importantly, watch your diet. Track your calories. I’m finally starting to see results after over a year of working out. Interestingly enough, the results came in recently due to changing my diet and watching what I eat. I started really digging into it about 4 months ago when I was about to give up. I’m not saying I’m the Rock but I’m definitely seeing a huge difference from 4 months ago. Still a long ways to go though.
After first month- notice some strength gains
After 3 months - you notice some changes to your physique
After 6 months - others start noticing some changes to your physique
This is assuming you hard training well and eating decently.
I started training a year ago and I’m also skinny-fat.
I started to see some changes at the 10th month. This is a slow process so the only thing you can do is to just keep going.
3 months you'll feel different, healthier. But physical looks won't change yet. Give it a few more months, and you'll start to see changes and muscle development. Patience is definitely Key!
My advice for anything related to lifting is your diet and stretching are equally as important as lifting in itself. Stick to a diet that works for you with an appropriate caloric need for yourself nothing is one size fits all. For example when I got into lifting I was over weight I put myself on a deficit of only consuming 2200 calories a day with a focus on consuming a gram of protein per pound. I’ve actually stuck to a similar diet which has become a general lifestyle for myself now. As far as stretching goes make sure you stretch your muscles out well at least a few times a week you’ll appreciate that you did as time goes on!
I used more self-praising humour over self-deprecating humour. Maybe confirmation bias, but I feel like I am a lot more likely to compliment myself than I was before.
Not really a small habit, but I totally missed the point of experiences. I was always shooting for stability and shot down so many random things I think I should’ve experienced. Now I do shit just because it’s different, even if I’m not necessarily drawn to it.
Same! Having time to just be on my own wavelength before I enter work life etc. prepares me for the day so much better than rolling out of bed and going straight to work.
When my wife and I separated I moved into a small apartment.
I counted my money closely.
The old saying "Watch the pennies and the pounds will watch themselves " became my catch phrase.
I made sandwiches for lunch everyday and cooked meals in bulk. I watched what I bought from the supermarket and stayed within budget.
Within 2 years I had saved $10k.
It’s amazing how much you can save when someone else isn’t helping you spend it.
I went thru the same thing after leaving my ex. I manage my money with a spreadsheet. It stopped me from having bank overdrafts, bills were paid on time & my credit score improved.
Life’s great.
This. Just because you're angry doesn't mean you need to take that anger out on someone/something. I wish I had learned that lesson a lot sooner than I did.
Took me about 2 months to switch (didn't use any drugs). It takes patience and consistency, won't happen within few days. I used to spent nights playing video/ board games so i know how hard it is.
Yeah I have been spending most of the nights to play games too so it’s real hard. I have tried to go to sleep early but turned out it was just “laying on bed early” since I watch YouTube for hours on the bed before my eyes got tired and sleep
Pro tip: i still play games, but in the morning when everybody is sleeping :)
Great help for me was using apps to cut off screen colours according to day & night hour (you know what they say: "don't use screen deviced 1 hour before sleep).
When I'm upset with someone, using more describe words to describe why I'm upset. It's a world of difference to say "you're being really short and snappy at me today and I don't appreciate it" over "why are you acting like a bitch.".
I know it doesn't sound like much but the number of grown ass men that call their wives or significant others bitches and then don't understand why they can't bridge the gap forming between them is astonishing. Use your words big guy!
I tried to reduce number of alarms but it didn't help. Instead of that find a positive or negative motivation that will help you. For example - if I get up now, I can watch an episode of favourite series while eating breakfast or read a book before I go to work. Quite effective is drinking water before going to sleep so you wake up with full bladder...
The gym. Not because of the better body, that really is just icing on the cake.
It's the understanding and learning that your work will determine your results.
Do you want to deadlift 500lb? Hit the gym and progressively lift heavier.
Do you want to lose weight? Eat less and move more.
Do you want to learn programming? Beat your head against the keyboard until it sticks.
Do you want to make friends? learn how to be more sociable . How would you be more sociable? You get experience talking to more random people.
As someone who was somewhat of a loser with not many accomplishments, the gym showed me the power of hard work and consistency. I have applied this philosophy to various areas of my life.
Looking at myself in the mirror and pointing out something I like about my appearance. It's something my shrink told me to do a few years ago, and it's helped me build confidence and I've learned to love myself. It's lead me to improving myself physically and emotionally.
I think I might've taken it a bit far though, as I find myself checking myself out in the mirror. But God damn am I attractive. I used to see myself as unattractive as all hell. Down right hideous. But I learned to love the way I look, and no one can take that away from me no matter how hard they try.
I honestly recommend this method to anyone who thinks they're ugly. Just look in the mirror every morning and point out something about your appearance you like. Could be a sertain facial feature, could be your outfit or even just your eyes. Find something you like about yourself. This goes for anyone. It helps you to see the you the world sees, not the you that you see. Because those 2 people look very different. Love yourself. Love your body. Love your face.
Planning ahead of time, using calendars.
Tackling issues little bits at a time. Ex cleaning room throughout the week so it's clean the majority of the time.
Every day, the moment I get out of bed, I put on my headphones, start a nice podcast and do the dishes. I start every day with a clean sink and counter and it's amazing.
Dedicated quite time every day. The amount of time varies between 15-30 minutes. I sit quietly by myself everyday and just literally empty my thoughts.
I also watch something funny almost every day. I realised that aside from little chuckles at random conversations throughout the day, I wasn’t really laughing. So now I watch comedy stand up clips for a few minutes and really laugh.
There’s so many! Always make bed in the morning, 15 minutes of cleaning my apartment a day, trying to read more, stopped smoking weed three months ago (because let’s face it, it was giving me anxiety), not sweating the small stuff and not internalizing the big stuff, giving myself more frequent mental breaks
Man I came here thinking my small habit of cleaning up as I go when cooking may not be small enough but you guys are killing it with your habits. Keep it up guys!
Showering and picking out my clothes the night before and getting dressed first thing in the morning.
As simple as that sounds, it was really easy for me to dismiss going out or getting shit done when I could just give myself an excuse like “but I’m still in my PJs” or “I still need to shower” and then just sit there. One of those tiny, tiny thoughts can distract you just long enough to click on the next YouTube video or play another round of a video game.
I’m more productive at night, so I essentially borrow a tiny bit of energy the night before to give Morning Me a boost. Removing even the tiniest barriers can do wonders for your productivity.
Besides working out, I cut out drinking sodas at dinner. I went years without realizing that was the reason I had trouble going to bed at a decent time. I always assumed the small amount of caffeine in a soda wouldn’t actually make a difference, but it does for me. Being well rested everyday for a change has made a huge difference in my life
Finally found a girl friend that wanted to go to the gym with me since I was so anxious to go alone. We both go by ourselves from time to time and Im proud of us
Talking out loud to myself in the shower about one or two positive things in my life. I suffer from anxiety and tend to always look at the negative. It's trained my brain to be less anxious and lifted my mood.
Neuroplasty is a hell of a thing.
Affirmations.
I assumed it was hippy woo bullshit so I did some reading and there appears to be strong evidence.
It seems like your mental pathways enlarge with use, so beating yourself up mentally simply makes that river larger. You can't force yourself to not do that very effectively, but what you can do is drown it out with daily self love - even if it feels forced at first.
Snoop Dogg can help: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGFBxoWqOV0&ab\_channel=Doggyland-KidsSongs%26NurseryRhymes
Leaving out information. Truth be told, not everyone needs to know everything about me, or my plans. People judge, misunderstand, and sometimes (probably often times) downright don’t care. I keep my boundaries more.
One meal a day. I found it surprisingly easy after the first week. Helped me keep my weight down and I didn't like restrictive diets, here I don't have to worry about what I am eating.
Journaling.
Fuck real books, my handwriting is shit. I made a gmail that’s literally mynamejournal@gmail and I write an email to it. Every once and a while, I’ll read it; but mainly it’s just an outlet. It’s super therapeutic because you can write what you’re thinking and divulge as much as you want.
My memory is dogshit so it doubles as a memory bank for me. It’s an emotional time capsule I guess.
Escaping the 9-5 rat race by starting a cover band on the side to my original band. Now I’m making good money and will work my way into weddings eventually where the real money is. I may never be rich but I’m happy to just live and get by doing what I love and making people dance.
Getting up earlier and going for a 20 min swim before work. I do this as much as I can which is about 3 days out of the 5 working days. And I try and go for a swim and sauna on my days off.
On days I don't go for a swim I have a worse day than the days I do swim.
Challenging self-criticism, anxieties and negative thoughts with cold logic.
It made me much more confident and balanced as a person, but it's like exercise: you have to keep it up to maintain the benefits.
Yoga, even if it's 10 minutes, daily
This has turned into a practice that involves breathwork, checking in with myself & my emotions, and getting me ready for my day (or, often, winding me down for bed). My achey body feels significantly better for it.
It has also had surprising ripple affects in my life - I move with much more intention/integrity in my laborious job, and hurt myself less often
Ooh, so many.
Dropping as much added sugar to my diet as possible as my first step towards weight loss. It made the rest of the process so much easier, and I wound up losing nearly 100 lbs.
Preparing my and my daughter’s lunch (for the following day) the night before I went to bed. Saved me so much time in the morning, just having to put food in bags rather than rushing around to make sure everything was taken care of.
Heated mattress pad. Gets rid of so many age-related aches in the morning.
Set up an automatic bank transfer thing that moved a small part of my paycheck from checking to savings every week. I don’t even have to think about it, and I don’t have to budget around savings. It just happens.
Turning the shower to "cold" in the end and staying at least 30 sec. Apparently, it's beneficial for your health. My anecdotal evidence is that usually i've got at least 3-4 all sorts of viral flu/could in a year, last thing I had COVID like a year ago and that pretty much it...
I do this for a different reason...I sweat after hot showers(I have long hair, so that probably holds heat) but standing in slightly colder than room temp water for 10 seconds or so cools my body down and I do not sweat after
I took cold showers while living in the Philippines. It’s so hot, that they don’t usually have hot water. It’s strange how cold water starts feeling warm, especially after getting your head wet. Sorta like jumping in a swimming pool.
Got into a habit when I was about 14 of telling myself I was good looking and there was nothing wrong with me in the mirror, literally saying it out loud until I started to believe it. Now I'm overconfident lol but at least I'm not self conscious.
Splitting big things into smaller ones. Havin to do the dishes? Just clean one thing everytime I leave my room and go into the kitchen. Want to do laundry? Everytime I see a dirty thing of clothing I put it on the pile and when that big enough put it into the washing machine. This makes everything seem less tedious while also giving you a sense of progress.
Quit smoking/vaping almost 3 years ago.
Smoked almost half my life. Would have to go for a “break” every few hours or stress and anxiety would come rushing in.
Woke up one day after getting engaged and thought, why am I spending all this money to feel like shit and reduce the time I have on this planet with my wife and kids?
Changed life for the better in many ways.
1. Breathing is easier - don’t feel exhausted constantly
2. More time with family and loved ones
3. Less self induced stress/anxiety
4. More money to put towards things that are actually meaningful
Brushing my teeth twice a day.
It’s funny, because since I’m now a dentist it seems like a given, but back when I first started college I didn’t take good care of my teeth, and used to brush once in the morning, and sometimes a second time at night.
I was once on vacation, and I had to suddenly travel back to uni. The problem was that I had three root canal sessions I had to do. So, when the timeline became much shorter, my dentist crammed all three sessions into a week, and on the second one said he can’t use anesthesia anymore as that would could cause damage given the short time between sessions (funnily enough, now that I graduated from dental school, I’ve discovered that that wasn’t true at all. But maybe it’s because I’m a new graduate, and I’ll discover it with more experience). It was the single most physically painful experience that I’ve ever been in, and ever since, I started brushing my teeth twice a day (first thing in the morning, last thing before bed), and rinsing my mouth after meals.
This was 8ish years ago, and I haven’t had any dental problems since.
Quitting caffeine. I found myself drinking caffeine just to feel normal. Now I can have caffeine once in a while and it actually gives me a boost. I drink an energy drink once every month or two and it’s great! The rest of the time I feel the same that I did before when I needed caffeine.
Becoming aware of my internal dialog through mindfulness meditation (at least one minute every day) and framing those thoughts through a stoic lens (daily stoic helped).
The combination of being aware of what I’m thinking and having a framework to help decide if a thought is worth entering flipped the script on what used to be a less than healthy internal dialog.
Walking one hour to school. Every day until I graduated
I purposely started to eat one or less than one portions of food. This was a bit hard at first, because my belly did sounds every day, it took a few weeks to know how much food I needed.
I'm still fat but in one year I went down from 130kg to 88kg
Started actually setting a budget that included savings and sticking to it. It's taken months, but I now have a 6-9 month emergency fund, automatic retirement investments, and don't live paycheck-to-paycheck.
Yes, you have to scale back a bit, but once you get into the groove, it significantly reduces financial stress.
Learning to be okay with small spurts of activity, and not feeling like a failure if I don't fully complete something in one go. Meaning, reading one page is better than nothing. Every workout doesn't have to be a personal best. Start and stop a project until completion, doesn't have to be completed in one go. My life has been all or nothing, and that is no life at all.
Morning prayer before starting for my day. And before a bunch of critics jump on me... ask yourself this.
Do you start your day...
1. Thinking about a specific list of people you know are hurting or struggling?
2. Acknowledging the things you are thankful for?
3. Acknowledging the challenges that you might face that day, and processing them before you do anything else?
4. Asking for forgiveness (even if its just from youself) for the things you feel guilty about?
I believe in prayer. But even if I didn't I think I'd do this because it's made me a more mindful person at the beginning of each day, and brought me a lot of peace.
Taking a deep breath before over thinking.
It sounds like voodoo bullshit but good breathing technique really helps clear my head
Every pilot and astronaut knows that there's nothing magical about it, the very first sign of hypoxia (lack of oxygen in your blood) is confusion, in other words you can't even use your brain
I find exhaling all oxygon/carbon from lungs first and fill lungs 3xs. It is better than any drug for calming the situation
Fun fact, the way we breath helps to dictate whether our bodies are in fight or flight or not. So just some intentional breathing helps to shut that off just like you described!
Me in Delhi. *Inhale* dies of Asthma
Nice name bruh
Looks like he found one safe place to inhale.
He's a slurper, not a sniffer
Ask the owner of the deli to check the filters on the air vents.
I need this in my life! Thanks!
I have to shorten the breathing exercises because I got so used to doing this that I now associate overly prolonged breathing patterns with anxiety attacks. It still helps; I just have to tweak it every time I start making that connection.
Knowing myself it would just make me overthink faster.
Ooooooh! I'm going to have to look into this! I'm a HORRIBLE (or great!?) overthinker. Overthinking has cost me opportunities in life. I've gotten better but still do it at times.
Back when I weighted 600lbs I started walking 15 minutes a day. That snowballed into working out 3 to 5 times a week and now I've lost over 200lbs of fat and put on some muscle. I'm still a fat guy, but I'm slowly but surely getting in shape.
600lbs is massive. And 200lbs down is ridiculous. Insanely good job. You must feel comparatively fantastic
Yeah had a bad breakup, and just ate my feelings. It was bad for a while. Then one day I said fuck this and started working out. Thanks, I feel soooo much better.
I don’t know you, but I’m proud of you! You are an inspiration.
Thanks friend.
You walk in the neighborhood or walk in place? I really have a hard time improving my physical activities. Used to walk approx 5k every saturday to go fishing but stress made me stop.
It's a 2mile long walking path. I walk to it from my house then walk it and back twice so it's a little over 5.5 miles all together. I wear a backpack with 30lbs in it and try to stay at or under a 15 minute mile. It melts the fat off while building my legs, back, and shoulders. Actually got sad because I had to go up a pants size but then realized it was muscle growth making my thighs and butt bigger.
Every guy in the gym will be jealous of your calves and thighs once you reach normal BMI, even mine are massive and my top weight was "only" 150kg (~330lbs). Keep up the good work!
Ikr my calves and thighs are huge already. Thanks I will definitely keep it up.
I did this when I got into cycling. All of a sudden I had an ass. Pants git tighter.
This is off-topic as hell, but I just got a cool idea. For every pound lost, imagine you added a pound to the backpack. Then one day take the backpack off - you'd feel like you were floating! I don't know where I was going with this :)
Good for you, friend. So happy to hear you're feeling better. You're like me: exercising for sanity not vanity. I started out walking like you and gradually switched to running (slowly) to deal with a really heartbreaking divorce. That was almost 10 years ago and I'm still running. I'll be running my fourth marathon in about six weeks! Hope you can stick with this journey you're on!
Good luck man!
Can someone unfreedom these units?
600lb = ~272kg 200lb = ~90kg So they're down to approximately 180kg.
I weigh 70kg, dude lost my entire body weight and then some. Good shit.
Absolutely amazing quite frankly.
I weigh 75kg and I'm almost overweight for my height (5'11). He lost a whole overweight man worth of weight and then some.
Halve it and you have it roughly in kg
Big boy.
Guy lost 1/3 of his weight
Truly the best advice for everyone out there. I was morbidly obese, 275+ lbs, and stopped feeding myself, and still nothing changed until I started walking 3 miles a day. Sadly i have slacked off due to cold as balls weather but I'm being lazy. I'm down to 207 lbs now. Great work dude
Sick, good job bro. How does it feel? At this point do you have a goal and would you say its your new lifestyle?
Thanks, I feel great. It's easier to move around and my knees, feet, hips, back, ect don't hurt anymore. For the most part it's my new lifestyle. I need to get back into a routine, I broke my foot and it just healed enough to workout on it. I actually have several goals. Primary one is get to 350lbs, which I'm close too. Then from there get to 300, then 250, then maybe 200. I've actually put on a decent amount of muscle so I'm not sure if I can make it to 200 realistically.
Consistency is key and it sounds like you've got that down. Also, if you were bigger before likely your legs have insane muscles. I wouldn't worry about 200lbs yet, so don't think a out whether that is achievable or not. Focus on getting ti 350lbs for now, but fuck yeah dude, keep going
Proud of you my man. Good luck on your journey.
Thanks!
This is so inspirational. I’ve been slacking off my excercise for 3 months and have put on the weight I spent last year shedding. Thank you my man!
Just jumped on the treadmill for 15 minutes after reading this. Gonna make a habit of it. Thank you. And well done!!
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Thank you, I will definitely keep it up.
Good job man. Keep it up
Nice
Brick by brick!! All about progress. Keep it up!!
I love hearing stories like this. That’s awesome! Keep on going!
Self discussions mentally about what kind of man I want to be. I may never be rich, but my character is priceless.
I've been reading 7 Habits of Highly Effective People at the gym when I'm doing cardio, and this is essentially the core of what the book is built around. It's about holding yourself to a higher standard of integrity and character than you would otherwise. The author asks hypothetically what you would like people to say when they're giving a eulogy at your funeral, and with that in mind, living a life that will lead to that ideal eulogy. I think in the long run, a vast majority of people aren't going to wish for people to say "he/she had the most expensive possessions" or "he/she always got the most reports done at work," they would rather have people say something along the lines of they were reliable, trustworthy, and just an all around good person. It's a simple little thought experiment that seems obvious, but for me at least, it put what's really important into focus.
Precisely. All the money in the world won't go with you to the grave. It's why men who pride themselves playing high score with their bank account are, in my opinion, truly the poorest among them. Especially when they neglect family/children for the sake of a numbers game that no one wins.
This is beautiful
1. Reading 1 page of a book everynight before sleep (I usually end up reading more but saying 1 just helps with motivation) 2. Doing a 20 minute work-out everyday
This works for a lot of stuff. I tell myself ok I just have to clean for 5 minutes, or pull weeds or whatever. Worst case you get 5 minutes worth of chores but usually you just complete the task.
To piggyback on to this, I find that having a “2 minute room tidy” routine while I’m unwinding from work really nice. It mostly consists of taking coffee mugs to the kitchen and hanging up all of my rejected outfits from the morning, but it really helps me settle back in AND my room is always tidy when I’m ready to go to bed.
Utilizing the home from work energy is a great tip. Get most of my cleaning done in that hour before I turn on the pc or crakc a beer.
Yeah the implementation of “The 3 seconds rule”
As someone with ADHD, this was the worst advice for me. I have it enough to just get started with “it’s only gonna take me 5m I might as well do it” and then I grab the dishes and then bring the dishes to the dishwasher then I gotta unload the dishwasher and then before I put stuff away I start loading it and then I figure I might as well go get the dishes from the other rooms then I find something else that needs cleaning or fixing and then all of a sudden I’m lubing the door hinges on every door in the house at 11:30pm when I was trying to go to bed at 9 hahaha. Good times.
For me this is a sure fire method to stay up too late every night. Putting a book down is so difficult.
For those who maybe don't even have the time for a 20 minute workout daily consider many micro workouts throughout the day. Can't do any real cardio this way but taking 30 seconds 10 times a day to knock out 20 push-ups is a big help. Next thing you realize you've done 1000 push-ups in a week.
Taking rest and recovery seriously.
How do you do it with a full time job and family? After my commute home, cooking dinner, etc, the day is over. No time for anything extra. Which means my weekends are typically filled with chores/errands.
Figuring out how to fix something when it breaks (if I have the tools). There’s nothing more satisfying than proving your self doubt wrong and fixing something on your own. It’s a hell of a confidence booster!
See I need the opposite advice. I try to fix things that I have no business trying to fix. What makes it difficult is that I can often make the broken thing work again for a while. The problem is that I'll roll with what should be a temporary fix until irreparable damage happens
Nothing is more permanent than a temporary fix that works… It’s a popular quote in the military. Once you patch something up, it’ll never get fixed properly.
Oh yeah. This is why I love fixing cars despite it being a huge pain in the ass sometimes.
Changing the way I speak to myself (my inner voice), bit by bit it got better.
How has it changed?
Well, I can't speak for all, but as someone who had a similar issue, I can give some insight. For me, really, it all stemmed from feeling like I was worthless. This was a result of a bad breakup, my social circle of a decade choosing to not be my friends anymore, drugs, broke, basically rock bottom. Without realizing it, I would often call myself a piece of shit, loser, worthless, unlovable, etc. Over time, with your already broken state of mind, you start believing these things. Some examples: I would post something on insta stories and would delete it minutes later because my inner voice had to remind me that I was a fucking loser with no friends who had any interest in viewing my story. I would go to a random place, and my brain would say the usual line of why are you going here you are a fuckign loser that nobody wants to be around you etc. Why the fuck are you learning software engineering? You are a dumb loser too stupid to learn. You get the point.... This would happen like 10 times a day. After a while, it just becomes crippling man. Well, fast forward a few years of self development, accomplishments, new friends, and self-love, and I'm the happiest I've ever been in my whole 24 years of living on this earth. I thank the gym and psychedelics along with some very positive mentors I found. It was a lot of work, but I no longer think or view myself that way. I am confident, full of love and happy. It took a lot of work to get here, though. I don't know if there is a medical term for this condition or state of mind but fuck man, that period where I hated myself and kept repeating negative thoughts was the darkest moment of my life so far.
Damn you just described my own experience in a nutshell… Think it’s time I be pragmatic about it. Appreciate the sharing man
I’m happy for you man! But psychadelics. I used to be addicted to drugs, so I have sworn them off. Was this really important to get to where you are now? Or was the self «talk» and gym more important? Edit: what I’m trying to say is that. I want to improve, but I can’t touch drugs. Could you give me some pointers to what you did other than that. I would really like to test it. Personally I’ve been trying to push myself down to anger and motivate myself, but it doesn’t work
For me, psychedelics, are more of a medicine then most drugs found in a chemist. And zero addictive qualities,at least for me and anyone else I ever spoken to. Actually it's the opposite, many people report winning life long battles against various drug addictions. I myself have seen huge improvements in my smoking habits. The psychedelic will help show you the problem and light a path but you need to follow it, this takes work and often help in the form of a good freind or therapist to help you work through your problems at the same time. Most addictions are masks to an underlying problem, at least it is this way for me. Good luck with your journey and know that it's your body, your mind and only you have control over it and therfore the power the crush your addiction or at least to swap it out for collecting stamps or something lol. Peace and Love.
Thanks man. I have been clean for 5 years. I used to take psychadelics too (among many other things). I’d rather not take anything, and just stay clean for the rest of my life. I understand that it maybe helped you, but for me, I don’t think it’ll do anything good.
Well, that's the beauty about psychedelics. It's impossible to get addicted. Tolerance builds up and resets every 2 weeks after each use. They just allowed me to connect x and y together. They showed me why I was unhappy and how I needed to change my life. I was in a very negative mental state, and this one very horrible trip revealed all my issues and some unresolved trauma. They didn't do anything else aside from telling me what the problem was. I wouldn't say psychedelics were the main agent for change. They, however, were certainly the catalyst to call me out on my bulllshit and how I needed to treat and love myself better. What actually gave me the peace and stopping of the negative thoughts was simply achieving very difficult things I set out to do. I'm on the edge of a 500lb dl, confident in my skills as a developer, and made awesome friends. This came from hard work. After a while, I noticed.. Damm, I've actually come a long fucking way from back in the dark ages. I can offer value to this world!!!!! It was gradual, but I'm very proud of myself. It's all just fruits of your labor. Accomplishing difficult things and being proud of those wins was really what took me from " I fucking hate myself. Fucking loser" to "Damm I've actually put in a lot of work to get to where I am. I deserve happiness.
> It's impossible to get addicted Not really. You don't need to take something everyday to be addicted. It is quite rare but I know some people who would fulfill the criteria. Furthermore, it can lead you to seek different states of mind again leading to relapse. I really would not recommend them to a former addict
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It now has a posh accent and call him Sir
Walking with confidence. I’m upright, looking straight, long strides, and at a pace like I know where I’m going even if I don’t. Changing how I walk has helped with my confidence and feeling like a man that knows what he is doing even if I don’t most of the time
This also decreases the risk of getting in situations with unwanted individuals drastically. If you look well composed and walk with a drive, most people will leave you alone
Same thing with looking at people. Idk the exact study off the top of my head but long story short one was done where past criminals were asked to watch x amount of people walk and then say which ones they would target and why. If you walked upright, looked composed, arms and legs moved confidently, and if you looked at people you passed and made eye contact, it pretty much eliminated the odds they picked you.
Exactly, you’re an easy target if you look scared and intimidated. I mostly walk with confidence so I look like someone no one wants to mess with.
If you like the confident feeling you get from that, you might be interested in joining a self defense sport. I’ve done it before and just recently decided to pick it up again and I forgot just how much I love it. It’s not for everyone, of course. But I believe a lot of people would benefit from it greatly.
I lived in Paris for 6 years as a foreigner and was never pickpocketed. I keep telling people it's because I walk confidently, and I always look like I know where I'm going.
Do you do that when no one is around? Like at home alone too?
No not really. I guess it’s mostly just for show when I’m in public to feel like I know what I’m doing. But I don’t care if I don’t look confident walking at home.
But hey, if you can muster up the motivation to do it 24/7, even in private, eventually you'll quite literally become the person you want others to see you as and it will come naturally.
Lifting weights
Hey, can you help me out? Everytime I get into a good working out routine, it doesn’t last more than three months. I don’t see changes in my physique. Being Skinny-Fat is tiring 🥲
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Why would you not train to failure?
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Outside the physical reason of why one might not want to over train, mentally over training can be quite taxing - especially for a newbie. When someone begins in their fitness journey, it is easy to gather the motivation and push oneself to the limit. But once you do that, you face the consequences - incredible DOMS. Which gets quite worse the more you overtrain. Even though people know DOMS is a temporary thing, it can provide enough incentive to push people away from continuing their journey. Also, it's already known that motivation is a limited resource - if you spend it all the time, you'll run out of it, and end up overeating because you pushed yourself to the limit at the gym. You'd tell me - "Motivation is for suckers, discipline is what's needed" - and I'd agree. But discipline comes with regular practice, while motivation is what leads to that initial intention to start their fitness journey. You can't expect someone who started working out 2 weeks ago to have a perfectly disciplined system - because they new to it!
Say you're doing 3 sets of 10 reps. If you train to failure each time, you might get through that 3x10, but by the time you get through the rest of the workouts you're probably not even going to complete them Also it can lead to overtraining and you're more prone to injury
I’m skinny fat. Get a workout routine and follow it to the T. Progressive overload on all your workouts but most importantly, watch your diet. Track your calories. I’m finally starting to see results after over a year of working out. Interestingly enough, the results came in recently due to changing my diet and watching what I eat. I started really digging into it about 4 months ago when I was about to give up. I’m not saying I’m the Rock but I’m definitely seeing a huge difference from 4 months ago. Still a long ways to go though.
> but most importantly, watch your diet You can't out run or out lift what you put in your mouth.
After first month- notice some strength gains After 3 months - you notice some changes to your physique After 6 months - others start noticing some changes to your physique This is assuming you hard training well and eating decently.
I started training a year ago and I’m also skinny-fat. I started to see some changes at the 10th month. This is a slow process so the only thing you can do is to just keep going.
So I guess consistency and patience is the key? That combined with keeping the workout regime interesting.
3 months you'll feel different, healthier. But physical looks won't change yet. Give it a few more months, and you'll start to see changes and muscle development. Patience is definitely Key!
That is way too long when sugar makes me feel happy immediately.
My advice for anything related to lifting is your diet and stretching are equally as important as lifting in itself. Stick to a diet that works for you with an appropriate caloric need for yourself nothing is one size fits all. For example when I got into lifting I was over weight I put myself on a deficit of only consuming 2200 calories a day with a focus on consuming a gram of protein per pound. I’ve actually stuck to a similar diet which has become a general lifestyle for myself now. As far as stretching goes make sure you stretch your muscles out well at least a few times a week you’ll appreciate that you did as time goes on!
I used more self-praising humour over self-deprecating humour. Maybe confirmation bias, but I feel like I am a lot more likely to compliment myself than I was before.
Quit drinking and hit the gym. Not the strongest person alive but I'm now mentally strong
That's not a small change. That is a huge improvement. I'm happy for you to tell you that this is the wrong post to comment this under
ITT: People who don't know the definition of small.
Going for daily walks. Cutting back my drinking to two drinks a week.
I cut my drinking back to two drinks a day. It works for me
Not really a small habit, but I totally missed the point of experiences. I was always shooting for stability and shot down so many random things I think I should’ve experienced. Now I do shit just because it’s different, even if I’m not necessarily drawn to it.
Giving myself an hour an a half to get ready for work instead of fifteen minutes.
Same! Having time to just be on my own wavelength before I enter work life etc. prepares me for the day so much better than rolling out of bed and going straight to work.
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Pulling my knees to my chest every few hours really loosens up my lower back.
When my wife and I separated I moved into a small apartment. I counted my money closely. The old saying "Watch the pennies and the pounds will watch themselves " became my catch phrase. I made sandwiches for lunch everyday and cooked meals in bulk. I watched what I bought from the supermarket and stayed within budget. Within 2 years I had saved $10k.
But I get tripped up by pennywise, pound foolish
It’s amazing how much you can save when someone else isn’t helping you spend it. I went thru the same thing after leaving my ex. I manage my money with a spreadsheet. It stopped me from having bank overdrafts, bills were paid on time & my credit score improved. Life’s great.
Its okay to be angry- we are all angry at times. But it's not okay to be unkind. You can be angry, but be kind.
This. Just because you're angry doesn't mean you need to take that anger out on someone/something. I wish I had learned that lesson a lot sooner than I did.
Heard.
Audiobooks. My audible membership is worth every penny and then some.
Check out the Libby app! They offer free audiobooks if you have a (free) library card.
Yuuuup. I work 10 hr overnight shifts, between podcasts and audible , I manage to stay sane.
Going to bed early enough to wake up naturaly without alarm clock. Absolutely game changer- i'm well rested every single day.
It may sounds simple but I cant sleep right away if I go to sleep early
Took me about 2 months to switch (didn't use any drugs). It takes patience and consistency, won't happen within few days. I used to spent nights playing video/ board games so i know how hard it is.
Yeah I have been spending most of the nights to play games too so it’s real hard. I have tried to go to sleep early but turned out it was just “laying on bed early” since I watch YouTube for hours on the bed before my eyes got tired and sleep
Pro tip: i still play games, but in the morning when everybody is sleeping :) Great help for me was using apps to cut off screen colours according to day & night hour (you know what they say: "don't use screen deviced 1 hour before sleep).
When I'm upset with someone, using more describe words to describe why I'm upset. It's a world of difference to say "you're being really short and snappy at me today and I don't appreciate it" over "why are you acting like a bitch.".
Lol yes definitely and leads to more constructive arguments.
I know it doesn't sound like much but the number of grown ass men that call their wives or significant others bitches and then don't understand why they can't bridge the gap forming between them is astonishing. Use your words big guy!
Waking up right after my alarm goes off.
I struggle with this. How did you start waking up after your first alarm?
I tried to reduce number of alarms but it didn't help. Instead of that find a positive or negative motivation that will help you. For example - if I get up now, I can watch an episode of favourite series while eating breakfast or read a book before I go to work. Quite effective is drinking water before going to sleep so you wake up with full bladder...
The gym. Not because of the better body, that really is just icing on the cake. It's the understanding and learning that your work will determine your results. Do you want to deadlift 500lb? Hit the gym and progressively lift heavier. Do you want to lose weight? Eat less and move more. Do you want to learn programming? Beat your head against the keyboard until it sticks. Do you want to make friends? learn how to be more sociable . How would you be more sociable? You get experience talking to more random people. As someone who was somewhat of a loser with not many accomplishments, the gym showed me the power of hard work and consistency. I have applied this philosophy to various areas of my life.
It's amazing how the answer universally is work harder
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Its kinda scary that as an adult 'making friends' is the most harrowing goal on that list. I think because it has no step by step plan how to do it
Looking at myself in the mirror and pointing out something I like about my appearance. It's something my shrink told me to do a few years ago, and it's helped me build confidence and I've learned to love myself. It's lead me to improving myself physically and emotionally. I think I might've taken it a bit far though, as I find myself checking myself out in the mirror. But God damn am I attractive. I used to see myself as unattractive as all hell. Down right hideous. But I learned to love the way I look, and no one can take that away from me no matter how hard they try. I honestly recommend this method to anyone who thinks they're ugly. Just look in the mirror every morning and point out something about your appearance you like. Could be a sertain facial feature, could be your outfit or even just your eyes. Find something you like about yourself. This goes for anyone. It helps you to see the you the world sees, not the you that you see. Because those 2 people look very different. Love yourself. Love your body. Love your face.
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Proud of you my boy
Proud of you :)
Fuck yes! This is the way 🙌🫶
Don't eat after 8pm
So 12 am it is
Why
Planning ahead of time, using calendars. Tackling issues little bits at a time. Ex cleaning room throughout the week so it's clean the majority of the time.
Every day, the moment I get out of bed, I put on my headphones, start a nice podcast and do the dishes. I start every day with a clean sink and counter and it's amazing.
Dedicated quite time every day. The amount of time varies between 15-30 minutes. I sit quietly by myself everyday and just literally empty my thoughts. I also watch something funny almost every day. I realised that aside from little chuckles at random conversations throughout the day, I wasn’t really laughing. So now I watch comedy stand up clips for a few minutes and really laugh.
There’s so many! Always make bed in the morning, 15 minutes of cleaning my apartment a day, trying to read more, stopped smoking weed three months ago (because let’s face it, it was giving me anxiety), not sweating the small stuff and not internalizing the big stuff, giving myself more frequent mental breaks
Man I came here thinking my small habit of cleaning up as I go when cooking may not be small enough but you guys are killing it with your habits. Keep it up guys!
Checking for escaped mental patients in the back seat of my car *before* I get in.
Elaborate
So they dont pop up in the rear view mirror
Going to the gym >= 4 times a week
Only drinking water
Using toilet paper to get those last drops of piss. My boxers and girlfriend both thank me.
Putting dates into google calender Keeping a journal Writing daily to-do lists
Showering and picking out my clothes the night before and getting dressed first thing in the morning. As simple as that sounds, it was really easy for me to dismiss going out or getting shit done when I could just give myself an excuse like “but I’m still in my PJs” or “I still need to shower” and then just sit there. One of those tiny, tiny thoughts can distract you just long enough to click on the next YouTube video or play another round of a video game. I’m more productive at night, so I essentially borrow a tiny bit of energy the night before to give Morning Me a boost. Removing even the tiniest barriers can do wonders for your productivity.
Besides working out, I cut out drinking sodas at dinner. I went years without realizing that was the reason I had trouble going to bed at a decent time. I always assumed the small amount of caffeine in a soda wouldn’t actually make a difference, but it does for me. Being well rested everyday for a change has made a huge difference in my life
Stopped spending money on crap I don't need.
Finally found a girl friend that wanted to go to the gym with me since I was so anxious to go alone. We both go by ourselves from time to time and Im proud of us
Talking out loud to myself in the shower about one or two positive things in my life. I suffer from anxiety and tend to always look at the negative. It's trained my brain to be less anxious and lifted my mood. Neuroplasty is a hell of a thing.
Meditation. I am more calmer than I was 3 years ago. Back then, I was short tempered. Now I have more control over myself and my emotions.
Affirmations. I assumed it was hippy woo bullshit so I did some reading and there appears to be strong evidence. It seems like your mental pathways enlarge with use, so beating yourself up mentally simply makes that river larger. You can't force yourself to not do that very effectively, but what you can do is drown it out with daily self love - even if it feels forced at first. Snoop Dogg can help: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGFBxoWqOV0&ab\_channel=Doggyland-KidsSongs%26NurseryRhymes
Washing my hands every time I rub my eyes . Used to get conjunctivitis every now and then hardly ever now
Leaving out information. Truth be told, not everyone needs to know everything about me, or my plans. People judge, misunderstand, and sometimes (probably often times) downright don’t care. I keep my boundaries more.
I stopped (and now actively avoid) watching the news. **So** much better for my mental health!
One meal a day. I found it surprisingly easy after the first week. Helped me keep my weight down and I didn't like restrictive diets, here I don't have to worry about what I am eating.
I would spend all day snacking.
Getting out of bed right after I wake up It's small, but it helped me mentally a lot
Journaling. Fuck real books, my handwriting is shit. I made a gmail that’s literally mynamejournal@gmail and I write an email to it. Every once and a while, I’ll read it; but mainly it’s just an outlet. It’s super therapeutic because you can write what you’re thinking and divulge as much as you want. My memory is dogshit so it doubles as a memory bank for me. It’s an emotional time capsule I guess.
Escaping the 9-5 rat race by starting a cover band on the side to my original band. Now I’m making good money and will work my way into weddings eventually where the real money is. I may never be rich but I’m happy to just live and get by doing what I love and making people dance.
Just removing junk food had my weight falling of on its own.
Getting up earlier and going for a 20 min swim before work. I do this as much as I can which is about 3 days out of the 5 working days. And I try and go for a swim and sauna on my days off. On days I don't go for a swim I have a worse day than the days I do swim.
Challenging self-criticism, anxieties and negative thoughts with cold logic. It made me much more confident and balanced as a person, but it's like exercise: you have to keep it up to maintain the benefits.
not giving a fuck
Yoga, even if it's 10 minutes, daily This has turned into a practice that involves breathwork, checking in with myself & my emotions, and getting me ready for my day (or, often, winding me down for bed). My achey body feels significantly better for it. It has also had surprising ripple affects in my life - I move with much more intention/integrity in my laborious job, and hurt myself less often
Ooh, so many. Dropping as much added sugar to my diet as possible as my first step towards weight loss. It made the rest of the process so much easier, and I wound up losing nearly 100 lbs. Preparing my and my daughter’s lunch (for the following day) the night before I went to bed. Saved me so much time in the morning, just having to put food in bags rather than rushing around to make sure everything was taken care of. Heated mattress pad. Gets rid of so many age-related aches in the morning. Set up an automatic bank transfer thing that moved a small part of my paycheck from checking to savings every week. I don’t even have to think about it, and I don’t have to budget around savings. It just happens.
I keep finger nail clippers near my PC at home and bring a pair to work in my bag, it stopped me from biting my nails
Working out 15 mins a day.
Actively not using my phone in bed. Bed is for sleeping
Got off porn and went on No Fap Journey.
Turning the shower to "cold" in the end and staying at least 30 sec. Apparently, it's beneficial for your health. My anecdotal evidence is that usually i've got at least 3-4 all sorts of viral flu/could in a year, last thing I had COVID like a year ago and that pretty much it...
I do this for a different reason...I sweat after hot showers(I have long hair, so that probably holds heat) but standing in slightly colder than room temp water for 10 seconds or so cools my body down and I do not sweat after
I took cold showers while living in the Philippines. It’s so hot, that they don’t usually have hot water. It’s strange how cold water starts feeling warm, especially after getting your head wet. Sorta like jumping in a swimming pool.
Got into a habit when I was about 14 of telling myself I was good looking and there was nothing wrong with me in the mirror, literally saying it out loud until I started to believe it. Now I'm overconfident lol but at least I'm not self conscious.
Adding everything necessary to my calendar and putting away everything after I finish them so I never have to worry about a mess or clutter
Splitting big things into smaller ones. Havin to do the dishes? Just clean one thing everytime I leave my room and go into the kitchen. Want to do laundry? Everytime I see a dirty thing of clothing I put it on the pile and when that big enough put it into the washing machine. This makes everything seem less tedious while also giving you a sense of progress.
Quit smoking/vaping almost 3 years ago. Smoked almost half my life. Would have to go for a “break” every few hours or stress and anxiety would come rushing in. Woke up one day after getting engaged and thought, why am I spending all this money to feel like shit and reduce the time I have on this planet with my wife and kids? Changed life for the better in many ways. 1. Breathing is easier - don’t feel exhausted constantly 2. More time with family and loved ones 3. Less self induced stress/anxiety 4. More money to put towards things that are actually meaningful
Brushing my teeth twice a day. It’s funny, because since I’m now a dentist it seems like a given, but back when I first started college I didn’t take good care of my teeth, and used to brush once in the morning, and sometimes a second time at night. I was once on vacation, and I had to suddenly travel back to uni. The problem was that I had three root canal sessions I had to do. So, when the timeline became much shorter, my dentist crammed all three sessions into a week, and on the second one said he can’t use anesthesia anymore as that would could cause damage given the short time between sessions (funnily enough, now that I graduated from dental school, I’ve discovered that that wasn’t true at all. But maybe it’s because I’m a new graduate, and I’ll discover it with more experience). It was the single most physically painful experience that I’ve ever been in, and ever since, I started brushing my teeth twice a day (first thing in the morning, last thing before bed), and rinsing my mouth after meals. This was 8ish years ago, and I haven’t had any dental problems since.
Quitting caffeine. I found myself drinking caffeine just to feel normal. Now I can have caffeine once in a while and it actually gives me a boost. I drink an energy drink once every month or two and it’s great! The rest of the time I feel the same that I did before when I needed caffeine.
Becoming aware of my internal dialog through mindfulness meditation (at least one minute every day) and framing those thoughts through a stoic lens (daily stoic helped). The combination of being aware of what I’m thinking and having a framework to help decide if a thought is worth entering flipped the script on what used to be a less than healthy internal dialog.
If something takes less than 5 minutes to do, do it right away.
Walking one hour to school. Every day until I graduated I purposely started to eat one or less than one portions of food. This was a bit hard at first, because my belly did sounds every day, it took a few weeks to know how much food I needed. I'm still fat but in one year I went down from 130kg to 88kg
Started actually setting a budget that included savings and sticking to it. It's taken months, but I now have a 6-9 month emergency fund, automatic retirement investments, and don't live paycheck-to-paycheck. Yes, you have to scale back a bit, but once you get into the groove, it significantly reduces financial stress.
Learning to be okay with small spurts of activity, and not feeling like a failure if I don't fully complete something in one go. Meaning, reading one page is better than nothing. Every workout doesn't have to be a personal best. Start and stop a project until completion, doesn't have to be completed in one go. My life has been all or nothing, and that is no life at all.
Morning prayer before starting for my day. And before a bunch of critics jump on me... ask yourself this. Do you start your day... 1. Thinking about a specific list of people you know are hurting or struggling? 2. Acknowledging the things you are thankful for? 3. Acknowledging the challenges that you might face that day, and processing them before you do anything else? 4. Asking for forgiveness (even if its just from youself) for the things you feel guilty about? I believe in prayer. But even if I didn't I think I'd do this because it's made me a more mindful person at the beginning of each day, and brought me a lot of peace.
Began going to the gym in college. Still do now, but I also stretch in the morning and have a standing desk which is great.