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Aeson · Sep 13, 2020

My mom got me this spiffy neato incense burner.

You put the cone style incense in it. It has multiple holes for the smoke to come out. Some times it come out the mouths. Some time the ears. Some times out the butt. It's not consistent.

Dannyalcatraz · Sep 13, 2020

Dog Moon said:
Just need to be more consistent with my eating habits. I've been consistently 251-255 for like the last year. Can't seem to stick with anything long enough to drop beneath that 250 mark.

I’ve battled my weight my entire adult life. An exercise routine can be VERY important. Actually got in decent shape in college and stayed that way for several years until I fell back into a sedentary lifestyle in law school. Over the years, I ballooned to almost 280lbs. But I’m trending in the right direction again, and have been as low as 219lbs in the last year. Right now, I bounce between 223-235, and a lot of that is because of water weight. I’m an extremely sodium sensitive hypertensive, and can put on 5lbs+ in a day if I eat too much salty stuff.

That said, I have some hints that might help you on the dietary side.

1) my first major weight loss came in my first year of college. I dropped 50lbs in one semester. Part of that was increasing exercise, but the BIGGEST part was cutting out “unconscious eating.” That is, consuming calories without realizing you’re doing it or in greater amounts than you recognize. I enlisted the help of my circle of family and friends: I was only allowed 3 meals a day and one snack, and ANYTHING & EVERYTHING with calories counted. So if someone saw me eating, I wanted them to ask me if it was a meal or a snack.

2) I cut soft drinks out of my life cold turkey, including diet ones. I did a little math, and figured out I was consuming 1000s of calories daily in sodas alone. I still drank OJ, milk, water and unsweetened tea. I have since allowed myself the occasional soda, but probably fewer than 2 cans per month on average.

3) I didn't give up the foods I love, I just eat them with better portion control. Some dishes I used to eat by myself I now share, and I seldom get into “he-man eating contests” at steakhouses anymore. I also do a hard pass on “almost as good as my favorite food” foods. If I’m going to have dessert, I don’t settle for something close to what I want- if I don’t see a favorite, then I don’t have dessert. If I’m going to have pizza, I have GOOD pizza from one of my favorite places, not some frozen pizza from the grocery store.

4) I cap my alcoholic beverage intake to 1-2 per service. By that, I don’t mean I drink 1-2 per meal, but rather, if & when I drink, I cap things out at a low number.

5) I keep “cheat foods” in the house to a minimum, and don’t restock until what I have is gone.

6) I do a LOT more cooking at home

Aeson · Sep 13, 2020

When I die no matter the cause they'll say it's obesity. He was shot because he was obese. He wrecked his car because he was obese. He choked on the ham sandwich because he was obese. My hope is to get to a weight where they don't have to take extra measures to get me out of the house.

I still struggle with my diet. I cook when I can but I still get fast food out of ease. I can't give up sweets or soda. I do make an effort to limit them but have binges sometimes.

I did something different tonight. During the resistance training I did cleaning. Do a set then clean the bathroom sink. Do a set then clean the toilet. Do a set then gather trash. I know I won't sustain any of it but I'll keep trying. One day it might stick.

Dog Moon · Sep 13, 2020

Blackrat said:
Ah, the setting also has way fewer sentient humanoid species/races than d&d normal. There’s pretty much only humans, giants, elves, gnomes/goblins (they are the same species), and anthropomorphic animals (it’s a kids’ story afterall even if the background is rather heavy).

That's one of the things I'm struggling with making my own campaign setting. It originally started as Pathfinder, so I felt the need to find ways to include all the Pathfinder races (my group especially - myself mostly included - hates limiting options, unless it's for a really good reason), but since I decided to create my own system, I can build my setting using my system, so I need to figure out which races to include. I don't need all 1,000 races that exist for pathfinder, though many of them DO make sense at certain locations. Though in general I dislike anthropomorphic races, I totally understand their inclusion for a kids game!

Dog Moon · Sep 13, 2020

Dannyalcatraz said:
I’ve battled my weight my entire adult life. An exercise routine can be VERY important. Actually got in decent shape in college and stayed that way for several years until I fell back into a sedentary lifestyle in law school. Over the years, I ballooned to almost 280lbs. But I’m trending in the right direction again, and have been as low as 219lbs in the last year. Right now, I bounce between 223-235, and a lot of that is because of water weight. I’m an extremely sodium sensitive hypertensive, and can put on 5lbs+ in a day if I eat too much salty stuff.

That said, I have some hints that might help you on the dietary side.

1) my first major weight loss came in my first year of college. I dropped 50lbs in one semester. Part of that was increasing exercise, but the BIGGEST part was cutting out “unconscious eating.” That is, consuming calories without realizing you’re doing it or in greater amounts than you recognize. I enlisted the help of my circle of family and friends: I was only allowed 3 meals a day and one snack, and ANYTHING & EVERYTHING with calories counted. So if someone saw me eating, I wanted them to ask me if it was a meal or a snack.

2) I cut soft drinks out of my life cold turkey, including diet ones. I did a little math, and figured out I was consuming 1000s of calories daily in sodas alone. I still drank OJ, milk, water and unsweetened tea. I have since allowed myself the occasional soda, but probably fewer than 2 cans per month on average.

3) I didn't give up the foods I love, I just eat them with better portion control. Some dishes I used to eat by myself I now share, and I seldom get into “he-man eating contests” at steakhouses anymore. I also do a hard pass on “almost as good as my favorite food” foods. If I’m going to have dessert, I don’t settle for something close to what I want- if I don’t see a favorite, then I don’t have dessert. If I’m going to have pizza, I have GOOD pizza from one of my favorite places, not some frozen pizza from the grocery store.

4) I cap my alcoholic beverage intake to 1-2 per service. By that, I don’t mean I drink 1-2 per meal, but rather, if & when I drink, I cap things out at a low number.

5) I keep “cheat foods” in the house to a minimum, and don’t restock until what I have is gone.

6) I do a LOT more cooking at home

For me, right now, the biggest thing is a lack of sleep schedule to due not working. Hard to keep anything consistent when I can't guarantee I'll be awake at any given time. I have gotten MUCH better at limiting snacks and soda, though still have progress to make. Portion size is still my biggest issue. For example, I'll buy a frozen pizza and eat the entire thing in one sitting. I'm starting to buy the cheaper, thinner pizzas so even if I eat the entire thing, it isn't as bad for me.

I hope I can maintain a sleep schedule for the next at least like 2-3 days. So like on Tuesday, go talk to a Temp Agency, try to start working at SOMETHING. I think right now that's the biggest thing I need, get consistency. Cause I notice the worst times are like "Okay, sleep schedule is off, now drink caffeine to stay awake - too often is soda - since I'm already failing diet in an attempt to stay awake, let's get too much food". But then I fix my schedule for a couple of days, get back on track, but then without permanent schedule, falls off track and when it does, so does diet and exercise...

Just a long cycle. But it's funny, cause like in my head, I know everything I need to succeed... I just fail to consistently put it into practice...

Aeson · Sep 13, 2020

I get it. When I was unemployed I couldn't keep a schedule either. Even working at night it's not easy. Part of my job requires me to invoice the businesses I deliver to. I do the ones I can at night but I have go out during the day on Monday for some. I should be asleep now, I had trouble sleeping earlier, now I'm watching football. Most activities take place during the day. It's not easy. Not the first night shift job I've had though.

Check with your local newspaper. They will always need carriers. If it's like the one I work with, you can take on more than one route. I save money on gas by joining gas programs. I also use an app that gives cash back in exchange for the receipt data.

Dannyalcatraz · Sep 13, 2020

@Dog Moon

For example, I'll buy a frozen pizza and eat the entire thing in one sitting. I'm starting to buy the cheaper, thinner pizzas so even if I eat the entire thing, it isn't as bad for me.

That’s the kind of thing that can definitely get you in trouble, which is why I did what I did about not accepting substitutes. (The end of point #1.) In fact, that kind of logic is part of why America has an obesity/malnutrition problem, especially in poorer neighborhoods.

There’s a thing they call “food deserts”. If you live in one, there are few grocery stores and most of the dining opportunities are of the fast food variety. It’s harder to get fresh veggies and fruits, but they can get all kinds of junk foods high in salt, fats and calories. Which are also typically low in key vitamins, etc.

In your case, step one might be checking the actual caloric content of those cheaper pizzas, with special attention to serving sizes & number of servings per container. You might be surprised by what you find. When my family started having to get serious about our diet- over 100lbs ago- one of the things we found reading labels was that serving sizes on some things we loved were NOT what we thought. For instance, there was a frozen Mac & cheese my Dad bought regularly- he’d often have one as a side with his steaks. Then he found out that the box he’d been eating as a single side was actually SIX SERVINGS. By eating the whole box, he was consuming several times the RDA in salt and calories for an adult male just with the side dish.

We stopped buying them after that.

Aeson · Sep 13, 2020

When I heard you could get two foot long Subway sandwiches for the same calories as a single Big Mac I stopped buying Big Macs.

Mad_Jack · Sep 13, 2020

Aeson said:
When I heard you could get two foot long Subway sandwiches for the same calories as a single Big Mac I stopped buying Big Macs.

Now if only you could get them for the same price...

Dog Moon · Sep 13, 2020

Dannyalcatraz said:
@Dog Moon

That’s the kind of thing that can definitely get you in trouble, which is why I did what I did about not accepting substitutes. (The end of point #1.) In fact, that kind of logic is part of why America has an obesity/malnutrition problem, especially in poorer neighborhoods.

There’s a thing they call “food deserts”. If you live in one, there are few grocery stores and most of the dining opportunities are of the fast food variety. It’s harder to get fresh veggies and fruits, but they can get all kinds of junk foods high in salt, fats and calories. Which are also typically low in key vitamins, etc.

In your case, step one might be checking the actual caloric content of those cheaper pizzas, with special attention to serving sizes & number of servings per container. You might be surprised by what you find. When my family started having to get serious about our diet- over 100lbs ago- one of the things we found reading labels was that serving sizes on some things we loved were NOT what we thought. For instance, there was a frozen Mac & cheese my Dad bought regularly- he’d often have one as a side with his steaks. Then he found out that the box he’d been eating as a single side was actually SIX SERVINGS. By eating the whole box, he was consuming several times the RDA in salt and calories for an adult male just with the side dish.

We stopped buying them after that.

Yeah, I've learned to be a little more careful about that. That's actually why I started doing the cheaper pizzas. Cause it'll be like 300 calories with 3 servings for 900 total calories, but the other pizzas I used to get were like 350 calories, but 8 total servings for 2800 calories. I was like "Dang! Can't believe how many that one pizza has!" And of course I would still eat it all in one sitting.

I remember reading once about many areas being taken over by the Dollar Stores. They can have lots of food, but it's all low quality. But like in certain poor areas people can't really afford anything better and the real grocery stores don't want to go there because of the competition and the poor people means they would be spending a lot of money with little gain. So only the dollar stores remain, meaning they don't have access to healthy options. Is sad, really.

I remember when I learned that juice is bad for you. WAY too many calories and WAY too much sugar. I was wtf, it's juice! Crazy how some things are.