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Wellness Wednesday for March 4, 2026

The Wednesday Wellness threads are meant to encourage users to ask for and provide advice and motivation to improve their lives. It isn't intended as a 'containment thread' and any content which could go here could instead be posted in its own thread. You could post:

  • Requests for advice and / or encouragement. On basically any topic and for any scale of problem.

  • Updates to let us know how you are doing. This provides valuable feedback on past advice / encouragement and will hopefully make people feel a little more motivated to follow through. If you want to be reminded to post your update, see the post titled 'update reminders', below.

  • Advice. This can be in response to a request for advice or just something that you think could be generally useful for many people here.

  • Encouragement. Probably best directed at specific users, but if you feel like just encouraging people in general I don't think anyone is going to object. I don't think I really need to say this, but just to be clear; encouragement should have a generally positive tone and not shame people (if people feel that shame might be an effective tool for motivating people, please discuss this so we can form a group consensus on how to use it rather than just trying it).

Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

New year's resolutions check-in:

  • Went to the gym three times last week and again this morning. This morning I did three sets of deadlifts, but found I simply couldn't do a fourth, which I'm attributing to a) going to the gym on an empty stomach and b) running out of whey protein a few days ago. Can deadlift 1.8x my bodyweight for 3 reps, squat 1x for 8 reps and bench press .8x for 7 reps.
  • Have not consumed any pornography since waking up on January 1st.
  • Have completed 8/11 modules in the SQL course. Will do the ninth this evening.

How goes it, @thejdizzler, @birb_cromble and @oats_son? (Incidentally if any of you no longer want to be pinged every week, just say so.)

  1. Work: At a conference in Chicago this week, which feels like a bit of a vacation!
  2. Fitness: 11 hours last week, will be quite a bit lower this week as I'm mainly running at my parents' house and I can't do as high of volume of pure running. Expect to be around 8-9 hours this week. Feeling quite fit: HRV and RHR both spiked in the appropriate direction and my workout times have been getting better and better.
  3. Intellectual Stuff: Finished Marx and a Pacific War book this week. Haven't been amazing about doing my Italian and Spanish while I've been at my parents'. Planning out blog posts for this month too.
  4. Finances: As detailed in a Sunday post, my parents are giving me a large sum of money to help with buying a house. I probably won't use it for that right away, but it's nice to know I'll be able to make a large downpayment if I want to. I am slightly worried that this money is going to influence my spending behavior, so I'm determined to stick to my spending targets for at least the rest of this year. Dividends and interest can just help me save more. To that end I was well below my budget of $3200 last month (2750) and also made about a thousand dollars more than normal (checking account deal, cat sitting, PT cash back, substack subscribers, etc).
  5. Dating: Masturbated once to porn this week, but otherwise was completely clean all week. Went on a date last Wednesday, but didn't really like the girl despite her being perfect on paper. have paused all the dating apps and am not going to seek out a relationship deliberately right now.
  6. Tarot: Really good session with my ex-roommate who's still a bit frustrating to talk to (he is really bad at engaging with his desires or using his will).
  7. Socializing: None really this week as I've been back in Chicago. Visited my godparents and their kids and played Mahjong with my parents which I guess counts.
  8. Screen time: 1.5 hours, which I think I can get to one hour with a bit more work

I am slightly worried that this money is going to influence my spending behavior

Since you have a rough timeline on when you plan to move, can you lock it up in a CD or bond?

Year over year spending is $1266.66 lower. Month over month spending is $63.26 lower.

Between rising gas prices and the upcoming dental work, I assume this progress will get blown to hell soon. All I can do in the short term is keep saving.