Intermittent fasting. The key to make it a habit was to learn that what we call hunger nowadays is not really hunger, is just space in the belly to eat more, it is fine to stay 5 days without eating and not feel weak.
Ask HN: Valuable habit you've stuck with? What was key to making it stick?
11–20 of 24 posts
Re: Ask HN: Valuable habit you've stuck with? What was key to making it stick?
#12Earlier quoted context omitted.
Certainly not all habbits are destructive, you seem to confuse habbit with addiction. Addiction to smoking will give you cancer, you can deny it but after 30-40 years of doing this your lungs will tell you, that consequences are severe no matter what you keep telling yourself :) I lost family members to cancer due to cigareres and they were denying it pretty much till the end.
I'm not denying. I know the risks of smoking and that I will suffer a lot. Do you understand and accept the risks of your habits?
You got one thing right: accepting that your addiction is destructive.
You got one thing wrong: thinking that self-harm is normal and other people's habits are also destructive. Try to change the cigarette in the morning for a 1 hour walking and you yourself you figure out how wrong you were.
Re: Ask HN: Valuable habit you've stuck with? What was key to making it stick?
#13A long time ago I had trouble waking up without hitting snooze a bunch of times. So I started setting my alarm for the latest possible time I could get up and still get to where I needed to be. I aimed to get up the first time I woke up naturally in the morning.
That was a life changing moment for me. I started waking up so much more rested, and without immediate morning stress. I got up later than I used to set my alarm for, but much earlier than I used to actually get up. Alarms that interrupt deep morning sleep are so hard to deal with.
Re: Ask HN: Valuable habit you've stuck with? What was key to making it stick?
#14Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm not denying. I know the risks of smoking and that I will suffer a lot. Do you understand and accept the risks of your habits?
I have a habit of reading while I eat. Explain how self-destructive? I don't want to shoot this theory down, it was an interesting thing to claim.
I don't know, honestly. Is that even a habit?
I used to eat watching stuff. Eventually I recognized it as a bad thing. In my case, it distracted me from the food and whatever I was watching. I ultimately dropped this practice and I enjoy my meals way better.
You can see it as a destructive thing, right? Whether it applies to you or not, I wouldn't know.
When I said all habits are self-destructive, I meant that they are conditioning. It's a little part of you that now is in auto mode.
Of course that my example, cigarettes, is also bad for my health. However, the conditioning is mostly chemical (I think), related to nicotine. It was also a way of saying "yeah, I know smoke bad", and a way to make people think of other potential harmful habits (gossip, drugs, promiscuity, stalking, drinking, cheating, etc) and how these things can go hypocritical very fast.
Re: Ask HN: Valuable habit you've stuck with? What was key to making it stick?
#15Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm not denying. I know the risks of smoking and that I will suffer a lot. Do you understand and accept the risks of your habits?
You got one thing right: accepting that your addiction is destructive. You got one thing wrong: thinking that self-harm is normal and other people's habits are also destructive. Try to change the cigarette in the morning for a 1 hour walking and you yourself you figure out how wrong you were.
I don't think it's normal.
It is valuable to me though.
People with schizophrenia (like me) have a long historical association with tobacco smoking. I'm not using this correlation as an excuse. It's just a fact.
Of all things that I perceive as harmful, cigarettes are the least offensive to me. Even though I know that it will bring me pain.
Re: Ask HN: Valuable habit you've stuck with? What was key to making it stick?
#16A long time ago I had trouble waking up without hitting snooze a bunch of times. So I started setting my alarm for the latest possible time I could get up and still get to where I needed to be. I aimed to get up the first time I woke up naturally in the morning. That was a life changing moment for me. I started waking up so much more rested, and without immediate morning stress. I got up later than I used to set my a…
I do the opposite.
I set my alarm for the time I want to be up (in my case as early as possible) and always get up within one snooze.
The life-changing “trick” for me is to just go to bed when I’m tired (which varies day to day). This is in contrast to having a “bedtime.” Some nights I tuck in at 7PM and others I’m up to 10 to 11PM and still pop right up at 4:30AM every day (even weekends).
Re: Ask HN: Valuable habit you've stuck with? What was key to making it stick?
#17Earlier quoted context omitted.
I have a habit of reading while I eat. Explain how self-destructive? I don't want to shoot this theory down, it was an interesting thing to claim.
I don't know, honestly. Is that even a habit? I used to eat watching stuff. Eventually I recognized it as a bad thing. In my case, it distracted me from the food and whatever I was watching. I ultimately dropped this practice and I enjoy my meals way better. You can see it as a destructive thing, right? Whether it applies to you or not, I wouldn't know. When I said all habits are self-destructive, I meant that they a…
This "auto mode" is not a pure and simple thing. What I'm describing might be a lifetime preference, rather than conditioned. But surely an element of the automatic has crept in. I probably reach unthinkingly for reading matter like I reach for a spoon, exhibiting what I think is called utilization behavior. Then again I don't think a person's conscious intent can ever be permanently shut out; I think any supposed conditioning of a human will have a degree of conscious oversight.
Re: Ask HN: Valuable habit you've stuck with? What was key to making it stick?
#18Flossing my teeth. I can't remember where I read it, possibly on here, or reddit, but a post suggested a good way to get started.
I set my goal to floss one tooth a day. And the trigger for it was always before I could brush my teeth I need to complete that one goal, and then give myself a big smile and raise my arms in triumph. And then I could brush my teeth.
I did that for a few days and found that it was quite easy to stick to. I then started flossing a few more teeth, until I was doing them all. That was six years ago, and to this day I floss every night. Sometimes I'm very tired, but my goal remains the same, floss one tooth, so some nights I just floss one tooth, but most of the time I do them all.
Re: Ask HN: Valuable habit you've stuck with? What was key to making it stick?
#19Flossing my teeth. I can't remember where I read it, possibly on here, or reddit, but a post suggested a good way to get started. I set my goal to floss one tooth a day. And the trigger for it was always before I could brush my teeth I need to complete that one goal, and then give myself a big smile and raise my arms in triumph. And then I could brush my teeth. I did that for a few days and found that it was quite ea…
I remember a saying from a dentist, "You only need to floss the teeth you want to keep"
Re: Ask HN: Valuable habit you've stuck with? What was key to making it stick?
#20Working out.
For me the key has been two things, remove thinking and at least five minutes.
- Find a programme, doesn't really matter which one as long as it's one you can follow for at least six months.
- Set the days you're working out.
- Pack or prepare everything the evening before.
Less thinking is less opportunity to go "Hmmm, I'm tired. I'll do it tomorrow". Just follow the programme. On those days do that amount of reps of those exercises.
The five minutes thing is that I always do at least warm up and then five minutes more. After that I'm allowed to stop, but at that point I'm changed, at the right place, warmed up and doing it. 39/40 times I do the workout.
My brain is ridiculously easy to fool, it's quite convenient.