Asklemmy

I left the US 3 years ago

I've always been well informed - but I realized I've made my choices, and most of checking the news now is looking for confirmation. It's an anxiety behavior. It doesn't change what I'll do in any way - so why do I need to read it?

I generally don't condone AI use but this seems like a case where it may be beneficial. Is it possible to feed your news sources into a chat bot and have it generate a "daily feed" of headlines and summaries? If it works right it could save you a lot of time.

I feel for you and I hope you can figure out a way to work on it! Therapy and pushing myself to socialize even when I don't want to has helped me.

I've slowly dropped 100 pounds over the last 3 years (50 more to go) and I literally eat whatever I want. The secret is in moderation, which is the real problem with food. It is VERY easy to overeat. I live by 3 simple and easy rules:

• Stop all sugary drinks, or juices. As a doctor said to me: Don't get your calories from juice, eat the whole orange. And NEVER drink full sugar soda. Today, I drink Coke Zero Sugar (0 calories) when I'm in a fast food place, but other than that, it's only unsweetened Ice Tea, or my favorite beverage Ice Water. I have also been drinking those fruit flavored seltzer waters with 0 calories. My only real beverage indulgence is a single beer with dinner 3 or 4 nights a week. Cultivate a love for Ice Water.

• Eat only when you are hungry, and only until you aren't hungry any more. I have found that I really don't need a whole sandwich, I am satisfied after a half of a sandwich. I'm generally satisfied with a couple of small handfuls of chips, I don't need to eat the entire bag. It takes a period of close monitoring to reset your satisfaction levels, but once you do, you are living a new food lifestyle that feels normal. It now feels strange to eat an entire sandwich. Or have a favorite food binge until you are stuffed.

• Don't eat out of boredom, find another activity. This is a really important one. If you find yourself staring into the fridge for a snack, and having trouble deciding, you're not really hungry, you're eating out of boredom. My Dad quit smoking by picking up a Rubik's Cube whenever he got the urge, and it worked well because a big part of smoking are the hand-mouth habits that you develop. Quitters often say that those hand-mouth habits last long after the nicotine cravings have left.

Food shares that trait. Creating a late night mini-charcuterie tray, spreading cheese on a cracker, washing it down with a beer or wine, etc. are all hand-mouth activities that can become regular habits that help load in tons of useless calories just before bed.

I used the guitar as my distraction. I keep an acoustic next to my TV chair, and pick it up whenever I have a craving for food. It distracts me from my momentary craving, and I've advanced to an intermediate ability on the guitar.

Replacing one negative endorphin releasing activity with a positive endorphin activity is highly effective at changing habitual behavior. Exchange a bad habit for a good one. Learn a language, write a book, play a game, play with a pet, lift weights, do a Rubik's Cube, etc. whatever works for you.

Losing weight always requires a lifestyle change, and most people choose a temporary strict diet to do it, but it never works. The lifestyle change needs to be permanent, but nobody wants to go full keto, and never eat pizza or chocolate chip cookies ever again for the rest of their lives. It is nearly inevitable that anyone will fail that sort of diet.

Since you are committing to a lifestyle change, make it simple and effective, allows you the opportunity for guilt-free indulgence, and make it PERMANENT. Want some chocolate? Don't eat an entire chocolate bar, eat a few chocolate chips, let them melt in your mouth and coat your tongue, and it will satisfy your chocolate cravings with a fraction of the calories.

Of course, if you want to supercharge your weight loss, start exercising, especially cardio. I have a physically intensive job, so I don't worry about the exercise as much, but I am about to start running again, after getting the clearance from my doctor. I just got my new runners yesterday, and I'm going to add that to my efforts to lose my last 50 pounds.

Exercise could be my 4th rule, but I wanted to demonstrate that it is possible to lose a LOT of weight with a simple lifestyle change that doesn't include exercise (although exercise is always welcome). I've lost 100 pounds while eating anything I want, and learned to play the guitar at the same time. That's a food lifestyle that's worth the effort.

I have tried to explain to people what is like to be hungry all the time not matter what you do. AT one point I was 265 pounds and getting bigger. I did cut out sodas and it helped me lose weight. I am to 201 now and I I do not run 3 to 5 miles 3 days a week and bike the other days the weight comes right back. I was sick all last winter and in May I was 235. I take Ozempic 2mm shots and Metformin twice a day. I measure every thing I eat. and if I break the routine one day like on Thanksgiving I pa for it for a week because the weight comes right back over a few days. The struggle I have drags me down. I would like to have a beer or a burger every now and then but any thing with carbohydrates just make the weight pile on. The food noise in my head is deafening. It is all I think about. My doctor said the Ozempic would quiet the noise but it has done nothing.

"It's easy to quit smoking. I've done it hundreds of times." Mark Twain

Good luck friend, I had a very similar progression and after decades of addiction, I am now over 2 years without any nicotine of any kind. You can do it.

Just quit nicotine again for the 3rd total time. Sucks a lot. And I feel like the nicotine pouches are significantly more addictive than cigarettes or tobacco ever were.

My secret this time was nicotine lozenges. They taste so terrible that it even overcame the positive association I have with nicotine. Good luck out there!

Are you in the states? I am, and once I started reading labels, I couldn't believe how much sugar was in everything. From bread to jar sauce, peanut butter, fuckin, soup. Like, it's incredible where you find sugar.

I'm fat from other stuff,mostly inactivity, but far from diabetic, and it's because I've been avoiding the hidden sugars in processed and ultra processed foods for over a decade. Read the labels, get grossed out, avoid. If I'm having sugar, it's my choice, not because they sneak 5g of sugar in a half cup of jar sauce, or 6g in a slice of bread. Know what's sweet? Red bell peppers. Avoid sugar a week, and then have a red bell pepper. You're taste buds will explode with its sweetness.

There are now, fortunately, plenty of low carb, low glycemic products that are a lifesaver when you have cravings. 5 years ago navigating the world without sugar was a nightmare but these days it's much easier. You can't really go out to eat, people will get offended when you turn down food they've offered, but you can do it.

Do it for your health. Ejaculation frequency and prostate cancer

The scientists found no evidence that frequent ejaculations mark an increased risk of prostate cancer. In fact, the reverse was true: High ejaculation frequency was linked to a decreased risk. Compared to men who reported 4–7 ejaculations per month across their lifetimes, men who ejaculated 21 or more times a month enjoyed a 31% lower risk of prostate cancer. And the results held up to rigorous statistical evaluation even after other lifestyle factors and the frequency of PSA testing were taken into account.

Everytime I manage to not bite my nails down and have actual nails, something stressful happens. Every. Single. Time.

I did it my whole life (~mid forties now).

I met and was talking to a guy about 10-15 years ago, and it came up - he said "oh yeah, I used to do that, I just stopped."

Now, consider that, we're both addicts and met at a 12-step meeting.

I'm like "You can't just stop guy, lawl, wtf?"

But he insisted - "No, really, I just stopped."

So I tried ... and was absolutely, completely fucking stunned - it worked - I just stopped.

This was a tough one for me. One thing that helped was always having nail clippers and a file at my desk at home and work. Any time I felt the urge to bite a nail I would use the clippers and file instead. Over time I have been able to taper down the biting quite a lot and now I'm to the point where I can grow my nails out. The ring fingers are by far the toughest to quit as they're the most satisfying ones to bite. ADHD medication also helped.

My life got so much better kicking weed. I always knew it was bringing me down, but I never quite realized just how much. Add all the restrictions for jobs to it and it's just a cocktail for depression.

I've come to grips with, "it fits for some, not for me."

Give yourself time to try again. Think about how long you smoked and drank before you quit the first time. I know you want to sprint to the finish line but you gotta stretch first.

If being hard on yourself worked, it would have worked by now. Besides, being hard on you is everyone else's job. They dont need the help.

Broski, you got this!

This. I know 'nicotine' is already here, but it's not the same.

Confused the hell out of me when I was trying to switch to vaping that I'd keep going back to cigarettes - "I'M GETTING THE NICOTINE, WHAT THE HELL?!", and it wasn't just habit, it was overwhelming need to smoke.

I finally figured some of those other 2999 or whatever chemicals in there must be addictive too, or something, I don't know.

I've quit drinking, when I was a daily drinker at risk of a seizure because my body had grown so chemically dependent on it. I've quit countless other 'behavioral' addictions.

NOTHING, was as hard as trying to quit smoking. Until, thank the powers that be, I met vaping, and after a couple months of back and forth, was able to transition to it entirely. Haven't had a cigarette since, and it's been at least 10-11 years.

Eventually lowered my nicotine to 0 mg, then gave up the vaping. Haven't done either since. That was, probably 8-9 years ago now.

I still get the odd craving to vape. Zero cravings to smoke up until last year, first trip in my life to Vegas (and two more since). The casino environment with everyone smoking, I don't know what it is. Got me looking at it with the rose coloured glasses occasionally while there - but then I quickly remember how hard it was to shake, and how happy I am without it.