I like to replicate a working procedure as closely as possible, but It's small and (probably) inconsequential enough that I think of it more as sub-par-stition
The only downside is that every time I go to use it, it starts expanding as it heats up and ends up dripping out of the nozzle even when I'm not squeezing it.
Nothing a bit of paper towel can't fix but it can become a bit messy.
Haven't tried the cap less ones, but wouldn't surprise me if it also works, at least to a limited degree. Super glue cures because of the moisture in the air, and cold environments are very poor at holding moisture.
Same, but I started buying larger ones after it stopped going bad due to the fridge. Most toy repair in my household are usually done with superglue, epoxy, or solder, all of which last forever here. And failihg those, printing a new part is usually an option here.
For me, it was buying CA glue from hobby or woodworking shops instead of those tiny packs of "superglue". Comes in all different thicknesses and with activator usually for a lower cost per gram, and in bottles designed to last until the glue is gone.
I'm sure brand also plays a role. The three adhesives I use the most, both at home and at work are superglue, epoxy, and threadlocker. And I always use Locktite brand for all three (well, 7 if you count the different strengths of threadlock)
I started running Linux 15 years ago, and switched to Linux as my main daily driver like 10 years ago. And I couldn't be happier, but I still wish I would have started my Linux journey way sooner, especially since Windows is about as useful as used toilet paper these days...
I lived alone for most of my life and I agree. Had a friend from another country visit and sleep at my place for a week and even though I like him I am glad he’s gone now. It’s my safe space.
I was enrolled into this experiment against my will recently. We'll see how it goes. For the record, I've hand my laundry hung drying for four weeks now.
I WFH so negl I am in jammies most of the time (yeah I throw on a corporate tshirt for the annoying "cams-on" zooms but still wearing jammie bottoms)
Wife got bamboo onesies for the baby. So soft. Then she found they also make adult jammies of the same material. Omfg. Where was this all my life till now?
You have not lived till you wear soft bamboo clothes. Worth every penny.
Well I think "softer" skin would be more precise. It's a quite common effect when you switch from a testosteron controlled body to an estrogen controlled one.
is a guy who always has crew cuts or high and tights i'm finally doing the opposite and letting it all grow, i feel the same though haha but my dad and mom always hated my hair long 😖
It came to a head one day in college, I had planned to cut my hair short because it was summer. I was feeling crummy flu like symptoms and kept putting it off until finally I had to give in and put off the haircut.
I felt such a euphoric sense of relief, it made me realize how much more me I felt with long long hair.
Unfortunately some places you can't delete Facebook. For example my local town dump was shut down this weekend due to -40 temps, only place it was posted was Facebook. Yea I went to the dump with a car load of trash and recycling to find myself staring at the shut gate. Wasn't happy about that....
I mean that is kinda it, it is a simple body motion I never learned until yoga that clearly I was supposed to be doing because my body just digests/does all the gassy stuff better, this whole time I just didn't know.
No one told me "Do downward facing dog, your tummy will feel better!" I just discovered it from doing it so I feel like I wish I discovered that way sooner.
SSRIs. I already knew this was likely going to be my conclusion, but I really wish I started the treatment sooner. So many years feeling incompetent and damaged! Months of school missed, almost getting expelled, turning down invites, awkward friendship moments, scared of my own shadow... Anxiety is mentally brutal. It's not just being scared or exaggerating, it's a very real struggle that can destroy your social life -- which is needed to live a healthy and prosperous life. I spent so many days unable to get myself out of bed because anything outside of that area seemed like a threat.
I started SSRIs 8 months ago. I can't say it's been perfect, but that's not what I'm aiming for. Some periods are tougher than others, but I'm so grateful I'm at a state where I actually feel like I'm living -- not a shell of a person. I'm not self-sabotaging myself as much as I used to, and I'm gaining more and more independence and confidence in my daily life. I'm finally able to say that I'm happy and motivated.
I'm sure that therapy will help resolve some of my childhood trauma, so I'm looking forward to that, but I want to go into the sessions with a clear mind. Without the medication, I wouldn't be able to process and live by my psychologist's advice. I'm extremely grateful to have found a treatment that works!
I describe my experience of SSRIs as cleaning the very dirty windows of a room and being able to see out at last, and to see the room itself with all that extra light, and to enjoy the feeling of sun on my skin.
I still remember the first time I woke up in the morning without a knot of dread in my gut. I was on SSRIs for a year, and then took them again for another six months later on. That was all 20 years ago or so.
You described it perfectly! I resonate so much with the feeling of the sun on your skin. When I visualise myself in a peaceful place, I imagine myself running through a field of tall grass with the sun's warmth on my skin.
If you don't mind me asking, how come you stopped taking them? I'm asking because I can't imagine my life without them now that I've learned of the difference they make. I've tried grounding techniques and journalling but they never helped quite as much as the medication did, so I can't rely on those methods.
Good question. It's hard to recall exactly, but I felt in the end that I wanted to try living without their help. I weaned off them gradually and felt ok. Then after a few years I felt the symptoms of depression return and resumed taking them for I think six months. This was nearly 20 years ago. I haven't suffered depression since.
I know other people on SSRIs have talked about a flattening of emotions, but I never felt that. They didn't make me happy exactly - it's more that they enabled me to feel optimistic.
Blocking Lemmy and Reddit on my phone, and limiting time browsing the News
Delete social media apps from the phone
Switching from diet sodas to just cold water
Reducing coffee from 4 a day to 0-1 a day
Get diagnosed for ADHD and get on Vyvanse
Eat high fibre, starting the day with oats/fibre
Meditating
Journaling, with weekly review of how I progressed towards my goals
Cutting back on smoking weed to once every other month
What I'm still working on;
Cut down on time browsing porn. I'll probably binge porn for an afternoon once a week or two. Still too much.
Consistency in the gym. I've had a lot of life altering events happen recently, so I'm trying to get back on the ball.
Just vegging out on the computer while at home. I should be doing things like writing, reading, or exercise. But instead I sit here and type out long comments while my meds kick in. :)
The more I read, the more this sounds like toxic productivity. It’s okay to have downtime. It’s okay to just relax. It’s okay to have hobbies that aren’t entirely focused on health or mental wellbeing. It’s okay to occasionally indulge hedonic tendencies like porn. Hell, most doctors say that jorkin it a few times a week helps keep things healthy.
Maintaining this kind of lifestyle will likely result in burnout sooner or later.
What part of all this is toxic? Who said I don't have hedonistic tendencies?
I watch porn. I just waste several hours a week on it. Trust me, I'm going to keep watching porn. I just want to timeblock it a little better, improving my relationship with it.
Maintaining this kind of lifestyle will likely result in burnout sooner or later.
Which ones exactly do you think contribute to burnout? Because as I read through it, I can't think of a single one that does. Maybe journaling if you do it every single day (I don't).
I'm not trying to give up as well, just want to reduce it. I did try a four week break from it (made it to 2 weeks) and it did reduce the amount of time I spent on it from that point forward. So I might have to do another one of those.
I lifted on and off in my 20s, 30s, and 40s but never stuck with it. I started again at 55. Except for taking a break over the last two Christmass, I've been pretty consistant.
At least in America, yes. Granted, don't, because there is plastic in it, but the type of plastic is in the General Recognized As Safe (GRAS) category for consumption. Not actually sure if the ones on bananas are, since most people don't eat the peel, but apples, peaches, etc? Yeah, it legally has to be safe to eat.
Yeah, y'all have different food laws. I'm assuming the glue is food-safe, since it's expected to have some residue left on the thing when you eat it, but idk about the stickers themselves, and can't find anything about either, so... I'm not a lawyer or a nutritionist, idk what I'm talking about :D
Dude chickens are the best. Some of them can be wicked smart too. I miss mine.
And I highly recommend sharpening your knives with a sharpening stone or whetstone. It makes such a huge difference to how fun it is to be in the kitchen.
To add too this, one of those rolling guys with the 15°/20° magnetic holder. I can't recommend it enough! You might not be getting a piece of paper falling through without stopping. But I no longer have to make sure all fruits and veggies are skin side down when chopping, because I can't tell the difference any more.
Meditation and philosophical inquiry. Spent a lot of time believing the default vaguely-Christian-materialist-dualist framework that western culture has been brainwashing people into for centuries, pretending it's "objectively true".
A lot of things, but they are "just" beliefs. They're just narratives about narratives about narratives but they may be useful. I believe my hand will burn if I put it on a candle flame. Which is an intense experience I'm inclined to avoid. But it's neither a good or bad experience. I'm not going to go telling people that they should believe as I do. But I can tell them that by my assessment, it's pretty damn likely they'll experience pain if they put their hand on the flame. Up to them what they do with that.
In terms of my worldview, I "believe" that we're just being, existence, experience. "Matter" is a story. "Spirit" is a story. Both camps demand an opposition to another which is inherently dualistic and as such, misleading and pointless. Putting any of this in words is silly because each word in itself is just a story, a concept, a belief. Best but deeply flawed description of reality I can muster at the moment is that it's an experience of a free fall in total darkness.
::: spoiler Eating breakfast every day.
My eating habits were so dysfunctional that I can only describe them as a disorder. It affected all areas of my life, from sleep to energy to mood. I didn't know the core problem was my eating habits, all of my problems just meshed together.
One evening I decided that my only goal for the next day was to eat breakfast. Not lunch, not dinner, not go to the gym, not get any work done or change the world. Just eat something when I wake up. I made a beautiful baguette stuffed with everything delicious and placed it by the bed before going to sleep, so I didn't even have to get out of bed to achieve my goal.
Once I got my breakfast, I automatically got lunch and dinner too. Lots of other habits naturally fell into place when I wasn't starving.
That as 15 years ago. I've not missed breakfast since. I've still got tons of issues. But this one, tiny thing, made a massive positive difference.
:::
Getting back into bicycling as an adult. I've always struggled to keep active as I don't care for sports and gyms are unpleasant enough that I really can only use them for the weights, and I only do when my apartment has a gym included. But yeah, I tried getting into running because I needed cardio, but I fucking hated it. So I bought a bike and it turns out I love that thing. It's fun to fix up and mess with, and I'm happy to ride it as long as my body, the weather, and my schedule let me. I've spent months where unless I had other plans every weekday was: work, eat dinner quickly, then bike until it's too dark to do so. I even managed to get my wife into it.
I just feel better when I bike regularly. Physically and mentally. Also it gave me killer legs and an ass to die for. And it got me in touch with the bicycle anarchists where I used to live, which it turns out is a huge thing across America and they're consistently in my experience some of thd best of both categories of people. They're fun, they're doing something other than activism to self destruction with an alcohol intake to match, and they're the sort of people who look at an old pile of gears and see a way for a neighbor to get to work or get in shape.
Same, I'm nearly 50 and I bought a bike last year to do my commute and help get back in shape. I now cycle 100 miles a week and I lost 50lbs last year. I love that when I'm on the bike, my brain quietens down and I stop thinking about everything else, it's meditation and exercise in one.
Started getting all my chores done early and day drinking on Sundays. Probably not healthy long term but fuck it, the world is on fire and I'm not going to be stressed out all the time.
Funny enough one of the best things I have done for myself was quit drinking. Not trying to tell you what to do, but I can personally tell you that harmless Saturday day drinking can very quickly become not that. Be smart and be safe bud.
you do sound genuinely drinks-mindful. a rare but real skill! i used to have it, then kinda lost it (and my tolerance cuz I'm not 25 anymore ☹️), and decided eh fuck it i'd rather just quit than put in the effort to determine what risk level I'm still cool with lol
self awareness is absolutely applicable to drinking and imho moderate ethanol is one of the best ways to nuke the suck level of chores :)
I was never obese, but damn did I lose weight when I stopped smoking, drinking, and reduced my meat intake to about once a month. I even started drinking sodas and eating much fattier stuff, candy, carbs, but for my body it was the alcohol, meat and smoking that kept me fat.
I guess it is that everyone has been asked to give their input and some are "give up meat and drinking" some are "only eat meat and drink bourbon".
So when someone feels inclined to say "no" to one of them it is not in the spirit of this post which is speak from your lived experience, not your preemptive judgement.
I guess. If the guy had said "I stopped drinking and eating meat" then fair enough. It's just that the way it was written sounded like a command, so therefore "no" seems like an entirely reasonable response to me.
I tend to sleep pretty hot, especially with the memory foam mattress we have. I actually looked into bed coolers at one point. A few companies make refrigerated bed chillers. They have a pad with tubes embedded in it that circulate fluid from a unit positioned next to the bed. They're fairly pricey.
I almost got one, but I ended up trying something different. The devices tend to be pretty complex, often unreliable, and chained to spyware apps. Leaks in the lines can cause mold, and often they require regular cleaning by flushing cleaning solution through the lines.
Ultimately, I found a much simpler, reliable, and low tech solution - classic rubber hot water bottles. I have two rubber hot water bottles. I keep them full of water. Before bed, I'll take them out of the freezer. In the morning, I put them back in the freezer. They do a great job of keeping the bed cool. Now, you don't want to have a big block of ice in direct contact with your skin while sleeping. To avoid this, the bottles have an outer cloth case. There's lots of different varieties of these bottles, but these are the ones I tried and have worked well for me.
I just use a smart plug and leave the switch on the blanket itself always on. if that's not possible you could always solder two wires to the button's contacts and hook in an esp32 or something
I love my heated blanket. I can't sleep with it unless it's really cold but I sit on it all day every day. Spares me from having to crank up the heating all the way or having to overdress to stay comfortable.
I wouldn’t say changing to Linux changed my life so much as it preserved the life I wanted. The change was just some (thankfully) brief adjustments to get comfortable with it. Way easier than I thought it was going to be and so much of that is thanks to the gurus online leaving answers and blogs for us folks in the transition period.
The point was that I didn’t want my life changed by windows becoming worse and worse anymore. In a disposable world closing us off from each other with too much change too fast going on right now because of the heavy handed over implementation of AI hard yanking control away from user: Linux gave me an option to retain the permanence, connection and control I wanted from my experience.
Apparently windows AI update broke recently . I don’t even remember the last time I loaded windows. I think it’s been a few months. Now I don’t even want to look back. Just relieved that if something like that happened on a Linux distro, rollbacks are easier to accomplish on the user side. Already theorized, practiced and prepped my parachute for something like that. Ok maybe you’re right. It has changed me. I don’t think I would have thought and behaved like this had I stayed on windows.
I was scared of the procedure. What if it messed up and now I had permanent eye damage???
In reality, it took like 15 minutes and now I can see in the morning, ditch the whole contact lens daily ritual, and (most importantly to me) wear fun sunglasses right off the rack.
If you’re thinking about it, just do it. I wish I had done it WAY sooner.
Got it done during the summer of the pandemic in 2020 - the LASIK place was offering an insane deal since their sales had dropped to like zero. Not just a crazy price but also lifetime touch-ups if the sight degraded to the point of needing it.
I can still see insanely clear and far. No need for a touch up yet and it’s been 5 years.
Only downside is that I am starting to hit the age where I need reading glasses - no surgery for that. But I love not needing distance glasses or contacts for driving.
Getting enough fiber! Like most Americans, I don't get enough fiber in my normal diet (trying to change that as well), so I've been supplementing it with Metamucil crackers.
When I say it makes a DIFFERENCE in the bathroom, I'm not kidding.
Stopped eating meat products! It's been 6 years and I have a wonderful digestion, have lost 10 pounds without trying, feel clean, drink water a lot and in general enjoy life! My skin and hair are so beautiful now
(Beans, lentils, garbanzos, tofu, fruits, vegetables, soups, sourdough bread), learned to bake and cook!
Even cutting down, you'll probably feel better. I don't have any strict rules, I just haven't really wanted to cook too much with meat in it so far this year. Yeah I've made like 3 things with meat but everything else... eh.
Curries and chillis are super easy to make without meat. Salads too. Pick Up Limes on YouTube is a pretty good vegan channel. Her Buffalo Pasta Salad is great. Sometimes I'll modify things to make vegetarian which feels a bit weird. (ie. using cheese or yoghurt instead of the vegan substitutes)
I've noticed that if I'm feeling tired or stressed or sore it doesn't seem to hang around as long and recovery is better.
I was underweight most of my life, not severely, but enough where I'd get comments. I hated summer because I hated my skinny arms being exposed. Often avoided wearing shorts even in the heat. Almost never went swimming or to the beach. People don't say "wow you're a fat fuck" to people they know but they WILL comment on how skinny you are.
I started lifting, put on 25 lbs so far. I look better, have more energy, and more confidence in my body. Fewer random aches and pains. My mood has improved (turns out not eating can worsen anxiety and make you tired and depressed). While bulking I've paid attention finally to what foods digest well or not and so eating has become self-care rather than a chore. I've had to replace my entire wardrobe except shoes and hats so I took the time to overhaul my look. I don't dress flashy now but I dress a lot less like an ignoreable wallflower and more in shit I like. I get more positive attention from hot people and I'm not even super jacked yet, I just went from skinny to normal.
I always had a lopsided body, my legs were big from cycling for years but my top half was always small & skinny. I decided to do something about it. 24 months later my body is proportional, I'm visibly muscular and feel sexy for the first time in decades. It's amazing.
At 50 I thought I couldn't put on much muscle, but I was wrong. I will never be huge, but that was never the goal.
Everyone should try going vegan. You don't have to stay a vegan forever. You don't have to preach to others. You don't have to do it for animal welfare or the environment or anything other than you.
I have tried and vegan its tough. Vegetarian was easier, pescitarian I liked better. Ultimately I can't give up meat because it makes it so much cheaper and easier to meal prep higher protein meals. My job is labor intensive and I work 9 hours a day as a minimum! But all the power to those that can do it! One thing however that has changed my life for the better is adding more vegetables to my diet!! I don't care what diet your on you probably don't have enough vegetables in it veggies are the shit weather you want meat with them or not!
there is a fad of supplements. Supplements are important for certain conditions and life styles(?) for sure. But they've been over sold I think as a dietary supplement to be normalized. I grew up with the education thinking they are the necessity. Like part of nutrition and regular diet.
It is not a necessity with the right food tho.
I had found Supplements became unnecessary when I implemented food balance in meals (always more veggies, fruit and beans) and looked up how much exactly is in different types of food and measure it. Logging is pretty important to train the habit though. Used to have no idea if I had been doing the right levels. Just took multivitamins and thought I was good. Now I just keep a bottle of calcium and vitamin d around if after I checked my levels and found I didn’t get enough during the day. Most stuff is already supplemented via the diet. Like all the a b c k vitamins and several minerals. If im doing beans, fruit and veggies every day these shouldn't be necessary to take in pill form.
(But also alcohol can starve the brain of vit b and cause a brain condition) so I’m scarce on that stuff.
Having said that I still found if doing a whole bunch of overtime and not eating healthy or regularly, or have had oral surgery or oral injury: supplements/adding to blended smoothies are probably necessary for those times.
Going vegan is tough, because you have to relearn everything you know about food. A "normal" meal has a (high-carb/low-protein)+(low-carb+high-protein) pattern, let's say meat and potatoes. With that template, you absolutely can not just swap out meat and replace it with something vegetarian. No vegetable- or fungus-based food, no matter how processed, comes close in terms of protein content to meat.
You essentially need to change the entire template. That means you're also replacing your high-carb/low-protein foods with more "medium" foods like lentils.
That's the best advice I can give, and you absolutely do not have to go all in. Replace a small portion of your rice with some green lentils. Replace a small portion of your meat with kidney beans. Goes a long way.
Bro lentils and rice is some gas, and whenever I have white rice I make it with quinoa as well (just cook them together) to add something more substantial. I suppose ultimately I just like a lot of meat too, id eat more fish than other meats if it was cheaper. But preference is the main reason I'm not vegan. I do occasionally have vegan meals, one of my best buds is vegan so when I host or were gonna chef up dinner in the trail I'll pack vegan stuff! Eating more veg past few years and sleeping more regularly has made me feel much more energetic. Gotta give ur body the right fuel!
Yeah due to my parents i used to eat meat daily, and not little! And the meat they buy that was cheapest of the cheap!
I am mostly vegetarian, eating meat only once a week and not much but then also the good one!
We are made to mostly eat vegtables, nuts and fruits!
Plus its lots cheaper
Edit: Only reason why once a week meat is for my bf who wants it and because i really need more low effort seasonal vegie recepies
having more ram and faster machine overall, i've lived with a 2008 laptop woth 2gb ram 5400rpm hdd and core2duo capped to 1.2ghz thinking it's okayish since i run a highly optimized linux setup, it wasn't. upgrade to a faster machine with ssd and everything literally made my system run twice as faster than before.
I know it's most likely just a figure of speech, but I'd be surprised if that more modern machine runs only twice as faster. The SSD alone probably should feel lightning fast compared to a 5400 HDD, even just for regular desktop use.
I had a friend who for a long time absolutely refused to upgrade to an SSD. Every couple of years he would add more RAM, upgrade to a newer CPU, and regularly upgraded to a newer Graphics card. He also hoarded a lot of data, so was always buying new 1TB and 2TB HDDs for his movies and games. I explained how his HDDs were his performance bottleneck for years, but he couldn't see past the price-per-gigabyte barrier. He greatly prioritised drive capacity over drive speed, and couldn't comprehend how his storage devices would affect gaming performance. He also had some odd opinions about SSD longevity and reliability. He honestly thought they were an elaborate scam or a PC industry conspiracy.
That was until his most recent upgrade. His new CPU necessitated a new motherboard. He got a new mobo with an NVME port. He only used the NVME because the board came with fewer SATA interfaces, not enough for his HDDs, and he thought the board forced him to use NVME to boot from.
So he literally upgraded straight from sata3 5400rpm HDD system drive to a PCIe Gen4 2000+ Mbps NVME system drive. Skipped the era of 2.5" SSDs and SATA SSDs, and Gen3 SSDs entirely.
He was commenting excitedly for days about how fast his new build was, and attributed the enormous performance improvement entirely to the new CPU.
It's funny that the first two right now are 'stopped eating meat" and "stopped eating everything except meat".
For me it is getting up when I wake up. No alarm. It wasn't always possible but instead of getting up early to run or be virtuous in some way, I sleep until I wake (not late! Usually between 7-730), have a short but indulgent morning, only water until I get to work (by bicycle) then coffee and breakfast. I wish I had always been able to do this.
And MHT, so glad I tried it - I had no idea I had menopausal symptoms because I never had a hot flash. But the MHT knocked out the migraines I was having, the UTIs, my thinking is clearer, and even though it put a few pounds on me I'm still inside healthy weight. That success convinced me to be more intentional and interventional about aging - I thought all that longevity stuff was about living longer (because of the word) but mostly it's about staying healthier and that feels physically good.
Starting to date my now wife back in the day. I had known her for 15 years before we started dating and we've had so many wonderful years now that I can only wish we had started sooner
Similar story for my wife and I. 10 yrs of friendship before we started dating. I definitely wish we started sooner but I'm just glad to be where we're at now.
Quitting Facebook. The decision was somewhat pushed for me after Mark banned me for "inciting hatred", I kept sharing a gif of a nazi getting knocked out.
Kind of similar with Ank.Spon. just been prescribed biologic drugs but waiting for an appointment to receive them.
Was originally having dicofenac with is an NSAID like ibuprofen but stronger - wasn't working - so they bumped me up to etoricoxib but got side effects from that like an upset stomach so was advised to stop.
They hold off on the biologics because they are super expensive and only the NHS can dole them out. Apparently they originally designed them for Parkinsons disease but turns out they are a miracle cure for Ank.Spon. Fingers crossed it works out! Would like to be able to get out the flat more often, even going to the office like 3 days a week.
Good sleep environment. Complete darkness and a fan for white noise and airflow. The fan need not blow directly on you, the airflow is still good even if the room is cool.
Eating HelloFresh food. I don't live near a grocery store so before that I was eating fast food most of the time. I don't remember what I did during the pandemic. Now I have a great variety of healthy food and I suspect it has contributed to the improvement in my mental health.
Another thing I did more recently to improve my health is get an exercise bike. I've been exercising for at least an hour or two a day while I watch TV. I haven't been at it long enough to make a noticeable difference yet though
I've been using a height adjustable standing desk for 2-3 years now. The option to switch between sitting and standing was a major improvement. It's obviously not a replacement to active movement and I'm looking forward to get a walking pad soon. But I'm glad I even went this direction.
Eat less and healthier, do lots of sports -> lose weight.
At some point in university I started to eat too much and excercise way too little. There were no "real" reasons. It started somehow and I lost control.
So for ~the first half of my 20s I was very overweight. To the point that I was ashamed of my body so I avoided situations in which my weight was obvious even more.
Gladly I was able to turn that around at some point and only then there where comments concerning my weight. (Some congratulatory and some concerned that I was becomming too thin now).
I'm almost 40 now and miiight do to much sports, but I think I found a healthy balance, don't have backpain anymore and am rarely sick.
If I had found the strenght / inspiration sooner, I wouldn't have "lost" quite as much time as I did.
I waited way too long to get my first CPAP. When it started wearing out, I waited way too long to replace it, and the new one is just as magical. Actually, it's a tiny bit better with all the newer features
Because ddg bangs go through one extra hop by going to ddg -> site you want. Firefox shortcuts allow you to do @siteyouwant query and it goes directly to that site without going through a search engine
Red light therapy, specifically Near Infrared Light on my lungs as it works so well that I was able to stop my 45+ years of daily asthma meds. Incredible.
I have a small RTL panel that I put into NIR mode (not red) and place it on my chest, sides and back to cover all areas of my lungs. Super effective with a growing body of evidence for it use.
Well, it would not be with Red Light panels as they do not put our UV light, but you can use the NIR light to increase testosterone but it is not much of a boost.
it just means "think through your emotions before reacting to them" basically. lotta people out there that have absolutely zero control over their emotions
That boils it down quite good to why it improved every aspect
aspect. But I like to add it made me able to feel my emotions in the first place in some instances which then enabled me to control them and made me stop unconsciously acting them out unappropriately.
To control emotions a person has to acknowledge the emotion is their’s to manage.
Not something magical that someone else gave them.
EG: the incels and nice guys who blame women for making them feel rejection. Or cultures that kill women and homosexual men for making them feel erotic.
I was introduced to it by a few people and books and varous stuff that I was into at the time. Experimented a lot. Got a handle on it. Started with concentration meditation.
After 6 years of that I found the other technique (we basically have 2). Shikantaza.
Used together it's very potent. A bit too potent and trippy for me actually. After a few years wrestling with that I dropped the concentration.
Raising the head of my mattress ≥30° improved my sleep so much that I've made more life progress in the last 2 years than I have in decades.
I've had sleep problems my whole life (even as an infant). Did a home sleep test for obstructive sleep apnea, was negative so was sent to the in-person sleep lab. Got wires glued all over my head and did the full night + several naps the next day of testing. Nothing. No cycle dysregulation, no narcolepsy. Resigned myself to "guess I just suck at sleeping."
A few months later I get an awful ear infection and go to an ENT. Something I mention (I forget what) leads him to check for a deviated septum (don't have that either). BUT! He noticed acid damage in the back of my throat.
I have nighttime acid reflux that was not bad enough to notice, but just bad enough to disrupt my sleep.
Propping up my torso slightly and minor dietary changes were all it took to stop my stomach from slightly drowning me in acid every single night. FUCK I wish I had figured this out sooner.
Exactly, I hear people say "don't eat food with ingredients you can't pronounce", and I'm like "dude, your poor vocabulary skills don't change how healthy a food is".
even if it's rooted in ignorance, it's not the worst strategy for healthy eating. things that contain harmless but "chemical-sounding" things like carageenan, EDTA, methylcellulose, etc. tend to be junk foods engineered to be hyperpalatable calorie bombs.
if "I'll stick to ingredients I know" means someone starts eating more fruits and vegetables, beans, whole grains, etc. they're most likely going to start feeling better.
good results can come from flawed strategies, and people who use flawed strategies are probably more likely to want to learn stuff when they're not being attacked (not that I'm a complete saint in that department I'm still working on being less judgmental myself)
::: spoiler spoiler
Enabling Grayscale mode >
:::
It instantly breaks the "dopamine loop" of social media apps. It makes your phone feel like a tool rather than a toy. And it helps with eye strain and extends battery life.
It’s a scale but you get readings on your percentage of fat and muscle and metabolic rate. if you have an app and smart watch it’s kinda neat seeing how they reflect off of each other if you do different exercises and shift the nutrition of food.
Washing my hair everyday. I had very thin hair for 20 years and now it's actually growing back. I have an incredibly greasy scalp and face, and it was likely sebum plugs blocking the follicles. Plus, I'm very sensitive to the feeling of product or grease on me, so it feels so much better.
Are you telling me my thinning hair could be from not shampooing enough? Noooooo :( I wish I didn't have to shampoo more... I like doing it once a week or so...
it depends. some people need more frequent than average washing, some need less. it's worth switching up your routine to see if it causes improvement. good luck!
and short course of oral medication for severe atopic dermatitis, although it dint work immediately i did see change months later, but i dont have access to that now due to insurance issues, and MDs are very resistant to giving oral medication for AD since its an immunosuppresant, topical barely is able to contain it.
i was reliant on state subsidized healthcare and was seeing a dermatologist, but apparently i made too much for it so i cant use the service until my income is below the threshold. they linked with an ACA with a specific plan(based on your income) what i was trying to find out was the "actual cost" before deductibles, its pretty obfuscated pretty well i might add.
Be careful with sauna daily. I saw an observational study a while back that showed that while sauna use was correlated with lower disease, that was only seen at around 3-4 times a week, and up to a certain temperature. More than that (frequency and temperature) and you no longer saw sauna benefits. I will see if I can find the paper later.
Yeah, I think I read the paper. No negative effects were seen, but there was a ceiling to dose dependent benefits. It was roughly 30m a session, at 4+ times per week.
One of my friends aunt's runs a new age hippy eye clinic...they insisted I get my near sighted ass over there and try it out. Wikipedia is not kind to eye improvement methods. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vision_therapy
I checked with my opthalmologist and they said it couldn't hurt.. so I tried out the hippie approach to vision restoration.
It's a weird mix of indian meditation, massage, resting, eye exercises, motion exercises, focus exercises.... I'm very incredulous, but I wanted to give it a fair shake.. so like a asshole I'm tracing the imagined shape of a intricate pattern with my chin and eyes closed...... And other things. After about a month I had to reduce the strength of my glasses a bit... And another month reduce a bit more.
It could be placebo, it could be my nerdy lifestyle was holding me back and this program changed my environment... But I'll take it.
ignore the horde of assholes mindlessly downvoting. it's good that you've found improvement from prayer. i hope it continues to bring you what you were looking for.
–an agnostic
Storing superglue in the fridge. Those tiny packs now actually last until I've used it all.
Now there's a tip! Hang on walking to my fridge.
Bonus nugget: Store it in the door, next to the mayonnaise. It may not matter, but that's what I (happen to) do, and it works like a charm.
Crossing into superstition a little maybe, but why not.
I like to replicate a working procedure as closely as possible, but It's small and (probably) inconsequential enough that I think of it more as sub-par-stition
I store it in the freezer and it lasts forever.
The only downside is that every time I go to use it, it starts expanding as it heats up and ends up dripping out of the nozzle even when I'm not squeezing it.
Nothing a bit of paper towel can't fix but it can become a bit messy.
Wait.. even after you open it? The ones without a cap?
Haven't tried the cap less ones, but wouldn't surprise me if it also works, at least to a limited degree. Super glue cures because of the moisture in the air, and cold environments are very poor at holding moisture.
I'll give it a go. I buy the "single serving" glue because I'm always repairing kid toys, and I hated how it went bad so quickly.
Same, but I started buying larger ones after it stopped going bad due to the fridge. Most toy repair in my household are usually done with superglue, epoxy, or solder, all of which last forever here. And failihg those, printing a new part is usually an option here.
If you don’t feel like modeling and printing a part, have you tried epoxy putty?
It’s great for fixing complex molded shapes, like play dough that hardens to plastic.
For me, it was buying CA glue from hobby or woodworking shops instead of those tiny packs of "superglue". Comes in all different thicknesses and with activator usually for a lower cost per gram, and in bottles designed to last until the glue is gone.
I'm sure brand also plays a role. The three adhesives I use the most, both at home and at work are superglue, epoxy, and threadlocker. And I always use Locktite brand for all three (well, 7 if you count the different strengths of threadlock)
I started running Linux 15 years ago, and switched to Linux as my main daily driver like 10 years ago. And I couldn't be happier, but I still wish I would have started my Linux journey way sooner, especially since Windows is about as useful as used toilet paper these days...
same, but only 3 years here
Awesome, and welcome to the Penguin Club! 🐧
I lived alone for most of my life and I agree. Had a friend from another country visit and sleep at my place for a week and even though I like him I am glad he’s gone now. It’s my safe space.
Weird thing about this is that sometimes there's this weird phenomenon called separation anxiety
Especially in Parent-Child relations... its so weird to get attached to emotionally abusive parents.
I much prefer living with my partner. Best decision to move in together
I was enrolled into this experiment against my will recently. We'll see how it goes. For the record, I've hand my laundry hung drying for four weeks now.
Appreciate it.
Absolutely
Getting on HRT of course
Hear me out:
Bamboo pajamas
I WFH so negl I am in jammies most of the time (yeah I throw on a corporate tshirt for the annoying "cams-on" zooms but still wearing jammie bottoms)
Wife got bamboo onesies for the baby. So soft. Then she found they also make adult jammies of the same material. Omfg. Where was this all my life till now?
You have not lived till you wear soft bamboo clothes. Worth every penny.
I remember hearing back during COVID when everyone was WFH that sales of business pants had tanked. Sales of business shirts hadn't. So that tracks.
Interesting, never heard of this till now. May become my new go-to.
Internet rabbit hole summary:
Jesus Christ, it's like ecocide not to switch to the softer alternative.
Moreover, to my surprise, the prices are about the same. Top and bottom are each in the ~$35-45 range, or an oversize sleep shirt for ~$50-60
Down sides, apparently Bamboo:
Anyway, ordered a identical pair off Etsy for myself and the wife. Will be fun to compare.
Thank you, Fedi Person!
I've found that my bamboo garments stretch out and pill. Is that a common thing for bamboo or did I get unlucky with the quality?
I have not had that experience.
My go-to brands have been Posh Peanut and Lil Sleepies
Going vegan, kicking my religion/faith to the curb, leaving my abusive marriage, injecting estrogen.
Some pretty fun years.
What did injecting estrogen do and do you no longer do it? Why if so?
It gave me booba, smoother skin and a will to live lol
I'm trans and yeah I am still doing it :3
Smoother skin? What kind of witchcraft is that?
Well I think "softer" skin would be more precise. It's a quite common effect when you switch from a testosteron controlled body to an estrogen controlled one.
Cutting my hair short (like masc).
Folks insisted “but [my] hair is so nice”, “what if you regret it?” And “but you won’t be able to tie it back.”
I finally feel like me. I’m almost mad at myself for not doing it like ten years ago. I’m so genuinely happy over a friggin haircut. It’s wild.
You and me, we're the same!
It's liberation
I kept my hair short for like half a decade until covid, and it was so enjoyable. It kinda didn't look well on me, sadly. I looked like a match. XD
is a guy who always has crew cuts or high and tights i'm finally doing the opposite and letting it all grow, i feel the same though haha but my dad and mom always hated my hair long 😖
I relate so hard to this.
It came to a head one day in college, I had planned to cut my hair short because it was summer. I was feeling crummy flu like symptoms and kept putting it off until finally I had to give in and put off the haircut.
I felt such a euphoric sense of relief, it made me realize how much more me I felt with long long hair.
X is for nazi pedos
I only have facebook still because my older relatives use it to communicate a lot, otherwise I'd never touch it again.
Unfortunately some places you can't delete Facebook. For example my local town dump was shut down this weekend due to -40 temps, only place it was posted was Facebook. Yea I went to the dump with a car load of trash and recycling to find myself staring at the shut gate. Wasn't happy about that....
You can have messenger without Facebook. At least it's possible in the EU
Downward facing dog -> upward facing dog -> child pose
My lower stomach and digestion work so much better when I remember to do this.
How long do you recommended doing each pose for?
Tell me more!
I mean that is kinda it, it is a simple body motion I never learned until yoga that clearly I was supposed to be doing because my body just digests/does all the gassy stuff better, this whole time I just didn't know.
No one told me "Do downward facing dog, your tummy will feel better!" I just discovered it from doing it so I feel like I wish I discovered that way sooner.
You're getting relief from gas with it, rather than reflux or gutrot?
Wait til you hear about bow pose.
When you remember to do it, how often do you do it? How long do you hold each pose?
SSRIs. I already knew this was likely going to be my conclusion, but I really wish I started the treatment sooner. So many years feeling incompetent and damaged! Months of school missed, almost getting expelled, turning down invites, awkward friendship moments, scared of my own shadow... Anxiety is mentally brutal. It's not just being scared or exaggerating, it's a very real struggle that can destroy your social life -- which is needed to live a healthy and prosperous life. I spent so many days unable to get myself out of bed because anything outside of that area seemed like a threat.
I started SSRIs 8 months ago. I can't say it's been perfect, but that's not what I'm aiming for. Some periods are tougher than others, but I'm so grateful I'm at a state where I actually feel like I'm living -- not a shell of a person. I'm not self-sabotaging myself as much as I used to, and I'm gaining more and more independence and confidence in my daily life. I'm finally able to say that I'm happy and motivated.
I'm sure that therapy will help resolve some of my childhood trauma, so I'm looking forward to that, but I want to go into the sessions with a clear mind. Without the medication, I wouldn't be able to process and live by my psychologist's advice. I'm extremely grateful to have found a treatment that works!
I describe my experience of SSRIs as cleaning the very dirty windows of a room and being able to see out at last, and to see the room itself with all that extra light, and to enjoy the feeling of sun on my skin.
I still remember the first time I woke up in the morning without a knot of dread in my gut. I was on SSRIs for a year, and then took them again for another six months later on. That was all 20 years ago or so.
You described it perfectly! I resonate so much with the feeling of the sun on your skin. When I visualise myself in a peaceful place, I imagine myself running through a field of tall grass with the sun's warmth on my skin.
If you don't mind me asking, how come you stopped taking them? I'm asking because I can't imagine my life without them now that I've learned of the difference they make. I've tried grounding techniques and journalling but they never helped quite as much as the medication did, so I can't rely on those methods.
Good question. It's hard to recall exactly, but I felt in the end that I wanted to try living without their help. I weaned off them gradually and felt ok. Then after a few years I felt the symptoms of depression return and resumed taking them for I think six months. This was nearly 20 years ago. I haven't suffered depression since.
I know other people on SSRIs have talked about a flattening of emotions, but I never felt that. They didn't make me happy exactly - it's more that they enabled me to feel optimistic.
Things that helped;
What I'm still working on;
The more I read, the more this sounds like toxic productivity. It’s okay to have downtime. It’s okay to just relax. It’s okay to have hobbies that aren’t entirely focused on health or mental wellbeing. It’s okay to occasionally indulge hedonic tendencies like porn. Hell, most doctors say that jorkin it a few times a week helps keep things healthy.
Maintaining this kind of lifestyle will likely result in burnout sooner or later.
It's okay to work on yourself too. Nothing toxic about anything they said. Stop trying to discourage people from working on themselves.
What part of all this is toxic? Who said I don't have hedonistic tendencies?
I watch porn. I just waste several hours a week on it. Trust me, I'm going to keep watching porn. I just want to timeblock it a little better, improving my relationship with it.
Which ones exactly do you think contribute to burnout? Because as I read through it, I can't think of a single one that does. Maybe journaling if you do it every single day (I don't).
porn addiction is probably hard, there are forums out there usually about porn-induced ED that may give insight.
I'm not trying to give up as well, just want to reduce it. I did try a four week break from it (made it to 2 weeks) and it did reduce the amount of time I spent on it from that point forward. So I might have to do another one of those.
Lifting weights.
Today me is thankful for 18 year old me for once starting a healthy habit early and actually sticking to it.
I lifted on and off in my 20s, 30s, and 40s but never stuck with it. I started again at 55. Except for taking a break over the last two Christmass, I've been pretty consistant.
Fountain of youth.
You're allowed to put banana's in the fridge to keep them from going bad.
Just note: In my experience they usually turn completely black immediately. It's fine, they still taste however they did when you put them in
Ah, you have to put them in a drawer so that there isn't as much airflow.
*You might note they're still yellow under the sticker
I hadn't, but also I eat them with the sticker on. It's even made of food safe paper and glue!
I just peel them with the sticker on and didn't notice xD Does make sense, though!
Yeah, I don't peel them so I have to take off the sticker.
Hold up, you're eating unpeeled bananas? Just chomping through the skin and chewing everything up?
Is that actually a thing?
Only weirdos peel their bananas.
It's a waste of electrolytes.
No, and anyone that tells you different is AI
chat is this real?
At least in America, yes. Granted, don't, because there is plastic in it, but the type of plastic is in the General Recognized As Safe (GRAS) category for consumption. Not actually sure if the ones on bananas are, since most people don't eat the peel, but apples, peaches, etc? Yeah, it legally has to be safe to eat.
I'm in the EU, and always throw that shit into mixed garbage, unsure if it's compostable or recyclable plastic.
Yeah, y'all have different food laws. I'm assuming the glue is food-safe, since it's expected to have some residue left on the thing when you eat it, but idk about the stickers themselves, and can't find anything about either, so... I'm not a lawyer or a nutritionist, idk what I'm talking about :D
Best just to eat them. Mmm. If you still have some, make banana bread. I just did today.
Having money.
No but seriously, nothing even comes close.
I have 3 years wage saved up but I still suffer from chronic financial anxiety and I'm starting to worry it might not go away with more money.
However, I can't know how anxious I'd be without these savings so there's that too.
Growing up broke will make you feel broke for all your life no matter how much you save up. Therapy helps. Luckily with money you can afford therapy.
It'll go away when you have a billion dollars.
Or not.
It won’t.
But that’s a good thing. Don’t let it go away. Just learn to control it.
It will all go away when you die. Enjoy it and share it.
The anxiety
Knives that don't suck. Also getting chickens. I love them so much, great pets and they lay eggs :)
bokbok bok
Dude chickens are the best. Some of them can be wicked smart too. I miss mine.
And I highly recommend sharpening your knives with a sharpening stone or whetstone. It makes such a huge difference to how fun it is to be in the kitchen.
To add too this, one of those rolling guys with the 15°/20° magnetic holder. I can't recommend it enough! You might not be getting a piece of paper falling through without stopping. But I no longer have to make sure all fruits and veggies are skin side down when chopping, because I can't tell the difference any more.
Getting a dog. Also the most value for my money I've ever gotten for any purchase in my life.
I thought having a dog is an ongoing cost. Even still, its a good value?
Well, I got a friend in the deal that made my life worth living, so I'd consider some dog food to be a negligible cost to pay.
I stopped eating meat for the most part (aka: flexiatarian).
Go for more walks and eat less meat and tell me you don’t feel better!
Sleep schedule!
Got away from my family.
Meditation and philosophical inquiry. Spent a lot of time believing the default vaguely-Christian-materialist-dualist framework that western culture has been brainwashing people into for centuries, pretending it's "objectively true".
So what do you believe now?
A lot of things, but they are "just" beliefs. They're just narratives about narratives about narratives but they may be useful. I believe my hand will burn if I put it on a candle flame. Which is an intense experience I'm inclined to avoid. But it's neither a good or bad experience. I'm not going to go telling people that they should believe as I do. But I can tell them that by my assessment, it's pretty damn likely they'll experience pain if they put their hand on the flame. Up to them what they do with that.
In terms of my worldview, I "believe" that we're just being, existence, experience. "Matter" is a story. "Spirit" is a story. Both camps demand an opposition to another which is inherently dualistic and as such, misleading and pointless. Putting any of this in words is silly because each word in itself is just a story, a concept, a belief. Best but deeply flawed description of reality I can muster at the moment is that it's an experience of a free fall in total darkness.
Sounds a lot like nihilism, perhaps with some moral relativism mixed in. Not saying that's bad or good, just trying to put words to what you describe.
Not nihilism, Nondual Buddhism.
::: spoiler Eating breakfast every day. My eating habits were so dysfunctional that I can only describe them as a disorder. It affected all areas of my life, from sleep to energy to mood. I didn't know the core problem was my eating habits, all of my problems just meshed together.
One evening I decided that my only goal for the next day was to eat breakfast. Not lunch, not dinner, not go to the gym, not get any work done or change the world. Just eat something when I wake up. I made a beautiful baguette stuffed with everything delicious and placed it by the bed before going to sleep, so I didn't even have to get out of bed to achieve my goal.
Once I got my breakfast, I automatically got lunch and dinner too. Lots of other habits naturally fell into place when I wasn't starving.
That as 15 years ago. I've not missed breakfast since. I've still got tons of issues. But this one, tiny thing, made a massive positive difference. :::
I manage to get a nice breakfast for like one or two weeks before i start to get lazy, then its downhill for a few months.
In my experience, it doesn't need to be a nice breakfast. It just needs to be something.
Getting back into bicycling as an adult. I've always struggled to keep active as I don't care for sports and gyms are unpleasant enough that I really can only use them for the weights, and I only do when my apartment has a gym included. But yeah, I tried getting into running because I needed cardio, but I fucking hated it. So I bought a bike and it turns out I love that thing. It's fun to fix up and mess with, and I'm happy to ride it as long as my body, the weather, and my schedule let me. I've spent months where unless I had other plans every weekday was: work, eat dinner quickly, then bike until it's too dark to do so. I even managed to get my wife into it.
I just feel better when I bike regularly. Physically and mentally. Also it gave me killer legs and an ass to die for. And it got me in touch with the bicycle anarchists where I used to live, which it turns out is a huge thing across America and they're consistently in my experience some of thd best of both categories of people. They're fun, they're doing something other than activism to self destruction with an alcohol intake to match, and they're the sort of people who look at an old pile of gears and see a way for a neighbor to get to work or get in shape.
Same, I'm nearly 50 and I bought a bike last year to do my commute and help get back in shape. I now cycle 100 miles a week and I lost 50lbs last year. I love that when I'm on the bike, my brain quietens down and I stop thinking about everything else, it's meditation and exercise in one.
Started poisoning people I don't like.
Oooh! What's your go to? Asking for a ....... friend
A piece of two-by-four with a rusty nail in it.
Finishing college. Huge life improvement.
...
I got a longer USB cable.
Yes! I got a 10 foot cable for when I'm on the couch.
Started getting all my chores done early and day drinking on Sundays. Probably not healthy long term but fuck it, the world is on fire and I'm not going to be stressed out all the time.
Same, but with weed edibles because alcohol does a lot of harm to the liver, even in small amounts.
Weed just doesn't do it for me.
Funny enough one of the best things I have done for myself was quit drinking. Not trying to tell you what to do, but I can personally tell you that harmless Saturday day drinking can very quickly become not that. Be smart and be safe bud.
Yeah, I am mindful of how much I drink. If it seems to be getting out of hand I just do without for a while. It's never been a problem for me so far.
you do sound genuinely drinks-mindful. a rare but real skill! i used to have it, then kinda lost it (and my tolerance cuz I'm not 25 anymore ☹️), and decided eh fuck it i'd rather just quit than put in the effort to determine what risk level I'm still cool with lol
self awareness is absolutely applicable to drinking and imho moderate ethanol is one of the best ways to nuke the suck level of chores :)
Being more playful. Find more things to laugh and smile about.
Tap into my inner child, getting back into the things I loved as a child because I am a kidult with free will.
Sleep with stuffed animals and taking a plushie with me when I go out, despite what people may think.
Look for glimmer moments in my day.
The world is a hot pile of shitty dumpster fire, but I won't let it take away my smile and wonder and laughter. I will be happy in spite of the world
My cousins told me to "be more mature". Seems boring af. I sure as shit didn't follow their advice
Stop drinking alcohol and eating meat.
I was never obese, but damn did I lose weight when I stopped smoking, drinking, and reduced my meat intake to about once a month. I even started drinking sodas and eating much fattier stuff, candy, carbs, but for my body it was the alcohol, meat and smoking that kept me fat.
I also wish I stopped drinking much sooner.
No.
Downvotes, just for not wanting to stop drinking and eating meat? Maybe these aren't my people after all...
I guess it is that everyone has been asked to give their input and some are "give up meat and drinking" some are "only eat meat and drink bourbon". So when someone feels inclined to say "no" to one of them it is not in the spirit of this post which is speak from your lived experience, not your preemptive judgement.
I guess. If the guy had said "I stopped drinking and eating meat" then fair enough. It's just that the way it was written sounded like a command, so therefore "no" seems like an entirely reasonable response to me.
That is fair too I think. Language is complex sometimes.
Methylphenidate
Heated blanket under my bed covers. It's connected to my Home Assistant so I can pre-heat my bed remotely.
I kinda get it but wouldn't change the feeling of slipping into a cool bed
Maybe I need a device to keep it cool
I tend to sleep pretty hot, especially with the memory foam mattress we have. I actually looked into bed coolers at one point. A few companies make refrigerated bed chillers. They have a pad with tubes embedded in it that circulate fluid from a unit positioned next to the bed. They're fairly pricey.
I almost got one, but I ended up trying something different. The devices tend to be pretty complex, often unreliable, and chained to spyware apps. Leaks in the lines can cause mold, and often they require regular cleaning by flushing cleaning solution through the lines.
Ultimately, I found a much simpler, reliable, and low tech solution - classic rubber hot water bottles. I have two rubber hot water bottles. I keep them full of water. Before bed, I'll take them out of the freezer. In the morning, I put them back in the freezer. They do a great job of keeping the bed cool. Now, you don't want to have a big block of ice in direct contact with your skin while sleeping. To avoid this, the bottles have an outer cloth case. There's lots of different varieties of these bottles, but these are the ones I tried and have worked well for me.
Yes!! I have a heated mattress pad and I love it!
How did you hook it into HA? My wife has one, but it's button activated, guessing yours has less controls? Or is it just super fancy?
I just use a smart plug and leave the switch on the blanket itself always on. if that's not possible you could always solder two wires to the button's contacts and hook in an esp32 or something
Yeah that's how mine is set up too. Sonoff Zigbee smart plug
I love my heated blanket. I can't sleep with it unless it's really cold but I sit on it all day every day. Spares me from having to crank up the heating all the way or having to overdress to stay comfortable.
Linux
I wouldn’t say changing to Linux changed my life so much as it preserved the life I wanted. The change was just some (thankfully) brief adjustments to get comfortable with it. Way easier than I thought it was going to be and so much of that is thanks to the gurus online leaving answers and blogs for us folks in the transition period.
The point was that I didn’t want my life changed by windows becoming worse and worse anymore. In a disposable world closing us off from each other with too much change too fast going on right now because of the heavy handed over implementation of AI hard yanking control away from user: Linux gave me an option to retain the permanence, connection and control I wanted from my experience.
Apparently windows AI update broke recently . I don’t even remember the last time I loaded windows. I think it’s been a few months. Now I don’t even want to look back. Just relieved that if something like that happened on a Linux distro, rollbacks are easier to accomplish on the user side. Already theorized, practiced and prepped my parachute for something like that. Ok maybe you’re right. It has changed me. I don’t think I would have thought and behaved like this had I stayed on windows.
LASIK.
I was scared of the procedure. What if it messed up and now I had permanent eye damage???
In reality, it took like 15 minutes and now I can see in the morning, ditch the whole contact lens daily ritual, and (most importantly to me) wear fun sunglasses right off the rack.
If you’re thinking about it, just do it. I wish I had done it WAY sooner.
Got it done during the summer of the pandemic in 2020 - the LASIK place was offering an insane deal since their sales had dropped to like zero. Not just a crazy price but also lifetime touch-ups if the sight degraded to the point of needing it.
I can still see insanely clear and far. No need for a touch up yet and it’s been 5 years.
Only downside is that I am starting to hit the age where I need reading glasses - no surgery for that. But I love not needing distance glasses or contacts for driving.
Studying.
I'm unemployed rn, and even though I've applied to probably a thousand different companies, I still study while out of school.
Cut contact with family and friends who were bad for my mental health.
Getting enough fiber! Like most Americans, I don't get enough fiber in my normal diet (trying to change that as well), so I've been supplementing it with Metamucil crackers.
When I say it makes a DIFFERENCE in the bathroom, I'm not kidding.
At my house we have a bigass bowl of oatmeal, usually with prunes, every morning.
No arguing.
Buying good thick dedicated mattress without metal parts with firmness matching body weight.
Stopped eating meat products! It's been 6 years and I have a wonderful digestion, have lost 10 pounds without trying, feel clean, drink water a lot and in general enjoy life! My skin and hair are so beautiful now (Beans, lentils, garbanzos, tofu, fruits, vegetables, soups, sourdough bread), learned to bake and cook!
do you happen to have any recipes or a particular recipebook you'd recommend? been meaning to try cutting out meat (least to like...1 meal a week)
Even cutting down, you'll probably feel better. I don't have any strict rules, I just haven't really wanted to cook too much with meat in it so far this year. Yeah I've made like 3 things with meat but everything else... eh.
Curries and chillis are super easy to make without meat. Salads too. Pick Up Limes on YouTube is a pretty good vegan channel. Her Buffalo Pasta Salad is great. Sometimes I'll modify things to make vegetarian which feels a bit weird. (ie. using cheese or yoghurt instead of the vegan substitutes)
I've noticed that if I'm feeling tired or stressed or sore it doesn't seem to hang around as long and recovery is better.
And last but not least, you get to feel morally superior!
Seriously, thank you for being vegan/vegetarian. We will look back at how we treat animals with disgust.
Maybe
Lifting weights and bulking up.
I was underweight most of my life, not severely, but enough where I'd get comments. I hated summer because I hated my skinny arms being exposed. Often avoided wearing shorts even in the heat. Almost never went swimming or to the beach. People don't say "wow you're a fat fuck" to people they know but they WILL comment on how skinny you are.
I started lifting, put on 25 lbs so far. I look better, have more energy, and more confidence in my body. Fewer random aches and pains. My mood has improved (turns out not eating can worsen anxiety and make you tired and depressed). While bulking I've paid attention finally to what foods digest well or not and so eating has become self-care rather than a chore. I've had to replace my entire wardrobe except shoes and hats so I took the time to overhaul my look. I don't dress flashy now but I dress a lot less like an ignoreable wallflower and more in shit I like. I get more positive attention from hot people and I'm not even super jacked yet, I just went from skinny to normal.
I always had a lopsided body, my legs were big from cycling for years but my top half was always small & skinny. I decided to do something about it. 24 months later my body is proportional, I'm visibly muscular and feel sexy for the first time in decades. It's amazing.
At 50 I thought I couldn't put on much muscle, but I was wrong. I will never be huge, but that was never the goal.
Im also 50 and working out, definently worth it. It not even difficult to lift some weights 3 times per week.
Ive been doing it for a year and im happy with the dumbbell chest press. Got up to 32 kilo per hand and will try to get that higher this year.
That's awesome! People can put on muscle at any age. At some point there's no way you could get massive but you can still benefit from it.
Adderall. Started taking it at 34 and ever since I can prioritize tasks, finish things, relax...
Good Chair, good mattress, the right pillow, no sugar consumption, vegetarian diet,
Everyone should try going vegan. You don't have to stay a vegan forever. You don't have to preach to others. You don't have to do it for animal welfare or the environment or anything other than you.
But you should try it. For you.
I have tried and vegan its tough. Vegetarian was easier, pescitarian I liked better. Ultimately I can't give up meat because it makes it so much cheaper and easier to meal prep higher protein meals. My job is labor intensive and I work 9 hours a day as a minimum! But all the power to those that can do it! One thing however that has changed my life for the better is adding more vegetables to my diet!! I don't care what diet your on you probably don't have enough vegetables in it veggies are the shit weather you want meat with them or not!
Isn’t that the truth.
there is a fad of supplements. Supplements are important for certain conditions and life styles(?) for sure. But they've been over sold I think as a dietary supplement to be normalized. I grew up with the education thinking they are the necessity. Like part of nutrition and regular diet.
It is not a necessity with the right food tho.
I had found Supplements became unnecessary when I implemented food balance in meals (always more veggies, fruit and beans) and looked up how much exactly is in different types of food and measure it. Logging is pretty important to train the habit though. Used to have no idea if I had been doing the right levels. Just took multivitamins and thought I was good. Now I just keep a bottle of calcium and vitamin d around if after I checked my levels and found I didn’t get enough during the day. Most stuff is already supplemented via the diet. Like all the a b c k vitamins and several minerals. If im doing beans, fruit and veggies every day these shouldn't be necessary to take in pill form.
(But also alcohol can starve the brain of vit b and cause a brain condition) so I’m scarce on that stuff.
Having said that I still found if doing a whole bunch of overtime and not eating healthy or regularly, or have had oral surgery or oral injury: supplements/adding to blended smoothies are probably necessary for those times.
Going vegan is tough, because you have to relearn everything you know about food. A "normal" meal has a (high-carb/low-protein)+(low-carb+high-protein) pattern, let's say meat and potatoes. With that template, you absolutely can not just swap out meat and replace it with something vegetarian. No vegetable- or fungus-based food, no matter how processed, comes close in terms of protein content to meat.
You essentially need to change the entire template. That means you're also replacing your high-carb/low-protein foods with more "medium" foods like lentils.
That's the best advice I can give, and you absolutely do not have to go all in. Replace a small portion of your rice with some green lentils. Replace a small portion of your meat with kidney beans. Goes a long way.
Bro lentils and rice is some gas, and whenever I have white rice I make it with quinoa as well (just cook them together) to add something more substantial. I suppose ultimately I just like a lot of meat too, id eat more fish than other meats if it was cheaper. But preference is the main reason I'm not vegan. I do occasionally have vegan meals, one of my best buds is vegan so when I host or were gonna chef up dinner in the trail I'll pack vegan stuff! Eating more veg past few years and sleeping more regularly has made me feel much more energetic. Gotta give ur body the right fuel!
I replaced meats with soy proteins and beans. It was fairly 1:1. Not a vegan diet but pretty easy depending on what's available in your area.
I should learn how to make that cashew cheese...
Yeah due to my parents i used to eat meat daily, and not little! And the meat they buy that was cheapest of the cheap!
I am mostly vegetarian, eating meat only once a week and not much but then also the good one! We are made to mostly eat vegtables, nuts and fruits! Plus its lots cheaper
Edit: Only reason why once a week meat is for my bf who wants it and because i really need more low effort seasonal vegie recepies
Yeah, i see how it forces you to really learn to cook well.
Learning Turkish. Made me a so much happier person.
Teşekkür ediyorum, sağol!
Being gay³
Having boundaries
Thinking of myself as attractive
Accepting that a lot of advice is bad advice and that a lot of people are confidently incorrect AND heavily damaged
Accepting myself
Deciding to continue to actively try to be a better person
Learn about psychology
Going back to school
Stopping painting
Smiling more
Actually learning how to stretch
Getting a mini split heat pump system
I must know what being gay cubed is.
Why was painting bad for you?
Probably lead paints
Also curious!
having more ram and faster machine overall, i've lived with a 2008 laptop woth 2gb ram 5400rpm hdd and core2duo capped to 1.2ghz thinking it's okayish since i run a highly optimized linux setup, it wasn't. upgrade to a faster machine with ssd and everything literally made my system run twice as faster than before.
I know it's most likely just a figure of speech, but I'd be surprised if that more modern machine runs only twice as faster. The SSD alone probably should feel lightning fast compared to a 5400 HDD, even just for regular desktop use.
I had a friend who for a long time absolutely refused to upgrade to an SSD. Every couple of years he would add more RAM, upgrade to a newer CPU, and regularly upgraded to a newer Graphics card. He also hoarded a lot of data, so was always buying new 1TB and 2TB HDDs for his movies and games. I explained how his HDDs were his performance bottleneck for years, but he couldn't see past the price-per-gigabyte barrier. He greatly prioritised drive capacity over drive speed, and couldn't comprehend how his storage devices would affect gaming performance. He also had some odd opinions about SSD longevity and reliability. He honestly thought they were an elaborate scam or a PC industry conspiracy.
That was until his most recent upgrade. His new CPU necessitated a new motherboard. He got a new mobo with an NVME port. He only used the NVME because the board came with fewer SATA interfaces, not enough for his HDDs, and he thought the board forced him to use NVME to boot from.
So he literally upgraded straight from sata3 5400rpm HDD system drive to a PCIe Gen4 2000+ Mbps NVME system drive. Skipped the era of 2.5" SSDs and SATA SSDs, and Gen3 SSDs entirely.
He was commenting excitedly for days about how fast his new build was, and attributed the enormous performance improvement entirely to the new CPU.
Bless his heart.
i should've said like 10x faster lol. even by core counts it's 4x and for ram 12x.
It's funny that the first two right now are 'stopped eating meat" and "stopped eating everything except meat".
For me it is getting up when I wake up. No alarm. It wasn't always possible but instead of getting up early to run or be virtuous in some way, I sleep until I wake (not late! Usually between 7-730), have a short but indulgent morning, only water until I get to work (by bicycle) then coffee and breakfast. I wish I had always been able to do this.
And MHT, so glad I tried it - I had no idea I had menopausal symptoms because I never had a hot flash. But the MHT knocked out the migraines I was having, the UTIs, my thinking is clearer, and even though it put a few pounds on me I'm still inside healthy weight. That success convinced me to be more intentional and interventional about aging - I thought all that longevity stuff was about living longer (because of the word) but mostly it's about staying healthier and that feels physically good.
Yeah, probably some problem with the standard diet that gets improved with any change.
Lexapro and a bidet
Top down, bottom up approach, solid.
Starting to date my now wife back in the day. I had known her for 15 years before we started dating and we've had so many wonderful years now that I can only wish we had started sooner
Similar story for my wife and I. 10 yrs of friendship before we started dating. I definitely wish we started sooner but I'm just glad to be where we're at now.
Eating healthier and lightly working out.
Quitting Facebook. The decision was somewhat pushed for me after Mark banned me for "inciting hatred", I kept sharing a gif of a nazi getting knocked out.
Blood pressure medication.
Was high for years. doctor said we should do this or you should get healthy.
I kept 'getting healthy' for years
walking up the steps was pain, knees where pain, i'm like jesus i'm just getting old.
new doctor: you need to stop fucking around and get the meds.
me: ok
i took the meds, 3 days in.... I run up the steps like I was 20 years younger.
HOLY FUCK, why the ever-loving hell didn't I do this before?
Kind of similar with Ank.Spon. just been prescribed biologic drugs but waiting for an appointment to receive them.
Was originally having dicofenac with is an NSAID like ibuprofen but stronger - wasn't working - so they bumped me up to etoricoxib but got side effects from that like an upset stomach so was advised to stop.
They hold off on the biologics because they are super expensive and only the NHS can dole them out. Apparently they originally designed them for Parkinsons disease but turns out they are a miracle cure for Ank.Spon. Fingers crossed it works out! Would like to be able to get out the flat more often, even going to the office like 3 days a week.
Physical therapy
I was going to say water flossing but I've been forgetting to do it recently.
Good sleep environment. Complete darkness and a fan for white noise and airflow. The fan need not blow directly on you, the airflow is still good even if the room is cool.
Also a vasectomy.
antidepressants!
Morning stretching and lite weight lifting.
Eating HelloFresh food. I don't live near a grocery store so before that I was eating fast food most of the time. I don't remember what I did during the pandemic. Now I have a great variety of healthy food and I suspect it has contributed to the improvement in my mental health.
Another thing I did more recently to improve my health is get an exercise bike. I've been exercising for at least an hour or two a day while I watch TV. I haven't been at it long enough to make a noticeable difference yet though
I've been using a height adjustable standing desk for 2-3 years now. The option to switch between sitting and standing was a major improvement. It's obviously not a replacement to active movement and I'm looking forward to get a walking pad soon. But I'm glad I even went this direction.
Asking that my doctor take the symptoms in my sinuses more seriously.
Could you elaborate on that ?
Doctors can be so frustrating...
Buy a washer machine instead of rely on laundry service
Eat less and healthier, do lots of sports -> lose weight.
At some point in university I started to eat too much and excercise way too little. There were no "real" reasons. It started somehow and I lost control. So for ~the first half of my 20s I was very overweight. To the point that I was ashamed of my body so I avoided situations in which my weight was obvious even more.
Gladly I was able to turn that around at some point and only then there where comments concerning my weight. (Some congratulatory and some concerned that I was becomming too thin now).
I'm almost 40 now and miiight do to much sports, but I think I found a healthy balance, don't have backpain anymore and am rarely sick.
If I had found the strenght / inspiration sooner, I wouldn't have "lost" quite as much time as I did.
Getting and replacing my CPAP.
I waited way too long to get my first CPAP. When it started wearing out, I waited way too long to replace it, and the new one is just as magical. Actually, it's a tiny bit better with all the newer features
Firefox shortcuts. A lemmy user pointed it out and it's so much faster than using ddg bangs
How is it faster? For example. !wde linux
Because ddg bangs go through one extra hop by going to ddg -> site you want. Firefox shortcuts allow you to do @siteyouwant query and it goes directly to that site without going through a search engine
estradiol enanthate 4mg/wk
me too girlie :3
Joining you soon :3
Red light therapy, specifically Near Infrared Light on my lungs as it works so well that I was able to stop my 45+ years of daily asthma meds. Incredible.
How do you do RLT for your lungs?
Heavy breathing in a red-light district.
I have a small RTL panel that I put into NIR mode (not red) and place it on my chest, sides and back to cover all areas of my lungs. Super effective with a growing body of evidence for it use.
You s𝖾nt m𝖾 down a r𝖾s𝖾arch rabbit hol𝖾 about R𝖾d Light Th𝖾rapy. I hop𝖾 my 𝖾xp𝖾rienc𝖾 will b𝖾 good as w𝖾ll.
Ah yes, the testicle tanning.
Well, it would not be with Red Light panels as they do not put our UV light, but you can use the NIR light to increase testosterone but it is not much of a boost.
The "tanning" is just a silly nickname, it was specifically about red-light therapy.
Anyway, I'll stay away from that until the come up with some evidence it actually does anything.
A good mattress.
Disabling downvotes here is a big one especially when you compare the benefit you get for so little effort.
Agreed!
Getting rid of social media. Reddit/lemmy i keep for news.
Psychoanalysis
Expound, please?
It improved every part of my life a lot.
Elucidate, thanks?
it just means "think through your emotions before reacting to them" basically. lotta people out there that have absolutely zero control over their emotions
That boils it down quite good to why it improved every aspect aspect. But I like to add it made me able to feel my emotions in the first place in some instances which then enabled me to control them and made me stop unconsciously acting them out unappropriately.
To control emotions a person has to acknowledge the emotion is their’s to manage.
Not something magical that someone else gave them.
EG: the incels and nice guys who blame women for making them feel rejection. Or cultures that kill women and homosexual men for making them feel erotic.
Go on... please. How did it help you?
Meditation. It's a superpower
How did you start? How long have you been doing it ? What changed ?
I was introduced to it by a few people and books and varous stuff that I was into at the time. Experimented a lot. Got a handle on it. Started with concentration meditation.
After 6 years of that I found the other technique (we basically have 2). Shikantaza.
Used together it's very potent. A bit too potent and trippy for me actually. After a few years wrestling with that I dropped the concentration.
Now I just do Shikantaza.
Been banging on it for about 30 years.
Raising the head of my mattress ≥30° improved my sleep so much that I've made more life progress in the last 2 years than I have in decades.
I've had sleep problems my whole life (even as an infant). Did a home sleep test for obstructive sleep apnea, was negative so was sent to the in-person sleep lab. Got wires glued all over my head and did the full night + several naps the next day of testing. Nothing. No cycle dysregulation, no narcolepsy. Resigned myself to "guess I just suck at sleeping."
A few months later I get an awful ear infection and go to an ENT. Something I mention (I forget what) leads him to check for a deviated septum (don't have that either). BUT! He noticed acid damage in the back of my throat.
I have nighttime acid reflux that was not bad enough to notice, but just bad enough to disrupt my sleep.
Propping up my torso slightly and minor dietary changes were all it took to stop my stomach from slightly drowning me in acid every single night. FUCK I wish I had figured this out sooner.
Switched from Bourbon to soda water...
Avoiding foods with ingredients I don't understand.
I feel so much better these days. Two years running.
What do you mean by "ingredients you don't understand"? There's a woo trend that does this, and they usually run from very harmless, everyday stuff.
Exactly, I hear people say "don't eat food with ingredients you can't pronounce", and I'm like "dude, your poor vocabulary skills don't change how healthy a food is".
And then people are afraid of Vitamin C ("Ascorbic Acid").
even if it's rooted in ignorance, it's not the worst strategy for healthy eating. things that contain harmless but "chemical-sounding" things like carageenan, EDTA, methylcellulose, etc. tend to be junk foods engineered to be hyperpalatable calorie bombs.
if "I'll stick to ingredients I know" means someone starts eating more fruits and vegetables, beans, whole grains, etc. they're most likely going to start feeling better.
good results can come from flawed strategies, and people who use flawed strategies are probably more likely to want to learn stuff when they're not being attacked (not that I'm a complete saint in that department I'm still working on being less judgmental myself)
I'm assuming they're talking about things like gums, emulsifiers, stabilisers etc
Get a dictionary. It helps with understanding words you don’t understand.
No shit man. They were adding some kind of proteens in my food. I ain't eating no teen for sure!
I only eat noob teens.
Investing/saving money
::: spoiler spoiler Enabling Grayscale mode > ::: It instantly breaks the "dopamine loop" of social media apps. It makes your phone feel like a tool rather than a toy. And it helps with eye strain and extends battery life.
10/10 would recommend.
I wish I got a biometric scale way earlier than I did.
This thing is like cheat codes
Can you explain the benefits?
What is it?
It’s a scale but you get readings on your percentage of fat and muscle and metabolic rate. if you have an app and smart watch it’s kinda neat seeing how they reflect off of each other if you do different exercises and shift the nutrition of food.
Washing my hair everyday. I had very thin hair for 20 years and now it's actually growing back. I have an incredibly greasy scalp and face, and it was likely sebum plugs blocking the follicles. Plus, I'm very sensitive to the feeling of product or grease on me, so it feels so much better.
yup. I'm greasy by the end of the day and never feel clean without washing my hair with shampoo.
Are you telling me my thinning hair could be from not shampooing enough? Noooooo :( I wish I didn't have to shampoo more... I like doing it once a week or so...
it depends. some people need more frequent than average washing, some need less. it's worth switching up your routine to see if it causes improvement. good luck!
A Bidet. Under $30, and makes every single day better.
and short course of oral medication for severe atopic dermatitis, although it dint work immediately i did see change months later, but i dont have access to that now due to insurance issues, and MDs are very resistant to giving oral medication for AD since its an immunosuppresant, topical barely is able to contain it.
insurance issues solidarity :(
i was reliant on state subsidized healthcare and was seeing a dermatologist, but apparently i made too much for it so i cant use the service until my income is below the threshold. they linked with an ACA with a specific plan(based on your income) what i was trying to find out was the "actual cost" before deductibles, its pretty obfuscated pretty well i might add.
infuriating. i hope you're able to ultimately navigate it, though i wish you didn't have to
Retired at age 40, am now 60. Wish i had done it at 35.
Be careful with sauna daily. I saw an observational study a while back that showed that while sauna use was correlated with lower disease, that was only seen at around 3-4 times a week, and up to a certain temperature. More than that (frequency and temperature) and you no longer saw sauna benefits. I will see if I can find the paper later.
Yeah, I think I read the paper. No negative effects were seen, but there was a ceiling to dose dependent benefits. It was roughly 30m a session, at 4+ times per week.
Tell me more about your eye exercises - that sounds interesting!
One of my friends aunt's runs a new age hippy eye clinic...they insisted I get my near sighted ass over there and try it out. Wikipedia is not kind to eye improvement methods. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vision_therapy
I checked with my opthalmologist and they said it couldn't hurt.. so I tried out the hippie approach to vision restoration.
It's a weird mix of indian meditation, massage, resting, eye exercises, motion exercises, focus exercises.... I'm very incredulous, but I wanted to give it a fair shake.. so like a asshole I'm tracing the imagined shape of a intricate pattern with my chin and eyes closed...... And other things. After about a month I had to reduce the strength of my glasses a bit... And another month reduce a bit more.
It could be placebo, it could be my nerdy lifestyle was holding me back and this program changed my environment... But I'll take it.
Is bum gun a portable bidet?
Typically they are fixed installations. I've seen some online devices for a portable spray bottle.
So often at work I reach for the bidet and I realize it's not there. :(
It's uncivilized for a office not to have spray guns!
I live in a country of barbarians.
Praying.
Ancient form of gaslighting oneself.
This is actually a form of meditation and magic. People are just ignorant. Connecting with your magical self is powerful af.
It's amazing how many people memorize so many hateful things in order to temporarily feel superior to another person.
Not that I myself am innocent, but I'm still gobsmacked
ignore the horde of assholes mindlessly downvoting. it's good that you've found improvement from prayer. i hope it continues to bring you what you were looking for.
–an agnostic