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I didn’t exercise a whole lot when I was in my twenties because I just didn’t really need to.
I had a job where I was on my feet all day and, as you older folks know, your metabolism just works differently when you’re younger.
So when I started exercising for real in my thirties, I said to myself, “why the hell haven’t I been doing this for the last ten years.”
But it’s never too late to teach an old dog new tricks, ya know?
Take a look at what AskReddit users said about things that improved their lives so much that they wish they’d started them earlier.
1. The Triple 30.
“For me a ‘Triple 30’ worked wonders.
Every day spend 30 minutes cleaning/chores, 30 minutes exercise, and 30 minutes of self-improvement which could be anything (e.g. practicing guitar). Get home from work, knock off the triple 30 in 1.5 hours, and oh man the sloth after that feels so good and so earned.
And what’s 1.5 hours? Nothing. Highly recommend it.”
2. Water is good!
“Drinking water. Simple but know so many who don’t drink enough it. It’s refreshing and revitalizing.
I actually have a story
I used to live off of Moutain Dew and Dr Pepper by the 12pk box.
How I stopped? Got into a major fight with my gf at the time (now wife) who was a major health nut. She threw out my soda saying stop drinking that s**t. I professed my love for the soft drinks and my free will to do so.
she pauses for a moment, narrows her eyes and asked me a simple question.
“What do you love about Soda?”
After thinking about it, Outside of the sugar I said the bubbles.
She got me a soda stream with flavor syrup I could reduce to a drop and that was the last time I had soda.
To this day she claims she saved my life.”
3. Good plan.
“Eating dinner or a late snack at work.
Too often I would leave work hungry, and the temptation driving past Chick-fil-A or the corner taco shop was too much.
I’ve kept my weight under control for a couple of years now, having dropped from the 220s to the 170s.”
4. DIY.
“Learning how to do everything myself.
Car issue? Look it up. Fix my fence? Look it up. Just do it all myself. Replace valves? Look it up.
If they don’t find you handsome, they should at least find you handy.”
5. Overcoming adversity.
“Accepting adversity as a part of any process.
We may get too overwhelmed from time to time when adversity hits, but if you take a peak at the future, it all starts to feel smaller and make more sense.”
6. A big one.
“Quitting drinking.
Everything is easier these days, coming up on 4 years.”
7. For real.
“Stop arguing with random strangers on the internet. Really I can’t stress this one enough.
If you see a post on a social media site that you know is going to have controversial comments below it, try and force yourself to not read the comments, unless you are going there specifically to laugh.
Life is too short to get mad at people whose opinions you can’t change.”
8. Therapy.
“Finding the right therapist. Been in since I was 9, and found the right one at 23.
It’s only been maybe 6 months but I’ve already unpacked so much more trauma in that small time than I did all the other YEARS wasted in therapy.”
9. Pump it up.
“I begrudgingly started lifting weights when I was 30 due to some back pain that caused me to barely be able to get out of my office chair, I forced myself to go for a few weeks, then I started looking forward to going to the gym, then after a while I became a total gym rat meat head.
I wish I had started lifting when I was a teenager, not only did it cure my back pain but I lost weight, look and feel much better and the doctor says all my health indicators are spot on now as I am in my 40s and in addition it’s like a hobby for me now that I tinker with and socialize with other people who are into the same thing etc.”
10. Eat well.
“Eating better.
I was a carb fiend. Pasta, rice, bread, if it had a carb, I wanted fourth servings of it. Sugar is a carb too. So I started watching how many carbs I consumed a day. It shocked me. So now I’m a lot more aware of how many carbs I eat.
Building on number 1, serving sizes. To me, an open container of any size was a single serving. I pay attention to how much I’m supposed to eat. For snacks, I’m addicted to SmartFood. You can order a bunch of them in single serving sizes.
Vegetables. I always ate veggies, now I eat more. What used to be two thirds potatoes or pasta or rice with a meal is now two thirds vegetables.
Cut back on meat. We usually go meatless for dinner at least twice a week. I hardly eat it at breakfast and lunch is about 50/50. I’d say 90% of the meat we do eat is chicken or fish.
I have always LOVED to cook but now I’m really stretching my wings and trying things I wouldn’t do before. If you don’t know how to cook, LEARN. Alton Brown or Ina Garten are great starting places.
Don’t be intimidated by it, you’re not working for Gordon Ramsay, you’re just feeding yourself. Learn spices. Steaming veggies sucks. Roast that s**t. Stir fry that s**t. Eat it raw. Anything but steaming. Except boiling, that’s worse.
Bring your lunch to work. If you eat breakfast at work, bring that too. Same with snacks unless you can get healthy ones there.
Don’t beat yourself up if you have a cheeseburger. You ARE going to fail. I fail all the time. Every day is a new start.
We only eat out or order out once a week.
Water. More than you think. Learn to love to pee.
I can’t do this right now because I broke my foot but a walk after every meal helps with your blood sugar. Ten minutes after breakfast and lunch, a half hour after dinner.
All things in moderation. You can have butter or cheese or fried foods, just not every meal. And keep to what you’re supposed to eat, it’s a lot smaller than you think.
Anyway, that’s some of the stuff that I personally did. It worked for me, it may not work for you. I’m not a dietician, just a dude who wanted to lose some weight.”
11. Zzzzzzzz.
“Buying a decent mattress. Well, a mattress topper at least.
For the majority of my life since I hit puberty I could never get to sleep quickly. I’d roll around for hours with my eyes closed and get comfortable but could never doze off, and when I “woke up” it was mostly just resigning myself to the fact that it was time to get out of bed whether I actually felt rested or not.
I just assumed that I suffered from some kind of insomnia and there wasn’t much I could do about because I wasn’t about to go down the route of taking sleeping pills and all the problems that can bring.
Then one day I finally decided that if I was going to spend sleepless nights awake and tossing in bed I was at least gonna be comfortable, so I bought a really nice memory foam mattress topper. I’ve never slept so good in my whole life and my whole world changed.
Add in a good shredded memory foam pillow and I’m in heaven. I’m out like a light in a few minutes and comfy as hell, so I wake up with tons of energy and a better outlook on life.”
12. Stretch it out.
” I started doing yoga every day two months ago and feel so much better.
My body doesn’t hurt constantly, my work injuries give me less trouble, and im just happier.
I’ve also started running, which I’ve always h**ed but now look forward to whenever I can. I h**e the days I can’t run because of work.”
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