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Self-care? At least twice a day, unless the shower's sticky....

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by downndirty, Mar 22, 2021.

  1. Binary

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    Let's not derail the discussion into discussing preppers.
     
  2. bewildered

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    I think a lot of these self care concepts come back to a human's hierarchy of needs.

    [​IMG]

    Maybe for this idea of for self care, you try to achieve a better habit or level with these needs. Making an effort to sleep 8hrs vs burning the candle at both ends. Eating food that both nourishes and satisfies, and not to gluttonous extremes. Seeking a standard of living that is safe, clean, and fosters positive mental health. Fostering healthy relationships that bring both parties something positive. Maybe at the top would be considered hobbies that bring you joy but not necessarily serve a purpose. Learning guitar, growing some plants from cuttings you found. Some "indulges" like Clutch said are a bit extreme because they don't serve a purpose except in the moment you are doing them, but some things I could rationalize as fulfilling another purpose. Getting a massage, for example, could give you physical comfort when your body is hurting from your physical job or a chronic disease. For someone who likes to dress well and cares about their appearance, buying a new outfit can be more than a simple indulgence. Everyone has a different perspective and the baseline need vs higher level self care will vary.
     
  3. KIMaster2.0

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    The topic is about self-improvement, and has recently morphed into one of self-sufficiency. There's a lot to learn from the prepping community in both regards, as long as one gets past the silly caricatures.
     
  4. bewildered

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    We have both a gardening and homesteading thread that you are welcome to add discussion to.
     
  5. KIMaster2.0

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    That's awesome, as is this topic in general. I'm deeply cynical and negative towards modernity, and am always a big fan of people learning traditional skills and becoming less reliant on current society. Things like basic home repair/maintenance, simple car repairs, etc. Skills that our ancestors took for granted but which we have lost over time and now hire others to do, often for exorbitant prices.

    Alas, I would have very little to add to a gardening and homesteading thread, at least at present.
     
  6. Nettdata

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    CD racks are all the rage with your types right now.

    Off Grid is not Prepper. That's the distinction that I have, and you're not the source of truth to what those concepts are interpreted as.

    None of what you talk about would I consider to be in the "prepper" movement.

    I am absolutely active in the "fix your own shit", "gardening", and other "DIY" self-improvement stuff, which, while may help with the impending apocalypse, is not in and of itself a belief in or preparation specifically for said apocalypse, which the "prepper" movement seems to focus on.
     
  7. KIMaster2.0

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    Of course I'm not. But what exactly is the "source of truth" here?

    What is the functional distinction, though?

    One group believes in learning traditional skills, relying less on society, self-improvement, and self-sufficiency, especially in the case of natural disasters. The other group believes in...learning traditional skills, relying less on society, self-improvement, and self-sufficiency, especially in the case of an impending apocalypse.

    Is this like the difference between transubstantiation versus consubstantiation among Christians?
     
  8. Revengeofthenerds

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    For me at least, the biggest thing I do for mental health and care outside of the traditional “go to a doctor or see someone and get your mind right” is self sufficiency, diy related. I’m unable to do my garden this year because I don’t have the stamina for it — thanks covid — but other than that I do get a lot of peace of mind knowing that I can rely on myself, and just myself, if the moment comes.

    that’s been tested, unfortunately unexpectedly in a life fire drill, with covid and a natural disaster back to back. I’m mentally much more at ease knowing that I can survive and be happy through such a scenario
     
  9. Kubla Kahn

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    Sleep sleep sleep is the name of the game for me. Went my whole life until a few years ago not even recognizing it was insomnia that was fueling how bad I felt and any non stress related depression was due to it. For me it was coming to terms with my caffeine consumption. It being so accepted and celebrated I ignored obvious negative side effects. It's a much more serious crux than people want to admit or realize to begin with. Taxed adrenal system, crashes, spending a 3rd of my day shotgun blasting toilets. Kind of unfortunately a lot of my insomnia anxiety is more mental than chemical. I backed off to a cup and a half and the psychological dam broke and I started sleeping much better. Up to a certain point I can drink caffeine and be fine at night so Ive yo yo’ed my intake which would be better off at zero. Certainly my mood over all has raised quite a bit. Combined with working out, which historically happened with shit sleep, and I can have almost manic amounts of energy during the early hours of my day. Though my energy levels are still like a sprint and though I have more energy in the morning I still run out of gas the minute 5 oclock rolls around. I think, beyond conquering caffeine totally, would be sleep apnea. The other crappy part is I feel Ive peaked physically and am on the down hill. I have injured joints the past year and a half that are not bouncing back like they used to. It's going to take a much more effort to just keep my body from falling apart instead of focusing on building it.

    My other big win recently has been dieting. I started keto last year and am down 30 lbs basically half assing it. Didn’t count calories but learned what physical portions size I had to eat to see a loss one week to the next. Valuable lesson I think everyone in this country should learn. Living with hunger pangs is another big lesson. Never been too bad with “hangriness” don’t get short tempered just uncomfortable. Trained myself down with progressively smaller portions and then threw in a intermittent fasting now and then. I went whole hog and started one meal a day just last week and I m getting used to it. Just a double portion one time a day. I like it because it just get fucking tired of wasting half my weekend meal prepping. Doubling up a single meal is going to free up so much time.

    My general anxiety is another story. I can attest too CBT really helped a lot with day to day anxieties and the insomnia anxiety (which is the cause of like 80 percent of all insomnia). Im still stuck in a huge rut for the big two areas Im still feel hopeless with, career stuff and approaching and maintaining relationships with women. Sleep was easy to confront. Biologically your body is going to force you to sleep whether you like it or not. The other two? Given the option of facing and living through the terribly uncomfortable process of getting through it or fucking off playing video games or gardening or work on my car or starring off into space? So far I’ve been powerless to do anything but the latter. I’ve been in therapy going on 4 years now and despite the initial fast progress of cbt I haven’t done much since. I think my therapist is ok with just listening to my problems and then not really pushing me or offering a broader set of skills beyond the few she focuses on. I know ultimately it’s up to me to do the hard part but I’ve been at a dead end with her so long I want to try something new even if it’s cbt with a different therapist that has a different mindset. I’ve been, surprise, too anxious to bring up the subject until now and have used the fact that I’m at least going to therapy as a crux itself not to do more. She went on maternity leave and I got a stand in that does dbt. Since it was temporary I ended up telling the stand in I’d prefer someone new. That technique didn’t peak my interest as much as cbt but boy she was analyzing my thought process so differently I have to move on from my first therapist. Feel like hopping therapist seems like it is more common than not? Never really shopped for one before. How has anyone else found the right fit for therapist? I’m curious how people how people have faced their anxiety when the rubber meets the road? Immersion therapy hasn’t done a lick to tamp down my anxiety. That gut punch of getting shot down trying 10k times to be a champion like Jordon has never diminished a bit. I’m open to books recommendation or what ever.
     
  10. KIMaster2.0

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    Hey man, congrats on your weight loss. While I don't believe I'm in any place to offer any overaching life advice to anyone (hence me not responding directly to the thread prompt), I do know a little about dieting, both from personal experience and lots of reading, and would strongly caution against one meal a day as a regular routine.

    It slows down one's metabolism to only have to process one meal per 24 hour stretch, which will inevitably lead to weight gain. Furthermore, experiencing and ignoring hunger pangs isn't good, and if you exercise at all, having a meal a few hours prior and then soon after the workout is considered optimal.

    I have some personal experience with gorging on one meal a day too, since that's what I did as a freshman in college. It wasn't a good state of affairs. I gained fat instead of muscle, I had less energy, and my workouts sucked.

    Nowadays, I eat 4 times a day, but am very cognizant of my caloric intake, and only have a big dinner, with the other meals being relatively small ones.
     
  11. Kubla Kahn

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    I freely admit Im not a nutritionist and am testing out what will likely be a fad of a fad diet. For me it's the same advice I heard from a trainer somewhere about the gym, the best exercise is the one you do. You don't like cardio and try and force your way into it? You quit in a month. 20 years ago it was "eat 5-6 small meals to keep your metabolism stoked all day!" Science came back and that ended up being next to useless. I tried the 5-6 meal thing and did lose weight (because I went from eating complete shit to clean food) but it was a pain lugging around lunch boxes all day and cleaning containers all the time. For me my diet has come down to convenience. I did the Primal/paleo think and while it helped learn more about clean eating the rigid rules made finding friendly ingredients hard to stick to. Now I watch the carbs obviously but if a soup Im making needs a tablespoon of of cornstarch (which will be spread over 7 meals) I just do it. Hell I stopped eating breakfast a few years back just because organizing and cooking it was cutting into my morning rush too negatively. Didnt skip a beat knocking that out. Meal prep used to be something I really enjoyed. Cooking my 2 big meals for the week and portioning them out. It's become a complete slog. Im willing to swap out ideas and concepts that might not be optimal if it makes it easier thus more sustainable long term. Might not work out so Ill try other strategy to reduce the load. Making things easier not harder.
     
  12. KIMaster2.0

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    This is a dangerous mindset. For instance, I would rather sit on the couch and be sedentary than do Olympic lifts with poor form and snap all my shit up, or in extreme cases, become paralyzed.

    The risks aren't as high with dieting, but there is a possibility of harm with diet and exercise, not only benefit.

    Have you tried buying some simple, prepped meals? For instance, I used to love getting the Chinese chicken salad containers from Trader Joe's, and that took care of several meals during the week all by itself. They also have some tasty wraps I eat for lunch nowadays. I've always been a big fan of oatmeal, and some of the simpler variants only need to be thrown in the microwave.
     
  13. downndirty

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    You can't out-exercise a bad diet. I do there there's a wide middle ground between "couch, where it's safe" and "paralyzed due to a lifting accident", and most folks never get anywhere near dangerous weights. I'm re-setting after 6 solid years of bulking up, and doing some body weight squats, push ups, lunges, planks, maybe pull ups, and a handful of yoga poses are pretty safe, can increase strength without doing a ton of damage, and don't require much (If any) equipment to do.

    For me, I did the 300 workout for funsies back in the day (50 push ups, 50 deadlifts @ 135, 50 pull-ups, 50 floor sweeps, 50 kettlebell floor to ceiling press, and 50 box jumps as fast as you can). The quickest I ever did it was 22 minutes, and that was with basically doing 7 sets of 7-9 pull ups at a time. I liked that enough to modify it to do 6 exercises of up to 50 reps, often broken up into 2-3 sets, and an hour of mixed cardio.

    Tj's stays in business by younger, single folks who can't/don't cook. I've done the same thing and it's ludicrously more expensive that doing your own meal prep.

    A lot of the issue with health is that it's boring and monotonous, not complicated: I can take a bag of beans/lentils, a package of chicken thighs, some random veggies (garlic, onion, carrots, potatoes) and a dash of flavor (white wine, for example), throw it in a crock pot, dump it into tupperware, and have lunch all week....until Wednesday, when I'm sick of eating the same thing and order a sandwich.

    I think the secret to health is simplicity and consistency: if you eat beans and rice every day, you're probably in good shape. If you try and have celery and three deep breaths for lunch because you had Ben and Jerry's for dinner, it's not going to work.

    The downside of that is it takes time, and you'll probably have to do it all yourself. I can buy lentil soup, sure, but it comes with tons of sugar and shit I don't want in it.
     
  14. KIMaster2.0

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    Absolutely. Weight loss is like 80-90% diet.

    Sure, but even doing isolation lifts with piddly weights with bad form can cause problems. I remember a nice older man at my gym I would talk with who would do these hilariously awful quarter-reps when curling 20 pounds and eventually confessed to me that he had a lot of elbow pain. I explained that it probably had to with his form and showed him how to do it correctly. He thanked me effusively and immediately remarked that he already felt less strain on his elbows. I see him at the gym a week later and he is back to his old quarter-reps.

    Yoga is really great. Even learning to deep breathe is highly beneficial for one's health.

    I'm wincing just reading that, especially the "fast as you can" portion.

    Don't tell my long-time girlfriend that! She is a big-time cook, making fancy recipes from multiple books, and does most of her shopping at Trader Joe's.

    Anywho, from my experience, younger, single folks are a relatively small demographic at Trader Joe's. Most people I have seen at the store, regardless of locations, have been older, many with families. Lots of 60+ customers, too.

    Depends on what you're using for meal prep. The ready-made Chinese Chicken salads I mention, which are about 350 calories, cost $3.99. That's decent value around these parts. (California Bay Area)
     
  15. bewildered

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    Saw this on reddit. Is there anything you would add or subtract?


    f6r29hskn3q61.jpg
     
  16. KIMaster2.0

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    I assume this is what downdirty meant in his first post about "woo-woo bullshit". There are a lot of good answers to "how should one take care of oneself", including a number of posts in this topic, but there are also bad answers, like a mixture of the generic (read what, exactly? What constitutes "nourishing" food? What type of exercise? What is "mindfulness"?) and inane (positive affirmations, singing and dancing).
     
  17. Juice

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    Food that doesn't make one fat. Exercise that makes one less fat.
     
  18. KIMaster2.0

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    So just about anything for both?

    Nevermind that there is a lot of counterproductive, mostly useless, or outright dangerous exercise, or that any food can potentially make one fat.
     
  19. Rush-O-Matic

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  20. Juice

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    [​IMG]