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PaperclipPerfector  13hr ago (text post)   399 thread views

Wellness Wednesday for April 29, 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 tenth blog post of the year last Thursday, an analysis of Chinatown and Spec Ops: The Line I originally wrote for Scott's everything-except-book review contest.
  • Went to the gym three times last week. Have yet to go this week, as yesterday morning I suddenly got a horrible pain between my shoulder blades which has yet to dissipate. Can deadlift 1.84x my bodyweight for 3 reps, squat 1.15x for 7 reps and bench press .87x 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?

  1. Work. Finishing up my second first author paper!
  2. Fitness: Still recovering from the marathon/think I got sick so mainly walking and trying to run a few times a week right now.
  3. Intellectual Stuff: Plugging away at After Virtue. Beginning to meditate once a day for 15 minutes (only did this once this week, but want to make it into a daily habit.
  4. Finances: Third roommate is still not locked down, but we have multiple seeing the house today. Spending is still very low this month.
  5. Dating. Facetimed with this girl I met in Spain last Saturday.
  6. Tarot. No session this week
  7. Socializing: Spanish happy hour and potluck
  8. Screen time: 2.1 hours phone (train)
  9. Mental health: anxiety is back baby!

How long did it take you to train for a marathon? I was pretty proud of myself for even making it to the end of a 10k last year.

I got into running at the very start of Covid, and ran my first marathon in May 2021.

I have been training seriously since I was 10 in various endurance sports. In high school and college this was about 10 hours a week with lifting and cross training etc. I do about the same now. Starting from zero, it would probably take a few years of this to be ready for the marathon.

That makes sense. I've been strength training for about that long and it's a lot easier than running.

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