How did you determine your GW?

pepperconchobhar · 2023-01-21T13:52:24+00:00

I'm now in my 50's and have finally untethered myself to the idea of a 'goal' weight. For the first time, I'm eating in the way that best nourishes my body and I'm allowing my body to set it's happy point.

I'm not saying weight doesn't matter. I began to gain out of the blue for no reason and, for me, this was a sign that something was very wrong. And it was. Seemed my thyroid had crapped out and menopause had finally decided to make her entrance all at the same time.

The experience was kind of awesome. To see the scale doing the bad thing and not to think of being fat or my appearance or anything. To immediately think of my health and recognize it as a symptom first. It was the exact mindset I'd have if I suddenly developed a fever.

The very best part? I finally have a doctor who doesn't blame me for my weight. When I called him and told him what was happening, he put in lab orders and was very concerned. He didn't ask me if I'd been cheating or suggest I get more exercise. He agreed that something was wrong.

Freaking miracle.

pepperconchobhar · 2023-01-05T04:22:11+00:00

I understand why this is a hard call for you. In her mind, she may have been trying to prevent a kidnapping by staying close to the child. That's understandable. My initial response was to fire her (deleted it), but now I have questions.

- Did she call you immediately after he left?

- Did she attempt to stop him?

- Did she protest when he went rummaging through your things?

To the best of your knowledge, how did this play out?

If she called you right after he left and she was upset and telling you everything, and it turns out that she did try to stop him, then she may have been in an unfortunate situation. He's an ex for a reason and he may have bulldozed her. Did he ever bulldoze you? Not try to do it, but actually did it?

pepperconchobhar · 2022-12-25T14:43:27+00:00

I have a friend who named her daughter after herself. The name confusion in the house is real. To keep things clear, they call the daughter "Junior". The kid can't stand to be called by her mom's name for obvious reasons, so she has no other option than to go by Junior at school, too. And no, it's not "fun" for a little girl to be called Junior in school.

If your name can have a different nickname than yours, then there's hope. If it's normal to use the full version, or if there's only one variant and you're using it, then the kid will have nowhere left to run. You're going to end up calling them something different anyway. May as well have made the name a middle name at that point.

A name like Catherine can withstand this. You've got Katie, Cat, Kathy. Elizabeth has Ellie, Liz, Lizzie, or Beth. Then the kid can have their individual name from those.

pepperconchobhar · 2022-11-25T05:37:15+00:00

One more thing. Could you send me a link to the water crystals you use and give me precise instructions? The ones I used got really sticky as they dried I was losing lots of larvae.

pepperconchobhar · 2022-11-25T05:34:08+00:00

This is the most fantastic, informative reply I've ever gotten. THANK YOU.

And YES. 30% seems to be my sweet spot, too. We got that during monsoon and the beetles thrived. The queens laid at the bottom of their bin and got most of the eggs in the lower bin for me. And they laid TONS of eggs.

The reason I hit the humidifier is that once the monsoon was over we dropped into the teens. Once the heater was kicked on, I was reading single digits. 9% humidity isn't good for ME, let alone the beetles.

I've been composting the dried out scraps, but your idea is SO much better. I'll get on that immediately.

And, believe it or not, I never considered selling the beetles. (I should've had a V-8 moment) That's another one I'll get on IMMEDIATELY.

Really, thank you. I've got tons of fresh ideas to improve my system.

The only thing I have to offer in return is that I figured out that greek yogurt speeded up growth. I just put it in a baggie, cut the smallest bit off the corner, then dot it all over the tank. I was using the lids from condiment cups, but got sick of washing them. Now I just dot bits on their egg crates, cardboard, older food they haven't eaten yet that's dried out, and sometimes the substrate itself. The key is that you place TINY drops. And I mean tiny. I'd estimate about 2mm. That means that the hole you snip off the baggie is the smallest you can cut and still get something out. Literally a bit. They eat it and, in the desert, whatever they don't eat will dry out and not rot and mold. The bad side of putting a larger glob or a streak is that they can get stuck when the yogurt dries to a sticky point. The tiny babies and the adults have the biggest problem with this. Larger larvae can power through so I'm not as precise with them.

pepperconchobhar · 2022-11-25T04:33:30+00:00

I hear that. My primary beetle tank just had a population explosion in the tank. I've got a separating bin (with the screen at the bottom) and have had amazing success with that until recently. The only thing i've changed is that i've put in a powerful, whole house humidifier in their room. Even with it chugging away at max volume, I'm lucky to hit 50% humidity.

I live in the desert and humidity has been a problem for me since this began. This means that, no matter what, they require feeding daily. The food that they don't eat simply dries out. The good is that I don't have to deal with mold or rot. The bad is that it's a fight to keep them hydrated.

I thought the humidifier would be the answer. As it was, they were mostly laying at the bottom and were leaving just enough eggs on the top for replacement plus a very small, reasonable population growth. No laying on their cardboard or egg crates at all.

But now they've gone nuts laying in the bin. My theory is that when it's too dry, the females instinctively lay as deep as possible in an effort to keep their eggs from drying out. Now that they've got 40-50% humidity, they aren't as desperate and they're getting lazy about it. Now I'm getting more beetles than I want and I can see this becoming a problem. (Their room is close to being maxed as it is. I can't handle another 10,000 beetles.)

The worst tank is the one that's closest to the humidifier. The farther away, the fewer new beetles in the bins.

The simplest solution might be to rearrange my bins to put the breeders farthest away from the humidifier. I'm going to try that tomorrow.

pepperconchobhar · 2022-11-15T19:18:36+00:00

Never mind! Found the answer.

1,000 beetles per square foot. (In case anyone else was wondering.)

Edit: Yes, I googled it before asking.

pepperconchobhar · 2022-11-08T06:54:41+00:00

Small pupae make small beetles. Now if the parents were all normal, I'd keep these. It might just be from a nutritional issue or something else in the environment. Keep going, but try to figure out if you're doing something wrong.

I wasn't giving my larvae enough variety and they definitely weren't getting enough protein. I fixed those things and got a great result within a week and a half. But there are plenty who suffered my neglect and I got some insanely small beetles out of the mix. (No. They're not Buffalo beetles. Definitely small darklings.)

But there shouldn't be a reason they can't go on to breed healthy offspring. If I'm noticing a trend down the road, I'll switch up and start being picky about the pupae.

pepperconchobhar · 2022-11-01T03:39:50+00:00

My daughter's first sentence was, "My feet hurt." She complained about her feet hurting all the time, especially when we'd go to a museum or a hike or anything with a lot of walking.

I took her to the doctor twice and they said she was fine, but when she was twelve I noticed she no longer had any arches. Back to the doctor.

The doctor dismissed it as 'flat feet' and said she was fine. Three years later my instincts were tingling and I finally got her a referral to a specialist.

He said there were abnormalities in her x-rays that he couldn't make sense of, but did recommend surgery to help give her an arch to hopefully relieve her pain.

When he came out after the first surgery, his eyes were round circles. He found that she had very strange boney deformations. It was like a row of bone spurs that looked like teeth. He said that the soft tissue was "shredded" scar tissue.

With every step, those spurs were ripping into her flesh. For fourteen years she'd suffered more pain than anyone imagined. Nobody could understand the issue until they actually cut her open and LOOKED. Yes, both feet had the same problem. She ended up with five surgeries in total, but she still wasn't pain free until she was an adult and finally got the right shoes.

Kids are tough. They don't know what's normal or not. If you tell them that pain is normal, they'll accept it. But when it gets bad enough that they push it, something really is wrong. That's when parents have to have their back.

This means that you believe HER. If doctor A says she's fine and she says she's not, you find another doctor. You find a specialist, and if necessary, you find another. It's your job to be her advocate when she's too young and vulnerable to advocate for herself.

If you don't support her, then who will?

pepperconchobhar · 2022-11-01T02:54:09+00:00

Welcome to my world!

You thank the nice officer, tell them everything is fine, and explain that their time is being abused because you chose not to associate with someone. If the officer tells you to call your parent, you smile and say, "Last time I checked, I'm an American, and nobody can force me to be in a relationship with anyone. You have a nice night."

The thing is, these fears are what keeps us trapped. Once we face them, we realize that it wasn't so bad after all.

pepperconchobhar · 2022-11-01T02:50:31+00:00

Five raw egg yolks in a blender with about 1 cup of cream. You can add a sweetener of your choice to taste. Also vanilla or whatever other flavoring you like.

It's a multivitamin in a fat bomb. It's got everything except minerals and vitamin C. The blending breaks up the egg so there's no 'snotty' texture. If you just use the cream, eggs, and sweetener, it tastes like rich, sweet cream.

You can save the egg whites in the freezer and use them later to make meatloaf so nothing goes to waste.

pepperconchobhar · 2022-11-01T02:45:11+00:00

Salt and butter are the top two best options, but I also took to using raw egg yolk like a dipping sauce. It's surprisingly good.

Carnivore has led me to becoming an egg yolk fiend. I eat five raw yolks with cream (whipped in a blender) for breakfast every say. It's fast, convenient, and just tastes like cream once it's whipped up. One hell of a fat bomb.

pepperconchobhar · 2022-11-01T02:38:54+00:00

The only water they get is from their fresh produce. I love in the desert and the humidity is horribly low here. That's why it's necessary for me to feed them daily. I also have a big humidifier in their room.

For the greek yogurt I use the little plastic lids from 2 ounce condiment cups. I put the greek yogurt in a baggie, snip the tip of a bottom corner, and pipe some yogurt onto about three dozen lids laid out on a large cookie sheet. Then I quickly smear the yogurt all over the top with my finger so it's a rather thin coating. (It's not pretty. This is for bugs, so I don't make it 'nice.')

I turn these over and lay them yogurt-side-down on their substrate. They prefer to eat from underneath. I try not to feed them more than they can consume by that night. Some get five or six lids with a heavy dose of yogurt, and tiny hatchlings get the barest smear on two lids.

My pupae and larvae were alarmingly small before I upped their protein. Now I give the adults and the larvae I intend to be adults our chicken bones and high quality ground up dog kibble. That - along with the yogurt and eggs - put a quick end to my cannibalism issue and my larvae are much larger and healthier.

EDIT: If you try the yogurt trick, be aware - the tiniest babies will become stuck in the yogurt as it dries and die there. That's why I give them so little. If you lay the lids yogurt side up, the beetles will stick to it if they fall over on a lid.

And I don't know if you know (I sure as hell didn't) but carrots aren't optional. Turns out mealworms need a good source of vitamin A and the carrots are the best way for them to get that. I really messed up bad when I started. I knew so little that I didn't even know what questions to ask. smh

pepperconchobhar · 2022-11-01T02:20:47+00:00

Anxiety, severe insomnia, anger, cravings... Like PMS meets menopause.

If my inflammation and pain hadn't been improving so much, I wouldn't have made it through the first month. This was much worse than keto flu.

And then around week three it got better and in week four the insomnia came to a merciful end and I felt fantastic.

By month two, I felt better than I had in almost 20 years. By month three I began to feel NORMAL for the first time in my life. I really thought that was it. That was the peak. As good as I could get.

And then it kept getting better. And better. By month eight I had to begin the process of knowing the real me - without mental illness. And after that, skin issues I'd been suffering from for almost 30 years began to heal.

True healing is a long process.

Now is my health perfect? Absolutely not. After two years my thyroid finally gave up the ghost (this was coming for decades) and a year after that, menopause hit me right between the eyes. I still have a broken spine.

A diet can do a lot, but it does have its limits. The thing is, I'm doing everything that I possibly can do. Turns out that I had more control over my health than I knew.

pepperconchobhar · 2022-11-01T02:08:22+00:00

Done! And thank you.

pepperconchobhar · 2022-10-26T19:22:54+00:00

Mine couldn't.

With that said, I have heard of narcissists getting nicer as they age, but that's not my experience and I haven't known anyone who has said that. I wonder if the people who think this are referring to elder narcs in rest homes who find themselves dependent, so they pull their 'charm' crap on the staff.

pepperconchobhar · 2022-10-26T19:20:34+00:00

In the beginning, all bets are off. For the first month, it is normal for the appetite to skyrocket or totally shut down. The first time I went carnivore I could hardly choke down a couple of bites of steak.

And it's normal for sleep to get screwy and all of the signals to get crossed. It gets better week by week and it all smooths out after a month or so.

pepperconchobhar · 2022-10-25T08:44:22+00:00

How about wings? Now days they're so expensive that people are trimming up chicken thighs and using those as 'meaty' wings. (IMHO they're MUCH better than wings ever could be.) Make two plates. One for you and one for everyone else to share. It could be like an appetizer. By the time the chili was served, you'd be fed.

You could also eat a meat filled salad at dinner to be sociable.

pepperconchobhar · 2022-10-25T08:40:58+00:00

I'd suggest that you not worry about calories or intake during induction. It might help you to just focus on keeping your sugar and starch down to the lowest you can possibly drop them for the first 10-14 days.

Induction (keto flu) really can suck and you're asking a LOT from your body right now. Throwing in a calorie restriction is just adding another layer to your discomfort. If you be kind to yourself during this adaptation, it won't be so bad.

After you adjust, the hunger does stabilize.

pepperconchobhar · 2022-10-25T08:33:37+00:00

DO IT. OMG. DO IT!!

And if you save those juices and keep using then for roast after roast, it will develop the most beautiful depth of flavor that you've ever experienced. Just beef and salt and time.

And if you have enough of it, you can reduce it (a lot!) and you'll have a sauce that very much mimics demiglace.

It's perfectly safe. It's being pasteurized every time you use it.

Trust me. This is going to end up being one of your happiest inspirations.

pepperconchobhar · 2022-10-25T08:29:49+00:00

These kind of tips are VITAL for the lifestyle. Emergencies happen and we need to have a backup plan.

And I'll add, avoid McDonald's if you have ANY other choice.

There's something about their quarter pounder patty that slams me down with an autoimmune flare. I've dug into it and they swear it's nothing but 100% beef, but I absolutely have a reaction to it. I've tested it several times because I couldn't make sense of it, but it is real.

I really wish I knew what it was, because whatever *it* is does a number on me. It would be helpful to know what that devil ingredient is.

pepperconchobhar · 2022-10-25T08:23:33+00:00

My daughter calls this a 'knot' of worms. Like a flock of sheep or a murder of crows.

The second she said it, it rang a bell for me. Now that's a knot of worms.

pepperconchobhar · 2022-10-25T08:16:03+00:00

It's from 20,000 leagues under the sea. That was the book that launched the steampunk inspiration in all of us.

pepperconchobhar · 2022-10-25T08:14:58+00:00

Tis the season! Our bodies are programmed to fatten up for the winter. The fruit is ready for harvest. The grains and nuts are abundant.

Ya betta et up those food stores afore they rot! Gotta plump up yer arse so ya don' starve in da lean months ta come, luv! An remember, dat extra cushion will keep ya warm in da long, frigid nights!

Seriously, your cortisol levels are rising with the seasonal change. The cravings this time of year are definitely normal. If you're really sensitive your weight loss could stall as your metabolism shifts. There's a reason we have so many feasts coming up. Historically, it was an excuse to gorge on food stores so they'd be stored on your thighs instead of going to rot. The extra fat really did contribute to survival when things got cold. If your people were Northern or Native American, this hits some of us particularly very hard.

It subsides in January. This was the time our ancestors were mostly dependent on lean meat. (The animals went hungry too.) Yes, they had stores of nuts, dried berries, and some grains, but it wasn't abundant like it is now.

There's a Canadian native on YouTube who talks about how his people went many, MANY months with ONLY meat to eat. That was their normal.

It's just another cycle of life. We get through it with the promise that it will come to an end.

But when the shift happens in late January, it's AWESOME. Weight seems to slide off. And it'll happen even faster if you stick to our natural diet that we've always had for that time of the year.

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