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.
It's a small thing, but I'd been feeling kinda gross about myself lately, and I started setting aside some time to just wear some cute lingerie around the house for no real reason once a week. My husband has started commenting unprompted how much he's looking forward to "Sexy Sunday" and I kinda love it.
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 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.
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.
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).
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.
New rule: only 1 "in progress" item and 1 "in repair" item is allowed on the hobby pile.
Turns out I actually have a LOT of things to do, and now I actually do it too.
The thought of this terrifies me. I should do it.
Damn, that's a great idea.
Reading more, finally knocking down that bedside stack of books.
Excellent decision :)
I'm hoping desperately to do this in the winter.
Feeding pigeons first thing in the morning. I have a reason to get out of bed and something to look forward to every day.
It's funny how we will do for others what we don't do for ourselves. My sons sobriety began with a cat.
My sons sobriety began with a cat.
My healing journey also started with really being there for my cat. It might sound weird to the uninitiated but she's taught me a lot.
do you keep a pen or just visit the locals that come to your neighborhood?
i like to hate on their calls, they can really take over when listening to bird songs
I stopped adding sugar to my coffee at work. Took some getting used to, but it's less hassle overall, and less sugar intake.
I did the same but with milk. My job at the time supplied coffee but not milk, the fridge was full of 1 pint bottles with names written on. There was never enough space. People got territorial over their 5sq inches of fridge. There was a milk club where they pooled together to buy milk for their group.
I couldn't face dealing with that so opted out and drank it black. That was 15 years ago.
Some time later that employer realised they could solve a great many staff disputes for the low price of 20 pints of milk a week and started supplying it. No idea why it took so long.
imo sugar makes the bitter in coffee, overwhelming. I prefer it black or with a little oat milk. Oat milk has a pleasant mild sweetness that makes coffee just the right balance
my wife likes the sweater called Ez-Sweets and it's ok but I only ever have a drop or two in tea
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.
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.
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 a few years ago but locksmithing and lock sport has helped me deal with most of my father figures dieing in the last 5 or 6 years.
I got a set and some practice locks. Learned the basics and played around with it, but never really had the patience to REALLY get the feel of it.
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/
Started a garden and have stuck with it enough the garden is producing tomatoes (still green currently though)
Read a journal article with coffee in the morning
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.
Walking daily and shooting stray dogs
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
Shooting dogs?😨 Wut? Where do you live?
Probably one of the numerous countries with a wild and violent stray dog population.
