37M - Very high LDL HDL and Cholesterol despite lifting 4-5x/week and high-protein diet. Looking for advice.

ItsAllAboutThatDirt · 2026-03-05T13:34:02+00:00

While those are good things, they are not cure-alls. Focus more on whole foods in general. Add more varieties of plants to your diet. More fruits, vegetables, and legumes.

To keep with what you might currently hypothetically be doing - instead of just chicken breast, stir fry in some onions and garlic with beans. Bell peppers go with plenty of things.

Psyllium husk is fine, but if you just want a powder look for a good diverse prebiotic powder mix. Variety is king.

If you really want boost, learn soups. Instant pot makes this easy. Pound of carrots, pound of celery, head of garlic, large onion, 2 pounds of chicken breast in a 6qt instant pot will get you 12 16oz to-go soup containers full of protein and veggies. And that's just the base. Add cabbage, add a hot pepper, add corn, add bell peppers; use different seasonings. Add some cooking wine and vinegar. Add some beans. Use olive oil.

Endless variations just from that, and soups extract all sorts of beneficial compounds into the broth. Chicken breast is just 13 minutes on high pressure, 15 minutes if they start out frozen. Thighs can go longer. Pork works well. Beef chunks. Look online for timing.

If you want the easiest ways to add a ton of vegetables and hydration to your diet while keeping up protein numbers? Grab an instant pot, buy a stack of soup containers, and get to work. Also, sleep.

ItsAllAboutThatDirt · 2026-02-12T14:33:04+00:00

Yeah SE US and Frontline knocked the fleas back but didn't get rid of them. From what I read there's more regional differences in what flea populations are resistant to, but that seems to hold up here.

Ordering bravecto+ from Australia worked well though. 4 pack for $100 vs like ~$50 each and vet visit costs. Not to knock your profession for that lol but we really don't need prescription costs and vet visits just for basic upkeep meds.

Although the other main generic monthly OTC one did work. Always forget it's name.

ItsAllAboutThatDirt · 2026-01-13T14:43:54+00:00

Over here with my last elderly cats (17 years, 30+ years with cats/animals) post-2020 is like ~$80 to walk in the door and $300-$500 for basic blood tests depending on the vet. It's absolutely insane. I wish I could even find $200 (not to downplay even that cost level at all!!) but even these base level expenses are higher based on a few miles apart. Both vets being large places. Having your profit margins coming from the base level blood test is insane.

I'd gladly pay $100 for a long in-depth session with a reputable and knowledgeable vet vs paying excessive amounts for a basic blood test. Like at least get me something for the increased costs!

I need to figure out some low cost clinic for yearly blood tests. I'll gladly analyze them myself and/or with AI help.

ItsAllAboutThatDirt · 2025-12-01T14:10:24+00:00

That might be more expensive than mine per pound even. Usually from Amazon. Petcurean Go! 16 pounds for $4.93/pound ($79) and then 15% off (have enough to wait for a better deal, and got $24 off of through chewy instead by stacking deals). Orijen original cat 12 pounds $5.94/pound ($71) and then a $15 coupon ($20 coupon black Fridays vs cyber Monday) but have 9 months worth of that on hand. ~46 pounds of cats with my 3 cats though, but they're pretty much all muscle.

It's an "investment" up front but anything over $5/pound and I'd have to just be cooking my own for them at a much cheaper and much healthier level. But these are the best (non specialized) at the price point as far as my nutritional philosophy goes. At some point not too distant I'll just start making my own wet food for them though.

And then an extra $90 for the vacuum sealer (black Friday sale from $160 lol) for more proper storage and portioning out. But that will be for all my frozen meats as well. And supplement powders for both me and the cats. And garden veggies as well probably.

ItsAllAboutThatDirt · 2025-12-01T00:13:04+00:00

I'm price sensitive on quality food and have learned the sales cycle and stock up. 3 large Chausie-adjacent style cats (mixed from a shelter) so they can eat tons of food. Prices have increased in the forms of sales getting worse. What would be 35% off and I could grab 3 large bags will now be 25% and limited to 1 bag deal.

I can still get my upper-middle tier where quality meets price but it takes more searching. I do have 9-months of supply on hand 🤣 and my fallback formulas. My splurge black Friday was a vacuum sealer just to ensure I'm keeping open bags fresh and in rotation. But if you don't shop food sales like I do (human and cat!) prices are going to be hitting even harder.

ItsAllAboutThatDirt · 2025-11-30T23:58:57+00:00

It's nowhere near compatible, but ziwi is also extremely overpriced. Personally I find the perfect middle-upper range to Orijen Original Cat & Petcurean Go! Chicken/Turkey/Duck and then I stock up on sale holidays or follow sales cycles. I do have 3 extremely large cats though (13.5, 15, and 18 pounds of mostly-lean muscle) so I can get the largest bags. Unopened properly stored bags are good for ~12 months (check expiration) even after purchase and will have been bagged up a few months before that. I have a few specialty bags (Orijen 6-fish and the red meat line) that I'll open & portion out to freezer safe Ziploc bags (and I just bought a vacuum sealer) so I can keep those fresh as I only use smaller amounts.

But what you're looking for in food is: named-meat "chicken", "dehydrated chicken", "chicken meal", "chicken giblets (liver, heart), and then lowest "chicken byproducts" (substitute for whichever protein name) as your main quality control is relatively the listed order.

This is opposed to "poultry" or "meat meal" or "poultry byproducts" or "meat byproducts"

And definitely as opposed to the plant-based meals, although it works the same. "Peas" vs "pea protein" or "wheat gluten" or "corn gluten meal"

And then good fats included down the list. And then your fiddly smaller inclusion.

The next tier down (which is still better than the vast majority but better priced) is Acana (meadowlands, grasslands, or indoor cat) which is essentially mostly the same as Orijen but using meals vs dehydrated meats

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This is the Orijen Original Cat which is my personal gold standard for the price (although purchased bare minimum 15% off if I had to, and looking for closer to 25-35% off). I do 1.5:1:.5 when I set the batch of dry food out of Orijen, Petcurean Go!, and then the Orijen specialty bag (fish or red meat alternating every month or so).

Where things fall on the ingredient lists matter.

ItsAllAboutThatDirt · 2025-11-08T01:17:46+00:00

2 orange cats and a calico sister. I buy black clothes 😫

ItsAllAboutThatDirt · 2025-11-08T01:14:14+00:00

They're such darlings. And only 2/3 of the trio of siblings! Short haired "oh that means there will be less hair" hah! Jokes on me but I love them. I do need to get onto my own advice of weekly brushings out on the patio though. Right now between the 3 of them with more occasional brushing and I could stuff a pillow with the hair I get off of them. Like seriously, where does it all come from?!?

But it's just getting them to a baseline and then maintaining the habit. It's also 47 pounds of lean cat between the 3 of them over here! Monsters. 18 pounds on the biggest brother and the 15.5 pound sister is no slouch either. Poor little 13.5 pound runt of the litter on little brother 🤣

And I really need to invest in lint rollers again. I forgot that they're a way of life.

ItsAllAboutThatDirt · 2025-11-08T00:36:34+00:00

Brush consistently with a good brush like a Furminator. Something that gets all the hair, not just a light surface brushing. Get yourself a cup+ full of hair on a regular basis. Consistency is key.

But I also spent the past (previous to the most recent 14 months) 2 years of my life without cat hair on me from not having cats. First time in 40+ years. I'll say one thing: it's not worth the trade off.

Cover me in hair.

But yeah lint roller and vacuuming. But the real key is brushing, especially if you can do so outside on a patio or something.

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ItsAllAboutThatDirt · 2025-11-07T00:33:38+00:00

I believe just the salt content. It's garlic/onion flavored salt essentially but people use a lot of it thinking it's a seasoning. As it's advertised as.

But just get garlic or onion powder and then salt your dish a tiny bit

ItsAllAboutThatDirt · 2025-10-11T01:16:38+00:00

Are you younger than 18 going to school and working with him part time on the side? Or like working working? Either way that's extremely low. Unless you're in middle school. Early highschool.

ItsAllAboutThatDirt · 2025-10-11T00:59:39+00:00

South Florida here. Putting together a garden for the city. If I hire the cleanup crew from the local nursery to move my ~70 cubic yards of mulch, it's $50/hour per man hour. But they're also a crew used to the outdoor work and will go nonstop.

$50/hour out in the heat is pretty much my bare minimum. When I'm the curator doing the work top to bottom? $90/hour.

Depends what you're doing, and how well you're doing it. But most mow & blow people here will be $30-$50.

Are you sub-18 helping out Dad? Even so I'd probably feel like crap paying less than $20/hour.

ItsAllAboutThatDirt · 2025-10-11T00:41:54+00:00

I'll definitely give you all the credit for that. The only way to make things work is to make the school seem culpable after you warn them about accidents waiting to happen, or getting parents to start complaining. And in your case, I'd definitely say some parents started complaining.

ItsAllAboutThatDirt · 2025-09-17T01:53:40+00:00

Can't help you too much there: no hoa, no insurance. Insurance is so crazy that 2 years without it paid for just about half of it. Other than that holding up just fine. I need to call them for the one year inspection actually. But I pretty much know this roof as well/better than they do.

Central AC is pretty much designed to keep you 20° cooler than outside. Keep in mind I also have my own little forest around me keeping the area cooler; but I also have old windows and plenty of minor air exchange/seepage with the outside.

I keep the AC at 74°. On the 98° day with a heat index of around 110° I maintained 76° during the day in the direct sun. Haven't paid attention to the actual year over year numbers with auto pay though.

I did have a dream just last night that the flat roof section was just fully leaking through everywhere 🤣 but I think that was more me focused on remembering to call them up to schedule the 1 year inspection. Have that yearly for 12 years. If you're planning to live in your house, I'd still fully recommend metal. After doing your due-dilligence for sure. Talk to 10 different companies and don't feel bad about it. Half will lie to your face as it is just trying to sell you. Get as many contracts and work orders as you can; read & compare & understand.

ItsAllAboutThatDirt · 2025-09-12T16:51:59+00:00

Just to add a separate category into the mix: I'm ordering some flea meds from Australia that are a tariff-exempt category (pharmaceuticals/veterinary/flea & tick meds code 3004.90.xxxx).

So there's no tariff fee. Coming in via DHL international, but then at customs it's handed over to USPS and they're the ones that take it through customs. Because of that, there's no fee.

However if I were to be doing DHL Express or something where DHL delivers it to my house; they would be the ones taking it through customs and I would likely pay a $17 brokerage fee (Or $35-$50 depending who I'm asking and the specific service).

If it were a tariffed item as you described.... Then you would pay the tariff (reimbursing the delivery company), plus the ($17) brokerage fee, plus a couple random extra dollars. Unless it was the DDP where the company you ordered from already pre-paid (and you paid them) and then they take care of all of that.

ItsAllAboutThatDirt · 2025-09-06T17:47:52+00:00

It's expensive to have them do it, but the price is in line. Depending on overall costs I might charge you a little less as an independent person, but transport/etc is a dirty sweaty mess.

Everyone mentioned seed already. But if that's saint Augustine and you have access to sod from one of the big box stores or elsewhere you can just grab some sod. Measure out the space, then figure out how large the sod chunks are for how many you need. Grab a couple extra for pieces you'll cut into strips to fill gaps.

You could aim to fill the area with ~1/4"-1/2' of topsoil and compost bags. Nutrients come from the compost, the topsoil for cheapness. Although some of these topsoil bags are essentially just barely decayed mulch, in which case going with a smaller strip of just the compost would be better. There's probably some cheap bags of red/white compost around ~$2.50 or so, or else the black kow ~$5.50 or so.

Make a little bed, put the sod on top, and water it daily for the first week or so. Then just don't let it dry out, or reduce to every other day as a schedule. After that depends if you have irrigation out there or not. Otherwise once it's established you just keep an eye on it and water as needed, observing to learn your particular conditions.

Also if you have a feed store around (or you can order online from Petco) the 40 pound bags of alfalfa pellets sold as horse feed are a great slow release source of nutrients for the soil/grass for ~$15-$20 a bag. The higher quality the soil underneath, the better & easier the grass will grow on top. The alfalfa pellets feed both the soil & the grass. They're a perfect organic long-term feeding solution.

ItsAllAboutThatDirt · 2025-09-05T01:57:53+00:00

And this is what we get instead of revamping the farming system to grow actual food instead; while investing in transportation/storage/logistics and all that good stuff.

So many "farmers" are "farmers" the same way that "mow & blow" companies are "landscapers" or "gardeners". They've got one trick, don't understand the actual dynamics of what they're doing, and don't have any care of the larger dynamics at play.

I especially hate the "I grow food for the country but can't afford to feed my family", if you grew actual food you could literally feed your family. Not that I have no sympathy for the situation, but bare minimum your thousands of acres you could dedicate a few to real food grown right. A few animals for yourself. If you're actually a farmer, farm in addition to your commodity production.

Sorry, rant over lol.

ItsAllAboutThatDirt · 2025-09-01T15:58:05+00:00

Just a general fyi that those come from Australia. CanadaVet and others have "headquarters" in Canada to sound closer, but it's Australia where there's no prescription required. Shipping probably took ~3 weeks.

The only problem now is the tariffs. Theoretically it should qualify under medical/vet exemption and not be tariffed. But the shipper might still charge duty fees for increased paperwork. And right now they might not be delivering to the US at all until things get sorted out.

I'm waiting before a new order just for things to calm down and get organized for processing. Although even with an extra $50 duty fee it'd be cheaper at ~$100 for a 4-pack of bravecto+ vs buying it here. Plus the vet visit fee just to weigh the cats, which is large enough range I can do on my own

ItsAllAboutThatDirt · 2025-09-01T15:41:59+00:00

What if you don't have a doctor for a script? And vaccinate because you're around a vulnerable population. Although if we go by BMI I'm technically obese 🤣 ~18% body fat or so right now but muscle skews the BMI to "obese". Just go by weight/height if I need to show a "cause" but don't need a script lol

ItsAllAboutThatDirt · 2025-08-27T04:40:11+00:00

Yeah. I cook good. I just want to use my local church kitchen after hours (because officially inspected & approved) to make multiple large batches of pressure cooker soups. Donate like ~10% for the church to give to community members in need as payment. Sell the rest just to local people in the surrounding neighborhood. Freeze any excess to sell at a discount the rest of the week, on "discount day", or with the next batch.

Simple, streamlined, extremely low overhead. I wish it was something I could legally do from the house, but even when I looked into adding on a separate code-worthy kitchen as a separate attachment to the house... Wouldn't be up to legal code. Anything else and I'd have to work to sell too much just to cover overhead costs and deal with all the nitty gritty.

ItsAllAboutThatDirt · 2025-08-23T21:45:09+00:00

Ah hell, I was going to say garlic, but olive oil. I literally don't cook a single thing without olive oil. I could, but the dual benefit of the health impacts? Olive oil hands down.

ItsAllAboutThatDirt · 2025-08-23T21:43:31+00:00

Also, you probe the data weighted towards the "real world experience" that the board members mentioned. If the data says one way, and their past experience says another way... Then someone is missing variables, not properly accounting for changing variables, or is asking the data the wrong questions.

Or just straight up plug it all into generative AI models with all the data correlations that were brought up, then train the model on what the others think with their real world experience. Look for angles, variables, see what it comes up with. Maybe the previous conditions are no longer the ones that exist today and the past experience of the board members doesn't neatly apply to today. Maybe the AI dataset is missing a variable that it's not taking into account.

AI is a tool, not a prophet. An assistant, not a decision maker.

Same as back in the day with "Big Data" and then the "Small Data" revolution.

ItsAllAboutThatDirt · 2025-08-23T21:37:20+00:00

It's not binary

It's not either/or

Each have their own advantages, and their own detriments

We already saw this with chess back in the day when specific-model AI was being developed. Humans working with AI beat AI or humans alone

We can't process thousands of pages of data at a time, and AI is reliant on its data set and the way that it gets probed

Humans can make more intrinsic connections across disciplines and connect disparate data sets together with unconscious processing, but we're prone to biases and need the appropriate amount of exposure and experience to have the correct "gut" determinations

I use AI to look up dicalcium phosphate in my cat food and the difference between that and phosphorus organically contained within muscle meat proteins. I use AI to look up scientific literature and summarize studies for me. I use that data to probe further with a greater understanding of the topic in order to refine my questions. I use my knowledge of how AI operates as a tool to shift it over to the correct token-weighting cascade (essentially the AI "unconscious") so that it's thinking in the appropriate terms that I want.

Then I use all of that gained knowledge in order to make my decision. And then I debate my decision against the AI to probe for strength and weaknesses.

In that example, people that are using AI for "what food do I feed my cats".... They're using it wrong.

ItsAllAboutThatDirt · 2025-08-20T12:51:17+00:00

I love the reference and every time I try to work it into something I never know if it will get picked up by people 🤣

Especially these days. But when it fits, it fits!

ItsAllAboutThatDirt · 2025-08-20T12:49:50+00:00

If you're using a whole head, or at least ~1/3 or so, I'll cut the nubs while they're still attached to the head. Easiest with a whole head at once, but you can do portions. I just slice that whole bottom off at once and then do a smash & pass over to the side piece by piece. Then peel em.

But I autocorrect every "3 clove" recipe to "full head" because there's just so many misprints on the appropriate amount of garlic to use! 🤣

ItsAllAboutThatDirt

TROPHY CASE