jaewuchun

Oct 2, 2025

on lifestyle unnegotiables

I become "early-mid twenties" this month, but over the past year I've been feeling more and more like a middle aged man, like a real unc.

I've noticed my priorities are pretty aligned with a dad in their mid-50s (except no children and higher risk tolerance... and probably many more attributes I'm ignorant of). When I see others drinking or staying up late, I must stop myself from a reflexive desire to utter the words "haha, well, back in my old days..." as opposed to any desire to join in on the (what used to be) fun.

Below is a list of "lifestyle unnegotiables," necessary to maintain a baseline positive quality of life. I've built up this list after living through extremely different lifestyles (imagine the most degenerate of degenerates, to militant level of discipline). There is no way you don't have a decent life (emergent) if all of these are true--at least that was the case for me.

• Sleep early & for eight hours -> full blanket coverage, empty stomach, no electronics an hour before, no stimulants ~5 hr before
• No noise/scrolling -> introduces headspace noise, wastes time, aggravating and fake
• No alcohol -> it's literally poison
• No fast food, processed sugar
• Careful with stimulants (coffee, nic) -> be aware of your current level of stimuli, and your derivative; you need both default (i.e. diffused, reflective, lateral) and focused (dopamine tightens focus) modes of the brain for max productivity
• Wear sunscreen -> gives you mental peace of mind you're doing as much as you can to not age visually more than you need to
• Gym whenever you don't want to -> this is exactly when you'd benefit most

These are merely observations (as opposed to implicit mandates), and I've found my priorities adjust accordingly, naturally. That's to say, I've not needed to force these changes (asides from the sleep eight hours--this requires a lot of work to pull off at times). I've already pissed on the proverbial electric fence to know that these are worth protecting.