Mood stabilizers, for sure. My episodes were getting out of hand and I’d probably be dead by now if it wasn’t for that
Teaching myself how to cook from scratch ingredients.
It allowed me to completely reform my diet, I could eat anything I wanted (on the condition I self-imposed that it had to be made by) and I lost 130 lb as a result.
I’m not saying it wasn’t a lot of work, it was, but it was an investment in myself.
Now I am able, with no pre-planning, to look in a fridge and whip something up delicious in 30 minutes.
An accidental discovery through this diet reformation, was that I discovered I am intolerant to wheat and gluten! Not celiac, not allergic, but it provokes my autoimmune disorder.
I am now psoriasis free after being a terrible sufferer for almost three decades. Also my joint pain went away.
It has saved me a phenomenal amount of money, given me great body awareness. It’s also expanded my food horizons.
Buying a menstrual cup. It feels so natural, I forget it’s there, and it holds an entire day’s worth of blood and then some.
How do I unread something?
Grow up
Lighten up
Weird comment
They’re not drinking out of it, relax.
I mean a vampire might?
Working from home. I didn’t realize until the pandemic how energy draining the office really is. Once I started working from home I found out quickly that I had energy to spare for evening activities - while also being more productive at work.
Just saving the commute time alone is a game changer. I get to spend much more time with my daughter as I work from home.
Saving time and money. I sold my car in 2020 and saved thousands of euros. It’s unbelievable how much money owning a car costs you.
Commuting through traffic stresses me out. I didn’t realize how much it was stressing me out until I stopped the routine. I realized I was coming home every day stressed and irritable from it, making my free time after work less enjoyable. WFH changed all of that for the better.
1000%.
My company is slowly pulling back work from home. So I’m looking for another job.
I’ll never go back, simple as that.
I switched jobs 2 years ago. It was mainly because of Return To Office, but really because the incapable git - installed as manager by the incapable fuckwit installed as CIO by the meddling narcissist CFO who organized a coup to depose the former I.T command chain who kept saying no to things like kicking I.T out of the fancier newer offices and gutting security budget and capital expense for HA projects, really really - really was a harbinger of shitty things to come. RTO to a dank, funky, hot, bright, loud, cramped sexist* hell was a great motivator to quit, but the underlying cause was the outlook when seeing this keystone kops management in action.
So yeah, switched to a company that went from 100% WFO to 100% WFH on CoViD Day 1 with no clue how, but a desire for business continuity, so it coped and adapted, and then sold off the office space. I’m on a gov pension plan as a mere Senior flunky in a contract house, I know some great people from past gigs and respect them, and my boss is gonna retire at the top of her career in about 3 years. The workload is easy but dumb, and that’s entirely okay: I have this gorgeous river view from my fancy lifty desk and aeron ass-cradle, I haven’t driven a car in about 2 years - and I learned on a 71 beetle in the '80s, so driving is my jam - because everything is walkable, and “going on a walk” is absolutely acceptable in my day job. We do Teams a lot. We do Cameras VERY rarely, and usually by accident.
Oh. Surveillance. They gave me a laptop to use. I bought the KVM switch. Don’t use it for dumb stuff. Also I put Google Locate on my phone and shared to my peers. That’s it.
Find a good remote-first place to WFH at. Then move to a great neighbourhood. Have a great life.
Lifting weights did wonders for my health and wellbeing, I would highly recommend it
How do you get the motivation to? I’d love to get more fit, especially since I’ve got a kid coming in September and want to be in shape when she comes. I’m not exactly out of shape too bad (not overweight or underweight), but I’d like to be more muscular. At the same time, my neurodivergent ass won’t let me for more than a couple weeks at a time, and then I’m burnt out for months on end. It’s extremely frustrating. I’ve heard it gets easier the longer you do it consistently, even for ND folks, but I haven’t been able to get to that point. If you have any advice I’d love to hear it.
Brace yourself, unskippable special interest cut scene activated.
For myself I was relatively active my whole life but I had always been curious about lifting weights and wanted to get more muscular. I felt awkward about gyms and would have felt super uncomfortable getting a personal trainer, and having to learn dozens of different exercises, the whole thing was just daunting.
But it turns out there are quite a few ways to get jacked, and one of them is very straightforward: barbells. In the most basic form there are 4 lifts to learn, and you can teach yourself using YouTube (You can add a few more lifts later on but they are so simple to learn a 60 second video and you’ve got it) With a rack, barbell, plates and a bench in the basement I was able to completely avoid the gym and trainer experience. If you don’t mind going to a gym then the cost of entry is very low.
There are apps to help you select a routine, tell you exactly how many sets and reps to do, the correct weights to use, can demonstrate how to do the lift correctly, track your progress and graph it for you in a dozen different ways.
As a beginner if you even brush up against a barbell you will start growing muscle really quickly. And your progress will be impressive and addictive, particularly since we are only talking about the same 4 lifts. You’ll be tracking your progress on the app week to week, watching the numbers go up, getting stronger all the time. Technique getting better all the time. Before you know it you’ll outgrow your clothes. And we are talking 3 workouts a week, less than an hour each. The minute work is done Monday, Wednesday and Friday immediately hit the weights, you’ll have time to wash up before dinner.
I went from about 165lbs to 210lbs in the last 3 years. Size medium shirts to size L and XL, Size medium underwear to size XXL. I underestimated how undeveloped my legs and butt were. Regular squats and deadlifts will give you a monster truck ass. My family friends and coworkers that I haven’t seen for a while have trouble believing it’s the same person. I’ve walked right up to a coworker that I had known for 10 years and started talking with them and it took them more than a minute to realize it was me. This really makes you feel good and will keep you motivated. As time goes on you’ll want to expand your routine a little bit, add in some more bodybuilding exercises for bigger biceps or whatever you want.
Anyway if you ever did want to get started I would be happy to help you out with specific advice: apps, exercises, routines, eating, cardio, etc
Really great info, thanks for posting! Mainly want to second all this for others and say most of it was true for me as well. I’m only a year in, though, so my results aren’t as dramatic yet. Your story is pretty motivating, so thanks for that too!
Also want to add that I found the fitness wiki to be a great resource for no-nonsense advice like the above. It’s a wiki based on Reddit, but it’s a separate website at this point. It does a good job focusing on keeping lifting simple and eating right.
In the spirit of casual conversation, two questions mostly out of pure curiosity: what routine did you start with, and what routine has been your favorite so far?
The fitness wiki is a fantastic resource +1 for that suggestion!
I started with GZCLP and followed with 5/3/1 for Beginners and then a few other 5/3/1 templates. The most eye-opening/fun would have to be super squats for sure. 20 rep squats and a gallon of whole milk per day really pushes a person.
Eventually I settled on tactical barbell which seems to work well for me. I’m in my 40s and prefer staying away from heavy 1 reps. TB is higher frequency compound lifts with squat, bench and weighted pullups 3x per week and deadlift 1x per week. It’s marketed towards first responders and military people who need to have gas in the tank for their day job but I feel that also applies to normal folks who care about strength and longevity not wanting to be completely wiped out from workouts. They have a book focused on mass with lower intensities (8/6/3 rep weeks) so that’s probably where I’ll stay for a while.
How about yourself? What did you start with and where did you end up?
Oh and for a fediverse oriented resource check out !weightroom@sh.itjust.works :D
20 rep squats sounds insane. I just started doing 10-rep with BBB, and that’s plenty brutal for me already.
I’ve done 5/3/1 since I started. Used Beginners for the first year or so, and over the last month or two I’ve switched to Boring But Big, and I’m planning to mix that with First Set Last. I mostly hate switching things up and prefer just to go and do my lifts without spending too much mental energy on planning, so I’ll probably stick with 5/3/1 indefinitely.
Longevity and trying to feel actually healthy/mobile/etc. is really important to me, and one of the main reasons I picked 5/3/1 was the emphasis on slow growth and always maintaining clean form. So, TB sounds like it could be right up my alley as well. I made a note of it in case I ever do need to switch things up for some reason.
Also, just subscribed to the Weightroom community!
Full Body 1000% Awesome from 5/3/1 Forever is basically the same thing as Tactical Barbell, so if for whatever reason you needed a break from BBB you could try a cycle of that and see how you feel about the full body split without leaving the 5/3/1 ecosystem. And Jim has a few templates with widowmaker squats if you’re ever up for a challenge. Always happy to bump into other fediverse lifters, there are literally dozens of us!
Not internally criticising myself as harshly as I was brought up to.
That’s hard to unlearn well done
being late from work every day 1 hour. i realised that nobody cares about me. as long as you keep the status quo, nobody snitches. i even changed from public transport to biking, and it feels great for my shoulders. (and actually get there faster)
going to the supermarket at later times. they usually close around 9pm. i arrive at 8.30, no ques, no idiots standing at the bread trying to pick the perfect one, no old folk moving in your way, nobody tries to kill you in the parking lot with a big ass suv.
elastic shoe laces, so i can just put my feet inside, and they never get untied cause theres a little clamp in the end.
i also would like to thank my candy trio, which is one part dishwasher, one part oven. its only one machine big, so no space wasted, yet does both job great.
the adblocker called blokada on my phone, plus ublock in the browser…honestly foss apps in general.
candy trio
whoa TIL this is a thing. that is awesome.
i also would like to thank my candy trio, which is one part dishwasher, one part oven. its only one machine big, so no space wasted, yet does both job great.
Whhhha? What is this witchcraftery? I’m gonna need to find me one of if those
- Daily walks and eating healthy food (aka no industrially processed shit). I went from being barely able to walk at all a few years ago (not exagerating) to someone happily walking for miles every single day. Also I’m somewhat much slimmer too :p
- Cutting down screen time, like by a lot. Which helps in getting more time to do fun & exciting stuff (including walks)
Leaving America.
Hoping to do the same in the next couple of years. My current employer seems to be open to allowing me to relocate to the EU (I already work on an international team), but I need to work through the logistics. I also don’t want to be just another expat driving up housing costs and barely speaking the local language
I planned to do the same since 2021 if the election went to shit. Only because I landed in a relationship with someone who can’t relocate am I still in this shithole.
Air Fryer. Hands fucking down. I put them off for years because I assumed it was overhyped shit.
It fucking wasn’t.
Ditto; for me it’s like a small, powerful, and flexible oven. Chicken wings, taters, spring rolls, sometimes I even use it as a dehydrator for my homemade spice mixes.
Yep, I was like you… up until I tried one.
Our kitchen is too small at the moment to get one, but it’s definitely on our to-do list once we move.
If you cook, they’re not for you.
Air fryers have extraordinarily limited use and they are for novice people who want to reheat food, not cook, just saying
Really not true. Any time you would use the oven you can use the air fryer… It’s just an oven with convection by default
You obviously don’t cook!
Air fryers is just too small and too cramped for the ingredients, you can reheat fries and stuff like that but they’re not for cooking.
You can do a couple hundred grams of potatoes like … really?
Sounds perfect, I’m exactly a novice who wants to reheat food
That’s great and I hope it helps you begin your journey on cooking.
I’m glad you acknowledge that they are toys.
My advice that you didn’t ask for would be just to skip it and learn how to cook because once you learn how to cook you just throw the air fryer in the garbage.
Mine has been up in my closet for 2 years I just see no need to use it.
Interesting. The thing, is kind of know how to cook, at least at a basic level. I just work from home and try to make healthy but quick food every day. I also don’t enjoy spend too much time cooking, so that’s what I think an air fryer could work.
Maybe you should sell you air fryer? They seem quite trendy nowadays.
Maybe a combo unit would suit? Replacing your microwave.
https://www.thegoodguys.com.au/panasonic-34l-4-in-1-air-fryer-and-convection-microwave-oven-nn-cd88qsqpq for example.
Interesting! But it’s okay, we should move in a few month, and the microwave came with the place, it would be more of a hassle to store it somewhere.
Sir, if you get an air-fryer you’ll be able to replace a couple of things. I genuinely haven’t used a microwave since getting the air fryer. Like the only thing that an airfryer can’t do is defrost something. And some of them can even do that.
Good to know! As I said, we should move in a few months, and the microwave came with the place, it would be more of a hassle to store it somewhere.
Trust me on this. When you move, you’re going to get the air fryer and then go “Are you KIDDING ME?!” and then you’re going to message me and say “Okay. Yeah. We should have found a place to stick the microwave.” Not saying that to convince you, I get it. But you 100% are going to be like “Fucking hell I should have tried”. Everyone I know who has put them off for whatever reason, myself included, had the same self hatred of “I AM SO DENSE I CAN POWER FUSION.”
It is mindboggling how much time and effort it removes from literally everything while making like restaurant style shit. I’ve never had fries so fucking crispy that weren’t fresh from a restaurant.
Not gonna lie, you all are getting more and more convincing. I’ll discuss with my gf at some point, the main issue is that we really don’t have that much space on our counter.
You can get some BIG fucking air fryers but you can also get ones that are fairly small too. It depends entirely on what kind of product you’re looking for. A small single basket one is more than good enough and is only about 125-150% the counter size of my toaster. The roll of paper towels is wider than the air fryer. Then there’s also this great fact.
Air fryers are incredibly light and incredibly easy to move. This isn’t a microwave where it’s a big, bulky, heavy massive thing. When I first got my air fryer, I also didn’t have counter space. I used to plug it in and then store it on a shelf in my bedroom when it wasn’t being used. But it’s about the same weight as my cat, maybe a little more, and she was weighed at 9lbs for her flight.
My microwave weighs like 30-40lbs and is a nuisance to move around. I did recently in the kitchen and it was a nightmare. I regularly lift up the air fryer with one hand and clean underneath it.
Fucking buy one!
Ha ha ha
Not to shill, but we picked up a pretty well known brand combo pressure cooker/air fryer. I thought it was the stupidest thing ever, but I use it all the time, mostly when I don’t want to heat up the house with an oven.
It lives on the counter directly next to my oven, doesn’t take up a ton of space.
Would you have any reference to share?
Search Instant Pot Duo Crisp + Air Fryer. On the pricier end, but at least in our case it’s used frequently enough to justify the cost. You basically get an air fryer, pressure cooker, crockpot, rice cooker, hot plate (well, bowl), etc. in one appliance.
Just don’t put it on the stove when cooking a side dish on the burner, if you’re the type to turn on the wrong burner. Only an idiot would do that. Ha ha ha…ha…
this is his second Instant Pot
Great thank you!
Running, also marijuana
Starting or quitting the marijuana?
Starting ofc,no smoking though,dry herb vaporizer (even better if water filtered but not necessary) is my way. Also edibles
Starting and quitting have made my life better at different points, so I was curious. Edibles are super nice since there’s no throat irritation, but I do really enjoy the finer control over how high one gets that smoking gives. Vaping is a pretty good in-between.
Getting a job that paid more money than I actually need to survive.
I was just talking about this with someone this past weekend. For me, it has been removing most “smart” features from my phone.
- I’ve disabled Chrome, so I can no longer access the internet.
- I’ve disabled the “google” app, so I don’t have a back-door to the internet, as that seems to have a browser built in. This also disables voice to text, which I never used anyway.
- No social media, games, etc. of any kind.
The only thing I use my phone now is calling/texting, navigation, music, a calendar, and a notes app. It’s taken me a long time to get here, almost 3 years at this point, but being able to take my phone out, use it for the one intentional thing I need, then put it away… It’s so liberating. I use Olauncher, which is a minimal text-based home screen, and it also tracks your daily screen-time and displays it on the home-screen. I’m down to around 30-45 minutes MAX of screen time per day. Most days its 15 or below.
If you use the F-Droid repository, you can install the fubo keyboard, which does voice-to-text locally, through a whisper client.
It is different than the Google client, but it’s good enough, and the fact that it increases and respects privacy makes me much more happy.
Working out. Even if everything is my life is falling apart, that one hour is where I make progress. It keeps the hope and positivity alive. It is like meditation for me. I have overcome depression with working out.
Solid state memory. I was just thinking about my first SSD (the “drive” for your computer) and how I video recorded the startup time before and after I swapped it into my computer. Everything was so much faster. Everyone has solid state memory today, but ~18 years ago, that was sorta rare.
Water. I used to drink a lot of soda. Water is better.
water is good. yes.
It’s so good that I’d die without it.
I heard that water kills more people each year compared to whisky, so I’ll just stick to whisky just to be on the safe side.
I’m with you, only vodka.
