site banner
PaperclipPerfector  9hr ago (text post)   215 thread views

Wellness Wednesday for July 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).

Top Bottom Old Controversial Comments
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

  1. Work. Back from Europe. Excited and motivated to wrap up the end of my PhD. Job interview in Germany went well, and have another one here in Baltimore in two weeks. Will probably make a bigger post on wellness Wednesday in a few weeks about my decision to get your guys' advice.
  2. Fitness: Mileage was fairly low over the course of the trip (43,43,51). Hoping for 55 this week. Came back to a nice surprise: I've lost 5-7 pounds, which is about ~50% of all the weight I wanted to lose. Unfortunately I currently feel terrible because of the jet lag, but I'm sure I will recover soon. 11 weeks until Chicago.
  3. Intellectual stuff: reading Foundation for philosophy book club and enjoying it. Actually got a lot of Spanish practice on the trip, and thinking I should preemptively switch my L3 focus from Italian to German. Otherwise am starting a few economics books (Great Crash 1929, Pocket Picketty) which I am excited about, as this is an area of weakness for me.
  4. Finances: work covered most of my trip-related expenses. I also got an unexpected $2k from a student loan law suit, my salary got bumped by about $150/month, and I earned about $500 in interest/dividends from my investments. So actually ended up being an incredibly positive (35+% savings rate) month. Thinking about giving 10% of my net savings each month away (either in the form of paying for substack subscriptions or increasing the amount I donate to my income sharing club), so would also appreciate any thoughts on this.
  5. Dating. Nothing. In too much of a liminal space in terms of careers to dedicate much time to this now.
  6. Tarot. Will have a session this weekend!
  7. Socializing: Was very social my first few days in Germany. Haven't done anything since I got back, but hard to do so when I crash at about 7:30 pm.
  8. Screen time: 3 hours, but makes sense given travel!
  9. Meditation: 5 minutes 3x last week. Hoping for every day this week.

Came back to a nice surprise: I've lost 5-7 pounds, which is about ~50% of all the weight I wanted to lose

That's a surprisingly common refrain I've heard from people who have gone to Europe for a few weeks. I wonder if there's something about the food, or if something about the culture causes people to be more active.

I don't think the destination is the most relevant part. Going on vacation tends to make you lose weight by being more physically active.

I'm not entirely sure about that. Maybe it's a cultural thing, but a lot of people I know tend to eat their way through vacations. Mexico seems to be the worst for that, for some reason.

I think it's a combination of smaller portion sizes, and walking about 25k steps/day. Walking is much more pleasant and feasible in Europe, so I tended to do it more than here.

Thinking about giving 10% of my net savings each month away (either in the form of paying for substack subscriptions or increasing the amount I donate to my income sharing club), so would also appreciate any thoughts on this.

You're more than welcome to become a paid subscriber to me if you like!

I think I will once your comp ends! Your posts are very high quality and I appreciate them a lot.

What is this place?

This website is a place for people who want to move past shady thinking and test their ideas in a court of people who don't all share the same biases. Our goal is to optimize for light, not heat; this is a group effort, and all commentators are asked to do their part.

The weekly Culture War threads host the most controversial topics and are the most visible aspect of The Motte. However, many other topics are appropriate here. We encourage people to post anything related to science, politics, or philosophy; if in doubt, post!

Check out The Vault for an archive of old quality posts. You are encouraged to crosspost these elsewhere.


Why are you called The Motte?

A motte is a stone keep on a raised earthwork common in early medieval fortifications. More pertinently, it's an element in a rhetorical move called a "Motte-and-Bailey", originally identified by philosopher Nicholas Shackel. It describes the tendency in discourse for people to move from a controversial but high value claim to a defensible but less exciting one upon any resistance to the former. He likens this to the medieval fortification, where a desirable land (the bailey) is abandoned when in danger for the more easily defended motte. In Shackel's words, "The Motte represents the defensible but undesired propositions to which one retreats when hard pressed."

On The Motte, always attempt to remain inside your defensible territory, even if you are not being pressed.


New post guidelines

If you're posting something that isn't related to the culture war, we encourage you to post a thread for it. A submission statement is highly appreciated, but isn't necessary for text posts or links to largely-text posts such as blogs or news articles; if we're unsure of the value of your post, we might remove it until you add a submission statement. A submission statement is required for non-text sources (videos, podcasts, images).

Culture war posts go in the culture war thread; all links must either include a submission statement or significant commentary. Bare links without those will be removed.

If in doubt, please post it!


Rules


Recommended Posts And Communities

Recommended Realtime Chats