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PaperclipPerfector  7hr ago (text post)   154 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).

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New Year's resolution check-in:

How goes it @self_made_human, @thejdizzler, @birb_cromble, @ThomasdelVasto and @falling-star?

  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 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.

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