Health and Wealth and GrownUp Stuff
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@HelloProject
I can't blame you, at all. You do what you gotta do to process. Pets are a part of the family, man.
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One thing that I don't believe anyone has mentioned though I was skimming the thread is that lack of sleep can attribute to weight gain. The less you sleep, the hungrier you usually get. When you get more sleep, your body tends to not get as hungry. Also, unless you have zero muscle mass, 170 at over six feet isn't bad. Having an elliptical at home works wonders for those who dislike going to the gym or doing strenuous exercises outdoors. You can even binge watch Netflix/Hulu/Whatever while you stay on the elliptical.
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@KDraygo said in Health and Wealth and GrownUp Stuff:
One thing that I don't believe anyone has mentioned though I was skimming the thread is that lack of sleep can attribute to weight gain. The less you sleep, the hungrier you usually get. When you get more sleep, your body tends to not get as hungry. Also, unless you have zero muscle mass, 170 at over six feet isn't bad. Having an elliptical at home works wonders for those who dislike going to the gym or doing strenuous exercises outdoors. You can even binge watch Netflix/Hulu/Whatever while you stay on the elliptical.
REM is also when the body does a lot of its healing. I actually believe my sinus surgery and ability to begin hitting REM at long last (once I finally healed up last summer) is a large part of why I began losing weight. I began sleeping better and suddenly, I noticed a huge uptick in my ability to see progress. So it's not just the hunger factor.
And if an elliptical isn't up your alley... There's the 'FitDesk.' It's a stationary bike with an attached laptop desk. I have one (also much cheaper than the average elliptical)! https://www.amazon.com/FitDesk-Desk-Exercise-Bike-Massage/dp/B00CM9CBZY/
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Sleep and water are HUGE factors. HUGE.
I drink water, I walk 4-6 miles daily, but I have issues sleeping and staying asleep. It messes with a lot of things and makes your body just over tired all the time
Still more yay you!
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The heatwave borderline dehydrated this orange I forgot to eat, and now I'm trying to throw it out but my brain wants to make friends with and talk to it.
When I was a kid, I just generally accepted my weird tendency to make friends with and talk to inanimate objects, but as an adult I've begun to realize that it's not a habit that one should indulge.
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I think talking to inanimate objects is fine, it is when you hear them respond that the issue starts.
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@ThatGuyThere said in Health and Wealth and GrownUp Stuff:
I think talking to inanimate objects is fine, it is when you hear them respond that the issue starts.
Thankfully I'm not that far into madness yet.
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Went to urgent care a week ago due to the flu having still been extant after a week.
...I am still using my inhaler every 20 minutes. Still coughing.
Guess I'm going to the doctor again tomorrow.
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I've had heatstroke since friday, because I'm dangerously photosensitive and had to meet a lawyer during a southwest heatwave. I have to go back out in two weeks to have an unconsitutional ticket dismissed.
This better add a few grand to that settlement, I tell you what. -.-
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So I'm doing WAY better now. This is good. I'm employed (if even part-time), I'm on track with my eating, I'm walking like 3+ miles a day and today --- I finally felt like me again. I woke up and did some things and really I felt like the happy person that I normally am. It occurs that this has been going on for a week or two. So it's like I'm almost back to normalcy.
The only bad thing is that I have a backwards look on my instability. My anxiety/depression makes it so I don't always see it and my MS brain issues added to it means I don't 'understand' when it's happening. We don't always see the problem when we are in the middle of it. You know?
I see people taking mental health breaks from the hobby and today, I realize I should have done that in like October - April. My life fell apart and I fell apart with it. I should not have been supplementing my havoc of a RL with an virtual one. It's what I was doing. I couldn't see it at the time, but in hindsight, totes what I was doing.
I have NEVER been asked to leave a game before. I'm usually super up to get involved and tend to try to get others involved as much as possible, etc. I was asked to leave a game. Which was horrible for them (I mean obviously if I was asked to leave) and for a bit, really horrible for me. Like really really bad. However, it also made me take a break from MUing on a regular basis to fix me. I mean sometimes you need a stranger to give a wake up call. I was just seething in questions and bitter. It was less at a game (and the people on it) and more with where my RL was.
Depression and anxiety are a hell of a bitch to deal with. It's hard on the person suffering and we've touched on that, but it's also hard to the people around them while they are in their 'off' period. There is moments of reassurance needed, blowing things up that normally they wouldn't, etc. That list goes on and people have to deal with it if they are around you. We don't always talk about that. We try to say they should be understanding, but really we don't understand ourselves - so how can they? Also, if a person has only known you in your 'blue' period -- you might look like you belong on the batshit crazy board and they are probably wondering why others are defending you.
Anyways - This is just my rambling musing because that's sort of what this board is about. Mental health and all that. So I want to check in and say I'm good and back to normal (haha). The other thing s that I owe an apology (not on the apology thread - or the sorry not sorry board) to @apos and @Kanye-Qwest. I was stupid unstable on their game as I joined it at rock bottom IRL. So while my feels were hurt for the 'maybe this isn't the best game for you', it was what I needed to be like daaaayum son, I'm a little further gone than I thought. So anyways -- apologies to you two and any that I was a bit off towards there.
Okay, now work calls. Thank you for letting me ramble.
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Regarding weight loss, I found a few things useful.
Well, the first thing is that dieting doesn't work for me. Oh, it does work initially. I lose all the weight and I get a psychological boost from it, and then carefully start reintroducing normal food into my diet... And the weight gets back, plus more. My body gets into starvation mode, my metabolism slows the fuck down to conserve energy, and everything gets stored into fat, because the body goes "who knows when we're gonna have food next!"
So I did several rounds of yo-yo dieting and then stopped in horror because I ended up with more weight than I started with.
There were three articles that changed my approach: that stuff about the reality show "The Biggest Loser" - they followed up with contestants after 6 years, all but one have regained all the weight lost, and their metabolism was significantly slower even after all those years. So they have to eat less than a normal person would, just to keep at a current weight. They doomed themselves to a lifetime of not being able to have a balanced relationship with food.
Secondly, there was an article that detailed how it takes a year for the body to get used to a new lower weight. For a whole year, the body has an imperative to gain the weight back, through hormones and metabolic changes.
And thirdly, this one: https://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/meet-staci-your-new-powerlifting-super-hero/. The gist is, focus on gaining strength, not losing weight. Focus on building up dense muscle by low-repetition but strenuous weight lifting, and not cardio as is usually advised. This raises the basal metabolic rate and melts the fat, as such muscles spend more energy just by existing.
So I get angry when people say it's easy to lose weight, just eat less and move more. If only our bodies weren't intricate complex biochemical systems with various evolutionary purposes, maybe that simplistic maxim would work. Everyone looks at you like an idiot with self-control problems if you try to dispute this "simple solution."
Basically the solution is, eat decently so you can
movelift more. Then eat even more, so you can lift even more. Of course, this still means you gotta eat healthy stuff and not stuff yourself with sodas and snacks. I just wish I knew all this ten years ago, long before I tried low-carb dieting the first time. I also have some good experiences with intermittent fasting, as long as it doesn't go into deprivation/starvation mode. -
Food and I have a brutal, dysfunctional and co-dependent relationship. It is easy for me to drop weight, but it's because I hate food and start starving myself. I also cannot diet. I start out okay, but then I start thinking if I just restricted more and worked out less. Then I lose myself over to it and it's a struggle to fight back from it.
I have found that the whole weight watchers point program works for me so far. It's been painfully slow to my crash dieting, but so much more healthy. I don't completely understand how the points are factored (I don't want to either), so I can't concentrate on calories and obsess over numbers. I just pick what foods I want to eat and see how the points balance. It's been the most healthy approach so far.
I totally understand @Nightshade. I wish I could help. Is there something I can do to help?
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@Catsmeow Just the fact that you didn't tell me to eat less, move more, is help enough.
Yes, I also find it frustrating to lose weight slowly, when I know how quickly dieting works in the short run. I'm a stubborn, iron-willed person and the feeling of control when diet is working is so empowering. But then the crash comes, and it's psychologically devastating. -
The best way to 'diet' is to have a mental reset and that takes a lot of work. You have to figure out the cause of the issue that got you to X before you can fix X. If you don't fix the issue then you are just setting yourself up to fail. Surround yourself with people that will support you and start separating from friends that try to sabotage you. There are so many other things... but I think we'll bore the board if we keep going. We can talk about it if you want in PM.
My super power is optimism and I'm an amazing cheerleader for people.
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@Catsmeow Well, I've done my research so I believe I've got a solution now, it's just gonna be slow and hard, none of that quick dieting success. However, I think that general life balance and happiness affects diet a lot. If you're enthusiastic and engaged in projects and life, it'll be easy to lose weight because food won't be needed to fill emotional needs.
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@Nightshade said in Health and Wealth and GrownUp Stuff:
Just the fact that you didn't tell me to eat less, move more, is help enough.
For me, dieting really is the next step. I lift quite a bit, and I move quite a bit, for my age.
Mind, trying to get myself back into swimming shape is a painful, frustrating experience. Went from 30 X 50 on 1:30 intervals to 10 x 100 on 3:00, and nearly vomited in the pool today.
Fuck.
There were days when I did 25 x 100 on 2:00. But I was in my 20s.
Fuck.
“It is better to live doing the things that you like. It is foolish to live within this dream of a world seeing unpleasantness and doing only things that you do not like.” -- Yamamoto Tsunetomo.
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As a very much non-swimmer -- these numbers mean nothing to me, but you can do it!
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@Nightshade said in Health and Wealth and GrownUp Stuff:
Regarding weight loss, I found a few things useful.
Well, the first thing is that dieting doesn't work for me. Oh, it does work initially. I lose all the weight and I get a psychological boost from it, and then carefully start reintroducing normal food into my diet... And the weight gets back, plus more. My body gets into starvation mode, my metabolism slows the fuck down to conserve energy, and everything gets stored into fat, because the body goes "who knows when we're gonna have food next!"
So I did several rounds of yo-yo dieting and then stopped in horror because I ended up with more weight than I started with.
There were three articles that changed my approach: that stuff about the reality show "The Biggest Loser" - they followed up with contestants after 6 years, all but one have regained all the weight lost, and their metabolism was significantly slower even after all those years. So they have to eat less than a normal person would, just to keep at a current weight. They doomed themselves to a lifetime of not being able to have a balanced relationship with food.
Secondly, there was an article that detailed how it takes a year for the body to get used to a new lower weight. For a whole year, the body has an imperative to gain the weight back, through hormones and metabolic changes.
And thirdly, this one: https://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/meet-staci-your-new-powerlifting-super-hero/. The gist is, focus on gaining strength, not losing weight. Focus on building up dense muscle by low-repetition but strenuous weight lifting, and not cardio as is usually advised. This raises the basal metabolic rate and melts the fat, as such muscles spend more energy just by existing.
So I get angry when people say it's easy to lose weight, just eat less and move more. If only our bodies weren't intricate complex biochemical systems with various evolutionary purposes, maybe that simplistic maxim would work. Everyone looks at you like an idiot with self-control problems if you try to dispute this "simple solution."
Basically the solution is, eat decently so you can
movelift more. Then eat even more, so you can lift even more. Of course, this still means you gotta eat healthy stuff and not stuff yourself with sodas and snacks. I just wish I knew all this ten years ago, long before I tried low-carb dieting the first time. I also have some good experiences with intermittent fasting, as long as it doesn't go into deprivation/starvation mode.Going to add to this because I have PCOS and I know a few others here have mentioned the same thing. Research has tied weight-lifting to positive responses in PCOS patients, while cardio did not. If I'm remembering the studies correctly, weight lifting affects the insulin response in insulin resistant patients through some mechanism that is odd because your endocrine system is complicated, yo.
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@Lisse24 said in Health and Wealth and GrownUp Stuff:
Going to add to this because I have PCOS and I know a few others here have mentioned the same thing. Research has tied weight-lifting to positive responses in PCOS patients, while cardio did not. If I'm remembering the studies correctly, weight lifting affects the insulin response in insulin resistant patients through some mechanism that is odd because your endocrine system is complicated, yo.
I think the research is inconclusive regarding the cardio v. strength training debate, as it applies to PCOS.
My anecdotal experience (I don't have PCOS) suggests that both are a good idea. Cardio, regardless of whether it will help you actually lose weight, does benefit your cardio-vascular system, allowing you to train for longer. Strength training is always beneficial, for the reasons mentioned.
My experience in strength training (for most of my adult life) tells me that low-rep / high-weight is fine if you're a practiced lifter, but not safe if you're just starting out. I'd start with circuit training, then mix that with bodyweight training, before hitting the bars and dumbs hard. Form is everything, and the best way to learn form is with a machine, and then practice it with high-rep / low-weight exercises.
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I get itchy feet. As in... I like to move every couple of years. It's been that way since I was a teenager. I try to settle down and stick in a place, but it's hard. Nowhere has ever really 'stuck' with me.
The time has come to move again. I want to try somewhere new. I also am struggling, constantly, to make ends meet where I am. It's just too expensive and I've utterly failed at finding a better job and I'm closing in on two years. So, as I have a job that goes where I go (telecommute), why not move?
I've already picked out an apartment complex in Austin (thanks to @Admiral's recc). Now I just have to get the funds together to actually move. Which... is turning out to be tricky. I thought I'd have student loans, but... apparently I don't have any 'overage' this semester. I had just enough to cover everything (well, not even; apparently I was a couple hundred shy and got a slice of a scholarship and they forgot to inform me).
I'm gonna start shopping around banks for private loans. I've already done projections on rent, utilities, etc.... I know my overall costs will drop by a decent (not a huge, but enough) bit after the move. Enough that I could comfortably pay back said loan. I just hope my shit credit doesn't make this impossible. It just sucks to think that trying to get out of living paycheck to paycheck... may be stymied by being in said state to begin with.
Saying the quiet parts out loud since 1996.
