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.
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.
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.
Choosing to be happy is the most important thing you can do in life. Good for you, and lucky husband.
It can be habit forming. Hope this changes someone’s life, it did mine.
Same! Got a wicked pair of boots and a new vest from the thrift yesterday. Cut my hair in the mirror, got decked out and my wife’s eye popped. Even my 12-yo was looking at me, uh, funny. Don’t think she knew daddy could dress like that! (She lives with her mom far away. Mostly sees me dressed up in “hiking with a shotgun” chic, not “metrosexual” chic.)
Anyway, I dress up for silly things just because it makes me feel good. Hell, I’ll use any excuse to wear one of my tuxes.
Off to see Superman in that same outfit!
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.
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.
Damn, that’s a great idea.
The thought of this terrifies me. I should do it.
Reading more, finally knocking down that bedside stack of books.
Excellent decision :)
I’m hoping desperately to do this in the winter.
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Does it really work? Asking for a friend.
It’s me. I’m the friend.
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It’s also nice to not have to put energy into it
Feeding pigeons first thing in the morning. I have a reason to get out of bed and something to look forward to every day.
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 live in the pedestrian zone of a semi large city. I feed them from my window and there are no other birds in the area that they could drown out. Except crows maybe but those are much louder.
that’s great
when my wife and I first moved to Seattle, we picked an apartment on the 3rd floor. The day after we moved in, we noticed a bird nest on the balcony. Turned out to be rock doves. It’s was fun watching them. They had two babies and we left them alone until they all stopped coming back before we cleaned up their mess.
good memories 🤙
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.
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.
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.
Started intermittent fasting for no real reason. I no longer wake up hungry and the urge for a midnight snack is completely gone.
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 tried intermittent fasting for like a year. The hunger never went away.
Started a garden and have stuck with it enough the garden is producing tomatoes (still green currently though)
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/
Read a journal article with coffee in the morning
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.
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.
