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naraburns  nihil supernum  2yr ago (text post)   3031 thread views

Wellness Wednesday for December 7, 2022

The Wednesday Wellness threads are meant to encourage users to ask for and provide advice and motivation to improve their lives. It isn't intended as a 'containment thread' and any content which could go here could instead be posted in its own thread. You could post:

  • Requests for advice and / or encouragement. On basically any topic and for any scale of problem.

  • Updates to let us know how you are doing. This provides valuable feedback on past advice / encouragement and will hopefully make people feel a little more motivated to follow through. If you want to be reminded to post your update, see the post titled 'update reminders', below.

  • Advice. This can be in response to a request for advice or just something that you think could be generally useful for many people here.

  • Encouragement. Probably best directed at specific users, but if you feel like just encouraging people in general I don't think anyone is going to object. I don't think I really need to say this, but just to be clear; encouragement should have a generally positive tone and not shame people (if people feel that shame might be an effective tool for motivating people, please discuss this so we can form a group consensus on how to use it rather than just trying it).

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So...does anyone here suffer from severe insomnia or sleep apnea?

How do you handle it? I personally find it hard to both GO to sleep and STAY asleep and I feel like everything I've tried helps with one or not the other or helps with both but has potentially horrific side effects.

  1. Melatonin: used to work but kept me sleepy in the day. Last time I tried it it just didn't work.

  2. Trazodone (50mg): didn't work until I paired it with a lot of CBD and I'm never playing chemist like that again. I don't know if I was having some sort of interaction or just dealing with the anxiety of potentially having one but the outcome was the same. And I still mainly got only a few hours sleep.

  3. Marijuana (smoked. 1g of concentrate every 6 days) : this worked for both getting to sleep and staying asleep, mostly. When I first started I could get up to 7 hrs, around 5 with my cpap machine. Now I also wake up early again. I assume I developed a tolerance. I've also heard bad things about using it long term.

  4. Seroquel (25mg): worked for both; even if I do wake up I soon go back down. But also allegedly has horrible side effects and there's been a push against prescribing it for sleep. My original sleep clinic sounded...perturbed when I mentioned I was on it. I went off it, worked out 5 times a week and fasted and lost ~20lbs (suggested by my doctor as a way to help with sleep apnea). Then I tried it again once, as an experiment. Now I know why it was so hard to lose that weight until now: I was so hungry it almost wrecked my fast. For some reason, I also tend to pull of my cpap mask more when I'm on it - maybe due to being sedated? So I'm not getting therapy on it. Which raises my blood pressure.

  5. CBD (70mg) + L-Theanine (200mg): I did fall asleep,eventually. Got about 3 hours then woke up.

In all of these wakeup cases I essentially end up "topping up" on something else (e.g. benadryl) halfway through the night to get more sleep. Not only is that worrying in and of itself (you develop a tolerance quick) but I don't actually end up feeling as rested.

I've also done other things like getting smart bulbs that I lower to 2500K color temperature and dim around sunset and night lights on all devices. I think the smart bulbs actually did help me to be slightly more sleepy but I don't think it was that big a difference in the sleep quality.

I feel like I'm in a box where any choice will lead to bad health outcomes either way. Even worse: I have very limited window to experiment: a bad night of sleep wrecks me and now is really not the time to be cognitively crippled at work.

I have a much lesser issue where I simply have trouble falling asleep but stay asleep. What's your bed like? I got a top of the line tempur-pedic with cooling and it was huge, temperature in generally has been super important to me. I'm sure you've heard all of the standard practices that I've heard, like flexing/tightening and then releasing each muscle down the appendages until you get to you neck/traps. I have found that one helps a bit but not if I'm not already in the sleep "mood", I find I basically know 5 minutes into laying down if I'm going to be awake for several hours before falling asleep or not.

What's your bed like?

Pretty generic shitty twin tbh. I don't really notice it as uncomfortable anymore but maybe I'm desensitized.

I find melatonin very helpful. If you were taking a larger dose, consider a small one. It may be more effective and less hangovery (see SSC).

Thanks, will try that on the weekend!

My cpap took ages to get used to. A lot of fiddling with settings, trying different masks, etc.

I actually really like the mask I have now, finally. Took switching to a full face mask but it's far less annoying and I can get more than an hour on it, which was the situation before. I have another sleep study in 2045 (thanks Canada!) so I'll see if we can upgrade to another machine after that.

I was joking. Canada has long wait times for specialist care and I don't think things have improved since Covid.

Does ChatGPT fill you with dread? Existential? Economical? War-level disaster?

It fills me with a sort of giddy anticipation, which I would say is potentially Existential? It certainly makes me think the world will be drastically transformed in my lifetime. I believed in AGI theoretically but ChatGPT makes me feel it.

Existential?

No. I've always been a materialist/determinist and always believed that "consciousness" or even derivatives/markers of it, like coherent language or art, could be modeled.

Economical?

Meh. ChatGPT doesn't automate away the type of code I write (Ironically, I write ML models). Which is relatively trivial but all the added value is in knowing what to write.

In a future where ChatGPT can automate me away. Just about every other profession but prostitutes are automated away as well.

But I don't believe that will happen. Keynes's 15-hour work week never happened. The outcome is probably more bullshit jobs, not less. It's not like the capital owners who will greatly benefit from their newfound AI-generated wealth will just want things as they are now; many things still suck! And more manpower could be directed towards making things suck less.

The failure mode could be that economic inequality becomes so top-heavy that the system topples.

War-level disaster?

lol

Of course I was being melodramatic. Thank you for your perspective. Agree on the materialist point, even though it was really strange to have it hit my face so... mundanely?

Fellow ML engineers and Data Scientists;

Do you hate web dev like me? If yes, and you learned it anyways, how did you?

I realized that becoming a 'Python Developer' is very low-hanging fruit for me, and I might as well keep that door open. I already know Python at a very high level and know databases, containerization, version control, testing, etc. The only thing left is "mastering" Flask OR Django, which I think I could do with 4ish months of self-study.

But boy, is it dull. How do front end devs do it?

But boy, is it dull. How do front end devs do it?

Not exactly your target audience, but for me it's realizing that webdev allows me to deliver something to someone. Whether it's a blog post or a cool little service, even a simple flask site gives me a lot of options of putting it in front of anyone with a browser.

I am a Python developer that supports Data Scientists, primarily working with the cloud, but also on data ingestion applications, and also some back end work. Flask and Django are back end frameworks. Maybe check out FastAPI too. I’m not sure it takes that long to learn any of those frameworks.

Getting a CRUD app set up on them is relatively simple, the complexity only arises when fulfilling complex business needs. Backend tends to be just knowing the concepts of a REST API, some stuff around web security (authentication/authorization and how to implement), and implementing logic in Python to return the appropriate HTTP response to a request.

What is your motivation to keep the door open? I wouldn’t bother if it’s that uninteresting.

I personally find it rewarding when an application I worked on helps others; that could be automating a process that was very mundane/tedious for someone else, improving the speed/performance of a system to save time/money or increase reliability of our services.

I find actual front end uninteresting. I feel the bugs I encounter are arbitrary, that JavaScript frameworks can be needlessly complex, that it takes a lot of time to get a component to render perfectly in the browser. It tends to just frustrate me, which is why I enjoy back end more.

What is your motivation to keep the door open? I won’t bother if it’s that uninteresting.

I'm not long enough into my career that I feel the need to "lock in" to a specific field. Also, economically, web dev is just about 10x more prevalent than Data Science.

I'm not long enough into my career that I feel the need to "lock in" to a specific field. Also, economically, web dev is just about 10x more prevalent than Data Science.

How does the income distribution look like in Data Science?

In webdev, at least a few years ago, it was multi-modal with a huge deviation. You had webdevs making $30k/year and webdevs making $200k/year. That, and the lack of interesting challenges, were what eventually chased me out of that subgenre.

How does the income distribution look like in Data Science?

I don't live in the US, around the same as any generic developer.

My justification for wanting to know some web dev is not precisely to become a web dev but to be a Data Scientist who also knows some backend Python development, to open a few more doors with what I think should be not much work.

I am far from the next Ian Goodfellow or even the next Dhruv Madeka, so having more doors open won't hurt.

I hate to break it to you, but you probably won't be satisfied with 2 million or even 5, 10, 20, or 100 unless you are very good at not playing status games.

Once you get to 2 million, the amount you think you need will be 2x your current wealth or the wealth of your richest friend, whichever is greater.

I guess I object to the whole idea. It might work for some, but working a FANG job for 15 years and then quitting probably isn't going to fulfill you unless you have something much better you'd rather be doing.

It's not about possessions. It's trivial enough to live well on 100k a year. It's about status and a sense of purpose.

I mean, three million dollars is a lot of money. According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, it's perfectly reasonable for a single person to live on 24 k$/a, which (using the four-percent rule) amounts to the returns on an investment of just 600 k$, or one-fifth of your target. I personally can't imagine working longer than my BLS-based calculations say I need to, just so that I can retire to a big house in California rather than to a small one in Indiana.

In the "cross-tabulated" section, under the "size of consumer unit before taxes" heading, the "consumer units of one person by income before taxes" table shows that the average one-person household that has gross income of less than 15 k$/a has average expenses of 23653 $/a. Those expenses include 3542 $/a on "food" and 6678 $/a on "shelter" (comprising mortgage interest, property taxes, maintenance/repairs/insurance, and rent). Such a household's average pre-tax income consists of only 7617 $/a, including 4092 $/a from "Social Security, private and government retirement" and 1002 $/a from "Public Assistance, Supplemental Security Income, SNAP".

Additionally, on the Census Bureau's website, you can get information on median household income on a state-by-state and county-by-county basis, by looking at dataset S1901 (2021 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates). Compare California's (84 k$/a) and New Jersey's (90 k$/a) median income with Nevada's (66 k$/a) and Indiana's (62 k$/a). From this comparison one can surmise that the cost of living is significantly lower in Nevada and Indiana than in California and New Jersey. Those numbers are slightly misleading, since within-state variation can be pretty big (e. g., 126 k$/a for San Francisco County vs. 76 k$/a for Los Angeles County vs. 51 k$/a for Modoc County), but you can cross-check county median income against the Census Bureau's map of metropolitan areas to ignore rural counties that have nothing but a Dollar General to shop at, and compare apples with apples.

Two million might be fine, but assuming income increases throughout career, the third million just seems relatively easy to pick up.

This mindset is wild to me! I'm interested in FIRE because I hate having a career and want to do something more exploratory and self employed. Why FIRE at all if two million isn't very different from three million? Plans to support a family solo?

My number is around a million, probably revising upward to 1.2-1.3 with regards to inflation. I generally value my time far far more highly than disposable income, and yes I live in a medium to low cost of living area, happy to stay here.

I also grew up somewhat poor so I'm pretty frugal. For instance, I can't even imagine what I would spend $120k a year on. I live with a long term partner, and we spend about $2-3k per month on average, a little over $40k per year when you add in emergency expenses etc. And I feel like we're living large! We eat out, do activities, take usually a couple vacations a year, etc.

Sometimes I think our frugality is a bit pathological to be honest, but I am curious what types of things you buy with all that income?

Thanks for typing up your list! Pot and alcohol, a man after my own heart.

Also, seems like a significant amount (~90k) is debt, student loan, and mortgage. Wouldn't you be able to shave off a lot if those were cleared?

And wait you spend 168,000 on rent over the last four years? $3,500 rent? Man I really do have it easy.

I have to say, the analysis comes out less embarrassing than I thought. I feel more guilt about my Amazon than is perhaps reasonable. You'd think I could like, buy legos and stuffed animals (you know, like a grown up), and new pot holders, etc, without feeling bad about it. But no, growing up...not poor, but middle-middle class...is a hard mindset to shake.

I feel ya there! Idk, I think Amazon as a category is not super useful, I buy all sorts of things off amazon. But yeah your rent/mortgage etc is way higher than I would factor in. Assuming VHCOL area.

The biggest threat to FIRE is inflation. Three years of 26% inflation, and your expenses have doubled, while your savings have not.

Yeah, part of why I'm not super worried is I plan to do something economically useful after retirement like start a small consulting business / run a blog / etc etc. May not make much money, but theoretically enough to stay afloat. I also have a pretty timeless and broad (I hope) skillset that I could likely dust off if needed.

Good job , JS is one of the hardest places to be hired.

I got a whoop wrist band this week. It monitors heart health and sleep. Does anyone else have one? If so how do you use it in a way that feels useful?

I got one a few months ago. It’s been interesting. I guess my main discoveries are:

  1. My workouts are actually more intense than I thought

  2. I’m sleeping way less than I thought I was

  3. Magnesium actually has an impact on my sleep performance

I think the journal that you fill out daily is probably the most interesting feature of whoop, since then it’ll tell you how the things you’re doing are affecting your recovery.

I was in a semi serious car accident last week, everyone is fine but the 2002 F150 Crew Cab I've been driving since 2006 is a total loss. Insurance is paying for a rental (a 2021 Toyota) that is obviously newer and ostensibly nicer but I kind of hate it. While some of this is probably a combination of sentimentality and miscalibrated muscle memory (I keep reaching for controls that are not in their proper place), at least part of it is the preponderance of "features". Push button start, lane assist, a stupid splash screen that pops up on the dashboard periodically telling me my estimated gas millage for the trip, this thing that beeps and flashes when ever there is a vehicle at your 5 or 7 o'clock, and an "Infotainment system" that reminds you to wear your seatbelt and obey local traffic laws on start up. The only feature that I find remotely useful/would look for whatever vehicle I eventually end up purchasing as a replacement is the back-up camera.

I guess I've officially become one of those old men who hates technology and just wants a their phone to be a phone, and car to be a car.

On a brighter note I've been working on getting back in shape after kind of letting myself go during the pandemic and I'm feeling kind of chuffed that the falling line of my body weight just crossed the rising line of my 3-rep max for clean and press. I am once again in a place where I could theoretically lift myself over my head which I haven't been at since my late 20s.

Glad you're relatively unscathed. I sympathize regarding car bells and whistles. I live in Japan where my bath tub plays Canon in D when it's full and my rice cooker beeps some tune I hear in my nightmares, so I am almost used to sensory overload, but in cars when you have to rely on muscle memory and reflex the stakes are raised. I have at least found a way to turn the (female) voice of HAL in ny Mazda completely down so I don't hear "You will turn in five kilometers" or similar ten times on any outing (though I could hear this in about a dozen languages if I desired, which is impressive).

Stay safe.

I just don't understand why they don't come out with a parallel line of cheapo cars with limited computer bullshit like we had 20 years ago. There are a lot of people that don't like the computerization of modern cars. Why isn't the market stepping in to serve them and take their money?

I wonder whether it would be cost-effective to buy a decked-out car, but then remove and sell all the newfangled parts that you don't want—or to just set up a mechanic shop specializing in such work.

It's literally illegal to sell cars without backup camera displays now, and a lot of the other computer stuff is probably also mandatory. Once you have it, the marginal cost of throwing all the other crap in for the people who like it probably isn't very high, so there's only one stable equilibrium.

That is the most nanny state shit I have seen in a long time. Is America some kind of an alternate reality where people are getting into accidents while backing out of parking lots?? Or did too many toddlers get run over by Ford Mctrucks with absurd blindspots?

did too many toddlers get run over by Ford Mctrucks with absurd blindspots?

Note that the reason Ford McTrucks (and the jacked up station wagon, more politely called a "crossover") are themselves so dominant is because, as I understand it, it's functionally illegal to sell their previous (smaller) versions. Lighter trucks and station wagons don't have particularly great aerodynamics as-is, so if your regulatory scheme gives more leeway for bad fuel economy the larger the vehicle gets, manufacturers will focus on larger trucks (balanced by smaller cars) at the expense of total fuel economy.

It doesn't hurt that aging drivers like jacked-up cars- they're easier to get in and out of, they put you above other drivers' illegal-but-unenforced hyper-bright high beams they're too stupid to turn off, and being higher gives you the illusion that you can see more out those larger and larger blind spots that arise due to collision standards, to the point where I suspect that in the future a car entirely without windows will be the most practical option.

Both of those plus American car companies ask for weird and arbitrary regulations (like "fleet fuel standards") to make it harder for foreigners to sell here.

Or did too many toddlers get run over by Ford Mctrucks with absurd blindspots?

This.

Backover: Vehicle backover injuries and deaths occur when a person is positioned behind a vehicle without a driver's knowledge as the driver backs up. Most victims of backovers are children and the elderly. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) estimates that backover incidents cause at least 183 fatalities and between 6,700 and 7,419 injuries annually; however, the number of fatalities and injuries from those incidents is subject to debate because no comprehensive statistics are collected on vehicular accidents on private property. Some safety groups assert that the number of backover-related injuries and fatalities is higher. Because these accidents often occur on private property, rather than on public roads, they are not typically included in traffic-crash fatality data.

In preventing backover accidents, the size of vehicle blind spots, the area behind the vehicle where the driver cannot see using his or her side or rear-view mirrors, is a key factor. Generally, the larger the vehicle, the larger the blind spot. Children are especially vulnerable since their small stature makes them harder to see within a blind spot. As larger vehicles, including SUVs, pickup trucks, and minivans, have become more popular, more drivers are confronted with larger blind spots. Currently, without a standard, automakers can design similar-sized vehicles that have dramatically different blind spots. For example, among midsized SUVs, a 5 foot 1 inch driver of a 2006 Jeep Commander Limited has a 69 foot blind spot versus an 18 foot blind spot for a similar-sized driver of a 2005 Nissan Pathfinder LE.

Probably regulatory capture.

Big 3 car companies dream of making the same kind of money as the Silicon Valley, they want to sell software bundled with a metal box with wheels, coupled with DLC and subscriptions... Dude technology!

There's a great convergence with the governments that want the ability to shut down cars remotely and prevent the Nick Fuentes of this world to go anywhere with no fly / nodrive lists.

Or, you know, trucker honking protests.

They're out there, but don't seem to get put in the mainstream lots. I asked around and found a dealership that specializes in providing "fleet" vehicles for large companies/government organization. I contacted them about getting a new "bare bones" Ford Ranger, and while they have them the dude was clearly annoyed that I was only interested in buying 1.

I'm already hunting for a new low mileage old car now, My 2008 isn't anywhere near shot, but I hate screens in cars and it looks like those are going to be universal from here on out. I just hate the distraction of them. Especially when with features like Bluetooth it works better to just use a radio adapter plugged into the cigarette lighter, fewer buttons to press.

Also, clean and press is the king of lifts. That and muscle snatch are my all time favorites.

I have, err had, a dashboard mount for my phone that I usually have open to either Google maps or Spotify while I'm driving, and I don't really want any more than that. The lack of tactile feedback on a touch screen also make it a real PITA as a interface while driving and/or wearing gloves. I didn't have to take my eyes off the road to do things like change the audio volume or turn on the defroster in my old truck, but in this one I do. It's ostensibly a much nicer truck with many more features than my old Ford but its got a sort of "premium mediocre" vibe to it, and I feel like there's certain lack of engineering thought put into it. (things like having climate controls run via a touch screen menu)

As for the lifting, we are in full agreement there.

I don't mind (heck, even like) most of the things you mentioned disliking in your rental vehicle. But on one thing we are in complete agreement: touchscreens have no place whatsoever in vehicle controls. For stuff like playing music fine, whatever, I'm not doing that while driving. But I insist on actual physical controls for functions like climate control, volume, etc. That touchscreen nonsense needs to die ASAP.

As a fellow old man who just wants the car to be a car, stay in lane tech is really nice on long drives, but holy crap turn off the eye monitoring asap. Also usually those come with Sirius XM which is pretty nice even if I'd never pay for the sub.

Me on the other hand, lane control is the only thing I actually hate among the new features. It makes me irrationally angry each time it activates. I'd like either full automation or none at all.

Protip if you genuinely enjoy Sirius XM- Sirius reps will cave at the slightest bit of pressure if you say you're looking to cancel, I've kept the $5/month promotional rate for the last 5 years.

Jesus. Glad you're ok!

So I started feeling really sick in the early morning hours of December 3 (extremely bad sore throat, uncontrollable coughing, pounding head, aching muscles, etc) and started suspecting COVID. Yesterday I finally got around to taking a RAT test. Coughed some sputum into a tube, mixed it with the buffer, squeezed two drops of the mixture onto the specimen well, and it came back positive.

It isn't affecting me as badly as I expected especially considering that I'm immunocompromised - it absolutely hit like a train early on, but the worst of the symptoms seem to have dissipated within the first two to three days of experiencing them. The most annoying part of it at this point is the low-level brain fog and the stress of trying not to cough or to otherwise spread it when I do have to go out in public, both of which are to be expected and are not particularly unique aspects of COVID.

During this period I've been staying inside for the most part and playing online chess and Scrabble with random internet people. And trying to learn Blender. I'm halfway towards making a donut in it.

EDIT: I just had breakfast, and can conclude that my sense of taste is definitely gone now or at least diminished. It's very surreal to eat a burger and receive all the textural input without the accompanying taste you would associate with it. It's a profoundly neutral experience.

My personal advice, while it’s an active infection, is to take vitamin D at least twice a day, and if possible without freezing or interacting within 6 feet of people, take a 15 min walk in sunlight with bare arms and neck daily.

Zinc is a vital part of the immune system, and the worst COVID outcomes are people low in zinc and D. I took two zinc gluconate pills at breakfast and one each with lunch and dinner. (Zinc on a bare stomach results in vomiting.)

I also took 1 cup (1/4 liter) tonic water at those same meals, because hydroxychloroquine is a form of quinine (which tonic water has), and even Fauci said chloroquine (HCL’s precursor) helps tremendously with SARS, while banned doctors say HCL unlocks the body’s ability to use dietary zinc against SARS-CoV-2.

My bout with Omicron barely lasted two days on this protocol, and I felt great afterward.

As for losing smell/taste, it sucks, and then when it comes back, it sometimes comes back wrong. I smelled nothing for three months after Delta, and then a day after we got our carpets cleaned, everything smelled like carpet cleaner. People recommend getting a variety of essential oils and other smelly things; I used a variety of cheap cough drops, each a different flavor/smell, right before eating meals. I believe they anesthetized the irritated/inflamed nerves long enough for me to smell subtler things. I never lost taste, but if I had, I’d’ve tried “miracle fruit”:

Synsepalum dulcificum, or the miracle fruit plant, is a tropical plant that overwinters in southern Florida. It produces red berries that contain a glycoprotein called miraculin that change the way food tastes, primarily turning sour into sweet.

The most annoying part of it at this point is the low-level brain fog and the stress of trying not to cough or to otherwise spread it when I do have to go out in public, both of which are to be expected and are not particularly unique aspects of COVID.

Do you put on a mask?

Do you put on a mask?

I do, yes.

Been reading up on various health related subjects, now I'm fairly interested in vitamin supplements, monitoring vitamin and mineral levels, certain kinds of fats. Also been trying to hit 12k steps + 20 minutes of daily jogging.

As I've been going through all this stuff I feel a bit silly. Does any of this actually matter while I drink 2/4 bottles of wine a day?

Genuinely looking for feedback about what to do for health while dealing with persistent long term heavy drinking. Besides the obvious "just stop heavy drinking".

Oh, I forgot to mention. Switch to white claw or another alcoholic seltzer instead of wine. It has fewer calories and lower alcohol density.

According to this study it looks to help reduce all-cause mortality. Pasted from the abstract: (idk how to quote multiple blocks of text at once)

Objective To examine whether physical activity (PA) moderates the association between alcohol intake and all-cause mortality, cancer mortality and cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) mortality.

Design Prospective study using 8 British population-based surveys, each linked to cause-specific mortality: Health Survey for England (1994, 1998, 1999, 2003, 2004 and 2006) and Scottish Health Survey (1998 and 2003).

Participants 36 370 men and women aged 40 years and over were included with a corresponding 5735 deaths and a mean of 353 049 person-years of follow-up.

Exposures 6 sex-specific categories of alcohol intake (UK units/week) were defined: (1) never drunk; (2) ex-drinkers; (3) occasional drinkers; (4) within guidelines (<14 (women); <21 (men)); (5) hazardous (14–35 (women); 21–49 (men)) and (6) harmful (>35 (women) >49 (men)). PA was categorised as inactive (≤7 MET-hour/week), active at the lower (>7.5 MET-hour/week) and upper (>15 MET-hour/week) of recommended levels.

Main outcomes and measures Cox proportional-hazard models were used to examine associations between alcohol consumption and all-cause, cancer and CVD mortality risk after adjusting for several confounders. Stratified analyses were performed to evaluate mortality risks within each PA stratum.

Results We found a direct association between alcohol consumption and cancer mortality risk starting from drinking within guidelines (HR (95% CI) hazardous drinking: 1.40 (1.11 to 1.78)). Stratified analyses showed that the association between alcohol intake and mortality risk was attenuated (all-cause) or nearly nullified (cancer) among individuals who met the PA recommendations (HR (95% CI)).

Conclusions Meeting the current PA public health recommendations offsets some of the cancer and all-cause mortality risk associated with alcohol drinking.

I once asked a similar question and was very disappointed because everyone said "just stop drinking" and didn't provide any actionable advice for how to mitigate the damage.

In the spirit of answering your question in the spirit in which it was asked, it sounds like you are consuming 1000-3000 calories of wine every day. This is a lot, and many alcoholics are malnourished because they get such a high percent of their calories from alcohol. So I guess try to get enough protein and vitamins in the food you do eat, and avoid high sugar foods which create a lot of the same problems as alcohol. I'd also recommend frequent blood testing to keep an eye on the damage and see if things are getting worse.

Now I'm going to be annoying and share a couple resources that helped me stop drinking. I haven't had a drink in 2 months which is the longest I've gone without drinking since college, although I was drinking only 3-4 drinks a day as opposed to 10-20.

The book that I read which helped me quit was "Allen Carr's Easy Way To Stop Drinking".

It's weird that it works because there's not much to the book to be honest. But a lot of people have said that it helps, and it worked for me. The key realization is that drinking doesn't help you. It only temporarily solves the cravings caused by drinking, but then creates more of the cravings later. I was not as heavy a drinker as you, but for me the physical cravings stopped after about 1-2 weeks. I still get the urge to drink from time to time, but there are no longer any physical cravings.

I have switched to non-alcoholic beer and mocktails which fulfill some of the "need something to do" at night urges. This also helps at restaurants, bars, and other places that I used to associate with drinking.

There's also a whole school of people who quit using the Sinclair method. This involves taking a drug called Naltrexone before drinking which prevents you from enjoying the euphoria of alcohol. I think there is merit to this approach. As a comedian once said, "the best part of cocaine is the drive to my dealers house". If you reflect, you'll notice that the only truly pleasurable part of drinking is the first sip. Your brain feels good before the alcohol even hits your system. Drinks 2-infinity only make you feel worse. So breaking this connection can remove your addiction.

So far, I'm not missing alcohol. I've lost a little weight, but the biggest difference has been in sleep quality. I now sleep soundly throughout the night and wake up rested.

Best of luck!

The quit smoking book by Allen Carr worked for me for a long while.

Heart attack scare yesterday. I had four symptoms which cleared up by the time the EMS got there. Normal ECG. Took the rest of the day off and got bloodwork done, no troponin (heart enzyme in the bloodstream after a heart attack). Just gas, probably.

Now the trick will be avoiding health anxiety and working on my risk factors.

I'm trying to implement more stoicism in my life. I'm now starting to do implement the Retrospective Evening Meditation from Seneca or Epictetus.

I'm a pretty reflective guy in general, but I have a hard time reviewing my full day in detail. I don't feel like I make a lot of missteps that I can hone in on but that's what even unreflective angry people would think, so I'm skeptical about my own judgement.

I'm thinking: if I got angry while in a car: I could lightly scold myself for it and then forgive myself, but I'm quite mellow. But I don't have such clear cut cases. Sometimes I get angry at myself for not being good enough at a skill (I'm renovating a house as a keyboard cowboy) but I'm also way better about that now than I was 3 months ago, because I wouldn't get angry at a child that learns how to walk.

Anyone else also doing it? I'm mostly interested in people that are relatively mellow and if you make some kind of note for the evening retrospective. (Maybe even a recorded phone memo?)

The stoics were also famous for wanting to live extremely joyous lives and practicing extreme gratitude for what they did have. Perhaps you're too mellow and could work to take more enjoyment out of life or be more grateful on the day to day?

Gratitude is the first thing I've adopted from the stoics. But that's not something I actively work on a lot lately.

That's a mistake and definitely something I can try to address in my evening retrospective.

Generally incorporating the actual practice (the meat) of stoicism instead of the intellectual masturbation (potatoes) is the hardest part.

Stoicism is a great philosophy because it's perfect to pick and choose from. Even the ancient stoics did this. Seneca and Marcus Aurelius were big on the evening retrospective meditation - Epictetus was less focused on that type of narrow practice, and more focused on general mindset/mental tools such as negative visualization. He mentions it once or twice in the Enchiridion but only in passing whereas Seneca writes paragraphs about evening meditations.

Which part of stoicism would you consider the potatoes?

I completely botched that expression. Meat and potatoes are both fundamental.

I was trying to say: Actually doing it and applying the stoic tools every day is the hardest part. I much prefer, based on observation, to read about tools of thought than to apply them. Reading about how Seneca pleading his case at his own court every evening is easier to do then doing the same.

Simple ain't easy. :-)

I agree with that! It can be very difficult. I've found physical practices like meditation/yoga to have more sticking power than purely mental devices myself.

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