How is Duolingo Making Me Lose Weight?

Here are a few axioms to keep in mind:

1. Change does not happen overnight.
2. Success is not an overnight achievement; it's a deliberate process.

Gamification at its Best

I went ahead and downloaded Duolingo and even got the premium version. I believe in the power of investing in education; it's never a waste. In fact, you tend to take it more seriously when money is involved.

#Duolingo has "streaks" that encourage you to return to the app at least once a day. Once you're there, you end up spending at least 10 minutes completing a few courses.

Now, what I'm about to tell you only works if you believe in yourself and, especially, your future self.

To see the change, all you have to do is compare yourself with your past self. That's where you'll find proof of why you can make anything work.

Here's how it went:

• Day 0: I know no Japanese.
• Day 1: I know basic introductions - こんにちは、アリです (Hello, I'm Ali).
• Day 7: I know basic introductions and have an understanding of some grammar. Surprise: Japanese and Turkish use the same word order; SOV, as opposed to SVO in English. There wasn't much friction there, thankfully!
• Day 30: I can recognize words written in Hiragana and Katakana (92 characters in total!). Suddenly, things like brands, signs in the city, in anime, and in movies started making sense! At this level, I can also construct basic sentences with verbs and subjects.
• Day 60: I can read and write comfortably, and I can understand some Kanji.
• Day 100: I can form sentences about who I am, what I like and want, time, places, etc. I can pick up a lot of words and structures while watching anime!
• Day 200: More and more improvement - no speaking really, though. I need some friends to practice; connect with me if you are a native Japanese speaker and if you're into #computerscience, #artificialintelligence, #robotics, #martialarts, and #anime!

Somewhere along the way, I also enrolled in a JLPT N5 course on #Udemy to approach the subject in a more structured way, the way I used to. I also bought the first issues of manga from my favorite animes (#AttackOnTitan, #DeathNote, #HunterXHunter, #DemonSlayer, #Doraemon, #Yotsuba&I, and more) and started translating them whenever I could. I'm also learning some songs.

Songs really do help you learn and memorize languages much better than anything else; we'll get to this later!

Okay, Connecting it to Weight Loss Now

Duolingo reignited my faith in myself, the belief that if I do it in small increments and regularly, change will happen.

So, I went ahead and downloaded another app that gamifies things: MyFitnessPal , also the paid version. This led me to buy an #AppleWatch to better track my progress, count steps, calories, etc. - I'm an 苹果 Fanboy now, by the way.

Here I am, 10 lbs down in about 3 healthy months. I didn't stress over it, still ate whatever I wanted, just was a bit more careful about how much of what I ate. Every day, every step made a difference. I saw it. I hit a wall lately, but who cares? Will I stop? No, because I have faith and proof that I can make it work.

Connecting it to Everything (and to JavaScript)

What's to stop me or you from learning a new #JavaScript framework now? Or Mandarin, a new recipe, a whole new skill. Nothing, except health. Gotta take care of health. Please do take care of yourself first.

Let's get to work.

心臓を捧げよ!

PS: This article is not sponsored by any of the brands I mentioned. I simply like them.

Dear Reader,

Keep in mind that these are merely my opinions. Everything changes and I have to change with it. It's the law. So, my perspective is subject to change without prior notice. When that happens, I will change my stance and stand by the new value. Do not judge me, let's have a conversation instead. Or do judge, I will not care one bit because I will be enjoying my newly found opinion. Ah, happy to be alive!

Thank you for taking your time and reading this. Call your loved ones.

Ali Kutlu?zen