it seems almost everyone disconnect himself from the economy in some way to improve lifestyle. I myself stopped consuming sugar, started lifting weights, got married, got kids, learned how to make sourdough bread, kefir, how to build bicycle wheel, how to slaughter animal, how to keep bees... Wow it is a lot for the 3 years :)
Ask HN: What habit have you dropped or picked up that improved your life?
51–60 of 135 posts
Re: Ask HN: What habit have you dropped or picked up that improved your life?
#5210K run every day and 10 hours of sleep. The productivity gains are in the 2-3x range.
You mean you stopped doing that?
Re: Ask HN: What habit have you dropped or picked up that improved your life?
#53Quitting smoking. Best habit I ever had. It improves my life every time I pick it up.
How did you quit? I really want to quit right now, I even switched for e-cigarettes but I came back to normal after one week.
Oh its easy. I've already quit 10 times. I'm actually thinking of quitting again next week :)
Actually the only time I managed to quit smoking for more than a few weeks when I was away from my friends/girlfriend for a five months and had no one smoking around me all day. It's easy for me to quit, it takes me a -pretty painless- couple of days. But after a while I relapse.
Re: Ask HN: What habit have you dropped or picked up that improved your life?
#54Anapana and Vipassana meditation during insomnia.
Re: Ask HN: What habit have you dropped or picked up that improved your life?
#55Fasting (< 500cal) two or three times a week is rapidly decreasing my volume, and bringing increased mental clarity and alertness. It's a good rhythm to get into, has a pretty dramatic (positive) effect on how I feel, and it's a nice way to atone for yesterday...
There was a great episode of Horizon titled Eat, Fast And Live Longer which tackled the benefits of fasting. Even a very reasonable fasting routine seemed to have a non-trivial positive effect on the show's host. It was convincing enough that I gave it a shot, and though I haven't been able to stick with it (or an exercise routine, for that matter), I felt significantly better in the ~week following even a one day fast.
One of the things suggested by a researcher in the episode, is to make your "cheat day" the day following a fast. Tell yourself that you can eat anything you want, because (and this was certainly my experience) even if you intend to binge heavily, you most likely will not. You will, however, still feel incredibly satisfied after devouring that bag of chips, or splurging on the cheesecake after dinner. I can't remember the exact number, but the researcher mentioned that during this routine, the subjects would only eat around 10% more than their recommended daily caloric intake.
Re: Ask HN: What habit have you dropped or picked up that improved your life?
#56(1.) Eat well, drink well, sleep well, work well. (2.) Quantified self: Targeting productive and unproductive time with RescueTime, and committing to explicit targets with Beeminder. (3.) Less but better. Less input but better input. Less output but better output. Afford the luxury of being slow and having time for introspection and inspiration. (4.) When you can't sleep, don't try to.
Never heard of Beeminder until now. Out of curiosity, what targets do you have that work really well for you?
Re: Ask HN: What habit have you dropped or picked up that improved your life?
#57Stopped reading Hacker News.
Re: Ask HN: What habit have you dropped or picked up that improved your life?
#58Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you do not use shampoo, what do you use to wash your hair? Genuinely interested, I can't live without Head and Shoulders.
Some help here: http://www.reddit.com/r/NoPoo/wiki/index After some weeks, your hair gets used to having no shampoo. I'm doing it since 2 months and all is fine.
Thanks!
Re: Ask HN: What habit have you dropped or picked up that improved your life?
#59Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you do not use shampoo, what do you use to wash your hair? Genuinely interested, I can't live without Head and Shoulders.
Some help here: http://www.reddit.com/r/NoPoo/wiki/index After some weeks, your hair gets used to having no shampoo. I'm doing it since 2 months and all is fine.
Pro-tip: tell nobody you know personally about this.
Re: Ask HN: What habit have you dropped or picked up that improved your life?
#60Fasting (< 500cal) two or three times a week is rapidly decreasing my volume, and bringing increased mental clarity and alertness. It's a good rhythm to get into, has a pretty dramatic (positive) effect on how I feel, and it's a nice way to atone for yesterday...
There was a great episode of Horizon titled Eat, Fast And Live Longer which tackled the benefits of fasting. Even a very reasonable fasting routine seemed to have a non-trivial positive effect on the show's host. It was convincing enough that I gave it a shot, and though I haven't been able to stick with it (or an exercise routine, for that matter), I felt significantly better in the ~week following even a one day fa…
Yeah, that show [1] suggests that there are number of positive effects to limiting calories and protein intake, such as reduced risk of cancer, heart disease, cognitive disorders, and an increase in (neuronal) cell-repair and longevity.
Something that I have noticed is an increase in self-control. Previously my relationship to food had been rather habitual and sometimes even addictive. I've found that fasting has made it a lot easier to control what I eat on the other days...