this post was submitted on 17 Jul 2026
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I almost don't feel like the same person I was just 5 years ago. Granted, this is my first 5 years of working full-time, outside of schooling, so I'm no longer actively studying and practicing my mathematical skills.

But beyond that, I just feel like I don't have free will? My health is degrading because I have unhealthy eating habits, and I really want to stop, and I don't even really enjoy eating unhealthy food anymore, but I think I might actually be chemically dependent on the refined sugar, carbs, and fat. I work 10 hour days and then I'm too exhausted to eat healthy. If I meal prep healthy food, I sometimes just waste it because I'd rather order a couple burgers. I used to be vegan, and I still think vegans are basically correct, but I no longer have self-discipline.

It feels impossible to fix this shit. Reading what I've laid out, I think, "what you need is therapy". And yeah, maybe, but I've had like 7 different therapists and somehow I feel like it usually just becomes a space for me to go and be all introspective and sharing everything about myself to this quiet professional who isn't really leading the conversation, isn't contributing much, isn't giving me an idea of what therapy is supposed to be. There's just long awkward silences while I think of things to say? And I'm paying $90/hour? So far the only utility to me has been a place to vent. But now I'm doing that here instead because it's free.

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[–] purpleworm@hexbear.net 27 points 1 day ago

Trying to rely on self-discipline is equivalent to just trying to will yourself to be better. You're much better off trying to change the environment so that it's easier to behave in the way you want and harder to behave in a way that you don't. An easy example is that you shouldn't shop for food when you are hungry, and you should only buy food that you think you should ever be eating (even if only sometimes). If you have less food lying around that is bad for you, and especially if it's not lying out but up in a drawer or something while other options are lying out, it often becomes much easier to make better choices. Certainly it's helped me a lot.