What POSITIVE CHANGES are you making in your life?

Glphosate == Roundup. I've got farm fields on three sides of me, so if that stuff is bad for you, I'm hosed.

How has the lifting affected your back?

cranberries wrote: How has the lifting affected your back?

Although this may not be directed at me, I'm answering anyway.

I started out with just a bar doing the deadlifts and focusing on form. I have progressed slowly since I really hate my back muscles siezing up on me. During my routine now, my Romanian Deadlift weight is 4 sets of 10 at 120lbs. My Hex Bar Deadlift is 4 sets of 8 at 170lbs. I've not tried for any PRs. My PR is that I have not had any back issues since lifting. Dropping 30 net pounds has helped, but those back muscles have definitely gotten stronger.

I wish I could get my wife into the gym to lift so she could stop dropping so much money at the chiropractor (witch doctor). LOL

cranberries wrote: How has the lifting affected your back?

I guess this is directed at the_jake_1973, but for me, it's been great. I never had severe back problems but would occasionally have mild pain, stiffness, twinges, etc. I think because I work a desk job and sit way too much.

Since starting to lift, I pretty much never have any of that. I imagine it will come back as I age, simply because the mammalian spine didn't evolve to be upright for 7-8 decades.

The best way to keep from hurting your back is to make your back strong. The best way to make your back strong is to squat and deadlift, starting with light weight and good form, and using progressive overload to gradually and slowly make your muscles get stronger.

dysjunct wrote:

cranberries wrote: How has the lifting affected your back?

The best way to keep from hurting your back is to make your back strong. The best way to make your back strong is to squat and deadlift, starting with light weight and good form, and using progressive overload to gradually and slowly make your muscles get stronger.

Preaching from the pulpit of the Iron Church!

the_jake_1973 wrote:

dysjunct wrote:

cranberries wrote: How has the lifting affected your back?

The best way to keep from hurting your back is to make your back strong. The best way to make your back strong is to squat and deadlift, starting with light weight and good form, and using progressive overload to gradually and slowly make your muscles get stronger.

Preaching from the pulpit of the Iron Church!

I'm trying to make my own food more often to cut back on pre-packaged and take-out. I do have basic cooking and baking skills. Eventually I want to make all of my own food from scratch. I believe this will lead to eating better quality, healthier ingredients, reasonable portions, and probably save money.

ChristopherMD wrote: I'm trying to make my own food more often to cut back on pre-packaged and take-out. I do have basic cooking and baking skills. Eventually I want to make all of my own food from scratch. I believe this will lead to eating better quality, healthier ingredients, reasonable portions, and probably save money.

I hear that the Instapot can be quite a help with the meal making.

For me, Indian cuisine is one of the best that is both filling and satisfying without a load of calories.

Panera Bread has a great poppyseed salad dressing that is only 25 cal a serving if you don’t want to make your own. Available by the packaged salads. -end advertisement.

I also find the process of cooking/baking very calming and therapeutic. I don’t often have a way to be creative at work so it is a good outlet for me.

Good luck and share your future recipes.

I don't know if this counts as a positive change, but I got my annual flu shot last night. I started getting it maybe five years ago, because the last two times that I had the flu, it almost seemed life-threatening. The last two years in a row, my insurance only covered a shot that protected against three major strains of the flu, but this year I was able to get the shot for all four.

I don't feel especially crappy today like I usually do after getting the shot, possibly because I was already feeling down about losing my job and my girlfriend. Just some mildly aching bones, plus I had to dial back my workout a bit last night.

I let my doctor talk me into a flu shot for the first time in my life the other day. I like her, in general, because she's quite relaxed and enjoys the fact that I bring her occasionally unusual topics ("I'd like to get a fertility test... to confirm that I CAN'T have children.") without her having to pry about what's going on. Her argument was that the flu shot not only potentially benefits me, but also benefits others, since it will reduce the presence of the virus even if I'm not affected by it (i.e. I'm a carrier, but not a victim.) I almost never get sick (like I always say, other than the life-threatening condition (type 1 diabetes), I'm indestructible), but I am a Marxist, so that argument resonated with me. I think she knew that.

Back on the flossing: I didn't for most of my life. Part of my problem was that my hands seem to be too large to get the thread to where it's supposed to go. I still have all my wisdom teeth and getting a couple fingers jammed in there to get things done was always frustrating (or maybe I just rolled too low on my dexterity...) But I found the one-use picks that Jeb mentioned (and I have the same mild guilt for adding to the world's landfill) a few months back when a new technician at the dentist suggested them and I've been flossing every night since then. I don't feel a ton of difference as I've been using dental rinse for years, but I think my gums are improving. We'll see what happens when I go in for a cleaning in a few weeks.

I did finally land a job back in June. I hate it. HATE. IT. It's still accounting work, which is awful. And it's for a company that's been on the verge of bankruptcy for a year, which is interesting in a theoretical way, since I've never been through one before. It will be less interesting, personally, the first time we don't make payroll. I've been writing a lot lately, though, in the vain hope that I'll find my way into something professionally positive.

ChristopherMD wrote: I'm trying to make my own food more often to cut back on pre-packaged and take-out. I do have basic cooking and baking skills. Eventually I want to make all of my own food from scratch. I believe this will lead to eating better quality, healthier ingredients, reasonable portions, and probably save money.

Last night I made Beef Stroganoff from scratch. The night before I made enchiladas from scratch, including the sauce. A night about a week ago before that I made Chicken Marsala (many have said it's the best they'd ever had) from scratch. Cooking produces far cheaper, healthier, and more delicious meals, plus you lose calories cooking. I have 50 cookbooks all dog-eared and written in with notes, plus maybe 40 "top recipes" which I've printed off the web, all written on and oil stained. It's not so much hard to cook as hard to develop the willpower to not say, "I'm tired, let's go out". Once you develop 5 key skills you can cook almost anything.

If you take out something (meat) in the morning to thaw, by 5 it's thawed and you're good to go. That gives you all day to look at recipes. That reminds me....I better take out the pie crust and bacon to thaw. I'm making quiche tonight.

last night i made MacDonald's from scratch

at least I didn't eat alone for once. I couldn't believe how everything was closed at 9:40pm. What a pain.

Jackwraith wrote: I did finally land a job back in June. I hate it. HATE. IT. It's still accounting work, which is awful. And it's for a company that's been on the verge of bankruptcy for a year, which is interesting in a theoretical way, since I've never been through one before. It will be less interesting, personally, the first time we don't make payroll. I've been writing a lot lately, though, in the vain hope that I'll find my way into something professionally positive.

Over the years, I have been the accountant at three different companies that struggled to cover payroll on multiple occasions.

The first company paid everybody with physical checks instead of direct deposit, and would ask all of the managers to wait a few extra days before depositing to avoid any bounces. The parent company shut us down after 9/11, when sales took a dive and our lease came up for renewal.

The second company got so fucked that they were only paying managers on every other payroll, and I never did get about $3,000 worth of pay. They got bought out by their primary vendor, and the deal did not address back wages. I had already quit months before the sale, and made them pre-pay me for consulting to wrap up their accounting.

The third company got all the managers to accept voluntary pay cuts during our final months of operations. A competitor swooped in and hired most of our people and bought a lot of our fixed assets for ten cents on the dollar.

Based on my experience, I suggest that you start a covert job search.

Shellhead wrote: Based on my experience, I suggest that you start a covert job search.

Wayyyyy ahead of you...