Things I did that made my life better
The purpose of this post is clear from the title so I'll just get right into it.
Start working out regularly
I started going to the gym regularly around 3 years ago, but I actually did workout occasionally before then. I am very lucky that my parents were willing to pay for my gym membership and that my siblings/parents were willing to drive me to the gym before I received my license. While I started the gym with the goal of losing weight (haha), what kept me going was how fun it feels. I get to listen to music, get sweaty, feel productive and feel proud of myself. Plus I can watch shit on my phone during cardio. The gym has helped me build a habit that's good for me.
I titled this section "start working out regularly" because it isn't just the gym that I do. I take walks, and sometimes I'll follow a dance workout on YouTube. Working out looks different for everyone!
Take magnesium supplements
The ones I take are a magnesium, zinc, and calcium combination from the grocery store. They seemed too big at first but now I have gotten used to their size after 9 months of taking them daily. The reason I started taking this supplement was for my sleep. Before, I almost never felt rested in the mornings, I would wake up constantly, and falling asleep took forever at night. Now, I almost never wake up in the middle of the night, and I feel much better when I wake up. When I've forgotten to take my special pills I can feel the difference the next morning. I am sure my earlier sleep problems are caused by my diagnosis of sleep apnea (and I never got a cpap machine- oops!), and my Apple Watch still tells me I have sleep apnea, but I just feel a great deal better now that I started this small routine.
Keep track of my spending
Look! I know I'm young and privileged but before college, I never had a budget and I would rarely put money away for savings, so even though this sounds super basic to people out there, this one is HUGE for me. When college started, I created a basic budget in Excel that required me to enter every transaction each month. This forced me to realize how much I spent on non-necessities and how bad it felt to have nothing to show for it. Now, I use 2 finance apps and I recreated a budget in Excel that feels fancy to me. The first finance app I have I use mainly for goal setting. I want to save $1,000 as a tiny emergency fund (my living expenses are very low) and I also want to save $1,500 for my cousin's wedding next year, since it will require travel, new clothes, and as a groomsman I have to split the cost of the bachelor party. Even though this first app has a budgeting feature that connects to my bank accounts and cards, I share the app with my boyfriend and since we don't live together, the budget feature is essentially useless for either of us to try. The other app I use is for accountability. It shows me when I've spent my money at ethical and unethical places, and I can set goals to just buy less shit that I don't need.
Read books again
I've written about my journey with reading on my blog previously, so I will at least try to keep this section short. I love learning and knowledge and even the fiction books I've read have taught me something. I try to find room in my backpack for the book I'm reading so that I spend less time on my phone while I'm at school, and most days I think it makes a difference. I get pretty much all the books on my reading list from movie adaptations and YouTube videos citations from creators I like. So far, I haven't really read a book (voluntarily) that I hated. The lowest I've rated a book that I chose to read was 3.25 stars (Right-Wing Women by Andrea Dworkin).
DM my boyfriend on TikTok
It feels a little embarrassing to tell people that I met my boyfriend through TikTok, so I'm glad I don't get to see your face when people read this. I'm going to keep the details vague for the sake of privacy but I still think this is worth including.
We became mutuals on TikTok, and for once in a few years I wasn't actually looking for a boyfriend. I had a few first dates from Hinge last year, and after that I decided I would be open to dating, but it wouldn't be something I would seek out. After him and I started following each other, it became clear to me that he liked me. It still took a bit for me to actually message him, though, since fat short guys like me are used to being overlooked in the dating pool. Once I did message him, we immediately hit it off. We're long distance, the kind that requires plane travel to see each other, but he is worth all the time and money we have to spend. He challenges me in ways that makes me a better person, and I learn a lot even from someone my same age and place in life.
I'll probably update this post in the future when I think of more things, but since you're reading this, you should think of things you've done yourself that made your life better. I wish I had a comment section so I could read your lists!