You can say no: to volunteer work, to events you don’t want to go to, to doing favors to people. The power of no is amazing
Avoid subscription services. You may pay more short term, but you won’t have to remember to cancel anything
This, the only monthly subscription I have is internet plan from my cellular provider (15GB for $5 at 10mbps). Zero regrets
Any cheaper showoffs are welcomed :)
PS: I don’t get why people subscribe to music services. I mean, you could just download your favorites and listen locally…
Sure, I could, and would like to own my copies. It’s just that would be a lot of work and money with the experience ultimately being worse.
Build up a routine of scheduled exercise. It’s amazing when you get deep into a job how little time you have, and it’s easy to put exercise to the wayside. Make it part of your schedule when it’s flexible, and then hold it when it becomes difficult. Exercise has massive outside benefits to overall health mood etc
Use a virtual credit card when signing up for subscription services. Set the recurring amount at just enough to cover the trial amount, and then once the subscription fee goes up it’ll notify you if you wish to continue paying for it. You can increase the limit if you want to keep the service, or just let the card decline until the service is cancelled. Most credit cards have virtual cards as an option, but I also use app.paywithextend.com
cook for yourself at least once a week. Not only is it a good skill to keep polished, you get great control over what you’re actually eating. Keeps you grounded to society, the cost of primary prices, and you can compare kitchen costs versus restaurant cost easily. It keeps you involved in society.
Nice to hear it not framed around health only, for once. From most advice it is seemingly impossible to live a healthy life if you dont cook yourself six days a week. Which seems ridicilous. Particularly for one who doesnt enjoy cooking (even though I do know how to cook decent meals).
Wish there was restaurants around here that was more like mess halls, priced at a level everyone could afford to eat at every day, made from healthy local ingredients, shared tables, no attempt at “mood” or theme, no waiters, you get whats served today and no alternatives except for those with particual dietary needs. I ate at the local poor-house once and it was almost what I would have wanted if they just got rid of the preacher and added a payment terminal. I heard those kinda eateries were common back around the early 1900. Why we at some point decided that everyone should mostly cook their own meals, or buy over-salted pre-made meals, and that restaurants should either be a luxury and involve a lot of waiting for a table and a waiter and the meal and the oversized bill and the waiter again to pay, or be fastfood so unbalanced that nobody should really eat it daily.
If you like Indian, there are places that serve Thali lunch or sign up for thali delivery. it is a prescribed meal with some flexible choices but basically slap down $10 and you get a metal tray with 3 curries, soup, rice and bread. Everyone has the same tray, like you see in prison shows
From most advice it is seemingly impossible to live a healthy life if you dont cook yourself six days a week
For health reasons I am on a diet that has minimal carbohydrates, almost zero. And no seed oils.
For my health journey, it is impossible to eat at a restaurant healthily. even if I order straight meat, many restaurants will cook it in seed oil, so I can never be sure. I.e. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8w8LKwOeO0
My only option is basically a salad. Which is fine, but not sustainable.
A helpful “rule” I set for myself to encourage myself to cook more was to allow myself to indulge if it was a proper, homecooked meal. Stuff like splurging on fancied ingredients (I’m fond of salmon), or having an extra cheesy lasagne. It was a useful carrot to dangle in front of myself, and a useful stepping stone to better habits. I also would sometimes cook for friends, like informal dinner parties (I always found it easier to cook for 4 than for 1)
On the cost side of things, even my fancier meals were still cheaper than takeout. Plus it’s easier to eat healthier if you’re already cooking for yourself often (and I even broke that down into smaller chunks too — I first focussed on adding more veg and general nutrition, then I reduced the proportion of healthy stuff)
Except for special cases, you don’t actually have to do a task fully. You can pick at it as you go.
For example, i almost never do all the dishes at once. I just do 1-2 when i pass by the kitchen and i have a minute or two to spare. Without even realizing it or barely feel the energy or the time used, the task is either done or it is much smaller and more manageable.
This can apply to most adulting tasks by my experience.
If you can optimise those by doing small task while waiting, e.g. when the microwave/oven is running, while you’re watching TV etc. then you can effectively do chores without losing time as well
I found this out when i had cancer and taking care of the kids. No time for making extra time for tasks; so combining was a necessity. waking up, bring the laundry basket down the hall to the kitchen, make breakfast for kids, when going to the garage to take the kids to school bring basket on the way to laundry room. Getting home toss laundry in. when heading out to pick kids up switch them to the dryer. come back bring basket off dried stuff back in to room. Other stuff like fold towels while sitting on toilet.
A recent one I found: If you get a pain in your back that returns whenever you walk… Take a trip to the wildest wilderness you can reach without needing to walk there, then start walking on uneven terrain. It is a huge difference on the muscles the body need. And just a forest path with a few roots isnt enough. Get off the path. Take the harder route. And be careful to not hurt yourself, of course.
Is that just to work out your core muscles? Because these easier ways to work them out.
Im no physician, I dont know.
My chiropractor made a small suggestion that a walk in the forest could help, and I discarded it because I was already “walking in the forest” a lot. Except I kept to the well-trodden paths. And I walked on asphalt to get to the forest. And it didnt really help. And the exercises he told me to do at home didnt really do much.
Core strengthening can help with back pain, but in this case it’s different. Walking on soft or variable surfaces causes less impact pain to sensitive nerves. People with poor flexibility or damaged discs in their back feel more pain from walking on hard, flat surfaces. The quality of shoe support / insoles can help with this too. If you have back pain when you walk, you start to compensate for it with an uneven gait, turning your pelvis inward or outward or tightening your hips. Over time this will cause tight muscles that will pull your spine out of alignment and exacerbate pain. Uneven terrain will force a break in these habits and encourage mobility and stretching in tight hips, hams and back muscles. This can be improved off a trail by doing mobility exercises like 3d lunge matrix, kinetic hip flexor and hamstring stretches. I would add that while you can prevent most back pain by doing core strengthening, wearing supportive footwear and doing these kinds of flexibility/mobility practices, it is always better for your body to have variability in how it exerts itself, than doing the same exercises over and over. Hiking is great for this because the terrain and the way you tackle it changes a lot each time you hike.
Oh yeah and a chiropractor will not resolve issues like this. Find a physical therapist that works with athletes and kinetic mobility/recovery stuff. Most PTs work with old people, post op, or chemo patients and are too gentle/slow in their approach to younger folks who need to retain their bodies.
Mise en place really helps my adhd brain with cooking. Prepping while managing the stovetop stresses me out unless it’s during a long simmer.
Get a vpn and torrent to your hearts content. The subscription services are too fractured. I’ve got Jellyfin, audiobookshelf, and mealie self hosted
If you want a rower go with the concept2. It’s the gold standard for indoor rower and they hold their value. I prefer going moderate effort long distance because then that time can be doubled up as audiobook/tv time
Edit: Besides exercise, which would ideally be a mix of cardio and strength work, make stretching a part of your routine. At least a few times a week. I mainly target the hamstrings and hip flexors
I mainly target the hamstrings and hip flexors
Hip mobility is a bigger issue as you leave East Asia and go to America. It’s like on a scale from America to Asia, check your flexibility – and you want ‘Asia’-class flexibility. America is not only fat, but also we can’t bend to actually save our lives.
If you can’t find the motivation to start doing a lengthy task (like cleaning the house, gardening, or working on a project), force yourself to do it only for 30 minutes. It’s not an unreasonably long time. By the end, you’ll either have gained enough momentum to keep going and finish it, or if not, you’ve still made 30 minutes of progress.
I like how you’re accepting longer tasks as well. What I’ve read typically is like “if a long task is dumb, get into the grind spirit by working a tiny task first and using that momentum”.
Your suggestion is to just ‘dip your toe into’ the longer task as a taste test. I like that. And I have so many longer tasks to do.
I’ve heard this called the ‘dirty 30’. It works. Whatever needs cleaning up or tidying, 30 minutes is just short enough to not feel like you’re using all your free time on chores, but long enough to make a real dent. Especially if your partner either helps with the same task or does a different one. Setting a timer can help and you start to almost frantically see how much you can get done. I like that competitive element even against myself.
