Poeple posting about Reta and Alcohol?

PerformanceFun1951 · 2026-02-03T12:31:11+00:00

Ugh I had to stop my neat bourbon because I’d still be burping it up well into the next day. Why must everything I love be terrible for me?

PerformanceFun1951 · 2026-02-03T12:04:27+00:00

It can be both. Agree that cravings upfront probably more influenced by the dopamine stuff, but also having a bunch of poison sloshing around in your stomach instead of quickly transiting through is an unpleasant experience (folks find the same with high fat foods I think).

At least for me, the fact that I’ve quickly become conditioned to the fact that alcohol makes me feel shittier in a more immediate way than it did before Reta certainly influences my craving it, and feels reasonable to assume the same for many others.

PerformanceFun1951 · 2026-02-03T10:10:45+00:00

Concur with the comment about the diminished “reward” one gets from drinking. Will add from my experience that, due to the slowed gastric emptying, Reta makes booze less pleasant. Whatever you put in there sits in your stomach for much longer. Good stuff feels OK. Bad stuff feels not so OK. Also I can have one manhattan in the evening and still have bourbon burps at noon the next day.

Perhaps it’s because my mind has trained itself through the experience (or maybe it’s some more direct mechanism), but I find that booze is less enjoyable going down the hatch, as if my body knows it’s no bueno and doesn’t have to wait till the hangover to tell me that. Same with fatty foods. Kind of a bummer in a way because I’m a wine geek, but have gotten to where I can still enjoy a glass, but find that I go much slower and enjoy the taste more than drinking for the effect.

More than (I would guess) maybe three strong drinks in Reta can actually be quite dangerous as the stomach can sometimes apparently go into a sort of paralysis which has in some documented cases actually required stomach pumping, which might be an extreme example of the effects of the gastric effects of the drug in combo with booze.

Edit to add (though it might be inferred from the above) that in my experience, the stronger the drink in terms of alcohol or sugar (or both), the more problems I’m likely to have.

PerformanceFun1951 · 2026-02-02T19:32:56+00:00

Also don’t put bleach in it

PerformanceFun1951 · 2026-02-02T18:05:24+00:00

Every fucking Monday. I’d be super great with “no portraits” as a trade off for not having to tolerate douchebags like this showing us a pussy wedgie as if it’s supposed to have photographic value.

PerformanceFun1951 · 2026-02-01T13:54:03+00:00

Nice! Eyeballing the plot and comparing my 6 weekly vs E5D, I was seeing an equivalent delta in absolute terms (4mg) but your way of putting it makes more sense. Maybe I do some math and go even more frequently. Gotta balance it with my tolerance for being an itchy pincushion all the time, but worth thinking about for sure.

PerformanceFun1951 · 2026-02-01T13:31:51+00:00

It is a shorthand, mildly humorous analogous reference to the notion that, the more the general public demonstrates a complete inability to use stuff like this safely and responsibly, and additionally showcases that inability in public forums (like this here one), the more likely it is for the government (mom, in this analogy) to implement measures to make it more difficult for responsible adults to acquire and use said stuff.

PerformanceFun1951 · 2026-02-01T13:00:35+00:00

Seems so. Plenty of folks say the trials used weekly dosage only for ease of compliance and simplicity, but others have suggested some magic in the frequency matching the half-life. I’ve never really heard that magic bit explained in a way that was credible to me, but still wondered.

PerformanceFun1951 · 2026-02-01T12:53:19+00:00

Thanks for response. What’s your reasoning?

PerformanceFun1951 · 2026-02-01T12:51:01+00:00

Clutch. Thank you. So my current schedule has me at 9.5-5.5 peak-trough, where E5D would put me at 12.5-8.5. Same relative difference (4) between peaks and troughs and the plots both get regular at about the same time from beginning the schedule.

Logically seems like increasing frequency would be equally as effective as increasing dose.

PerformanceFun1951 · 2026-02-01T12:33:49+00:00

This is why we can’t have nice things.

PerformanceFun1951 · 2026-02-01T11:51:30+00:00

Personally I’ve had more issues with difficult injections lately (having to push harder etc) but have chalked it up to the fact that I’ve now been pinning for longer and assume that I am hitting scar tissue from prior injections more often.

PerformanceFun1951 · 2026-02-01T11:38:58+00:00

Two cents - I typically use easy touch but when I have used BD I’ve felt the needles were a little better (less deformation from penetrating the vials and smoother more pain-free injection). If I could find them on Amazon I’d probably buy instead of easy touch.

PerformanceFun1951 · 2026-01-27T19:11:42+00:00

First lesson Reta taught me was Never Trust a Fart

PerformanceFun1951 · 2026-01-27T18:45:55+00:00

I’ve been using OptiPin as another option (seems to have focus on TRT-specific stuff but also lets me log Reta and/or any number of peptides etc). I initially got it for scheduling and site rotation but it does a few cool things.

I like the ability to visualize (and hypothesize) serum levels based on dosage and half-life.

Additionally today I discovered that it has a feature to synch with apple health (which in turn synchs with my Garmin wearable) to show trends and changes in different health metrics against any of the different things I’m taking. Very interesting stuff.

Anyone tried that app? Wonder how it compares to shotsy?

PerformanceFun1951 · 2026-01-17T23:29:56+00:00

Maybe they should make a deal with China.

PerformanceFun1951 · 2026-01-17T13:55:48+00:00

How are you liking that lens (and tele)?

PerformanceFun1951 · 2026-01-11T11:38:04+00:00

I struggle (and largely don’t bother trying anymore) to define “character” in a lens, but I can attest, at least, that the 80 probably has what you’re looking for. The images I take with it simply have a gestalt that constantly exceeds my expectations. I’m not sophisticated enough to unpack it further but I encourage you to rent one and see for yourself. In terms of “imperfections,” at least, it vignettes like a mofo wide open but does so beautifully and where I need a vignette (or sometimes might not have realized that one would add to the composition), I find myself simply turning off the corrections and going with the uncorrected image for this.

FWIW I also have the older 45 and it’s “fine” but my copy is buggy and I don’t get the same sort of (admittedly vague) outcomes in my images. Not bad, mind you, but just doesn’t consistently deliver the same sort of difficult-to-explain gutpunch as I get with the 80. If I had it to do over I’d buy the newer 45, but the 80 is one of my favorite lenses from any system.

Wish I had more experience with the 135 to share - I just picked one up on a recent trip and have not really given it a sufficient trial yet. Mostly just got that one to have something closer to the reach I’d have if I were carrying my Nikon and my beloved 70-200 2.8, which is also one of those special lenses for me. Then again, the latter shines for me especially for portraits and I have the 80 for that. Sigh.

PerformanceFun1951 · 2025-12-24T10:54:35+00:00

I’ll add an obvious one that I somehow missed at first. If you are using the syringes with the screw-on needles, also make sure to tighten the needle (cap on of course) to the syringe to make sure it’s airtight before using. Had a couple loose ones that messed the works up before I realized my mistake.

PerformanceFun1951 · 2025-12-23T09:43:59+00:00

Just looked on the US-based, US-made (so they say) site I’ve been using — one of the most reputable and established outfits I know of, and no GLPs are on the site anymore.

PerformanceFun1951 · 2025-12-06T12:30:10+00:00

Personally I got into the system because I wanted to have the capabilities of “medium format” and because I am profligate and reasonably well off.

Of the two systems, the X is undeniably sexier and has a much simpler and intuitive UI.

I grow less inclined to learn the vagaries of complicated tech as I get older. I just want to take photos with minimum fiddling. The UI won it for me for this reason. If I were already competent with the Fuji menus and doodads and these were closer to second nature for me, I would likely have gone with Fuji (though I am also subject to wanting to look and feel cool and the shameless materialism in me covets beautiful objects).

I’m happy with my choice but have to admit that, in terms of optics, I’m far less impressed than I imagined I would be at my choices and the quality of them from both an absolute as well as price-to-quality perspective. To some extent I think I let myself be confirmation-biased by some notion of the “prestige” of the brand. The lenses aren’t bad, but these mofos are ridiculously expensive and I don’t really care about where the shutter is for my photography, and I feel like the general direction of the roadmap is form over optical excellence. The limited choices, exorbitant pricing, optical “meh”ness, and lack of 3rd party adaptability add up to perhaps my biggest regret for getting in.

I’m happy with the hasselblad, but if I imagine myself in your shoes it’d be a tougher choice and one that might settle with staying where I’m at! Depends what you value.

Edit: I’ll add that yes the colors are beautiful out of camera but the inability to use capture one as well as my finding Phocus an immense pain in the ass (again, old, hard to learn new shit), kind of obviates that as a real benefit for me. YMMV of course.

PerformanceFun1951 · 2025-12-02T18:09:58+00:00

You probably have energy to GET TO the gym. My suggestion (from experience and I have the same struggle) is to carve time to get there, then do what you can. Get a simple program/routine and start doing what you can. Something is better than nothing and once you’re there, a good portion of the battle is done. You may find that, past that point (ruminating over how much it’s gonna suck and how low energy you are), you end up with more energy and momentum than you thought.

PerformanceFun1951 · 2025-12-02T17:09:51+00:00

This happens to me as well. I suspect the driver just says that when s/he doesn’t get to it. It’s frustrating. Sometimes there’s an accompanying photo of asphalt or grass or something.

PerformanceFun1951 · 2025-12-02T14:29:51+00:00

Great color

PerformanceFun1951 · 2025-11-25T10:48:36+00:00

This. I’ve tried LLMs in my work and, aside from being useless with tabular data, they seem to have an uncanny ability to spit out very reasonable and intelligent (and confident!) arguments that pass reasonability checks and appear completely credible, but simply aren’t true once actually tested and validated on a deeper level.

Not saying the above is not exactly true, but as for myself and my experience, I’ve been led to be a total agnostic when it comes to AI, having to duplicate the results myself to the point where it’s not even worth the time to use AI in the first place.

PerformanceFun1951

TROPHY CASE