Life habits suggestion thread

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Silly posts, tying myself in knots. I see. Will think on that, whether it's don't really care at all and just idle trollin', always possible, got to be honest there, or just reasonable yeah it's my job to look after myself. Of course it is.

Glad to have got some sleep, after reading about the Irish saving Western Civilisation. I was so exhausted. Had a swim this morning and a sauna. Swimming's great you never lose the stroke if you have technique, and the strength will improve. Feeling tired in a good way.

Gamifying my life, no need. It's not my thing, to use something like that, I'd only do it to interact, more mud thrown, at a wall.

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鬼殺し wrote:

yeah, well, I just took a sip of my water that tasted JUST LIKE COLD COFFEE and then I remembered I meant to make tea.

When it comes to life habits, I gotta start small.

Ha, well, I suspect you're super on top of your health - you have to be, and want to be. Spreadsheeting it isn't your style, whatever works close enough to allow the creative spirit to feel free enough to do its thing.

Thanks for the chuckle though, I do that too, sip the stone cold coffee for being thirsty.
Thinking it was supposed to be tea, that's next level stuff.

Happy to say I wrote an entry in the Einhar contest. Now I can drink rum and relax, until pumpkin hour.

Doing real life stuff for virtual xp didn't do much for me, which I found surprising since I've been hooked to skinner boxes for almost two decades now (I unironically played that cookie game where you click the cookie and a number goes up endlessly). What worked for me was having a journal and reminding myself of my very concrete short- mid- and long-term goals every day. Having those goals in my mind all the time made me not only do the things to achieve the goals but it made me think about pretty much anything I do in terms of "does this bring me closer to my goals?" (posting in an off-topic forum of a chinese gambling simulator is trash btw). Really helped me out. Before I was kinda aimless I just did what I was "supposed" to do without thinking much about it (school, work whatever) while neglecting a lot of important stuff (specifically health and bonding with friends/family).

Goals, the magic word. Working out what's important and rewarding, sounds like you did.

SMART goals, gotta make 'em SMART. Sounds like you did that. The skinner box stuff, ah, the little dopamine hits. I found the gamify interface unappealing, and the social interactive aspect wouldn't have been there for me which would have been a let down, and I've had enough of that. My own fault, to hope, to get ahead of reality and make an idiot of myself.

Goals and measurement. I found the Beefcake 4000 thread interesting, in that Brekky asked about how many calories he should consume for muscle gains, and seemed completely unaware of the numerous online TDEE calculators out there, and information around how to use them and their limitations, especially if your metabolism is unusual.

I did my 20 minutes of laps again today and had a sauna. Won't bore the forums with daily posts on it. Mainly saying it aloud, so to speak, was in aid of research that says if you say it aloud to someone, it helps support you in actually doing it.

Halfway through, I was thinking "that'll do... I mean I'm in here right, that's good enough". It's a 10 metre pool and I thought, shit I used to churn out 2k in 40-odd minutes (fast people do that in 20-25, I was never fast, just good technique and endurance). Now, that was a long long time ago, but it made me reflect in this suspended zone (which is one reason why I love to swim) on how we kid ourselves, goals, and how important measurement is.

I keep track in a notebook, too, for some things. For swimming, it's easy for me to do on time and breathing. Goal, just to do it each day (odd days I'll cheat and think tomorrow), with the weekend off. Long term, hazily forming is to do the Pier to Pub this summer. I've done it before, but so long ago it's dim muscle memory. I will re-evaluate how far I get in a couple of months, no way in hell I'd make it now.

There, I said it aloud, a goal.

So for me, tracking can be broad (time and effort) as there's so much experience with it, and so far to go to get fit at it I can slowly push on. Half hour brisk dog walks do not engage the back muscles. For those who are looking at smaller ranges of gain then precise tracking becomes essential.

Three weeks average to form a new habit, can take less or a lot longer.

Also, the why is important. For me, it's spurred by the realisation I need to step up on the self-care and get out of my overactive imagination and curb time puttering online. Exercise reliably does this, with my brain, makes me grounded, relaxed and all-round supports staying even-keeled. Plus, getting in better shape, sleep, there's so many reasons. I do a little meditate in the sauna, feels good.

Figure the rum cocktails at the end of the day while I write (the other habit) is a nice reward, even if most days they go to show little paper umbrellas are just plain weird in hot cocoa.

I'm on a hiatus from running at the moment, fucked up my achilles and i was to eager to start running again and didn't let it recover fully.

So now i'm doing the push-ups/set-up and squats people suggested in this thread in the off-time.

I enjoy the focus and breathing in physical excercise.

And when i am walking/running i can go on autopilot with my body and contemplate things in movement which is entirely different then contemplating while being still.

You say "goals" and i think thats part of what makes thinking "in" excercise so different.
Your body knows your in movement, going places and active and i think that also stimulates some patterns in the mind otherwise not activated.

My goal is easy when i excercise, since i come from very high innertia, just punch that little voice in the face that sometimes comes up and reminds me i could be just sitting still etc :p

Small but effective goal i think, nice little rush when you get that self-satisfaction pumping in.

Peace,

-Boem-

Achilles' are tough to heal, all the best with it.

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Boem wrote:

And when i am walking/running i can go on autopilot with my body and contemplate things in movement which is entirely different then contemplating while being still.

You say "goals" and i think thats part of what makes thinking "in" excercise so different.
Your body knows your in movement, going places and active and i think that also stimulates some patterns in the mind otherwise not activated.

Exactly, there is something about it that stimulates other patterns in the mind.

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鬼殺し wrote:

yeah, well, I just took a sip of my water that tasted JUST LIKE COLD COFFEE and then I remembered I meant to make tea.

When it comes to life habits, I gotta start small.

People tend to do too much and end up accomplishing nothing in the end. It's always good to start small, that's sound advice for anyone for almost anything.

Indeed. SMART goals is an mnemonic, if you weren't aware.

Did I do laps this morning? Nope, but 3 in a row, and tomorrow for sure. It's not World Trash Panda Day every day, now, is it? :3

Renewed my driver's license recently. Been showing off the new one, and then showing them my license from 5 years ago... most people think it's a different person in the old license photo. One even commented that I showed them in the worng order because I look younger in the current one.

Trying to lose weight/get into better shape? Plan on five years of effort. Then compare license photos in 5 years.