23 Comments
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Zac Solomon's avatar

My girlfriend calls this “starting a new life”. Whenever I go vegetarian for a month, or weeks without screens, or I start running every morning.

But I think you really nailed it. The cost of trying out theses “new lives” is pretty minor. But it has this huge upside potential of revealing to you that you’ve been living in a fog for years.

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Giovanni Tertulli's avatar

Holy moly this was a great post. Read it right after (re)listening to the Made You Think episode on Antifragile, which indeed made me think I have become somewhat soft with myself. I have not been taking on new stimulations or challenges, not been growing through healthy stressors. And I see that in multiple areas of my life, where I am plateau-ing. I have signed up and started training for a marathon, and I have started a thorough review of statistics and probability to change my career path to data science. It will be uncomfortable for my older routines. And that is perfect. Have a great day Nat!

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Elliot Goldstein's avatar

Hi Nat….cadmium is associated with dark chocolate lovers.

https://www.consumerreports.org/health/food-safety/lead-and-cadmium-in-dark-chocolate-a8480295550/

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Nat Eliason's avatar

Yeah I’ve been wondering if that’s part of it, I’m also chronically low in Zinc which apparently causes your body to absorb more Cadmium so that’s not helping either

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Leon's avatar

Thanks this was oddly beautiful

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Nat Eliason's avatar

Thanks Leon!

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The Wandering Soul's avatar

Good post, I’ll be saving

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Martin Boeddeker's avatar

Really had to laugh because, I did this the affirmations thing from Tony Robbins' hour of power and my neighbours did call the cops. I wrote about it here: https://findfocus.net/tony-robbins/

(even took a photo of the police car).

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Nat Eliason's avatar

Incredible 😂😂😂

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Natalie Deister's avatar

"The challenge is how to root out these problems and live a healthier life without becoming a completely orthorexic butthole-sunning loon about it." This is my favorite sentence I've read in a long time. Lol. And it's true.

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Campo's avatar

Great post! I stumbled onto a self-improvement and it opened my eyes... In my mid-twenties I became lactose intolerant. Then came IBS-like gut issues that slowly worsened into my 30s. Finally over the last few years I started losing weight. Various medical tests found no problems: I had excellent blood test results, a good diet, I was supplementing and exercising, no signs of common disease. In theory I was healthy. This left me and my doctor perplexed. I felt "fine" for the most part though, having gotten used to these changes. But I had memories of better days... Perhaps this was just a consequence of aging? Life went on and I didn't worry about it much. Then last year my dentist advised me to stop chewing gum because it was contributing to enamel wear. I had been chewing nicotine gum every day for about 9 years, a habit I didn't even think to tell my doctor about (face-palm). I heeded her warning and quit. Over the next few months I regained the ability to consume dairy, my gut issues vanished and I regained 15 lbs with no diet or exercise change. It's been almost a year and nothing has regressed. I feel a lot better too, which has me really wondering what else impacting me.

This experience also shifted the way I view my gut and the variety of bacteria that depend on me and keep me functioning. I'm now focusing on their wellbeing because I believe mine is intricately tied to theirs, and I suspect their is more to yield here.

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Tom's avatar

There's the other side to this, as well. Realizing that all the other people can, and do, have factors limiting them, and viewing them accordingly.

It can do wonders for you, too, just by itself, not mentioning the second order effects.

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Will Bradley's avatar

I think about this a lot. A lot of people have a lot of things limiting them, and there's a lot of overlap within these contributing factors.

Sometimes, we don't know something is possible until they see it done; by removing the obstacles in your own life, you indirectly show others how to improve theirs.

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Laura Skov's avatar

Yes. This isn’t precisely on topic, but what worked for me was quitting my consulting job in NYC, selling my house, car and furniture, and moving my family of four + dog to Sweden. Now, six years later, I am 34% happier and 126% less stressed! Seriously, life is a lot easier outside the meat grinder of American capitalism.

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Craig's avatar

Fasting.

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Edward Owen's avatar

I became lactose intolerant in my 30s, and the onset coincided unhelpfully with moving to a new country and a concomitant change in the things I was consuming. I spent a YEAR feeling a bit sick, every day. I just assumed that was what it would be like for me to live in America 🤷.

I came home for the holidays, went a week without eating cereal, and noticed the difference. But I got lucky. Who knows how long I would have gone feeling that way, otherwise...

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Ryker's avatar

What the heck is a NAD patch? I looked through the website and I'm still having a hard time figuring it out. Is that something to use instead of insulin injections for diabetics? Or is it something else entirely?

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Lisa Van Dyk's avatar

When I saw the title, I immediately thought of my personal experience letting go of alcohol over the last 18 months. I honestly didn’t realize how terrible it made me feel (and in many ways, look) until I stopped consuming.

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Colten Hutchison's avatar

More of this!!! Whatever I have to do to get in more conversations like this - to open more peoples eyes - to shift the culture to promote this kind of freedom.

Thank you for sharing!

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Dan Collison's avatar

Location, location, location:

- the people you’re around

- the thoughts you identify (or over-identify) with

- the triggers or prompts (for better or for worse) you are around (such as alcohol, pollen, dopamine bursts, or snide comments)

If you can’t “dress” for the “weather” each of these “locations” provide, move (if you can - or get more suitable “clothing“)!

😁

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