What's the best habit that improved your life?

Sorry this is unedited because I’m on a train, winding its way through Fukushima at the moment.

Let’s go the Moc masterlist:

Drinking coffee black. Used to think that I wouldn’t like coffee without milk and coffee. Turns out I love it, just needed a few weeks to wean myself off sugar and milk and learn to enjoy it. Lost heaps of weight by doing this.
Weightlifting three times a week. Gaining muscle mass helped me look and feel good in my 20s and now 30s. I was never a good looking teen, but now in my 30s I get compliments from people pretty frequently.
Losing weight. I have sleep apnea. Losing weight is the single most effective treatment for it.
Getting jaw surgery. I have TMD, and this constricts my breathing at night. As part of my orthodontic treatment, I opted to get my jaw extended by 7mm. This was very expensive, but I’m in a high paying profession and I’m good at saving. Between this and losing weight, I sleep much better and don’t snore at night. I never used to feel like I ever got any rest.

Getting my ADHD treated

Getting medicated. I have ADHD. If you’re clever enough, you can brute force your way through the entire education system; school, undergrad, and postgrad without realising you have ADHD. It’s only after a couple of years in a demanding profession (SWE in my case) that I realised I needed help. I was prescribed Ritalin (methylphenidate hydrochloride) and the difference is night and day.

Because I don’t have to wrangle my brain into submission the entire day, I’m no longer completely mentally exhausted after 4 hours of work. I can focus for long hours now and feel pretty normal at the end of the day.

Dealing with high cholesterol Listening to scientists instead of keto idiots. I went to my GP for the third year in a row for my physical and got told I have the highest cholesterol of anyone in their 30s he had ever seen (I was 31).

He wanted to immediately put me on statins, because he had never seen someone with my level of cholesterol who didn’t have familial hypercholesteroloeamia. I asked him if he could give me six months to try and fix it through diet.

I had been following fitness influencers, and had lost 10kg cutting calories and eating heaps of beef, butter, and eggs. I cut that out, and upped my plant protein, lean poultry, and fish protein instead. I feel and look heaps better, and am still gaining muscle at about the same rate I was before. I just try and eat heaps of fibre (veggies) and aim for about 100g of protein a day.

I went for my most recent physical and have the cholesterol of a normal person now. Doctor isn’t trying to put me on statins anymore. I couldn’t believe it.

Deciding to be an optimist

I, like my late father, was a pessimist. My whole extended family is and was locked in generational poverty. I took advantage of my intelligence and work ethic and got into university, but my pessimistic attitude towards life persisted. And it seriously limited me.

I had to actually decide to be optimistic, and believe in myself before things got better. I won’t go into too much detail on this, but my outlook is that;

Pessimists are more mentally prepared for hardship, but optimists and more emotionally prepared for hardship. Maybe, It’s better to weigh the risks, and still take risks than forever be risk-averse.

Years of pessimism grinding my spirit into a pulp has beaten this into me. It’s only by adopting an optimistic outlook, working hard, and taking risks that I managed to finally achieve a better life.

What I’m working on

At the moment I’m trying to get into the habit of journaling, and quit coffee (drinking green tea instead).

I need to do better with mental habits such as journalling, not browsing Reddit and YouTube, and doing hobbies such as writing and reading instead of playing video games.

Enjoying the menial tasks. I enjoy sweeping because of it, it's very meditative. My grandfather used to love it and I see why now.

Stop complaining and start focussing on solutions instead of problems.

I'm going to answer your question with what I've done for the last 30 years. Carry no debt. I do occasionally carry some debt in the interest of satisfying the credit algorithms but otherwise I have no interest in playing the interest game.

Drinking primarily water instead of sodas.

Getting my sleep fixed. Specifically: going to sleep at the same time every night, waking up at the same time every morning, cutting out caffeine completely, no or very limited sweets at night. My dad has bad insomnia (and habits) and I had sleep issues myself growing up. If I was late to high school one more time, I would have failed; and then I was late to graduation lol. Now I wake up every morning feeling refreshed and not tired. Every time I wake up before my alarm it's like 10 minutes before it goes off anyway. I set no alarm on the weekends and I wake up at the same time anyway. Caffeine is a shitty thing to get addicted to. You're not a soldier in a watchtower that needs to watch for an invading army every night, cut that shit out!

Stopped drinking alcohol.

Started walking more and taking the stairs instead of elevators whenever possible.

Regular exercise, setting aside some time to enjoy reading.

I did thousands and thousands of out loud verbal affirmations until i learned to love myself limitlessly. It's a wonderful feeling!

taking vitamins, drinking green tea, daily 30 minuet walk and trying to learn something new each day even if its something small.

Journaling and meditating.

Listening to audiobooks to fall asleep. I've had insomnia forever and it helps better than anything else I've tried.

I quit drinking for a while there and when I did I picked up this peculiar habit of drinking tons of soda water. Still do it to this day. Love my tiny bubbles.

Started a savings account. Used to be what I had in my wallet was my life's savings, didn't think I earned enough to accumulate anything. I was wrong

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy exercises. I learned them well, and now I can do them wherever, whenever. Life changing.
Visible Thinking Routines by Harvard's Project Zero. Every time I want to learn something, I think visibly about it!

Walking. Long daily walks.

It changed (& helped save) my life.

Edit (to give some context):
When I started to walk, I was barely able to walk at all. Like, really, a few steps to get to the mailbox would kill me and have me lay on bed for hours. I was in a really bad, bad shape (in the head too). Nowadays, I will walk 8-10km every single day and, added to that, I will go everywhere walking if at all possible. I'm still not an athlete but at the least my body is not a dead weight anymore (I feel better in the head too). And it all changed the day I decided I would simply walk a little more. A few steps at first, and then more, and then more. I was impressed by the huge impact of a seemingly little change. I celebrated each 'win' (the first time I walked the block, the first kilometer, and so on) and I never blamed myself for the (many) fails. Instead, I tried to analyze the reasons why I failed so I could do better next time.

Don't compare yourself to others, compare yourself to your past self.

I deamericanized my social media on the wake of the Trump electoral win. Desubbed from US Youtube channels, blocked magazines here that mostly deal with US politics while keeping world politics, unfollowed Masto and Bluesky accounts using similar rules.

I thought it may be an empty gesture, but... no, no it wasn't. My social media is healthier, I'm more keyed in to domestic news. Apparently somebody shot an American CEO and I'm not sure when it happened or what's up with that because all my feeds are about France and South Korea, which are objectively way more important.

If you're not American, consider it. Walk away from the cultural imperialism. It'll only become a better choice over time now.

If I choose to do something later, put it physically in the way.

Trash needs taking out, but I'll do it in the morning? Put it in front of the door.

It is both a reminder and an obstacle to overcome.

Immediately tossing negative/intruding thoughts when i think them. It took a year or two to start doing it so naturally i didn't even realize i was doing it.

Huge game changer with depression, and just life in general.

Drink water. Just have a waterbottle within arms reach and take a sip every so often. Makes way more of a difference that you would think with very little effort and eventually becomes a habit, making it take even less effort.

Meditating (not very good at it, but getting better and it's seriously helping)
Blocking Reddit on my router, blocking political communities in Lemmy
A consistent, normal sleeping schedule (a bedtime routine is more important than a morning routine, imo)
Yoga every morning to help my body work with me throughout the day
Reading more books
Getting outside more often
Paying closer attention to the thoughts that cross through my mind and stopping them when they're not helpful - this also helped me realize the underlying anxiety that's been with me for who knows how many years
Drinking more water

Edit: Oh I also:

Quit drinking alcohol, almost at the 1 year mark
Quit smoking weed, almost at 2 months fully sober now

I did these things one at a time, not everything at once. Mostly just sharing what I did here, but if you plan to do the same - listen to yourself. Start with #7 imo so you get a better idea of what you're up against. If it feels like too much, take a step back and slow down. You're not failing when you do this, you're helping your future self not fail entirely.

Flossing is great. Don't gamble with your long-term oral health, which can have devastating consequences on your overall quality of life.

Using a calendar religiously.

Disabled the Shorts section on YouTube with an extension. Drastically reduced spaced out doomscrolling.

Taking walks

Taking walks. It made me more aware of how isolation changed my perception of the world.

Things are uglier now that I'm no longer used to it. The garbage, the decay, the lack of maintenance everywhere, things feel unclean. I feel unclean.

So I try to be cleaner and look after my own garbage. But man do I hate random people sneezing around me!

"Achievement unlocked! You now have Mysophobia! Your prize is a pack of tissues."

"Perfect is the enemy of good enough" This changed my view about so many things: Exercise, it's fine if I don't go 100% everyday. Work, it's perfectly fine to negotiate agreements. Etc.

Loosing weight starts at the supermarket.

If you decide to buy sugary delicacies, you’ll have to resist the temptation at home, which you’ll inevitably fail. Just skip that boss fight entirely by not buying tempting things in the first place. Ok, maybe once a week, but certainly not every other day. You just need to resist the temptation for a few minutes at the store. Once you’re at home, you have no option but to eat normal food, because unhealthy food simply isn’t available.

20 pushups every morning before my shower. My back is a not cured, but a lot better for it.

Getting rid of victim mentality. This is the biggest curse you can put on yourself (that being said I've not tried heroin).

I found Jesus. Well, he actually found me. Just kidding, it's booze. Don't take this world too seriously. It's an actual joke. Focus on doing the right thing, everything gets much clearer.

I stopped putting blame on people. I focus on the grand scheme of things - not the individuals involved in it. The list of people I have negative thoughts about throught the week is zero long.

Embrace stoicism.

Waking up the same time every day. Or at trying my best to

Switched to a low carb diet. Originally had serious heart problems. First Dr said to eat no fat and eat healthy grains. Had more heart problems. Switched to low carb, minimal grains. Ate non-processed meats, fats, and organic vegetables foods in general. Lost 50 pounds without any dieting what-so-ever and have way more ambition. New Dr said my arteries were now "squeaky clean" after a cardiac catheterization. Seems my heart problems were not hereditary as the first Dr said, but rather I can't handle carbs because of my hereditary. Turns out about half of the population has genes that don't allow them to handle carbs well - they tend to put on weight and have health issues like clogged arteries, diabetes, arthritis or cancer, maybe MS too. The diet change took a few years to fully kick in though. The difference however, was noticeable after the first 100 days.

Bidet hits all of those things

Reading books and news on my phone while on the train/ public transit more generally. Great way to actually be somewhat productive. Ironic that I’m on the train rn, but since lemmy is still pretty empty, I’ve ended todays meme session about now

Taking time to just think about whatever in quiet. I do it outside if it's nice and it's so peaceful.

Following a weightlifting program has improved my life immensely. 2 years later my back pain is essentially a thing of the past, I look and feel better than my non active peers, my cholesterol and a1c levels are perfect , and I look like a brick shithouse

Anybody that wants to get started but doesn't know how feel free to drop me a line

Joining a sword fighting gym. Absolutely fantastic community, and while I'm currently laying in a hot tub to soothe my absolutely dead legs, I'm definitively in the best shape I've been in in my adult life.

Without hesitation it’s making my bed in the morning. This video inspired me to this https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zSg5yT0dJWk

Many of your thought patterns are actually just habits, rather than an intrinsic part of who you are. It's not easy and requires consistent effort like any habit change but they can be changed.

Gaining just a little bit of control over my thoughts about myself

Every week I write my weight on the giant whiteboard in the kitchen. I don't erase it, just keep the log running all year long, for anyone to see. It's an amazing motivator.

Eating oranges

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