site banner
PaperclipPerfector  24d ago (text post)   1824 thread views

Wellness Wednesday for September 16, 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).

3
Top Bottom Old Controversial Comments
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

New Year's resolution check-in:

  • Posted my twenty-first blog post of the year yesterday, a review of Penance adapted from comments I posted here.
  • Went to the gym three times last week. I can deadlift 1.82x my bodyweight, squat 1.33x and bench press 0.82x. I'm on holiday this week so won't get to the gym.
  • Have not consumed any pornography since waking up on January 1st.

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

I haven't drank in a month, mostly because I've been working a lot. This might last another month as I've got a friend trying to find an apartment nearby and as soon as he gets back we'll go to the pub, it's a nice break which is what I intended. I got a promotion and a 500 euro a month pay rise and I will probably never risk showing up to work hungover again (not that I'd get fired, it would just be painful). My biggest problem in life right now is finding kitchen shoes that fit properly, since my old ones fell apart I've bought 3 pairs and I think I'll want a 4th soon. It's still a lot cheaper to buy them online and take the risk than to go to a shop and know for sure.

Things are alright.

  • Been consistently tracking my calories. Hitting 3k a day most days, shitting like crazy, but making gym gains.
  • Wrote a motte post I've been thinking of for a while. Pleasantly surprised all the social conservatives aren't shitting on it.
  • Gearing up to talk to chicks and shoot shots at events soon. There's a likely lass that's coming to small gathering with my friends. Maybe we'll hit it off.
  1. Work: signed an offer letter for the new job starting in May of 2027
  2. Fitness. Feeling really trashed from running and seem to have done something to my extensor tendon (shoes too tight) so this week is going to be a big down week for mileage. Hoping I can feel better soon for chicago! Mileage: 71.
  3. Intellectual stuff: Two blog posts this month so far. Feeling a bit overwhelmed with all the stuff I want to be doing, so haven't been as on top of my reading as I would like.
  4. Finances: Sold my shares in ZIM in my IRA for a nice profit. I didn't make a whole lot of sense to keep them as I was paying quite a bit of tax on the dividend in an account that is supposed to be tax-free. Bought some WM, a high-yield bond fund (6%), and a NASDAQ index tracker with the proceeds instead. Spending so far this month: 2551
  5. Dating. I officially have a girlfriend for the first time in about a year. Excited! This has helped me be completely porn free (for a week so far) for the first time since 2023.
  6. Tarot. No session this week.
  7. Socializing: Hung out with my girlfriend saturday night, ran with the boys sunday morning and got some NA Guinnesses with my friend sunday PM.
  8. Screen time: 2 hours. Mobile YouTube will be the death of me.
  9. Meditation: 5 minutes 3x last week. Would like to make this more of a priority (as I continue to say but not to do).

Congrats on the gf!

NA Guinnesses

🤮🤮🤮 Fair play for staying off the drink though. I recommend N/A Baltica if you can find it.

Man have you had NA Guinness? It's really good. Like almost better than real Guinness.

I have, and found it revolting. And I like a pint of real Guinness. But interestingly, the recipe for Guinness was designed with Dublin water in mind. Whatever the "real Guinness" you've had probably tastes very different from what I would call Guinness.

+1. I've been getting into NA alcohol this year and the industry has really stepped up their game as of late. Heineken 0 is solid, and there are lots of boutique options with interesting flavors hitting the market.

IME the athletic brewing co IPA is the most beerlike fake beer. Every other fake beer I've tried is way too watery. It was helpful in reining in my severe drinking a few years ago.

Spending is $2,276.17 lower than the same day last year. My heating oil bill has quadrupled for the upcoming season, so that's going to make things tricky going forward.

Nonetheless I persevere.

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