Could be physical, mental, philosophical, religious etc
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Sorry this is unedited because I’m on a train, winding its way through Fukushima at the moment.
Let’s go the Moc masterlist:
- Drinking coffee black. Used to think that I wouldn’t like coffee without milk and coffee. Turns out I love it, just needed a few weeks to wean myself off sugar and milk and learn to enjoy it. Lost heaps of weight by doing this.
- Weightlifting three times a week. Gaining muscle mass helped me look and feel good in my 20s and now 30s. I was never a good looking teen, but now in my 30s I get compliments from people pretty frequently.
- Losing weight. I have sleep apnea. Losing weight is the single most effective treatment for it.
- Getting jaw surgery. I have TMD, and this constricts my breathing at night. As part of my orthodontic treatment, I opted to get my jaw extended by 7mm. This was very expensive, but I’m in a high paying profession and I’m good at saving. Between this and losing weight, I sleep much better and don’t snore at night. I never used to feel like I ever got any rest.
Getting my ADHD treated
Getting medicated. I have ADHD. If you’re clever enough, you can brute force your way through the entire education system; school, undergrad, and postgrad without realising you have ADHD. It’s only after a couple of years in a demanding profession (SWE in my case) that I realised I needed help. I was prescribed Ritalin (methylphenidate hydrochloride) and the difference is night and day.
Because I don’t have to wrangle my brain into submission the entire day, I’m no longer completely mentally exhausted after 4 hours of work. I can focus for long hours now and feel pretty normal at the end of the day.
Dealing with high cholesterol Listening to scientists instead of keto idiots. I went to my GP for the third year in a row for my physical and got told I have the highest cholesterol of anyone in their 30s he had ever seen (I was 31).
He wanted to immediately put me on statins, because he had never seen someone with my level of cholesterol who didn’t have familial hypercholesteroloeamia. I asked him if he could give me six months to try and fix it through diet.
I had been following fitness influencers, and had lost 10kg cutting calories and eating heaps of beef, butter, and eggs. I cut that out, and upped my plant protein, lean poultry, and fish protein instead. I feel and look heaps better, and am still gaining muscle at about the same rate I was before. I just try and eat heaps of fibre (veggies) and aim for about 100g of protein a day.
I went for my most recent physical and have the cholesterol of a normal person now. Doctor isn’t trying to put me on statins anymore. I couldn’t believe it.
Deciding to be an optimist
I, like my late father, was a pessimist. My whole extended family is and was locked in generational poverty. I took advantage of my intelligence and work ethic and got into university, but my pessimistic attitude towards life persisted. And it seriously limited me.
I had to actually decide to be optimistic, and believe in myself before things got better. I won’t go into too much detail on this, but my outlook is that;
Pessimists are more mentally prepared for hardship, but optimists and more emotionally prepared for hardship. Maybe, It’s better to weigh the risks, and still take risks than forever be risk-averse.
Years of pessimism grinding my spirit into a pulp has beaten this into me. It’s only by adopting an optimistic outlook, working hard, and taking risks that I managed to finally achieve a better life.
What I’m working on
At the moment I’m trying to get into the habit of journaling, and quit coffee (drinking green tea instead).
I need to do better with mental habits such as journalling, not browsing Reddit and YouTube, and doing hobbies such as writing and reading instead of playing video games.
That is far more thought than I put into this comment.
Ah just an ADHD hyperfixation/rabbithole mate 🙃
Congrats! Sounds like the world is your oyster my man
Thanks my dude! I’m still working on stuff— but I think we all are 😊
- Meditating (not very good at it, but getting better and it’s seriously helping)
- Blocking Reddit on my router, blocking political communities in Lemmy
- A consistent, normal sleeping schedule (a bedtime routine is more important than a morning routine, imo)
- Yoga every morning to help my body work with me throughout the day
- Reading more books
- Getting outside more often
- Paying closer attention to the thoughts that cross through my mind and stopping them when they’re not helpful - this also helped me realize the underlying anxiety that’s been with me for who knows how many years
- Drinking more water
Edit: Oh I also:
- Quit drinking alcohol, almost at the 1 year mark
- Quit smoking weed, almost at 2 months fully sober now
I did these things one at a time, not everything at once. Mostly just sharing what I did here, but if you plan to do the same - listen to yourself. Start with #7 imo so you get a better idea of what you’re up against. If it feels like too much, take a step back and slow down. You’re not failing when you do this, you’re helping your future self not fail entirely.
Oh at the first two words of point 8., I thought there is finally something not like what every adult would tell youngsters again and again, but no. Water. You said water. What a missed opportunity!
But in all seriousness, very good tips, all of them. I’m implementing all of them (though I’m struggling with 4 and 6), I would add just one and a half:
- No phones in bedroom. This is the absolute prerequisite for number 3 (sleep schedule) and can be an enabler for reading books.
- You may or may not get enough excercise from yoga and getting outside. If needed, add more.
Enjoying the menial tasks. I enjoy sweeping because of it, it’s very meditative. My grandfather used to love it and I see why now.
Stop complaining and start focussing on solutions instead of problems.
That’s what the CEO killer thought too!
I’m going to answer your question with what I’ve done for the last 30 years. Carry no debt. I do occasionally carry some debt in the interest of satisfying the credit algorithms but otherwise I have no interest in playing the interest game.
Do you count a mortgage as carrying debt? Seems pretty unavoidable to me.
Actually I do not. That’s an investment.
Makes sense to me
Drinking primarily water instead of sodas.
Getting rid of victim mentality. This is the biggest curse you can put on yourself (that being said I’ve not tried heroin).
Getting my sleep fixed. Specifically: going to sleep at the same time every night, waking up at the same time every morning, cutting out caffeine completely, no or very limited sweets at night. My dad has bad insomnia (and habits) and I had sleep issues myself growing up. If I was late to high school one more time, I would have failed; and then I was late to graduation lol. Now I wake up every morning feeling refreshed and not tired. Every time I wake up before my alarm it’s like 10 minutes before it goes off anyway. I set no alarm on the weekends and I wake up at the same time anyway. Caffeine is a shitty thing to get addicted to. You’re not a soldier in a watchtower that needs to watch for an invading army every night, cut that shit out!
Stopped drinking alcohol.
Started walking more and taking the stairs instead of elevators whenever possible.
Regular exercise, setting aside some time to enjoy reading.
Switched to a low carb diet. Originally had serious heart problems. First Dr said to eat no fat and eat healthy grains. Had more heart problems. Switched to low carb, minimal grains. Ate non-processed meats, fats, and organic vegetables foods in general. Lost 50 pounds without any dieting what-so-ever and have way more ambition. New Dr said my arteries were now “squeaky clean” after a cardiac catheterization. Seems my heart problems were not hereditary as the first Dr said, but rather I can’t handle carbs because of my hereditary. Turns out about half of the population has genes that don’t allow them to handle carbs well - they tend to put on weight and have health issues like clogged arteries, diabetes, arthritis or cancer, maybe MS too. The diet change took a few years to fully kick in though. The difference however, was noticeable after the first 100 days.
Following a weightlifting program has improved my life immensely. 2 years later my back pain is essentially a thing of the past, I look and feel better than my non active peers, my cholesterol and a1c levels are perfect , and I look like a brick shithouse
Anybody that wants to get started but doesn’t know how feel free to drop me a line
As someone who never expected to become a gym rat I second this.
I started lifting as a purely whimsical decision with a mate and some dumbbells in his backyard.
I’ve now been a powerlifter for 6 years (minus a year due to work related injury) and it’s truly my happy place, am I sad? (Stronger) Am I angry? (Stronger) Am I happy? (You guessed it, stronger).
Not only does lifting grow your body, but also your mind. I may have permanent function loss, but I work around it, and I’m building back (slowly) and stronger than before.
Hardest part is getting started, followed by keeping with it.
My DMs are also open to those who are unsure where/how to start.
What do you recommend?
If you want to know how it all works check out the fitness wiki (optional) otherwise: Buy a power rack, barbell and plates (optional), or you can go to a gym instead. Download the boostcamp app and onboard yourself on the 5/3/1 for Beginners program. The app illustrates how each lift is done, and you can watch youtube for tutorials, they are pretty easy to learn. Lift Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Walk or easy jog for 30-60 mins Tuesday and Thursday. Eat a bit more than usual, a slight surplus like 200 cals, make sure you get a bit of extra protein. Sleep more and better if possible, if your schedule is fixed try to improve your sleep hygiene. Be relentless about making this all a habit, it represents about 1 hour of your day each weekday, but will pay dividends. Stick with that same program for 3 or 6 months. You’ll be practicing the same lifts over and over, practicing your strength. Your technique will improve, you will get shockingly stronger. I’m happy to answer any and all questions for Lemmy folk interested in this.
Do you still run 531 for beginners? I’ve been on BBB for 4 months and finally broke through a plateau. Was doing more hypertrophy and calisthenics before that.
The workload for BBB has gotten so high for me that I do my main lifts and 1-3 accessories on lower days and 2-4 in upper and I’m cooked. Can’t manage to follow wendlers scheme of shitload of reps any more
I bounced around from BBB to a few different templates and then I switched to tactical barbell operator which I run now. The 10 reps of BBB are rough. Did you look at boring but strong? It’s 10 sets of 5 reps at the same %, so same volume in the end but I found it less brutal.
Just a plug for tactical barbell operator, It’s three days a week of lifting and 2 to 3 days a week of either HIT or LSS depending on the conditioning template you incorporate. The conditioning stuff is baked in and it feels much more like a complete plan compared to 531. Really digging it
I’ll check it out. I feel like I’m still making strength gains w BBB, gonna ride it out another 4-8 months. I’ll check out tactical barbell operator, thanks for the suggestion
Do you know if any active fitness communities on Lemmy? I briefly looked around but didn’t see any that seemed active
I think what you’re doing now is really close to “Less Boring But Big” which is 3 sets of 10 for the supplementary lifts instead of 5
There’s not really a lifting group here yet… It would be really cool to have something like weightroom but I’m not sure I’d have what it takes to start up a community. There are definitely folks who lifting and are interested in lifting, just no critical mass yet…
Makes sense, I’m in the same boat I don’t have time or energy to start one but I’d join.
For getting started w tactical barbell, do you recommend books etc? Like 531 it seems like there’s a lot to it, any good resources?
I do. Struggling with lower back pain right now…
It’s just brutal… everybody says it but it’s really true, a strong core (abs, lower back, ass + upper legs) makes your back so much sturdier and resistant to “going out”
If you want to go full on strength training, you could consider barbell training with a periodized program (531, tactical barbell, etc). You would essentially have to learn three or four simple lifts and then have at er. This is the route I went, would highly recommend it for anyone. These programs don’t ask you to use strength that you don’t already have, and the movements are very straightforward with lots of tutorials available on YouTube. It’s all sub maximal training and slowly builds over time. Fitness influencers are always trying to baffle everyone with bullshit but the core recipe for getting strong is so extremely simple. Compound lifts, eat, sleep (And some token cardio)
If you just want the strong core and back, you could do hanging leg raises or an ab wheel and some romanian deadlifts with a kettlebell every other day or so.
Thanks. Will look into those. I did some strength training back in the day - and enjoyed it a lot - but that was not focused on the back/core.
That’s great, they say it comes back quickly if you have trained in the past. And as I understand it, the compound lifts themselves also build the core to some extent just from all the bracing you’ll be doing.
I did thousands and thousands of out loud verbal affirmations until i learned to love myself limitlessly. It’s a wonderful feeling!
I’m really glad you found something that works so well for you! Self-love is indeed wonderful. For others reading who might want to try affirmations, it’s worth noting that research has found they affect different people differently. What helps one person might not help another, or could even decrease mood in some cases, especially if the affirmations don’t feel authentic to where someone is in their journey.
If you’re curious about building self-love, you might want to experiment mindfully with different approaches to find what resonates for you personally - whether that’s self-compassion practices, ACT, gradual behavior change, or other methods. Pay attention to how different practices actually make you feel rather than how you think they ‘should’ make you feel.
Good addendum. I worked with a trauma therapist for years and loathed myself so much I would burst into tears when i saw myself in the mirror. after adding in limitless self love affirmations under their guidance my entire life changed for the better. I also was really afraid of needles and would cry during vaccinations but adding in that I’m brave and not afraid of needles took care of that as well. I’m quite suggestible and my brain responds super well to a couple months of daily repetition!
After reading that study I also pursued my affirmations much differently than it describes, taking cues from marketing and self hypnosis methods. Always verbal, while my executive network was distracted and always in the third person. so i don’t say ‘I’m lovable’ I repeat variations like ‘have you heard about digitaldruid? She loves herself limitlessly! Oh yeah, I years she is really brave and not afraid of needles at all!’. for me this is extremely effective and my therapist is thrilled with my results because I tried a lot of meds to no avail.
taking vitamins, drinking green tea, daily 30 minuet walk and trying to learn something new each day even if its something small.
Journaling and meditating.
This sums it up for me too.
