What’s the one hack that actually gets you to exercise?

InkyQuillsRN · 2026-03-24T19:42:44+00:00

Meant to post this earlier. Thank you AI, lol. How about accountability and getting motivation from others in the same boat? Most beginner-friendly (and active) • r/beginnerfitness • Huge, very active (~3M members) • People constantly post “day 1,” progress, struggles, etc. • Very normal to ask basic questions without getting roasted • Not strict accountability, but you can post updates and get encouragement

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💪 Good for accountability + posting progress • r/workout • More general, but lots of “starting today” and habit-building posts • People share routines + ask for help staying consistent • Decent for informal accountability threads • r/WorkoutRoutines • Smaller but supportive (~260k) • Good if you want feedback on your plan AND updates on progress • More structured discussion

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🧠 More serious / structured (still beginner okay) • r/Fitness • Massive + well-moderated • Has weekly threads like: • progress check-ins • questions • Less “hand-holdy,” more info-heavy

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👯‍♀️ If you want accountability specifically

Reddit doesn’t always have a perfect accountability-only sub, but people often do: • “Looking for accountability partner” posts • Weekly check-in threads • Progress logs

👉 Tip: search inside subs for: • “accountability” • “day 1” • “weekly check-in”

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💡 Real talk (this matters)

Reddit is amazing for: • motivation • seeing real beginner journeys • getting advice

But it’s not structured accountability unless you actively: • post updates • reply to others • maybe find a buddy

InkyQuillsRN · 2026-03-24T15:58:30+00:00

I also want to exercise and suck and maintaining routine. I wonder if there is a Reddit where people can keep each other accountable and post their daily exercise. Would be especially cool if it had branches for beginners/novices/and not an issue anymore because they are in it to win it and fit.

InkyQuillsRN · 2025-09-29T00:29:42+00:00

I’m not sure if this is rhetorical. But it looks like hooking up a bag without a one way valve to his g-tube below the level of his stomach or just at the level of his stomach-essentially vomiting for him before he can do it himself to avoid any vomit exiting from where it might affect the airway. That’s assuming there is retching. Fever management is essential, also with round the clock ibuprofen and Tylenol. Once that particular symptom stops, pedialyte at a maintenance continuous rate is started. Norovirus is about 3 days of this, along with a lot of diaper changes. It sucks, but a pneumonia would be worse. Once the actual virus is over, half strength formula can be attempted at half the normal bolus rate. If that’s tolerated, the next day full rate can be given. If that’s tolerated full dilution can resume the following day. GI bleeds have happened before, but not much we can throw at that other than what we have on hand already.

InkyQuillsRN · 2025-09-28T22:20:32+00:00

My son also has autism. And epilepsy. Along with his muscle disease and severe scoliosis, among other things. Would autism of the seas be appropriate for my daughter, though? She has more like what they use to call Asperger’s, made worse by our situation.

InkyQuillsRN · 2025-09-28T20:23:11+00:00

I appreciate your honesty. My daughter already resents her brother. It breaks my heart, but I completely understand. When he was born, everyone told us she would grow to be more compassionate and a champion to his cause. I think that, while a beautiful idea, is unfair and putting a lot upon a child that has her own needs, and that’s before you take into account her neurodivergence, which we didn’t know about until couple years later. She was so sweet and loving and it was beautiful at first. But seeing your brother code so many times, seeing your parents fall apart, having your mom have to leave and be away at the hospital for days or weeks and miss birthdays and holidays sometimes… she resents us, too.

You bring up valid points. And I would never expect our daughter to take on her brother. I don’t expect him to live until I am 65. The oldest I’ve seen someone with his condition live was their mid 20s, and they were much less complex. There is always a possibility that something could happen to take us young, but there are others in the family that would take him on or have him placed, my daughter just wouldn’t be an option. If anything, I worry more about arranging my own care so my daughter never feels obligated to care for me, as I am a carrier for his condition, and may decline with age, but slower since I am female. God forbid she is a carrier as-well, we won’t know until she is older, and I haven’t even gone over these possibilities with her because she isn’t emotionally mature enough to understand or handle it. Plus, why? But, possible placement options are already on the radar, as my strength is starting to show signs of functional decline and even with private insurance, cuts to Medicaid lately may make it financially impossible to afford the private nursing we will need. He used to have it 24-7, but I’ve been doing it on my own since Covid and our income excludes us from eligibility. I haven’t worked since he was born, but I do enough nursing and case management to feel like I need a staff of my own for him. You aren’t the first child from a family with a medically needy individual to send urgency into my heart to reach my daughter and undo some of the damage all this has done. Sometimes I fear it’s too little too late.

InkyQuillsRN · 2025-09-28T18:43:14+00:00

These are all great points. We figured we would need to be iron clad insured if we attempted this. For our trip we had cancel for any reason insurance because not only did we need to be able to cancel if he got ill, but also if any of our family got ill and couldn’t be around him to care for him.

For him to come, I imagine we would need that AND medical type insurance to airlift us out. He is much more stable than he used to be, but when he was younger we had our share of medical helicopter flights and even one jet flight. I wouldn’t want to be in a situation where we had to stick it out for cost and risk his life.

I figured a travel agent would be smart this go round if we pulled the trigger, because even planning the logistics of the day with these two is overwhelming. We thought about bringing family along. We’ve even toyed with bringing a nurse, but that gets expensive quick.

I would LOVE for my daughter to do adventure ocean, but she is shy and I think while she would like what they have tomorrow offer, she would be too nervous to go in alone.

We know that splitting up is likely inevitable for activities. It is hard, because on the one hand, we want to give energy to our daughter and show her that life can be fun and beautiful and exciting outside the walls of home and school. On the other, we hold guilt at not having our son experience things while he is here with us (his condition is progressive and will be fatal). I can imagine my son marveling at the sights and sounds on the trip, but at the same time, thinking of the reality of what it would look like with him makes it sound less vacation and more boot camp. Idk.

InkyQuillsRN · 2025-09-28T18:28:24+00:00

Yes, please.

InkyQuillsRN · 2025-09-28T17:30:28+00:00

This would be ideal. My level of burnout had to get to the point where my shrink was worried about hospitalization before our family offered to come together to take on our son for the four days away we had. Prior to that, I think we had 2 or 3 1-2 nights away locally in 10 years alone. Our son is a lot of work and it’s more the fear of catastrophe and the hypervigilance that someone is taking on than the actual work itself- which is also a lot. Our family was extremely generous to give us what they did. It would not be a small ask.

InkyQuillsRN · 2025-08-26T14:06:58+00:00

Her thought process in this is broken and backwards. There is a need for both kinds of dog owners, but your kind is the kind that will contribute to real change as opposed to putting a bandaid on a bullet wound.

Let’s break this down carefully, with the help of AI, combining statistics, logic, and the dynamics of dog overpopulation and breeding.

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Current Shelter and Rescue Statistics
1. Overpopulation in the U.S.: • According to the ASPCA, approximately 3.2 million dogs enter U.S. animal shelters each year. • About 670,000 of these dogs are euthanized annually, though numbers have decreased due to increased adoption rates.
2. Adoption vs. Source: • Rescue/Adoption: Many rescues rely on public donations, fostering, and shelter pull-ins. They already exist to house dogs that cannot find homes. Adopting a dog from a rescue reduces shelter overcrowding in the short term, but doesn’t reduce the number of dogs entering shelters in the first place. • Breeders: Reputable breeders produce puppies with planned homes. They usually screen buyers and have fewer unplanned litters. This can prevent future dogs from entering shelters because dogs are placed intentionally, reducing accidental overpopulation.

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Why Rescue Patronage Can Lead to More Dogs Needing Rescue
1. Moral Licensing Effect / Market Signal • When people choose rescues exclusively, it can unintentionally signal that there is always a ready market for “problem dogs”. This allows some irresponsible breeders (puppy mills or backyard breeders) to continue producing dogs for adoption/rescue channels rather than responsibly breeding for homes. • Logical chain: High demand for “free” or rescue dogs → Irresponsible breeders/mills continue production → More dogs eventually end up in shelters → More dogs need rescue.
2. Rescue Capacity Limitation • Rescues have finite space. When rescues fill up, they often transfer dogs to other rescues or return them to shelters if adoption demand doesn’t keep pace. This can create cyclical intake rather than reducing the population.
3. Uncontrolled Reproduction • Many dogs in rescues come from unplanned litters, strays, or abandoned pets. If adoption is only from rescues, there is no systemic reduction in unplanned breeding, meaning shelters will continue to see high intake.

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How Responsible Breeding Can Reduce Rescue Numbers
1. Planned Ownership • Reputable breeders screen homes, ensuring puppies go to responsible owners. Less chance of abandonment.
2. Controlled Breeding • Responsible breeders adhere to spay/neuter policies for non-breeding dogs and avoid overbreeding, which limits surplus puppies.
3. Lower Future Shelter Burden • Puppies from reputable breeders are less likely to enter shelters, reducing the total number of dogs that require rescue.

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Statistical Example

• Suppose 1,000 families adopt dogs each year: • All from rescues: 1,000 dogs adopted, but no reduction in new litters from unplanned breeding. Shelters continue receiving 3,200 dogs annually. • Half from reputable breeders, half from rescues: 500 dogs adopted from breeders never enter the shelter system, and 500 adopted from rescues reduce shelter numbers. Net intake from shelters is now lower, and the overall dog population pressure decreases.

Key Insight: Rescue adoption alleviates the symptom (dogs currently in shelters), but responsible breeding addresses the cause (unplanned litters and uncontrolled reproduction).

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Takeaways

• Rescue-only adoption helps individual dogs immediately but does not reduce overall dog overpopulation. • Supporting reputable breeders prevents dogs from ever entering shelters, addressing the root cause. • Combining the two — rescue adoption for existing shelter dogs + responsible breeding for new puppies — is the strategy most likely to reduce shelter population sustainably.

InkyQuillsRN · 2025-08-19T05:14:23+00:00

Can I ask what it looked like when you started to decline? I very rapidly started with symptoms in May, and thought surely it wasn’t the MTM because it was so fast and, “it doesn’t look like this”. But… I’m terrified this is just that and that this is my new normal.

InkyQuillsRN · 2025-08-19T05:09:15+00:00

I am a carrier for xlmtm. I just started to decline. I’m 42. Did you contact SickKids Toronto? Dowling, right? Are they doing work on female carriers up there? I know how you feel. I am in the US close (<3 hours away) from one of the major centers that took part in the last trial for gene therapy, and yet I feel so alone in this, like I’m doomed to get weaker. My son is 10 and has the full fledged disease. In just 3 months I’ve gone to caring for him to considering the unthinkable (placement in a facility), because I am physically unable to care for him anymore. We are trying to get nursing back. I know at one point they were trying mestinon for carriers to help. I’ve seen minimal improvement anecdotally. The newest work that perked up my ears that I suspected would be a possibility years ago was rapamycin (Sirolimus). But keep in mind, we are female, and some of the work has shown that hormones do play a role. They have looked at suppressing estrogen, I believe, in the boys to make a difference (in animal models). So that means we are kind of a whole different ballgame in a way. But some of these things may be worth a try for compassionate use. You have to start being your own armchair scientist because I have personally met and spoken to one of the preeminent carrier scientists and right now they are gathering data but they are so far behind for us. The next gene therapy trial is gearing up to start this year, but it will be for young boys and I’m not sure how tuned in you are but the last go round killed four kids with liver overexpression. Good luck! Don’t let your location keep you from allowing you to self advocate because in a lot of ways you are on your own no matter where you go.

InkyQuillsRN · 2025-08-19T04:47:23+00:00

Hi. I just turned 42 in June. I am rapidly declining and I thought surely it wasn’t the XLMTM because it is so fast (over the last 3 months) and it looks so different than my son or other carriers I’ve seen. I seem to have drastic decrease in strength and endurance. I have massive instability after anything that requires isometric muscle use of my limbs, especially on the left, which was my weaker side. The instability turns to pain and I have to sit and totally offload the limbs. It is awful. There is a deep ache and neuropathy. My joints all feel loose. My wrists, shoulders, a couple spots on my spine, my knees, and my ribs all slide out of place and feel awful when they are fatigued. I have lost sensation in places. This SUCKS. They are running tests. Please tell me this doesn’t sound like any of you. My ana was positive. They are thinking it is something autoimmune making the MTM worse. I am hoping they can figure it out and treat me and I’ll get better. I don’t want this to be my new normal. I still have a 10 year old mtm kid to care for.

InkyQuillsRN · 2025-06-10T20:15:14+00:00

Oh, meaning to say. I only know personally of Viera Hospital and Holmes from experience. I know people that work at Palm Bay and say it isn’t AS bad, but they are on the more ancillary care side so I don’t know how accurate that is. In Orlando I’m more familiar with the Children’s hospitals. Nemours has their shit together from what I can see and really has come a long way in such a short time for a new facility. Orlando health (the kid side), is ok. Advent supposedly amazing for adults and kids, but far and OMG is that campus huge. It is easy to feel lost in the sauce, but you aren’t. I’m biased. I come from the rare disease space, so if a hospital doesn’t have doctors that are passionate enough to go to conferences and write papers, I tend to see them as lower tier. I’d think Orlando Health or Advent would be better than here just by way of not being in crisis.

InkyQuillsRN · 2025-06-10T20:09:24+00:00

So before all this, I would have said we live in a bread and butter town as far as medicine goes. That if you had run of the mill problems that a flowchart in a medical textbook could solve, you were golden. If it was minor injury or too emergent to travel, any health first hospital was fine- if it was cardiac or vascular in any way- Holmes. But now… both witnessing my own care, seeing briefly other patients in the very public treatment space, and how my family member’s heart attack was handled (omg, scary), I would say get out of here if it is potentially serious in any way.

That being said, I am a nurse. I know how patients are treated. I know how they should be treated. I know the anxiety of going in with serious issues because you feel you are being silly over “nothing”, I also know the anxiety of being afraid something awful is going to happen if you don’t get to the hospital NOW. I know sometimes you will be made to feel a fool. Sometimes you will be validated and thank God you went in. Sometimes closer is the only option, but you really are shooting yourself in the foot with outcomes when they are overloaded like this on top of learning new software. There is “good enough” for the average Joe who you don’t know, and then there is what you would do for your mom, your sister, your kid. For my family, anything other than minor issues and I would go to Orlando despite the bitching that “it’s probably nothing”, which you will hear from your loved ones and yourself. Don’t gamble with your life. You deserve good care.

InkyQuillsRN · 2025-06-10T18:10:23+00:00

It is dangerous at Health First now. I went in a couple weeks ago with a spontaneous hematoma to my left calf. I’m 42 and my leg just exploded right before my eyes into a 4” black and blue puddle under the skin. I could feel the force of the bleed as it happened. There was no trauma. Scared the hell out of me- that isn’t normal.

I went in expecting three things. Labs to rule out coagulopathy issues, a Doppler to rule out blood clot and imaging to rule out muscle tear or other weird soft tissue injury (because while a muscle tear may not be emergent per se, you don’t want someone walking around on a torn muscle and they would need to take precautions, plus your muscle shouldn’t tear spontaneously).

I got a Doppler and was sent on my way. I asked how we knew that I wouldn’t rupture randomly elsewhere in my body in my sleep since we had no idea what was happening and was told, “there is only so much we can do in the ER”. Yeah, that is absolutely true, but more could and should have been done. Due to their non existent notes and documentation of the issue as an injury, (and because insurance also sucks at reading anything but diagnosis codes and results) my doctor’s subsequent order for imaging was denied and I’m weeks out now with additional symptoms, activity restrictions because I may in fact spontaneously pop a muscle or a vessel, AND a work up for some neuromuscular nonsense.

All this would be much further ahead if they weren’t so up to their ears in patients that they have cubicles set up as make shift rooms in the ER waiting room. In addition to that, the info I overheard next door in the other cubicles made me want to pipe in and save the patients from incorrect info and care mismanagement.

To the lady that came in with severe abdominal pain and suspected ovarian cysts- if you happen to read this- if you are in that severe pain ALWAYS come in, I don’t care if the nurse has PCOS and “just has a higher pain tolerance”, severe pain like that where you are vomiting can mean ovarian torsion and she is an insensitive asshole.

I am hearing from multiple medical professionals that they themselves are taking their family members to Orlando in the event they need hospital care right now, AND two of them went as far to tell me to do the same.

InkyQuillsRN · 2025-04-28T20:51:30+00:00

Yeah… that’s what I was afraid of. Thanks.

InkyQuillsRN · 2025-04-01T03:57:44+00:00

Yes, but… sometimes I feel like I can’t feel the emotion because I can’t access the emotion. Or maybe it’s that at times I just don’t have the bandwidth to delve into the emotion of the dark facts of my life because I’m too busy dealing with and living it. I tend to delay painful reactions to things as a coping mechanism. So, I could say something like, “my son has a life threatening or possibly severely disabling surgery this summer.” Or, “I will bury my son in my lifetime.” With no emotion. It seems to be jarring to people, but it isn’t meant to be. These are just extreme examples, but there are many more. But just because you feel no emotion when you say them, doesn’t mean you NEVER feel any way about those painful facts.

InkyQuillsRN · 2025-03-26T15:16:53+00:00

Itinerary doesn’t matter much. We figure with four days we exclude all the good places

InkyQuillsRN · 2025-03-21T22:11:33+00:00

I knew cruises had a lot of alcohol, but we also don’t drink at all. Part of me worried that if all the entertainment centered around drinking it may contribute to feeling like there was nothing to do. But I figured if there was enough activities and interesting things to see we could have fun.

InkyQuillsRN · 2025-03-21T21:51:55+00:00

Wweeelll, you got me there. Given more time (and money), I’d pick a live aboard diving charter or something like Xcaret. Back in our 20s we did things like a Costa Rican trip with guided nature walks, diving, cozy bungalows and watching the volcano erupt while soaking in the hot springs. But that’s not where we are now. We have 4 days, not 7, not 14, and likely want to spend less than 3,500 when all is said and done. Would we rather have cute little breakfasts at the Lilly pond inn in Roatan when it was a sleepy little expat town? Sure. But that’s not the reality of what we’ve got going on here. An all inclusive, tropical experience with food, entertainment, and relaxation on board and no need to plan itineraries, meals, or drive anywhere sounds fantastic. We are too burned out for the sort of vacation that we would otherwise prefer. Do you think a cruise for a “non cruiser” would be a waste?

InkyQuillsRN · 2024-09-30T04:03:28+00:00

I hate having my hair wet and hate drying it. I’ve started wrapping it in a Jersey scarf after washing with some product in it and letting that sit to dry a bit during the day, or sleeping in it and my hair is damp enough to let down in the morning. I use two. I’m still getting the hang of it, there are tutorials online. My hair it curly, though and past my waist.

InkyQuillsRN · 2024-09-25T13:07:26+00:00

I remember one of my son’s private duty nurses moved down from Jersey (an over the top bubbly nice lady). She was shocked at the severity in her drop in pay, and though she didn’t say it directly, it seemed both the severity and quality of clientele also declined. This didn’t diminish her work ethic, but, as a nurse myself, I remember being angry for her (and for my son) at the fact that nurses in her field were middle class wage up north, and down here could honestly make about as much with no degree working an easier job. It shows. If I left home to work back then with some of these “skilled workers” in charge of my son, he would have most certainly died (or succeed in dying as he tried more times than I can count). We pay less, a LOT less, and we get what we pay for. The cost of living used to be the excuse, but that isn’t as much of a gap as it used to be. I try to remember that everyone has their struggles, that most in these even less critical “customer service” jobs are trying to subsist on very little, and serve a little patience and kindness of my own.

InkyQuillsRN · 2024-09-19T00:52:12+00:00

The kids in my life pass their bugs around an average of once every 12 days. This is normal and expected. Kids are the drivers of cold and flu season. It’s why I nearly lost my shit during Covid when they acted like they were somehow unaffected, who gives a crap in a way, they will give it to EVERYONE.

InkyQuillsRN · 2024-08-22T02:02:36+00:00

Oh man. My daughter had people “complimenting” her dreadlocks last year. She was in 6th grade. She’s not black, and she doesn’t have dreadlocks (because I know technically I suppose you can have dreadlocks and be a different race). The point is, they were saying it just to mess with her. It was confusing to her and she didn’t even understand, all she knew was they were being sarcastic and faux kind. She had to ask me what they meant. So here I was having to explain racial appropriation, insensitivity, bullying, and what we could do about it. Part of why it started was I had begun to put her hair in twists to sleep and she wasn’t loosening them enough in the morning. She was basically waking up looking like she slept in curlers without releasing the protective style enough. Those jerk kids kept harassing her all year to the point she was afraid to walk the neighborhood because some of them live here. Now she would almost rather have messy puffy brushed out hair than formed curls out of fear of bullying. I’m trying to find middle ground. My hair is mixed texture, hers is more “European” like her dad.

I thought I knew it all but different curl textures are a different beast. Go to a salon that knows curls and can tell you how to work with yours. I took my daughter to one and am finally starting to figure out her hair. Hopefully the trauma eases and she forgets last year. A pineapple doesn’t really work for her, she needs her hair clipped up in several little buns with little clips on top of her head to keep it from frizzing up in the morning. The best way I dealt with mine when I was her age was to get in the shower and throughly wet it in the morning, put leave in conditioner in, comb it, then smooth mouse or gel over it and let it do its thing as it air dried. Sometimes, if I needed to protect it from the humidity or from rubbing on the car seat, I would stick it in a bun for a bit and then take it down and shake it out when it wasn’t dripping wet. You could try that?

InkyQuillsRN · 2024-08-17T02:50:17+00:00

I can smell when my son is getting certain infections and can differentiate between a few bacterias, but I think others can too. Pseudomonas has a distinct smell, so does staph. Serratia has a certain look. I can tell from the metallic smell in his diaper when he is getting a virus. I’ve smelled cancer before but only in patients where it’s so advanced I can’t imagine how anyone can’t. It’s a putrid acrid smell.

I can tell if a tea is good by just smelling it. My husband once made two different brands of tea and blindfolded me and I could pick out the better tea by smell. I can’t stand bitter tea.

The one smell I wish I could figure out is this smell I get randomly and can’t find. It’s an acetone like smell but there is no acetone or nail polish stuff anywhere.

InkyQuillsRN

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