Recently I was thinking about when people make health decisions, like to cut out carbs, or to go vegan. Often they say they feel pretty good. On the other hand there’s often the argument that “you don’t want to be skinny, you want the feeling that you think you’ll have when you’re skinny” which I think is pretty interesting. Obviously not everyone is making health decisions to be skinny, but it seems across the board that it generally seems to be a positive thing for the peope making the change. ...

The other day I was driving home and I was thinking about how normal I feel. I feel like on average I assume that I’m smack in the middle of the bell curve (I haven’t added a comment box yet so you all can’t tell me where you think I fall, I don’t need that kind of negativity in my life). Anyway, my point with this is how predicatble I feel becuase of this. Like… I am just normal, if you make a guess about me based on “normal development” you’re probably going to be right. ...

When I was a sophomore I took a class called biopsychology where I sat next to a girl writing her honors thesis on philosophy in American media. I have since lost touch with her but I still thing about her ideas regularly. One aspect of philosophy that her and I particularly discussed was stoicism. It’s an aspect of philosophy that has taken over, at least in my circles. I frequently see it present in gym culture, a subculture I spend a fair bit of time in. It’s becoming increasingly frustrating for me because it I feel as though a lot of the quotes I see pertaining to stoicism are quite out of context. For example, I see a lot of men posting photos of women, avoiding them like the plague. It’s all about “staying focused” and “keeping your goals in sight.” In itself I don’t think this is the worst idea, but in practice, it seems to be pretty toxic. The way this manifests is men who start to hate women as they slowly pidgeon-hole themselves into echo chambers of other toxic men. If you don’t believe me, check the comments on any Instagram post about stoicism and lifting weights. Click on the profiles. So many people are just assholes. ...