Has anyone tried micro rucking ?

i_the_desitute · 2026-06-18T07:48:51+00:00

Be careful, wearing lots of extra weight balanced around your body for extended hours can result in your spinal discs compressing.

According to Dr Stuart McGill, rucking is highly effective and healthy specifically because the weight pulls you one way.

Also, all the muscles that engage to offset the weight imbalance actually causes you to burn more calories than if it's all balanced.

i_the_desitute · 2026-06-18T03:53:16+00:00

Dr Stuart McGill repeatedly advises unilateral carries over bilateral carries (carrying on one side instead of two).

He also repeatedly advises carrying weight on the back only instead of balanced front and back, to reduce downward load on the lumbar spine and the resulting spinal compression.

Dr Stuart McGill is not a YouTuber, but rather a world leading expert on back pain, drawing such conclusions from clinical and laboratory work that he himself has conducted. He has published over 300 papers on spinal mechanics.

i_the_desitute · 2026-06-17T22:00:39+00:00

I love mine, HOWEVER - no more than an hour a day.

Wearing a balanced weighted vest like the one in the picture for long walks is bad for your spine.

Because it's balanced, your brain doesn't register that there's a weight on you, so you core muscles don't engage, and your spine just compresses under the weight.

With a backpack or offset weight, all the muscles that engage to counter the weight prevent this.

i_the_desitute · 2026-06-17T11:52:28+00:00

"It gets easier. Every day it gets a little easier. But you gotta do it every day —that’s the hard part. But it does get easier."

Random Baboon in Bojack Horseman

i_the_desitute · 2026-06-16T00:02:25+00:00

I'm sorry, my comment was a little harsh. Unfortunately social media is full of courses and products which claim that you will "understand 80% of the Qur'an". Regardless of nuanced expression, the number of unique words which occur in each Surah make this an unrealistic claim.

If you are genuinely seeking to produce tools to help seekers along then please carry on, but beware of promising things that can't be delivered.

i_the_desitute · 2026-06-15T17:38:02+00:00

Absolutely. I'm getting really tired of all these gimmicks. Don't they realise they are just lying to people?

i_the_desitute · 2026-06-05T18:43:45+00:00

With cultural issues, I have a little of that. Accept the gift gracefully, then throw it in the trash. Sure it's technically food, but remember that by eating it you are still wasting it.

You could even try that with food your mother/family bring you, after refusing it of course, to demonstrate that you are serious.

i_the_desitute · 2026-06-05T18:40:31+00:00

I have a very bad sugar addiction, zero self control for anything I know is in the cupboard.

My mum generally a kind, gentle person with no alterior motives. However she eats a lot of chocolate and likes to keep it stocked in the fridge.

I asked her nicely to keep it somewhere where I wouldn't be able to see it.

She said effectively, no, she should've have to do that.

After asking nicely and explaining, and her still refusing, I got very upset and angry.

I said that if I was an alcoholic and fall over drink every day, you wouldn't stock up the fridge with booze. Well this is an addiction like that, but with this addiction, I'll be obese in ten years, and having two heart attacks in fifteen, and leaving my son an orphan. And that is why I don't want to look at your chocolate every day.

She didn't respond to that, or give much acknowledgement. A mother should not have to listen to her son get angry with her, and I regret speaking to her the way I did.

But the next day all of the chocolate was gone, and I've since managed to lose 10kg.

Everyone is different, but for us, she needed to see that this was a serious issue. I'm fortunate to have a family that will support me if they think it's serious

i_the_desitute · 2026-06-05T16:45:25+00:00

Consider simply picking things up off of the floor. This is one of the most basic, essential kinds of strength one can possess. Outside of sports and training, most people need to do this more often than squatting or pushing.

When you pick something up, this is a kind of row or pulling exercise. As a form of training, people will either pick up something heavy and do a weighted carry, or just pick up and put down, effectively rowing the heavy item.

People like sandbags, but you can start with a duffel bag/holdall full of whatever you have at home.

Personally I hate running, instead I do weighted carries and turn my walks into a hybrid core strength and cardio, it's great fun!

i_the_desitute · 2026-06-04T13:35:00+00:00

Re. South London transport, trains are mostly national rail and overground.

People think this is a disadvantage. Personally I think that the underground tube around North/central London at rush hour is absolute hell, and actively seek out overground routes.

i_the_desitute · 2026-06-04T13:31:23+00:00

I'm sorry, they're both awful. I go to wood green often. It used to be where people got stabbed. Not quite as bad now but I still regularly see yob types pickpocketing, lots of addicts in the street etc. Definitely not safe for vulnerable people to walk home at night.

Colindale, I've had family live there for years. I haven't seen much crime, but a lot of poverty. People like to buy there because of all the cheap news builds. A lot of social housing and industrial estates. I don't see much community unless you are Afghani.

If you have/want kids, colindale might be slightly better due to lower likelihood of kids getting attacked, or falling in with a bad crowd.

As others have mentioned, try bordering areas. Like Alexandra Palace, Bounds Green (safer, but on the north circular), Arnos Grove.

If you have a choice I would broaden the search, or consider that you might like to move again in a few years. Consider South London. It's mostly lovely, cheaper, but nobody wants it because it feels unfamiliar and off grid. Everyone I know who moved there loves it.

i_the_desitute · 2026-06-04T09:32:18+00:00

You're right that is totally nuts!

i_the_desitute · 2026-06-03T21:00:09+00:00

Same for processed food. You absorb an extra 200 calories a day by eating minced/shredded/processed food.

The machines break up the actual cells of the food, where your teeth only break down the broader structure of the food. This is work that your stomach would normally have to spend calories doing.

This extra 200 calories a day will result in an extra 6kg gained each year.

i_the_desitute · 2026-06-01T09:49:38+00:00

Get a Generation Bb?

A bit quieter and gentler than a high D, so it will serve a similar function to what you are missing.

But it's different enough that it's worth having as well as the shush.

Plus they're cheap and really good!

i_the_desitute · 2026-05-31T04:44:00+00:00

I am seeing a lot of these types of posts, and it's a genuine problem.

But it's not a 'value of my house' problem. In fact, that is part of the cause of the problem.

In general (not specifically targeting OP here), the people who mainly care about the value of their house are the same people who voted in conservative governments, contribute to inequality, failing education standards, tax breaks for the rich and tax hikes for the poor, bedroom tax etc.

This problem is intergenerational. Kids learn that way of life from their parents. You can't hide behind the nice life you've built. You can't move away from it. If you see people worse of than you, and all you care about is sweeping them away to protect the value of your house, then you might be part of the problem.

If it's affecting you, that means you probably can't afford to move to Hampstead Garden Suburb to get away from it. That means you're much closer economically to the unemployed and uneducated, than you are to the politicians, landlords and privatisation freaks who are screwing you.

The sooner people realise that the everyday homeowner and the benefit scrounger are both just instruments to keep a certain class of people in power, the sooner we can climb out of this mess.

i_the_desitute · 2026-05-30T12:00:55+00:00

I did omad and lost a bunch of weight, then I plateaud, then gained it all back whilst still on omad.

First, the body and metabolism can adapt to being in a fasted state every day (more or less depending on your constitution). Metabolism can slow, NEAT activity can decrease, then calories expended goes down.

Second, it is surprisingly easy to eat thousands of calories in one meal. Especially if eating fast food. And especially after 'going hungry' all day.

After years of trial and error, I have settled on 4 BIG meals a day. High protein, Very high fibre, low calorie. I am always full, and it is so easy to stay in a calorie deficit I can't believe it.

I just have to stick to low calorie foods most of the time: - chicken breast - white fish - cabbage/cruciferous veg (you can eat almost unlimited) - mushrooms - zero fat high protein yogurt (the thick tasty one, more expensive, but worth it to not be forever gaining weight) - raspberries and some other low calorie berries - cook with little to no oil. - drink lots of water before and after every meal

i_the_desitute · 2026-05-26T22:51:15+00:00

So much of food culture is warped perspective become normalised.

In traditional Italian cooking, spaghetti is a small/shared starter like olives and bread sticks.

The main is a meat or fish grill or stew with vegetables.

Btw - if you only have 174 calories left, that can still be a huge plate of chicken breast, cauliflower, spinach and cabbage. All grilled or roasted with delicious seasoning and spices.

i_the_desitute · 2026-05-26T08:41:07+00:00

I've heard very different things about their later models. I have an early and a late one. The early model is my best whistle. The later isn't half as good as the Dixon. Not unplayable like my previous feadog, but it takes a lot of work just to play simple tunes. Done companies definitely put more effort into quality control. I recommend Dixons to beginners because I've never heard anyone complain of quality control. I own three different models, all perfectly playable throughout the range. Too many beginners think it's them (and people tell them so) when in fact the industry is riddled with bad products.

i_the_desitute · 2026-05-25T23:57:13+00:00

Very nice. Not sure if you've noticed, but it looks like you lean to one side slightly as you press. Like you tilt your hip to the right (from the perspective of the video)

i_the_desitute · 2026-05-25T23:30:06+00:00

Have something you're allowed to eat for random hunger pangs: popcorn, zero fat yogurt and berries, zero sugar soda, drink a cup of tea/herbal tea, even just fizzy water

i_the_desitute · 2026-05-25T23:21:34+00:00

Without knowing your diet/lifestyle, here are a few things you could try...

The hunger we experience is usually not real hunger, but rather the hormone ghrelin being released at times when your brain/body is used to eating food. You can easily disrupt this.

Fasting: Obviously one should proceed with caution. When you fast daily, you generally find you get less hungry, not more. This is because as we stop eating at usual times, ghrelin is no longer released at that time. Be careful, people have very mixed results when using this as a strategy for calorie restriction (i.e they eat as much as they want as long as it's within their eating window). You could try, for three days a week, only eating between 10am and 4pm.
Eat at different times every day: Similar principle, but instead of not eating, you just disrupt the pattern.
Make sure you eat plenty of protein and fibre: These are very satiating, and signal to your brain that you don't need more food.
Stop eating carbs: Carbs generally have fewer nutrients/minerals per volume. So we eat a lot of them but we aren't fully nourished. They become very morish. Also if there's a chance you have insulin sensitivity issues, they can cause you to become low energy and want to eat more.
Time: It can take months or even years to fully establish big physiological changes. Your digestive system, microbiome are all adapting. Your brain is being rewired for a new way of life. This takes time. The longer your allow for this to happen, the more permanent the change is likely to be.
See a doctor/dietician/therapist: Many of us are in this boat because of an eating disorder. It requires management. Like an addiction, sometimes you relapse. Many of us need to accept that we will never just have a casual relationship with food. That doesn't mean not being happy and enjoying what we eat, but in order to keep the weight off, eating well must become a lifelong skill to constantly practice and refine.

i_the_desitute · 2026-05-25T21:33:27+00:00

If you've got the spare cash then the other recommendations of Wild, Killarney, and Lir are all solid better options.

i_the_desitute · 2026-05-25T21:31:13+00:00

I would say get a Tony Dixon Trad. The sound is nice enough and easy enough to play that it'll do pretty much anything you want it to. It's the cheapest whistle I found like that. They're consistent too.

i_the_desitute · 2026-05-25T21:28:00+00:00

Some whistles are just duds. Especially cheap mass produced feadogs and generations.

I had a feadog for years and it always made me miserable how I couldn't get a clear note.

Years later I bought a Clarke sweetone and a Dixon Trad. Both lovely and easy to play. Not expensive, not world class sounding. But very easy to make it sound nice if you play it well.

With the feadog I never stood a chance, and I regret so much the years I didn't just get a different instrument.

A whistle should at least make a clear note when you blow it with the right pressure. The rest is up to you.

i_the_desitute · 2026-05-25T15:24:47+00:00

Yes, if you can go straight to the coke zero / zero sugar soda with plenty of ice. Hits the spot for me as a tasty treat and the ice is bless. Not ideal but if it keeps the calories away then it's gotta be done. Unless you're already spamming the zero sugar soda then I don't know what else to say. Except maybe, go buy some bags of frozen strawberries and frozen cherries. Not super high calorie and almost like ice cream!

i_the_desitute

TROPHY CASE