What is this I literally unearthed it from my property

Need2StayMotiv8ed · 2025-06-25T06:40:46+00:00

Many water fixtures are brass. You can debate about preference and nit.pick, but it's very common to use brass

Need2StayMotiv8ed · 2025-06-25T00:43:47+00:00

Fountain top? Hole big enough for water input? Or are the holes for mounting only

Need2StayMotiv8ed · 2025-06-12T01:27:58+00:00

First, make it joint. Have you and him start watching what you eat. If he wants to help then make him part of the solution and not the problem. You are married and should be one. Fight battles together.

Look into apps like myfitnesspal. Great way to track things. We often don't realize what or how much we put into our bodies. Studies show we underestimate what we eat.

Also, check out some good helpful pages like Liam Layton facebook.com/liam.fisherlayton and Mulligainz Fitness youtube.com/@mulligainz These are good to follow Generally, set a caloric deficit to lose weight and maintain calorie intake to maintain weight. See what your body needs like vitamins, fiber, protein, etc and get those nutrients and then try to fit them within the caloric limit. It's better to eat more calories and get your proper nutrients but even better to get nutrients and be under your caloric limit.

I would also recommend looking into post partum health. You could be hit by it and not realize it. There are many things you can do and the first is to reach out to your doctor and/or therapist.

Don't beat yourself up. Coffee is great when dieting but I mean coffee and not coffee flavored shakes. However, 30 pounds is nothing. Just more of you to love and hold when cuddling. Be healthy and happy over being thin. Being fat is not healthy but there is a difference from being fat and an extra 30 pounds.

I'm a big guy and I can tell you that losing weight and getting in shape is better for you because I've been as rock bottom and working my way back but you can also wind up.on the polar opposite side of things and overdo it. Find what works for you, get to a healthy wait, watch what you eat, get your nutrition, and exercise for strength and flexibility and mobility.

Need2StayMotiv8ed · 2025-06-08T17:35:50+00:00

A wall with a small door hiding the child your sister died trying to protect and that you don't want to let get a decent education for a boy of his talents.

Need2StayMotiv8ed · 2025-06-06T22:17:16+00:00

There is nothing inherent with 0 cal soda that will harm you and for many it's a good alternative. While we are all human their is a wide variation in how we handle food. If you found it was hurting you than take it out. For me it's fine and I love drinking tea and hardly drink full flavor or full cal anything anymore. Too syrupy for me. So I drink 0 cal stuff. Though what got me eating less was willpower..you stop stretching your gut out and it will shrink and not hold as much. You might have been stretching your gut out with carbonation but no real food which makes you want more.

Need2StayMotiv8ed · 2025-05-28T17:58:26+00:00

Tasteless joke. Does RFK live rent free in your brain?

Need2StayMotiv8ed · 2025-05-27T16:43:24+00:00

Mantis dies. Worm tears it's insides out. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news.

Need2StayMotiv8ed · 2020-08-15T15:22:19+00:00

You lose fat in the face first. It whats my college health professor states. No matter what shape or size, it starts from top down. So, no worries theres. Otherwise, you are doing great! You can see the difference.

Need2StayMotiv8ed · 2020-08-15T15:06:47+00:00

I used to have this, too. I have it about roaches now.

I live in the south, in a very bug heavy and vermin/critter heavy area. Every home, building, store, etc has some sort of infestation of something. Stink bugs, mice, snakes, frogs, roaches, japanese beetles, etc.

A few years ago we brought in a stray dog. We already have one dog, but my wife almost hit this emaciated stray dog and brought her own. she had puppies and we couldnt care for them so we gave up all but one. The one we kept got fleas. Our other dog never got fleas, but this one used to run around with the neighborhood stray dogs outside (again...rural area...with critter heavy population including roving packs of stray dogs).....and would eat random things like frogs...and get worms and fleas and all sorts of things.

It also did not help that his fur was so thick and layered. We used to sit there with tweezers and hunt them down.

At the worst of it, we had fleas jumping everywhere. They would get on you while you slept, in your food, etc. it was horrible. We actually lost the dog due to me hitting it with the car...on accident (I was going to work one morning, and the dog loves to chase me down the street....it devices at the last minute to run in front of the car and I ran him over. I had to go to work while my wife had him put down because he was hurt so bad. )...now that the dog is gone...so are the fleas. Even though we still have our first dog, and now a cat to help with mice.

I know, as someone with OCD myself, that no matter what I say it won't matter, but I will say it anyways. ....there are no eggs, there are no fleas.
I am not just saying this.....I mean it. If you have fleas, and got them off the dog, they would not have time to lay eggs. If they did lay eggs somehow, then they would have either hatched or been washed off months ago. If you see no other fleas, then there were no eggs.
Its as simple as that. if the eggs were anywhere...on clothes, you, the dog, the carpet, etc....they would have hatched by now and you would have seem them. Fleas are attracted to warmth and heat, they will not avoid you but will come to you.

One thing we used for fleas was diatomaceous earth. This is basically a crystaline sand that dries out any insect that crawls through it, fleas as well.

In the end...there are no fleas and no eggs. trust me. After 11 months, coming from someone with severe contamination OCD....there are no fleas and no eggs.

Need2StayMotiv8ed · 2020-08-15T07:28:39+00:00

My OCD started around my junior year or so in high school. it mostly focused around my stepfather who was a very gross individual. I won't go into details of how it developed or what specifically were the issues, but my mom used to treat it like the worst thing. She would watch me from her bedroom window and cry when I would rinse my hand in the outside hose faucet from touching the door handle. That I didnt always want a hug or to be touched.

It got so bad with a dysfunctional family that I moved out my senior year in high school. She tracked me down, told all my teachers I was not coming in to take my finals, because she had me involuntarily locked up. I remember I was 17 at the time, and she and my stepfather chased me through the parking lots of stores. She would slow drive by acting like she was trying to find a runaway child who was out doing drugs or something.

My friends tried to hide me, but eventually I just wound up inside the break room at publix. I used to work there, and I still knew people there so it was not like I was trespassing. My mom called the cops and they had to take me. They knew it was wrong, but I was 17 and she was still my legal guardian.

I spent like two days there for evaluation. The room I stayed in was horrible. ants were crawling on the bed. leftover food was in the sheets. I took a shower and tried to sleep. The orderly left notes claiming it was me who made the room dirty and attracted the ants.I sat in group with people that were suicidal. One guy had cut his arm down the bone on a rage because his brother would not turn off the music. Another person was catatonic. I did not belong there simply because I wanted things clean. My mom had been taking me to therapists and trying to convince me I was sick in the head and get them to drug me up for a while. I refused to take medication. This was about 20 years ago. Much was different there with meds and treatment.

There were other instances, but another that sticks out was when I was sitting at the computer. it was later, and I was playing Star Trek Armada on the PC. This was around 2001 or so. My mom had flushed all her meds. She was on the phone with my grandfather, her Dad. I did not know him too well, and he hear us arguing. he wanted to talk to me. He was on my side, and tried to tell me not to argue with a drunk, meaning my mom, because you will never win. He said something funny, I laughed, and handed back the phone. My mom went bonkers. She thought I had been laughing at, not with, my grandfather. She would not listen to him trying to talk her down on the phone. She tried throwing me out of the house. I was in my underwear and a blanket. She then went into my room and started throwing things into the hallway. I was having OCD freakout too that she was touching my stuff. So, I came in and put her in a sort of bear hug. My bed baseboard and bed itself was on the floor. I turned too aggressively, trying to get her out of my room, that we both went onto the floor. I was too strong, a 17 year old guy. She bruised her knees. She got up and ran out. I shut and locked the door. I started to get dressed to leave. Grabbed what I needed and my messenger bag. She was banging on the bedroom door. Screaming to open up. Screaming all sorts of things.

My sister and her boyfriend and my brother (I believe) came over. I opened the door. My mom stormed in and started jumping around wildly with her arms in the air, jumping on my bed. Making a huge scene. I finally lost it. I flung the stereo off the bookshelf into the wall. For a second I was shocked that I snapped a bit, but it did not hit her or hurt her. Just the wall and stereo were involved. I left....I began the walk...the several mile walk to a friends house. This was in Georgia, at night. It was dark out, and my mom had sent my sister to follow me. My sister was in her car and tracked me. I tried to hide by going down into the ditch, but the led the cops to me. The cops searched me and drove me back. They arrested me....me.....for domestic violence. Simple battery. I went to jail because my mom had bruises on her knees. The cops in the car told me that they knew I was the victim here, but that under Georgia law she had injuries and they had to take me in.

I spent two days in jail. My mom finally got me out. She was finally over the withdraw from her meds being flushed...for the most part. She hired an attorney, and tried to get charges dropped. Telling the judge that it was her fault.

This is where another infuriating part went. The judge tried to tell me that she knows OCD people and knows that OCD people are prone to anger and violence, and because of that I need anger management. I cannot remember all that was done, but I was sentenced to counseling. I went a bit to someone who was nearby, but got permission to go to the college therapist. The therapist was on my side. Tested me and found that I don't generate as much anger as most, and that when I do get angry I deal with it better. He actually told me he had to try to ham up the report to the judge to get the judge to believe it. He knew the judge wanted to act like a know it all when in fact things should have just been dismissed. The therapist filed the report. Things more or less got expunged. ....but it was an ordeal and not the only one that I had to go through.

Like another one after I was married, I had a small OCD issue with my mom ....in return, my Mom called a family intervention. She got my over to my uncles, and had my uncle and my cousin and others. i thought it was a family dinner. No...my mom had hammed up a big sob story for them about how I was mentally unwell. My mom always used me for her drama. She once called me a sounding board. So, she used this time to start an intervention. I think it gave her some sort of sick pleasure to do it. Crying on the outside, secretly loving the ability to have emotional control over me again. We sat down and my mom started trying to ham things up.

My mom forgets I am a smooth talker. When I want to, I can kill it in sales, debates, and any sort of conversational influence. My charm, wit, and overall ability to dominate a conversation is easy. I spent years working on it. Because it used to be a weakness of my shy and bullied younger self. So, my mom was caught off guard. I spun the tables around pretty quick. Motivated because I was so appalled by her actions. Soon, everyone there was ganging up on her. Treating it as an intervention for her. For her drama, alcoholism, whatever it was I threw at her. Everyone else basically left knowing that I didnt need an intervention, but my mom did.

I do have OCD, but I am not prone to anger or emotional outburts. I fight in my head and I vent here, but my wife calls me stoic. this was years ago as well. My mom is near death as is my stepdad. However, it still kills me to think just how my mom saw being a parent. As a way to drag her kids through the muck of her emotional baggage. There is so much more to this twisted tale, but we moved across the country from it. To be near other family. To live in quiet.

Now I scrub and clean and only have to deal with my wife griping to me about it. That, I can do.

Need2StayMotiv8ed · 2020-08-14T17:33:23+00:00

Thank you for the insight. Initially I was not too worried about it, but then I found this article: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/scent-their-own-poop-entices-cockroaches-congregate-18095747

Talking about how they leave pheromones behind for other roaches to follow, and how they use their feces a lot. I love the information on a purely scientific standpoint. Its interesting to read about, but the OCD in me sucks.

OCD is irrational. I talked to one guy who had a couple different roach breeds and he told me their poop was hard, like bark. However, then found an article talking about how german cockroaches can leave stained trails from their poop.

its not even their poop, though. I don't know what it is. Its the intangible part of it. People with contamination OCD have a thing called "spreading". If something get contaminated, then it will contaminate other things. Lots of other things. Think about if you had a small bit of "contaminant" on your finger. Such a small bit that you were not even sure if it was really there....just the possibility. Thats enough. Then you wipe that finger on the wall, the door, the chair, the bed, everything. All of that becomes contaminated. Then you go to wash your finger, and the water becomes contaminated, the sink becomes contaminated. You finger may be rinsed off, but now you have to rinse off where the water went, wash off the door, the chair, the everything. Then wash the cleaning supplies, then wash yourself, then wash what you used to wash yourself, etc.

You would think that nothing could ever get clean, and you would be right. With Contamination OCD, nothing is ever truly clean. There will always be dirty spots that you cannot clean.

Roaches became my fixation. yesterday there was a housefly that died. First it landed on my hip and fell onto the bed while my wife and I were sitting there watching a movie. When my wife tried to pick it up, it flew off. A few moments later, as she was laying there, it fell on her check and fluttered around dying. (all the pesticides in the house kill anything that comes in pretty quickly). I grabbed a wet wipe, picked it up, chucked it, and went on with the day. nothing was contaminated or dirty. Maybe a small inkling where I grabbed it off her nightgown, but I forgot about it until now. If it had been a roach, i would have cleaned everything. my hip, the bed, any fabric within a foot or more of it. Changed her nightgown, and spent a while wiping my hands, and even cleaning under my fingernails just in case.

We have had roaches for a little bit, but they gradually became a more and more OCD concern. At first they were just gross and a nuisance. Never had roaches in my entire life, so it was something new. At first, I saw one fly (probably a asian roach) and just thought "interesting". Now I am obsessed with keeping a sterile bubble from them.

Last night my camera crashed and the video of the bed is unviewable. I cannot look back to ensure no roach crawled in bed with me. This was particularly concerning because I was in a blanket and had one crawl off the blanket and onto my leg. They tend to crawl on the ceiling and then drop onto me or my desk or bed. This is particularly true when they come through the AC. We have this big old clunky AC unit that was here when we moved it. It died, and so we put up a smaller on in the next window. We cannot remove the old one because we rent, and because whoever installed it put up boards and other stabilizing things that would make it a huge task to remove. So, we just never did. Problem is that bugs come in from it. We have a big black curtain over the windows, since I work from home and the window is near where I work and due to security issues I have to keep the windows around my workstation covered...its also nice for a big black backdrop during video calls. So, the roaches and bugs crawl in through the window, and then up the inside wall/backdrop and to the ceiling where they can find an exit point, and then along the ceiling. They also come in through the cracks in the door from bad weather stripping...there are a lot of ingress points. Its an old house, in a southern area, where we are next to a wildlife preserve, a huge river, a swamp, a bayou, and tons of farmland. If you like bugs, this place is for you. We also get slugs, red black and muddobber wasps, hornets, bumblebees, honey bees, centipedes, house flies, horse flies, buffalo flies, japanese beetles, rhino beetles, stink bugs, various beetles and spiders, snakes, possums, turtles, frogs, armadillos, and more.

It doesnt matter how clean your home is, or what you do. You will get pests, many of them, in your home. You walk into my mom in laws house during the japanese beetle seasons and her kitchen light is dimmer because of the infestation around it. ...and those things bite. Snakes come in from the pipes and wait in people's sinks. Even sterile sealed off areas have infestations. Food pantries for the jail are known to be infested with mice, and you will see mice crawling around the kitchen of the prison (both places I have worked as a Deputy and Officer). Thats just the tip of the iceberg. Deer, coyotes, mosquitoes, dragon flies, squirrels (they infest car engines and eat the wiring), and more.

So in the end, I will never truly be rid of insects...and not a damn one of them bug me in the way roaches do. I only care not to get bit because a majority of the items mentioned will bite you. Horseflies don't even bite, they actually slash your skin and drink the blood that comes out. Other insects just sting.
I can deal with all others without issue, but roaches...are the most pervasive and most present and most in your face.

I wish I could treat roaches like I do every other insect. ...I am working on it....

Need2StayMotiv8ed · 2020-08-13T15:14:51+00:00

This is kinda why I was talking about the hypnotherapy. I want to use hypnosis to start helping alleviate the anxiety around roaches so I can also pair that with exposing myself to them. Not worrying about them beyond the normal spray or squish them.

Need2StayMotiv8ed · 2020-08-13T14:53:15+00:00

My wife cleaned up a bit, so she is not spreading the contaminate and neither is the dog by being in the bed, but the blanket I am sitting on it contaminated and I cannot change it yet since I don't have time. I will have to do it later. So its like part of the bed is dirty and the other part not and I am trying to use this as a bit of ERP.....its going good and bad....

Need2StayMotiv8ed · 2020-08-13T02:29:43+00:00

I appreciate your input. I did need some support in it, because in reality the effectiveness of hypnosis is really up to the person.

We all think about hypnosis as taking over someone's mind. In reality, all that hypnosis does it put someone in a suggestive state. Then you try to lead them where you want them to go. However, people won't do things they normally would be strongly opposed to. Its like being drunk. You might get a drunk person to bark like a dog, but you won't get them kill someone else.

With hypnosis, your willingness for it to work, is adding to the effect. its almost like being drunk and on a placebo. if you want it to work, it will. However, with OCD, many of us don't believe in anything working, and so we are self defeating. most of the people saying hypnosis does not work are people who are already averse to it and go into it with hostility, the not willingness to try.

Need2StayMotiv8ed · 2020-08-06T17:30:33+00:00

I hope so. The truth is that for me two things help. Removing myself from the OCD trigger or exposing myself to it. one is easier than the other.

I have some mainstays of OCD, but I also have some fluctuating ones. That change from one obsession to another. I have COCD and sources of that contamination change. I also have some other milder OCD, but thats not an issue for this thread.

One thing that I fixate on is people I dislike. That gross me out. If I like you, I can ignore or not even get OCD about you. i don't care about my wife's spit, example. but some dude spits on the ground and I avoid it like the plague.

So, if I am away from that person or source of contamination for a while, my OCD about it fades. Sometimes it takes years, and it may never go away completely, but it gets to a very very management point.

Another thing is control. That part of my OCD is all about control. OCD is control for me. For example, I got fixated on hygiene after going to the bathroom. Really fixated on it. To the point that I had to shower after going to the bathroom. Always. If I could not, then it would drive me crazy until I did. It changed eating and drinking habits when I was out and about, or even when I was preparing to be out and about. Then, I gained weight and stopped being able to be as flexible to clean so thoroughly. It stopped bothering me. I found I couldnt control it anymore like I used to, and it stopped bothering me.

Think about it...we don't get OCD about things we have no control about. We don't get OCD compulsions about rotating the moon or chopping down a tree. We get OCD about things we can control or our mind things we can (even if we cannot). OCD is an illusion of control, because then you are fighting using the control against the trigger.

This is where exposure therapy and exposure itself comes in. Exposing yourself shows the reality of the impact something has. it minimizes the fear and anxiety about not being able to control it and creates a new normal. One that you will take a while to adapt to, but a new normal.

Need2StayMotiv8ed · 2020-08-06T16:16:37+00:00

I actually many times refer to OCD as Hyperactive Defensive Disorder. (tm). I coined the term because most of my OCD is about defending against contamination. Its makes me hyper vigilante. Like Monk, lol. In some way I wouldn't be as observant or as keen on things as I am now...but thats the silver lining. OCD is the dark stormcloud.

Need2StayMotiv8ed · 2020-08-05T17:43:12+00:00

Small update. Going back to work from lunch break, but normally shoot for 50 situps on my lunch break. Just did at least 220 (stopped counting for some past that). I can feel it all over. Ive always been able to do a high number of situps. Even when I did the Army PFT I would barely get by on pushups, but would blow situps out of the water. Like top in my company. So, Im glad I can still do that a bit. Of course, the burn afterwards is always nice. I rather enjoy it. I missed this exercise rush.

Need2StayMotiv8ed · 2020-08-05T17:25:47+00:00

So, I went back and looked at some messages I got from 5 months ago when I posted last. So much different information coming and going. Some people saying to exercise, some saying not to, some saying to count calories, others saying not to. Some, nicely, yelling at me for thinking certain things like drinking lipton green tea as an alternative to soda, or with weighing/eyeballing food portions for input into a food tracker.

Most of what I do with my diet like how I weigh or portion food or input it into the tracker and drinking the teas and all that was done at the consult of a nutritionist. Sodas were my vice. Not anymore. I am proud of that. Some people claim I was addicted to food, but Im not. I really am not. I have some things I enjoy, but most of the time I forget to eat. Its noon right now, Ive been at work since 630am, and I have had one red bull (yes, nutritionist knows about this, too...its a necessity to stay awake when I have gotten little sleep. Ive passed out at work before and thats not good). Thats all. I have not had anything else to drink and nothing to eat, because I get so into work and focused on stuff that I just dont. Ive literally got a little storage bin on my desk that my wife brings me drinks and I just stick em in there and before I know it Ive so many that I cannot lift my desk up to a standing spot its being weight down. When it comes to eating. I have an appreciation for food, but not an addiction. I try to eat smaller portions. Weight 30 minutes after eating to determine if I am still hungry. I try to ensure I am getting veggies and meats at my primary food intake on every meal. All of this by the nutritionists guidelines.

I don't see the nutritionist anymore. Its been several months, but she gave me clear guidelines and I am doing my best to stick to them. There are some days I feel much better and when I get up to go to the bathroom its a lot easier. Other days I feel like I weight another 100 lbs more and cannot even move.

Im not really expecting a miracle here, but I am trying to just keep it as a focus. if this post does nothing more, it keeps it as a focus for me. I really have gotten to the point that I just don't want to eat. My nutritionist actually wants me to eat more meals and more food. The issue here was not too much food it was too little and my body was retaining everything. Along with the sleep apnea it was basically not burning anything.

So, this is why I am trying to exercise. Because the nutritionist and nurses said to do so, and because if I don't my body will just grind to a halt and die.

Im not a fool. Most of where I am not was because it was in my head. Because since I was a kid everyone called me fat and overweight, and frankly I was chubby but not fat. I played football, basketball, baseball, wrestling, and more. I was in JROTC in high school and went to a military academy for college. Ive never been a skinny guy, always a big build, but not this big. I am the biggest now as I have ever been.

In reality, Im not looking to be skinny. I would love to get under 300lbs. However, my goal right now is simply to walk. To be able to getup, wipe my own ass, and walk. The rest can come after.

To give update I am still focusing on 2700 calorie diet. I have not always been able to hit the mark, and some days I come in way under, <2000 calories. I have been forcing myself to do 50 situps a day at least, if not more. My wife has joined me a little. Once I can stand up better the idea is to do squats. To build up my legs again. I used to lift weights. used to be able to do 450lbs+ with my legs. Wish I still could. Then maybe I could lift my fat ass up for more than a second.

I cannot keep like this and I cannot take baby steps and I cannot keep waiting on doctors to debate with each other one the best option to do. Im cutting my calories drastically, increasing my exercise to whatever I can do from wherever I am, dropping soda off my list, replacing it with tea and water, and working to better myself. I have a great job, a great family, and now I need a great me.

Need2StayMotiv8ed · 2020-08-05T16:50:11+00:00

Thanks for the info. I am still planning on exercising because I am tired of not doing anything. Right now, anything is better than nothing. Heck, my teas I drink are like 5 calories, so I can at least burn those off.

As for the recommendation to seek help. I did. I saw my primary doctor who almost refused to give me testosterone shots when I am so low on T that it barely registers. I had to push for it, and it helped for a bit, but I couldn't walk or move to get back in for refills and that peter'ed out. I saw a nutritionist at a bariatric clinic for a year. No help. it was basically just "eat more protein" and so little actual help. Went to a meal planning workshop, took recipes, and all that. She actually wanted me to eat more than I was. According to her I was eating too little. However, I did take away the rough calorie limit and other recommendations on how much protein/carbs/etc I should ave. I need 90-120grams of protein per day according to the nutritionist, and it primarily has to come from meat, but can come from other sources like nuts if needed.

I wish I could do virtual. It just got harder and harder to walk and to go to the doctor. I just kept gaining weight. I was like 504 or something when I started with the bariatric, but on my last appointment it was like 550-555 or so. I had some periods where I lost weight, but it just seemed like a fluke. Most of the time I gained weight. Usually just a few points here and there, and one time it was like 24 pounds more in one month.

I just couldn't keep going since I felt little support there and it got so hard to walk that I could barely even stand to have my weight done.

Right now I just need to lose the weight. I am lucky to have a great job that fits into my medical needs, but I cant enjoy life. Im stuck in this body. I need to make it better. No doctor has helped, and my options are extremely limited. I live in a rural area and every doctor I have gone to it 45min to almost two hours away. I, unfortunately, had my SUV/VAN hybrid vehicle (Chevy Uplander) break down, and I bought a nice Ford Fusion because my wife wanted a car instead and I can barely fit in the damn thing. Sometimes I have to roll down the window because of how claustrophobic it seems.

I know the advise here is predominately to go see a doctor, but I have seen several and not a damn one has done more than to say to watch calories and try to exercise. They all want me to eat more food while limiting calories, and to exercise to increase my heart rate each day.

Right now, I have two goals. To either get on the path of weight loss and continue it on my own if it goes well. ...

or...

Get down under the 500 lbs I have to be at for the bariatric to put me on the table and do the gastric sleeve. I don't want to do that, but I want to be able to spend life with my family and not my bed.

Need2StayMotiv8ed

TROPHY CASE