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moonlake [he/him] @hexbear.net

Weekly Improvement Thread - May 25th 2025

Hello comrades and welcome to the fourth improvement megathread of May!

There is one more week left of May to finish the month strong.

Some discussion ideas:

  • How was your week?
  • Do you have any plans for next week?
  • Do you have some streaks or sober days to share?
  • Do you have some useful resources or information that you would like to share?

poster caption: "A book to the masses!"

Good luck with your goals!

18 comments

  • an entire one pound off from my goal weight of 190 lbs and i might have to stop here just shy of the finish line. in addition to losing weight this fast being, well, questionable for my health, I also have dropped in my pants size enough to where I think I'm a size 12 now and wow are my pants real fuckin loose feeling on me now

  • Lets give it up for day three sober from nicotine! The only bit of it I've had in my system is nrt gum and lozenges so I really don't count that as cheating. To help with the cravings I've been using mullein infused vapes off amazon. They last two days and are getting me over the hump of cravings. So yeah there's that.

  • I had a great week. I journaled. I programmed. I read. I did diet and fitness. I'm actually rather proud of myself for setting pretty simple goals and hitting them. I have the same goals for this week: journal, program, read, diet and fitness. I think right now my phase of life is just "lock-in, do your work, and build the foundation for stuff." I think self improvement from that perspective give you a bit of grace and understanding this isn't just about today, it's about your whole future and you're going to get there in a few weeks. I think long-term thinking around self-improvement has been a big help.

  • Got the three day week that I'm enjoying, tomorrow gonna do some biking at home maybe hop on my fasting for the day since I been neglecting that.

    Meal prepping for the week looks like tofu patties again though gonna add more veggies to them. They were a god send this week when I didn't have much time to cook before my training. As for the training it's been going well. I'm not gonna lie and say I'm a leader or anything cool like that, I'm learning what I need and staying curious.

    My free time has been limited greatly, played a bit of kiwami 2 today but I really think these coming weeks I'll have less and less time for myself. I don't mind it too much once my training is done I should be on the path of having a career which I'm looking forward to. Finding a job been hard enough but with these skills I'll pick up maybe a recommendation or two I'll finally start my life fully as an adult and not feel so

  • This week I continued my streaks of running on 3 days and meditating on 5 days. Running is getting easier and I'm looking forward to my running days (Mon, Wed and Fri). I managed to lose 1 kilogram in the past 3 weeks. The goal for next week is to continue the streaks

  • Genuine question. How does one build a work ethic?

    I criticize the bourgeoisie and fascists for being spoiled libertines, yet am I really that much better? Sometimes I think I am fitting the stereotype of the lazy leftist all too perfectly. I find excuses to never try “why bother, it’s too competitive?” “Employers will never hire again” “you’ll grow bored of it” “it’s a waste of money” just to name four.

    What do I do to just…have more energy and to actually have the drive to stick through things and not make excuses?

    • In general, I think that drive/motivation is something that can't be manufactured, you either have it or you don't. But the good news is that you don't need drive to achieve anything, you just need some discipline, and that is within your control, as opposed to drive. Can you give an example of what you would like to achieve with drive?

    • Genuine question. How does one build a work ethic? What do I do to just…have more energy and to actually have the drive to stick through things and not make excuses?

      I can only speak for myself but I have found that work ethic is simple but not easy. For me, it's about putting priority on tasks that important and not misallocating your attention on those things that are not. I had a "why bother" phase, and i realized that for me it was a shield i used to protect myself from the potential of failure.

      I would rationalize a thing as "too much/lame/rigged/stupid/worthless" all as a means to not have to try. I think a lot of people are afraid not of hard work or diligence but the fear that it might not work out and then all that work will be "for nothing". Personally whenever I have worked super hard at something and it didn't work out, i still felt the sting of defeat but the work i put in usually rolled over into the next the thing. That sort of inertia has been a big help for me getting myself on my feet in a lot of different areas in my life. I am not exactly where i want to be in most of those areas but I'm no longer face down on the ground metaphorically. I don't think i'd be able to be upright in some areas if didn't have the momentum i was building in others.

      Work ethic to me is just working independent of an outcome. Not exactly work for works sake, more so "I want to be able to do hard things so I need to work hard at things". The sort of stuff i want out of life is hard (at least for me) and i'm not naturally gifted in a lot of areas, but i can make up for that through working hard.

      One last thing I would add is that hard work by itself is cool and good, but i have found that creating systems of discipline/structure makes hard work easier. Personally i having systems of how i do thing allows for hard work to be slightly easier in that i don't have to rely on personal motivation or mood, i just rely on my system. It's a lot easier achieve my goals when i have systems that create a pathway to that goal, and the hard work part is simply the movement across that pathway.

      I criticize the bourgeoisie and fascists for being spoiled libertines, yet am I really that much better? Sometimes I think I am fitting the stereotype of the lazy leftist all too perfectly.

      I too very much experienced that. I think it's a curse of being a semi-smart person is that you think about stuff and see how stupid and bullshit a lot of stuff is, however i think the semi-smart person tricks themselves into thinking that it isn't worth the effort. I think the enlightened person see that all of this is stupid and bullshit but also see that there is value in the effort and doing of things. I think the spitefully semi-enlightened person (like me) says as we can't let these bourgeoisie, liberals, and fascists achieve self-actualization and not do it ourselves. We need to work harder than them and make life better for ourselves and the those around us so they don't boil the earth.

  • Well the main thing that happened this week is that I've been free of weed for 8 days. I've noticed stronger cravings than ever, but I'm not even able to get high living with my parents which helps, and it would just be inconvenient. The next time I'll be able to get high is next Wednesday, but I'd like to just not. I'd prefer to only be high in a social setting instead of just getting high to cure boredom.

    In other food news, I asked to get my old summer job back working in a hotel and my old boss said yes. Now here's hoping that she'll let me work in the kitchen and not the bar, because I fucking hate dealing with customers

  • still, somehow, miraculously, i have not picked up the bottle this week. idk how much further i can go with this

    still losing weight, i think. hovering at about 194-195 right now, still want to drop another 5 before cycling back up

    just trying to get some of my precious few spoons back

    • The spoons thing has been a really good way for me to understand my energy recently, but I usually think in terms of "actions", like in DND or something. Depression and ADHD made college damn near impossible, and I felt like if I could get one thing a day that used an action - studying, attending classes, tidying my room etc - then I was having a good day. It was very rare that I could do more than one in a day. My healthy and neurotypical housemates could take dozens of actions in a day, and I could barely take one.

      Now I'm out of college, and I've noticed how many more actions I can take. Walking my dog doesn't feel like an action, and neither does making food, so I can do those every day without getting tired. I've been able to write some of my fantasy novel roughly every other day, and I've been socialising a lot. I also am less satisfied just playing video games and watching crap on my laptop. I feel a real drive to be productive, instead of feeling guilty about being unproductive when I could be studying.

      And congrats on the weight loss, that's awesome! I'm trying to lose weight at the moment, do you have any advice? Especially around avoiding snacks

      • yeah, I've just been completely and utterly devoid of spoons recently. Big mood on not really feeling satisfied with video games but that's been less me wanting to be productive and me just not feeling the same playing video games. Last night I just killed a bunch of time staring at my screen because I was out of spoons but video games felt dreadfully boring to me

        as for the weight loss? Intermittent fasting. I pretty reflexively dismiss anything that feels like a fad diet but it fuckin works, I don't know what else to tell you. I did it by just not eating anything after 1 PM on days that I work, because that's when I start working, and it made it easier to not eat due to there being no easily available food for me to just much on, unlike home, but idk how you would best put that into your schedule

18 comments