Walking. Daily. That, and purchasing good shoes. It changed my life.
At first, I was in such a poor shape (physical and mental) I was barely able to walk more than a few steps, I was also severely ill and was expected to die quickly in not the most tranquil manner. Nowadays, I’m not dead :p, and I walk miles every day and I will do my best to go everywhere I can, walking. I’m still ill (it’s not curable) but it’s stabilized and I feel so much better.
I’m still not an athlete and I’m old enough to realize I’ll never be one but I don’t care: I’m in such a better shape! Both physically and mentally (I feel so much better in my head), my endurance is skyrocketing, and I’ve also lost so much weight I don’t need to wear ‘plus-sized’ clothes anymore.
And it all started by making the first step, one small step. Literally ;)
Edit: clarifications.
Great to hear. I wish you all the best.
Thx a lot.
I want to second this. I know it sounds crazy but walking has changed my life.
Doesn’t sound crazy to me the slightest ;)
Haha, of course not to you but I’m sure it does to some.
BTW, what do you consider good shoes? Any recommendations? I really struggle with this. For the colder and wetter part of the year I usually wear Salomon trail runners and I love their all-terrain, all-weather properties. They have one weak spot though - the heel counters wear out well before anything else in the shoe which overall seems rather indestructible. How did they fuck this up?!
But for the summer… I literally haven’t found a shoe which would be suitable for very long walks in various terrains and weather conditions and would be also breathable and light.
I have a dog that I walk every day for >10 years, and I can’t say walking in and of itself has changed my life in any significant way. Good shoes, however, massively have.
I tried at first but quickly realized I would not be able to walk without spending some money on quality shoes.
Learned Japanese on a whim so I could watch anime without subtitles. Now by complete coincidence I’m in Japan and not banging my head against the nearly insurmountable language barrier (Japanese people are really bad at English).
I decided to start learning French last year and have been essentially speed running it. Learning another language makes my brain happy (I’m fluent in 2 already).
What’s your language-learning method?
Immersion. Duolingo (blegh) is useful for structured grammar learning, but I’m gaining a lot through music, podcasts, and switching some apps to French. Recently started translating comic books since they’re relatively simple but fun. For the specific dialect I want to learn, I’m getting help from my friend and I found a French club through my job.
As much as I hate Duolingo’s recent politics, their podcast is one of the most useful. It’s essentially bilingual Radiolab. At least I know that doesn’t have AI.
Jesus, you’re committed! Thanks for the tips.
日本語は僕の好きな言葉ですでも、いま中国語を勉強している。
Small tip: でも can only be used to start a sentence; for connecting two halves of a sentence you should use けど or が depending on formality level.
Yeah I haven’t practiced/studied Japanese (on my own) since high school, oops.
When I was in high school, I convinced my parents to sign me up for Japanese classes on the weekend because the sequel to my favorite game didn’t get translated. Didn’t end up getting all that far in it, my ADHD/autistic ass had a hard time paying attention in class and I had too much actual schoolwork to keep up with so I kinda just didn’t do the homework.
But last year I started getting back into it just for fun, and I am having a lot of fun learning. Helps that I can go at my own pace without any pressure from being in school anymore. Still a long way from 日本語上手, but I passed a N4 mock exam and I just ordered a shipment of books and manga to try and see how far I can get. Saving up to travel in a few years too.
In that case anime is your best friend. Well, and any other Japanese video content. Even with subtitles it helps your ears get used to the language.
I gave up eating meat, because I think animals are gross and annoying. Did wonders for my health and weight. I’m still a miserable bastard though.
I randomly went full vegan after eating a Costco frozen lasagna one night. At the time I was drinking heavily, eating very poorly and pretty stressed out but something about the nasty beef crumbles getting stuck between my teeth set me off.
It’s been nearly six years and I wouldn’t go back to eating meat for the world. I wasn’t really an animal person but after marrying my wife and becoming very attached to her two chihuahuas my heart breaks that people can’t be bothered to stop eating meat. Animals are innocent and what we do to them isn’t right.
I went vegetarian 13 years ago. I lost a little weight in the beginning, then immediately gained it all back once I figured out what I liked. If being vegetarian makes you healthier, that’s a skill issue, considering pizza and ice cream can be vegetarian.
Seriously, though, congrats.
Around December my doctor told me my cholesterol and blood pressure was dangerously high. I have cut out about 95% of animal products out of my diet. I’m down to basically non fat greek yogurt. I refer to myself as an involuntary vegan.
I can’t stress enough how much this isn’t about will power but exploiting my depression for health benefits. It’s easy to get rid of things if all it does is make me happy.
Edit: Same philosophy applied to quitting cigarettes by going cold turkey a decade ago.
It’s still up for debate about “positive”, however, I changed my wake up time from 0444 until 0501. I had been arriving at work early. I’m slow to realize there’s zero reason for me to be early, since my partner is always a little late.
Started a garden and have stuck with it enough the garden is producing tomatoes (still green currently though)
My data plan on my phone expired rather suddenly (my phone was too old), and I just didn’t get a new phone number/data plan (wifi + wifi calling still worked).
It was nice having unplugged transit time.
Read a journal article with coffee in the morning
No reading in bed, no phone in bed, just go and go to sleep. Also make my bed in the morning.
I expected it to have some kind of debatable impact after a while, but my insomnia cleared up instantly. Like within a couple of days.
deleted by creator
Started intermittent fasting for no real reason. I no longer wake up hungry and the urge for a midnight snack is completely gone.
I tried intermittent fasting for like a year. The hunger never went away.
the urge for a midnight snack is completely gone.
So what do you do to entertain yourself at night?
Existential dread mostly, but sometimes I play video games
I wouldn’t say really positive. But it changed a daily slightly negative into a daily slightly positive.
At work I regularly need to take short notes. I like to fill the page to the full. But it gets messier and more complicated aa the day goes on. So I’d strike through and cross out notes I don’t need anymore.
The thing is, crossing things out triggers a feeling of making mistakes. So instead of crossing out I started using check-marks (Dutch-style)., which feels like a succes and is also a quick fun flourish to draw. So small annoyances have turned into small victories.I found a slightly different system online once. You mark your todo list with a dash (-) in front. If it’s done, cross it to make a plus sign (+). If it’s something that you postponed or moved to another list/page, turn the dash into an arrow (->). I adapted it from the dash-plus system years ago: https://www.patrickrhone.net/the-dash-plus-system/
deleted by creator
It’s also nice to not have to put energy into it
Does it really work? Asking for a friend.
It’s me. I’m the friend.
deleted by creator
Walking regularly, reducing carbs intake, reducing alcohol intake.
I don’t have to be radical, it helps even when I sometimes go overboard on eating or drinking.
It also keeps my head leveled. Plus I get to listen to a lot of podcasts.
I started taking magnesium. Instantly the majority of my mental health issues evaporated but they come back if I go for more than about 3 days without it.
I tried magnesium and didn’t notice a difference. However I got my blood work done recently and found out I was low on B12. Started taking a B complex and it’s made a huge difference in energy levels.
It’s all about figuring out what your body’s missing :)
Exactly. Meanwhile B12 screws my stuff right up.
Walking daily and shooting stray dogs
Shooting dogs?😨 Wut? Where do you live?
Probably one of the numerous countries with a wild and violent stray dog population.
it’s probably a joke but it’s a bad one.
stray dogs are just trying to survive and it’s always people who put them into their predicament.
you should be hunting those people and make them pay to rehouse or deal with the wolves who gave up the wild to partner with humans
Don’t hate the wolves, they’re also just trying to survive on land that is “claimed” by human parasites.
So true, leave the wolves be!!
healthy wolf packs keep the other wildlife in check and create a balance that is best for all the wild creatures
add in a beaver and you can create a utopia for wild life
FWIW, that’s how ecosystems work.
Conservationist hunters (humans) endeavor to manage herd sizes in order to keep illness and age from devastating the health of target groups.
For example, if a herd of deer is allowed to grow beyond the size its available food sources can sustain, the older, injured, young, and/or less-capable members (ie. fast, agile, alert, etc) will eat the food that otherwise healthy and viable ones need to support the herd’s collective success and thus decreasing (starvation, infection, etc.) the number of healthy individuals among them available to maintain the herd for the future… 🙇🏼♂️
human hunters rarely take the weak and sick, causing the overall health of the prey animals to be diminished.
wolves usually take the weak and aged to leave healthy and young herds
You’ll notice that I prominently included the word “conservationist”, friend. Please adjust your argument to avoid diluting or destabilizing your understanding of the specific topic.
naaa what I said shouldn’t be taken personally unless you personify someone who thinks they are helping by hunting for sport
Yo mama
