A Health & Wellness Thread!

[Kitsuragi]

hey all, i'm starting a new chapter in my life thats dedicated to taking care of myself. i do work and school too but i think i need to put myself first.

i want to know what you all do for taking care of your mental, physical, and emotional health. do you like yoga? getting cozy with a book or movie? what about taking a morning jog? i used to drink tea a lot but fell off of it for a while, now i'm back on it. i find drinking teas helps curve any craving for sweets or pop which is a HUGE plus. what do you like to do?

let's all try to uplift each other and support each others journeys!! <3

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posted with moderator approval. please be sure to follow the site Rules & Guidelines involving heavy and personal topics. members of this thread are also asked not to give medical advice, any user looking for medical advice should consult a healthcare professional. a mod will be tagged to remind others of the rules regarding these topics and members are asked to keep every post in this thread civil, judgement-free and criticism free.

Post automatically merged: May 27, 2022

@Chris thank you for approval!

 

[Chris]

Moderator Note: Mental Health Posts

Hi everyone! Before this thread takes off we'd just like to remind you all that content referencing self-harm and suicide ideation violates Section 4. Prohibited Content of our Rules and Guidelines. Please report any content of this nature so it can be swiftly removed before it can trigger people, thank you!

---

Official business aside, I deal with a chronic musculoskeletal disorder, a blood condition, and a sex hormone disorder. I may clarify those later but for now I'll keep it vague. I'm terrible at remembering to rest when I need to and get burned out easily - and I don't deal with stress in the healthiest ways. Lately I've been dealing with a particularly nasty flare-up of the musculoskeletal condition and it's my own fault for overworking the affected areas. I'm currently off work on medical leave recovering from an unrelated surgery so I've been forced to rest and it's been doing a world of good. I'll be checking in regularly on this thread in hopes it might help remind me to slow down a bit!

 

[Autumn247]

I’ve been eating healthier and exercising lately. My psych meds I’m on make it difficult to lose weight because of the cravings/being hungry a lot (a side effect of them), I have schizoaffective disorder bipolar type. anyway I’ve been doing pretty well with it and I’m proud of myself, hoping to keep this up. I also got myself onto a good sleep routine which is good for my mental health as well. I’ve been using a lot of coping skills and my psychiatrist said she’s proud of me because I’m making a ton of progress and am doing a lot of things to help my mental health.

Some things that help relieve stress for me are reading, playing games, watching stuff, playing my ukulele, coloring, journaling, exercising, hanging out with my cats, cutting back on sugar, getting outside/socializing, listening to music.

 

[Kitsuragi]

I’ve been eating healthier and exercising lately. My psych meds I’m on make it difficult to lose weight because of the cravings/being hungry a lot (a side effect of them), I have schizoaffective disorder bipolar type. anyway I’ve been doing pretty well with it and I’m proud of myself, hoping to keep this up. I also got myself onto a good sleep routine which is good for my mental health as well. I’ve been using a lot of coping skills and my psychiatrist said she’s proud of me because I’m making a ton of progress and am doing a lot of things to help my mental health.

Some things that help relieve stress for me are reading, playing games, watching stuff, playing my ukulele, coloring, journaling, exercising, hanging out with my cats, cutting back on sugar, getting outside/socializing, listening to music.

i love being outside to relieve stress, its why i love summer so much. and i totally sympathize about the meds, i was on psych meds for about a year and i had a similar experience with losing body weight. but ive been getting better about eating real foods and making better food choices.

 

[Croconaw]

I did martial arts for a few years for the confidence boost. It helped a little bit, but not too much. I’m a more positive person now. The things that actually helped me? Martial arts played a very small part for the time being, but those self-help motivational videos on YouTube… they actually help. You think they wouldn’t, but things don’t happen overnight. You have to continuously use their advice and drown yourself in positivity. It took me about three to four years to completely change my mindset. Typically people will watch for a week, won’t see any major results and will assume it doesn’t work for them. That’s just not how it works.

I still get a bit stressed sometimes, but you soon come to realize there are just things out of your control. Worrying doesn’t help, and if it did, there wouldn’t be any problems in the world, because you know what? Everyone worries. It’s just a need for control. We like to think we can have control over everything, but it doesn’t work like that. We can decide what we have for breakfast, but you can’t change how someone feels about you. That’s ultimately up to them.

This is a little something to think about:
A fact is that words only have meaning if we give them meaning. Let’s say you’re wearing a blue shirt, and someone walks up to you and says “that’s an ugly white shirt.” Well, you would look at them confused, because your shirt is blue. It’s the same deal with the word “ugly.” Ugly is an adjective like the color white. You don’t believe your blue shirt is white, so why believe your blue shirt is ugly?

 

[VanitasFan26]

My health is complicated to say the least. When I was growing up I was always fat and I used to eat so much junk food. The thing was I wasn't aware of what it was doing to my body. My parents were warning me about it but I didn't pay much attention (which was a big mistake on my part). Then over the years I began realizing that I was weighing too much. I have sense been trying to make chances to my diet but it didn't seem to work.

By 2021 I was working myself hard by exercising on the treadmill every single day. Trying to burn a lot of calories, but then I would get pressure from my parents saying to "Do better". You see the problem I had with this is throughout my life I was told that I was "too fat and needed to lose weight" eventually I started to get tired of it and work on myself so hard to lose weight. For the past 5 months I have been doing daily exercise, eating healthy, and cutting out so many junk foods. I was on the right path, but the moment I go to my doctor he "fat shames" me because of how high my weight is instead of telling me how my blood results were improved.

I really wonder why Doctors continue to weight lecture people because its something that really happens too often where they often criticize your weight constantly to the point where it affects your mental health. I suffered so much from the advice that doctor gave me to "do better" it really made me feel worthless about all my hard work for nothing. I do not want to be around doctors who continue to fat shame or weight lecture you all the time, I just want to have a doctor who is supporting me on my health and not trying to worry so much about the weight.

It was by March 23rd, 2022 when things started to go wrong. What happened was I was feeling really sick so much so that I had trouble breathing. I told my mom to call 911 because something was seriously wrong with me. The ambulance came and took me to the hospital. This is where the doctor told me that my blood sugar was really high around 550. That was when I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. I felt so depressed and awful that this happened to me. I've been spending like 5 days in the hospital recovering but, then after a while I was discharged after they managed to get my blood sugar levels stable. Since then I've had to make serious changes to my diet and I have to always to watch my blood sugar levels to make sure it doesn't go too high or too low which is easier said than done. My parents are helping me, which is good and I've been getting better results with my blood sugar.

In Conclusion, while I am making good choices and my health is improving a lot it still makes me feel sad that it had to take this long to get to this point. I know my parents and my doctor meant well but I guess I was just getting tired of hearing the same advice that made me not listen to them which was a mistake on my part. If there is anything I learned from this experience is to learn from your mistakes and improve on it. Its always best to prevent a bad thing that could happen to your body. Your Health is very important and if you don't take good care of it bad things will happen and it could really mess you up. Always take good care of your body and beware of your symptoms if something goes wrong.

 

[amemome]

I was doing a daily 20-30min run/jog + 30-40 minute neck and back stretching session and recently swapped to a 5-day strength and cardio program (around 30 minutes of exercise for each day, 2 days of rest) with a daily 30 min stretch session (still for neck and back). I'm feeling much stronger as a result, even despite struggling with most of the exercises. My neck and back pain are still annoying but I try my best to stick to my routine to keep the muscles flexible and relaxed.

Mental health is a completely different story but I'm hoping that things improve soon. I'm trying my best to think positively and carry on with life.

Hope everyone finds different ways to stay well!

 

[Kitsuragi]

In Conclusion, while I am making good choices and my health is improving a lot it still makes me feel sad that it had to take this long to get to this point. I know my parents and my doctor meant well but I guess I was just getting tired of hearing the same advice that made me not listen to them which was a mistake on my part. If there is anything I learned from this experience is to learn from your mistakes and improve on it. Its always best to prevent a bad thing that could happen to your body. Your Health is very important and if you don't take good care of it bad things will happen and it could really mess you up. Always take good care of your body and beware of your symptoms if something goes wrong.

wow, this was heartbreaking to read. i'm so sorry that youve gone through so much trouble. i'm starting to realize the same thing since ive been neglecting my health since the beginning of lockdown and its starting to creep back up. it's so easy to ignore all the warnings and giving up because of so much discouragement. i feel you 100%. i hope you're doing better now, and i'll be rooting for you!

Post automatically merged: May 28, 2022

I was doing a daily 20-30min run/jog + 30-40 minute neck and back stretching session and recently swapped to a 5-day strength and cardio program (around 30 minutes of exercise for each day, 2 days of rest) with a daily 30 min stretch session (still for neck and back). I'm feeling much stronger as a result, even despite struggling with most of the exercises. My neck and back pain are still annoying but I try my best to stick to my routine to keep the muscles flexible and relaxed.

Mental health is a completely different story but I'm hoping that things improve soon. I'm trying my best to think positively and carry on with life.

Hope everyone finds different ways to stay well!

you have a solid workout routine! i want to start exercising more since i'm very sedentary. what kind of stretches do you do for your neck and back, if you don't mind sharing?

 

[Mick]

About two years ago I went from a very active job to a lower stress & sitting one. My mental health went , physical health went .

Turns out that when you're used to eating a certain amount of food, it's really hard to change that? As someone with admittedly low self discipline, it has sucked. For me the usual amount of food was "unlimited" so when I made the career switch, I went from nearly underweight to nearly overweight (difference: roughly 18kg/40lbs). My weight was still not 'terrible'! It's just very rough to see your body fall out of shape in just over a year or so, gaining fat and losing physical capability. But it made sense, I got all my exercise from work so I had no routine for it at all...

The good news: I've spent quite a while now building new eating & exercise habits and am finally making progress losing some of that weight/getting back in shape. It's honestly quite exciting!

 

[Neb]

As a New Years resolution I decided to walk at least two miles every day. With only a few exceptions I’ve managed to pull it off! I look a bit thinner and it’s done wonders to my mood. On the rare days I skip out I can really feel the difference.

Eating wise I’m trying to eat more fruits and vegetables in between meals. My antipsychotics make me hungry, so I have to take a hunger pill to counteract it. The effects are very strong. Unless I skip breakfast I don’t feel hungry for the rest of the day. I try to eat anyway since it’s better for my health and energy.

 

[StarlitGlitch]

Recently I've been eating a lot better. Not eating snacks as much and eating less etc. I've also been doing some exercise but I need to get more consistent and also try to push myself harder.

My mood changes a lot with the weather so I'm very glad that we not have warm weather by me!
I also got a chair for my veranda and it's weird how different it feels being out there vs. inside my apartment, it's like a different world. Since there are just houses and apartment buildings near my room I can't see the sidewalk and other people can't see me, it's great.

I also go to counseling every couple of weeks.

But anyways I still need to be working on my health and wellbeing.

 

[tumut]

I recently quit smoking bud because it was bad for my lungs and instead switched to non-psychoactive CBD products like drinks and gummies which help with social anxiety

I've always eaten a good diet but I also started running by the trail near the river and hopefully heading to the gym soon!

 

[Kitsuragi]

About two years ago I went from a very active job to a lower stress & sitting one. My mental health went , physical health went .

Turns out that when you're used to eating a certain amount of food, it's really hard to change that? As someone with admittedly low self discipline, it has sucked. For me the usual amount of food was "unlimited" so when I made the career switch, I went from nearly underweight to nearly overweight (difference: roughly 18kg/40lbs). My weight was still not 'terrible'! It's just very rough to see your body fall out of shape in just over a year or so, gaining fat and losing physical capability. But it made sense, I got all my exercise from work so I had no routine for it at all...

The good news: I've spent quite a while now building new eating & exercise habits and am finally making progress losing some of that weight/getting back in shape. It's honestly quite exciting!

wow, are you me? i just did a huge job change with same situation. mentally MUCH better but sitting too much is causing issues. also doordash to work is a lot more convenient and tempting... it's really awesome that you're making progress in your weight loss journey! good luck!!

 

[LadyDestani]

A couple of years ago, I started having extreme back pain to the point where I couldn't sleep more than an hour at a time without the pain waking me up. The first thing I tried was changing my mattress because it was a bit old, but that made no difference. Then, I started going to a chiropractor, which lessened my pain but it still kept coming back. Eventually between myself and my chiropractor we discovered that the majority of my pain was not physical but mental. It was brought on by stress. The chiropractor could provide me with temporary relief, but as soon as my stress levels rose again, the pain would come right back.

So I started going to counseling. My counselor has given me several tips to help manage my stress. I practice mindfulness, focus on breathing, take a walk, journal about the bad thoughts, but most importantly I have learned to take care of myself. She told me that if I don't replenish myself then I have nothing left to give to others. I had too many people relying on me and all I did was give. It wore me down. I had to learn to start saying no to things, to delegate, to push back on others to do some things that they were capable of on their own. Only by doing that could I have the energy and capacity to help when they really and truly needed me. One of the most important things I did was to turn my phone off. It had become a trigger that sent me into fight or flight mode and I needed it to stop. By muting my phone and checking regularly when it suited me, I took back control and now I've been able to keep my ringer on a lot more often.

I also started seeing a massage therapist who does touch therapy. It's sort of a combination of massage and counseling. She locates the area where I'm in pain, gets me to visualize it, describe it and associate it with an emotion. We talk about what might have triggered the pain. After a few minutes of this, the pain often goes away on its own and if not she massages it to loosen it. It sounds kind of silly and I wasn't at all sure about it the first time she suggested it, but given that most of my pain is mental more than physical it has really worked for me.

Finally, I talked to my doctor and she put me on anti-anxiety and anti-depression medication. So now, with a combination of the meds, monthly chiropractor visits, monthly counseling sessions, and weekly massage therapy sessions, I'm starting to feel a lot better both physically and mentally. It took a long time for me get myself sorted out, but I'm glad I'm finally moving forward again.

 

[TurnipBell20]

- Doing the things I love whenever I can is one thing I do to stay healthy. This includes making time for them even if I would have to do other things (such as cleaning etc.).

- I take one day at a time and try not to think about upcoming events that make me nervous or uncomfortable.

- I will probably be going to the gym once a week. To be honest, I didn’t really decide this for myself, but I got a million offers from friends to take me there for free. So I thought, why not? I hate sports, but it’s probably good for my physical health.

- I say No to others sometimes. I used to always say Yes, and do stuff I didn’t really want to do. But that’s changed. Of course I still help others, but when I need time for myself, I’ll say No.

 

[Millysaurusrexjr]

I've been trying to walk more; my goal is at least 10k steps a day. But it takes me like an hour-and-a-half to two hours to complete the walk, which is a big chunk of time.. so now my new goal is to work my way up to jogging. I know I was the type to get a runner's high when I was in high school, I wonder if it will be the same a decade later.

I also recently tried out calorie counting, and I was doing really well with it, but then my mom came to visit and now I'm hooked on snacks again

But anyway, walking helps me a lot in the mental health department. Just gotta keep at it!

 

[maria110]

I've been struggling this year with mental and physical health. I had a video appointment with my doc and she saw my cat hop into view and she said "There's your therapist!" which was funny. My cat and dog do "work" hard <3 to help me relax and stay mindful (in the sense of appreciating the current moment). I'm trying to get back to cooking more and eating more whole foods and veggies.

 

[Kitsuragi]

I've been trying to walk more; my goal is at least 10k steps a day. But it takes me like an hour-and-a-half to two hours to complete the walk, which is a big chunk of time.. so now my new goal is to work my way up to jogging. I know I was the type to get a runner's high when I was in high school, I wonder if it will be the same a decade later.

I also recently tried out calorie counting, and I was doing really well with it, but then my mom came to visit and now I'm hooked on snacks again

But anyway, walking helps me a lot in the mental health department. Just gotta keep at it!

i LOVE taking walks! my boyfriend and i like to play pokemon go while taking walks. my road has a ton of pokestops on it so it's easier to stay motivated. also, calorie counting is so hard for me so props to you for making it work!!

Post automatically merged: Jun 2, 2022

I've been struggling this year with mental and physical health. I had a video appointment with my doc and she saw my cat hop into view and she said "There's your therapist!" which was funny. My cat and dog do "work" hard <3 to help me relax and stay mindful (in the sense of appreciating the current moment). I'm trying to get back to cooking more and eating more whole foods and veggies.

hang in there, you're doing great! pets are great companions and they do wonders for mental health. i personally have a cat named mayday that helped me a lot with my anxiety when i worked retail. if you get any good recipes when cooking, you should share them! i love healthy recipes!

 

[amemome]

you have a solid workout routine! i want to start exercising more since i'm very sedentary. what kind of stretches do you do for your neck and back, if you don't mind sharing?

Just saw this, my bad for the delay!

Here are my favorite stretches.

Head Tilts 1 min per side, 2 times on each side. I just let gravity do its work here and don't need to hold my head down.

I also do a variation of head tilts where I look down towards each armpit (my own little doodle to help show the movement). 1 min per side, 2 times on each side.

I also do a variation where I take a strap or belt and hold down the opposite shoulder. (pls enjoy my little diagram) Hold the strap loosely around your shoulder (kinda like a seatbelt or girl scout/prom sash) with your head straight. Make sure the strap is close to the base of your neck! Pull down on the strap to hold your shoulder down, then tilt your head away from the strap. Hold for 3-5 seconds and then relax. I do around 10 per side!

For back, this one requires a foam roller or rolled up towel.

I align the foam roller with my spine and spread my arms to each side. I hold this for around 2 minutes to 3 minutes.

I also do a variation of this with a massage ball (I call them "peanuts" since there's two balls lol). I place the peanut at the mid back and lay on it for a minute, using a yoga block or pillow to support my head. Make sure each "ball" kinda "holds" your spine/ isn't directly on your spine. Then, I'll move the peanut up a little bit up my back and lay there for a minute. I'll move the peanut one more time and hold for a minute. By this time, the peanut is around the mid/top of my shoulders.

Finally, I'll move the peanut to the base of my head (where the head and neck meet) and move my head around on the peanut a bit so I can evenly press the muscles there. I'll hold for a minute or two here.

I also do around 20 "Thread the Needles" on each side.

Finally, this one is less neck/back but feels really good: I do Doorway Pec Stretches held for a minute, two times total. I feel like it really helps the shoulders, back, and neck even though it's mostly a chest stretch.

 

[LadyDestani]

Just saw this, my bad for the delay!

Here are my favorite stretches.

Head Tilts 1 min per side, 2 times on each side. I just let gravity do its work here and don't need to hold my head down.

View attachment 443450View attachment 443451View attachment 443452
I also do a variation of head tilts where I look down towards each armpit (my own little doodle to help show the movement). 1 min per side, 2 times on each side.

View attachment 443448View attachment 443449
I also do a variation where I take a strap or belt and hold down the opposite shoulder. (pls enjoy my little diagram) Hold the strap loosely around your shoulder (kinda like a seatbelt or girl scout/prom sash) with your head straight. Make sure the strap is close to the base of your neck! Pull down on the strap to hold your shoulder down, then tilt your head away from the strap. Hold for 3-5 seconds and then relax. I do around 10 per side!

For back, this one requires a foam roller or rolled up towel.
View attachment 443453
I align the foam roller with my spine and spread my arms to each side. I hold this for around 2 minutes to 3 minutes.

I also do a variation of this with a massage ball (I call them "peanuts" since there's two balls lol). I place the peanut at the mid back and lay on it for a minute, using a yoga block or pillow to support my head. Make sure each "ball" kinda "holds" your spine/ isn't directly on your spine. Then, I'll move the peanut up a little bit up my back and lay there for a minute. I'll move the peanut one more time and hold for a minute. By this time, the peanut is around the mid/top of my shoulders.

Finally, I'll move the peanut to the base of my head (where the head and neck meet) and move my head around on the peanut a bit so I can evenly press the muscles there. I'll hold for a minute or two here.

I also do around 20 "Thread the Needles" on each side.

Finally, this one is less neck/back but feels really good: I do Doorway Pec Stretches held for a minute, two times total. I feel like it really helps the shoulders, back, and neck even though it's mostly a chest stretch.

My chiropractor has me doing several of these stretches for my back pain as well. I do the Head Tilts to the side and towards the armpits and the Doorway Stretches. I've never heard of some of the others. I might have to give them a try.