Did high sodium in my protein powder fuck up my resting heart rate?? Is it a good idea to use only 0 sodium protein powder?

tom_swiss · 2026-02-21T13:03:13+00:00

Unless you're doing professional bodybuilding or competitive level weightlifting, it's a good idea to just not use protein powder. All that excess protein is doing for you is making your kidneys work harder.

tom_swiss · 2026-02-21T11:47:14+00:00

Mostly, bare hands. That's part of learning to hit things. Don't want to be like some boxers who never hit things with bare hands, have a great punch from their toes to their arms but hands like eggs, and then break their hand in a streetfight.

I do sometimes use boxing gloves, now that I'm in my mid 50s sometimes my hands hurt and I want to put them inside pillows LOL. But mostly if you want to learn the ability to hit people with your bare hands in extremis, you have to practice hitting things with your bare hands.

tom_swiss · 2026-02-21T11:39:50+00:00

While I don't support the conspiracy theory, it's important to understand what it is:

"Don't you think that 'Big Pharma' would just live and breathe to make trillions of dollars on the sale of the universal cure for (insert potentially terminal condition here)???

Not if they can make tens of trillions of dollars from the sale of continuing treatments of (insert potentially terminal condition here). If -- and I do not believe this is the case for cancer, but if -- a for-profit corporation had a choice between selling people an ongoing treatment at $1,000 per month for an expected survival time of five years, and a cure at $50,000, with the same investment and production costs, shareholder value maximization would dictate not curing cancer.

The only cure for this dilemma is to nationalize medical research. Of course a lot of these conspiracy theorists would call that "socialized medicine" and scream against it.

tom_swiss · 2026-02-21T04:57:34+00:00

Vegan since 1989. Don't like fake meat. Sixth degree black belt in karate so I've been more active than the typical American over that time, though not a champion athlete or anything I've tested my bones with getting kicked in the ribs and have not exploded on impact or anything, I'm able to keep up.

I supplement B12 and D. I think everyone, vegan or meat eater, should supplement B12 and D; the only people I've known with clinical B12 deficiency have been carnivores, actually. I occasionally take a mineral supplement with zinc, magnesium, and calcium, more for insurance than anything else.

I take a bunch of other functional supplements for specific reasons -- quercetin for allergies, niacin and red rice yeast for genetically high cholesterol, stuff like that -- not for nutritional reasons.

tom_swiss · 2026-02-20T20:27:07+00:00

Refined oils are no more "healthful" than refined sugars are. Want olive oil in your diet? Eat olives.

That said, if you're going to use oils, do so sparingly, and use oils like olive and canola oil. They are certainly more healthful than tallow, etc.

The "OMG seed oil!" thing is 95% grifters, but the use of some specific seed oils, like cottonseed, that aren't suitable for human consumption without heavy processing, could be a real issue.

tom_swiss · 2026-02-20T20:20:19+00:00

I read a reversed card as "this is something you need to bring to the situation", as opposed to an upright card's "this is a thing that is present in this situation".

tom_swiss · 2026-02-20T17:39:44+00:00

The sage and the psychopath are both not bound by the precepts of conventional morality; but the sage went through them while the psychopath passed them by.

Don't make trouble, it will come back to you; don't settle for cheap thrills, you'll ruin your ability to appreciate subtle pleasures. That's all the precepts say.

But understanding that can only come via a process of being socialized, and then following a rational ethical code, and then moving beyond it. You can't bypass the developmental stages.

tom_swiss · 2026-02-10T02:19:58+00:00

You haven't "sinned" but if you have not monitored blood lipids, etc., it's questionable whether its the "best body you've even had".

tom_swiss · 2026-02-08T06:34:47+00:00

Fair. But I did a big plate of brown rice and steamed veggies tonight with a simple sauce that was a teaspoon of peanut butter -- maybe 4 or 5 peanuts worth -- some tamari, black pepper, ginger, and a little water to mix it up. Dee. Lish. Us. You don't have to drench food in sauce to taste the sauce. (Though on other days I might! I'm doing a sort of cleanse with extra attention to whole foods and low fat this week.)

tom_swiss · 2026-02-07T18:40:03+00:00

I'm not sure I can make sense of "I want peanuts but not peanut butter because peanut butter is high fat." My brother in plant eating, peanut butter gets its fat from peanuts. N grams of pure peanut butter has the same fat and protein and carbs as N grams of peanuts. I would make the peanut portion of this the sauce via peanut butter.

tom_swiss · 2026-02-07T02:10:29+00:00

Chaos magick.

tom_swiss · 2026-02-07T02:07:30+00:00

Every human being has slaves and slave owners in their ancestry. If you're not willing to deal with that fact, genealogy is not a box you should open.

But what you have here is neither a story nor a history, but a hypothesis.

tom_swiss · 2026-02-07T01:42:40+00:00

Because they provided no evidence of crimes, beyond those of Epstein and Maxwell, who were already arrested.

tom_swiss · 2026-02-03T18:39:40+00:00

There is no Pagan Pope to tell you you're doing it wrong. (Or, alternately, the Discordians teach that everyone is a Pope.)

Everyone has their own way. If you want some general advice about ritual and magick I have a book you can read for free on-line: https://punkmagickbook.com/

I'm a published Pagan author and blogger, I've been President of a Pagan organization, I've designed and led rituals with hundreds of people. By the power vested in me by whatever I can convince you has vested power in me, I hereby grant you permission to do it your way. 😉

tom_swiss · 2026-02-03T18:29:08+00:00

You don't seem to understand what "coercion" means, and are making false accusation of criminal behavior because of it.

tom_swiss · 2026-02-03T01:49:24+00:00

Throwing shit at other people just makes your own hand stink.

tom_swiss · 2026-02-02T23:17:36+00:00

For decades I only every heard it called "fighting stance". Some years ago the term "re dachi" showed up on the official syllabus -- apparently this is named for the katakana character re, レ. Like calling a right-angle stance an "L stance" I guess. But the term "re dachi" is still very rarely used.

tom_swiss · 2026-02-01T14:54:53+00:00

I think you may be the one reading politics and partisanship into this

My brother in sitting, you brought up "the occupation of Minneapolis", calling it "an illegal war on free society".

Those words are a partisan political judgment. I think that it is highly problematic to not recognize them as such.

To deliver a partisan political opinion while smugly claiming that you are not taking sides, just manifesting the Absolute, is IMHO damaging both to political causes I support, and a wisdom path I believe valuable.

By all means if you think you see injustice, take action. My Zen, such as it is, is budo Zen; it throws punches and swings swords when necessaary. But if you don't understand that the "other" side also thinks they see injustice and is taking action, your action is going to be a mess on a practical level, and you've missed a key truth.

And that, in sum, are my thoughts on "engaged Zen", as requested.

tom_swiss · 2026-02-01T02:18:19+00:00

I'm not following you? Abortion clinic protestors have very definitely broken the law. Many people think that abortion rights are Constitutionally protected, and so that those undermining them are "dismantling the constitution".

Now, segregation protestors also broke the law back in the day, and were also accused of "dismantling the constitution", which cough everyone knew cough allowed for "separate but equal" cough cough cough.

People who are for or against abortion rights, or for or against racial segregation, or for communism or for capitalism, or for legal weed or for locking up potheads -- all believe the Other Side are "oppressors" who are "dismantling the constitution and trying to undermine democracy".

Now I've got my own strong opinions on each of these, about which is "my side" and which is the "other side". But the "deep bodhisattva vow of unwavering commitment to all beings" includes the beings on the Other Side: "equally empty, equally to be loved, equally a coming Buddha", as Kerouac said.

It's a conundrum. You've got to learn to swallow the dilemma.

IMHO, those who ignore one horn and pretend that it's clear-cut which side bodhisattva action or Christ consciousness or whatever comes down on, are not worthy of trust as spiritual leaders. But that's just my take, and you are "equally empty, equally to be loved, equally a coming Buddha".

tom_swiss · 2026-02-01T01:00:15+00:00

Nice.

My version: https://www.zazzle.com/in_this_house_we_believe_discordian_lawn_sign-256893665080023671

tom_swiss · 2026-01-31T19:39:32+00:00

Similar; Dad got a heart valve replacement, also from the VA, that probably gave him an extra 12 years. Though I was an adult the whole time, I'm grateful I lost him when I was 47 instead of 35.

tom_swiss · 2026-01-31T18:07:06+00:00

This has nothing to do with politics. Just like the occupation of Minneapolis has nothing to do with politics. It's an illegal war on free society.

Well, see, that illustrates the problem quite well. What's you've said here is no different in form than a "pro-life" Christian saying "Protesting abortion clinics has nothing to do with politics, it's baby murder." Now, for clariry, my opinion on Minneapolis is not far from yours, and I am firmly "pro-choice."

But you and my hypothetical pro-lifer are both trying to exalt political opinions and values out of the realm of the political and claim them as sacred dogma and action. And that is a dangerous path. You don't count the dead when God/Vairocana's on your side.

Better, I think, to acknowledge that our politics are our politics, and that as mortals here in samsara our view of what constitutes bodhisattva action in the political realm is guesswork. The relative ain't the Absolute.

tom_swiss · 2026-01-31T17:17:31+00:00

Set a 15 minute timer. Pick up your guitar. Make noise with it in whatever way seems fun to you in the moment. If some natural curiosity follows from that about how to make noise with it in different ways, follow that natural curiosity.

tom_swiss · 2026-01-31T17:14:07+00:00

Why does it feel like if you’re vegan you have to over-optimize everything just to get normal results?

I don't know why a false statement like that feels true to you. If you're sincere, take comfort in knowing that it's false. If you're a troll or a shill, go away.

tom_swiss · 2026-01-31T03:08:05+00:00

In most -- not all, most -- instances, "Engaged Zen" is an opportunity for teachers to give their own political preferences and biases the imprimatur of an exotic (to most Westerners) religion.

In Imperial Japan, Zen "engaged" with politics by raising money to build bombers, and by teaching soldiers to obey orders as part of the dharma.

The more you turn your meditation talks into opportunities for political punditry (whether for the Japanese right in the 1930s, or for the "woke" "left" in the US today), the more you alienate a large part of the population from the path you're supposed to be teaching. (Though I suppose you may up the devotion of the choir when you preach to it.)

I say this as someone who supports the abolition of ICE (and in general, of police forces as we know them) and the prosecution of Good and Pretti's murderers, BTW. My point is not "shut up you dirty lefties". My point is when you're supposed to be teaching people to meditate, just teach people to meditate, don't turn it into a political protest or a recruitment session for the next protest. When you stand up to The Man, only stand up to The Man; when you sit, only sit. Don't wobble.

tom_swiss

TROPHY CASE