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Wellness Wednesday for April 1, 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).

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New year's resolutions check-in:

  • Posted my eighth blog post of the year on Sunday, a review of the worst book I read last year, Nell Zink's Doxology. Expanded from a comment I posted here.
  • Went to the gym three times last week. Came down with a cold on Sunday which I'm only just getting over, so haven't been to the gym yet this week. Can deadlift 1.8x my bodyweight for 3 reps, squat 1.05x for 8 reps and bench press .85x for 6 reps.
  • Have not consumed any pornography since waking up on January 1st.

How goes it, @thejdizzler, @birb_cromble, @falling-star, @Tollund_Man4 and @self_made_human? (For the latter – any progress on that task you were completing for me?)

Nicotine pouches are now banned in France so that's one vice down, even if I try to order some online (not sure if that's legal anymore) I'll be over the worst of the withdrawals by the time the delivery comes. The timing isn't bad - the restaurant I work in is closing and they may not even open this weekend so I've got a few days off work to get over the nicotine before I start working at a new place on Monday.

I did drink a lot more in the past week, but I made some friends and I worked out the details of the new job over some whiskey. A Moroccan guy is getting fired to get me the job, he recently refused to take orders from women or anyone younger than him (he's 38) because he has 2 wives (to paraphrase). French law makes it hard to fire people but the head chef says he knows how to get rid of people quickly.

Gaming, I did stay up late two nights playing Menace but once I start the new job I won't have time for that.