Man, I used to swear by slow and steady studying. I did the whole flashcard thing for my real estate exam and passed, so I figured that was the only way that worked for me. But then I had a similar deal with a work cert last year where I bombed the practice stuff for a week and then just watched some guy on YouTube for an hour and aced it. I still don't get why it works, maybe your brain just holds the info better when you're not bored out of your mind.

Cold water woke me up, now I actually miss it

The "feeling like a punishment" part is so real. For me the shift was realizing I stopped cooking cheap stuff because of the blandness, not the cost. So now I still make my old lentil soup but I splurge on good bread and real parmesan to go with it, costs maybe $6 total and feels like a treat instead of survival food.