Michael569

sounds like it was not a wasted time completely. That's a lot of self-reflection and growth right there ^^

Depends on for what purpose and how much you want to know. Also depends on if you value correct technique and have patience to learn each move properly or just want to know bits and pieces. For purpose of fitness, to do some bag work, burn some calories and tone up, you can learn solo. Get a skipping rope, some basic gear and pay for some online thingy to guide your workouts. For everything else including making sure you learn how to move and balance your weight before even learning how to punch, learning how to breathe before learning to roundhouse kick and to ensure you don't break your wrist or something like that, you may consider getting a coach or joining a club. As a personal story I practiced judo (14yrs), boxing (3 yrs) muay thai + kick box (3yrs) + many years of solo training. But I'd never assume to be proficient in any of those. Mainly because i only train solo since my mid 20s and that way the progress is the slowest compared to having a coach or being part of a club and actually getting beat up a bit. So I'd say, if you are serious get a few months with a professional, learn the basics and then carry on on your own. Without the solid base you'll risk learning incorrect technique and hurting yourself. The benefit is that you'll also learn how to drill, how to do proper conditioning to improve your speed and power during bag work.

@Ulax conditionally useful. Sometimes, for some people. As always, everything depends on the circumstances.

Congrats, that's a huge revelation. Things like these get SO underappreciated, especially on spirituality/mindfulness-based forums such as this one. It may not be the cause but it can be a significant contributor. I took a deep dive into depression & vitamin D research on my blog some time ago and while inconsistent, a lot of it does suggest that getting vitamin D level to optimal levels may be helpful where other approaches failed. Vitamin D receptors are literally found all over your brain, who knows how lack of receptor stimulation through lack of vit D molecule can affect all sorts of cognitive functions, other than mood. Some research even shows an increased risk of neurodegenerative disease in later life in states of chronic deficiency so best to get it fixed asap Let us know how you get on. @MarkKol some labs will send out a finger prick test to take at home and you'll send sample back. This method is fairly accurate but you need to make sure that the sample is sent out within the instructed time otherwise it may get rendered as unusable. Alternatively, your doctor can usually test for a small fee.

I see. Sounds like the above idea of batch cooking would help you fix this. Doesn't have to be boring; just learn some more recipes. You can batch cook Mexican, Chinese, Japanese, Indian, and Indonesian, soups, stews, porridge, meat dishes, fish etc - like pretty much anything. Just learn 5 more recipes and rotate. There are batch cook recipe books. For me electronic pressurised cooker has saved hundreds of hours over the years. Unless you are Gordon Ramsey, eventually you'll hit the repetitive pattern but everybody eats like that unless you have a private chef. Maybe there is another area of your life where you could also liberate some extra time. Not particularly. I've taken Vega once, years ago. These days I've removed nearly all supplements and powders with a few necessary exceptions. See what's available locally, go for something that bothers to invest in some sort of fair trade/organic certification if possible.

Theoretically you would probably be fine as long as you can get that fibre from elsewhere. People in hospital settings can survive on parental nutrition for years without touching proper food. Although there is a difference between surviving and thriving. The question is, why would you want to eliminate all vegetables from your diet. I don't know about you but for me, they make like 60% of all recipe volume so the remainder would be pretty dull. Why not complement the existing diet with the powder rather than replace? No that it is any of my concern but it seems hardly sustainable over a long period of time.

Hey, Try to look up the history. We've had many cookbooks and recipe resources shared over the months. Also there have been a few attempts of such mega thread. Look them up too

Of course, it does become easier. Living life with poor stamina, low physical strength and zero level of athleticism is actually quite difficult. That is as long as you don't spend most of your time sitting around. But those traits on their own are also proxy for more physical exercise, which usually means better health and lower chronic disease risk. So yes, life does get easier if you are fit as fuck

Congratulations! ?

Pretty sure you're one google search away from the answer

What's wrong with wearing socks in winter shoes? You don't put trousers on exposed genitals either. I'd be cautious about bacterial residue, dead skin residue, fungal contamination maybe even mould, but I guess if you disinfect them regularly, its fine.

Many experts, therapists, and coaches who could be masters in their field may not be 100% happy because, for example, their business might not be where they would like it to be. That doesn't mean they have nothing to teach you. In fact, if you go to someone who seems very successful, popular and probably happy, you may receive mediocre cookie-cutter service because they don't have time to go on a personal level and are more interested in growing their following than spending hours with each client/patient. Look beyond the most obvious and watch what their clients say about them and what changes their clients are receiving. But on the other hand, I agree that you shouldn't probably work with someone who just seems depressed. I had an assigned mentor back in school who was clearly depressed because her business was not doing well and she seemed extremely unhappy. And you could see that she was unfocused and always out there with her mind. So it is best to spend some time learning more about that person

I don't know anything about the particular training your friend recommends but in general, a functional training pattern is absolutely brilliant way to get way more out of your workouts. You can do a more CrossFit type of training where you go very high intensity for a short duration, you could do sprints, shadow boxing or bag work, you can do more primal type of training replicating wild animals and lizards, you can take a more parkour type of approach that includes a lot of rapid motion, changing direction, jumping etc. You can also do calisthenics and do a more pull/push training that includes mostly just your own bodyweight. I've been oscillating between weight training and a functional pattern and I've found my stamina and coordination has improved significantly compared to times when I only did bodybuilding. These days I really enjoy a session rope skipping, followed by shadow boxing with 1kg dumbells and then taking about 24 minutes of interval training with some jumping, burpees and that sort of stuff. I made a Youtube Video on this topic about a year ago. The quality is kinda shit but a few people I've shared that with found it quite helpful starting point. Very little investment into equipment required although not ideal at below 0 degree temperature

@Ayham @StarStruck thanks guys!

Interesting, I've heard some good things about this course. Do you think you can extract the basics from his book, or is the course necessary? Is there a software subscription involved or do you use your own thing?

Hey, I wanted to get back to you on this but did not have access to computer to look into this properly. So the argument goes that "because polyunsaturated fatty acids (such as linoleic acid and alpha-linolenic acid) have double bonds which makes them more prone to oxidation, they wreak havoc in the body." Would that sum up your position? Would you also argue that because LA oxidised it causes......cancer? heart disease? Diabetes? So then would it be fair to say that people with the highest serum (blood) levels of LA would be experiencing these diseases the most? Final question: Would you take the position that Omega 3s (ALA, EPA and DHA) are healthy?

that's a complex question to answer on a forum let's break it apart on our next follow up

With regards to nutrition, the balance will be, the ability to delay the incidence of chronic disease for as long as possible. That, in fact, would be my definition of health from a high-altitude perspective. You can then go in and dissect that definition and talk about mood, energy, recovery, gut health etc etc but in the essence, the goal should be to be able to go through life and minimise the number of years reduced or compromised due to occurrence of chronic disease (cancer, heart disease, diabetes, obesity, autoimmunity etc) - individual adjustments are ofcourse possible once you nail the baseline (many members of the public haven't - hence why public guidelines exist) Most people do not follow the guidelines diet, in fact many willingly try to discredit the model without dully taking time to investigate and assess its incredible benefits. The increasing global burden of disease is likely an effect of multiple variables, including (but not limited to): an increase in sedentary work, increased consumption of ultra-processed food driving weight gain, increase in obesity, reduced consumption of fibre (mainly fruits and veg), increased salt intake, reduced physical activity, increased stress levels, increased environmental toxicity and individual exposure but also increased survival of members of the population who would have previously died in early childhood (the survival of the fittest is no longer the case and so you have higher % of the population with weaker genetic makeup and weaker protection against disease who will skew your longevity statistics - this is called survivorship bias. You would have to assume that sugar, and sugar only is the cause of weight gain. It is not. The causes of weight gain are many. Whatever will lead to overconsumption and excess caloric intake will lead to weight gain provided that that energy is not being used up. You can get fatter on paleo, on vegan, on keto and even on a carnivore. Sugar is just one of many variables that have obesogenic potential but it does not immediately mean "sugar = weight gain". I assume when you say "sugar", based on below you are basically referring to carbohydrates? All carbohydrates for that matter? (legumes, fruits, vegetables, grains - both whole and refined, potatoes) Nobody ever said rice is problematic (all things being equal) I've spent about 3.5 months in Thailand, Phillipines, Malaysia, Singapore and about a month in Japan. From what I observed I can tell you that the average rice farmer (or cattle farmer) is underweight and borderline with malnourishment in these countries. For them eating more rice and gaining weight actually helps prevent malnutrition and so it will lead to better health. Actually, for these people even eating more beef will promote better health because it will reduce the risk of severe malnourishment. But rice is not bad. If you are referring to risk of type 2 diabetes with increased rice consumption than that's the incorrect way to look at it. T 2 Diabetes is an energy-status disease that develops once your body can no longer cope with the amount of body fat you carry. If your adipose tissue tolerance is low, you could be thin and get diabetes - in fact I've worked with a lady who went in and out of being pre-diabetic from one quarter to another because her fat tissue tolerance was extremely low and her natural constitution was extremely lean and thin. Like she would literally gain 2 kilos and her HbA1C went, within 3 months, from 34 to 39 - even up to low 40s. Once she lost it, her A1C got back to mid 30s. But this is not common in people who have the ability to "get fat" - basically their body storing huge amount of fat without having their blood glucose management system compromised. These people are naturally a bit bigger and bulky. Lot of people look at diabetes from the perspective of insulin sensitivity and sugar but that's the incorrect way. Insulin resistance is a consequence not the cause. The cause is basically becoming "too fat for your own body to handle"

Are you a raw foodie? Do you find that this quantity of food satisfies your energetic needs?

^ I'm seeing more and more of this. The need to go all the way to the edges because anything that is in between doesn't sell. If nutrition books were completely unbiased and presented the REAL information, in accordance with the hierarchy of evidence, they would be so boring that nobody would read them because they would all point to the same thing - basically health guidelines diet. Instead, we have dama, cherry-picking, mechanisms, pseudoscience and dogmatism to appeal to the audience

@Tyler Robinson i agree with you the function to privatise journal should exist. It would save a lot of time for everyone. This had been raised several times but mods do not have admin rights to the forum and it probably requires opening up forum source code and tinkering with it which only Leo can do. @Leo Gura not sure how possible of a request that is

@Tyler Robinson yes I still stand by those but unfortunately none of us can do that. Those are changes only Leo can make. Also, the job of mods is not to protect the users but the forum. This is not a public safety service. The main role here is to ban and repell spammers, bots and users who are trying to splinter this community. The intra-user conflicts would require 30 more people around to take care of and have this a full time job As a user on here you are (unofficially) agreeing to take the risk of being trolled, stalked and becoming a target of criticism. Everyone on here is aware of this risk. Everytime you post something personal consider this: 1. Hundreds of mentally unstable people could be reading this 2. Hundreds of psychopaths could be reading this 3. Hundreds of pedophiles, freaks, and potentially dangerous people could be reading this. 4. Hundreds of people who simply enjoy drama and suffering of others could be reading this. 5. People who might be trying to track you on real life might be reading this. As others said, personal journal might work better otherwise it seems as if you somehow desire the attention both negative and positive.

You don't see a lot of the behind the scenes stuff but trust me this forum can have a vicious underground that you don't see because we do our best to keep it clean and protect people who don't deal well with mean comments. Ofcourse we mess up often and and much goes under our radar, this is an unpaid work. Most of us have jobs, some of us multiple jobs and other engagements and there is only so much mental power one can dedicate to reading stuff that some people write which often borderlines with insanity, and then decide who is right or wrong. I agree with Roy that a lot of your suffering would be alleviated if you took a break from this place. That applies for many users. Because you post the most often of all users, statistically your comments are likely to be read by the most people and friction is inevitable because people ALWAYS disagree with each other online. That's just how it is. Internet is a vicious place. You can't change it but you can leave it for a bit.

Why don't you buy a budget multivitamin? This stuff costs nothing and even the cheapest of them are still relatively well absorbable. Obviously go for as few excipients as possible

Definitely case by case basis. Personally, I would never be comfortable making major suggestions to someone for whom I have not done 3-hour case taking on their entire health, lifestyle & diet. Basically, find someone who either specialises in autoimmunity or even the particular one you're looking at or get in touch with someone who seems to know what they are talking about. Anecdotally, I've seen a modified Mediterranean diet work very well for a guy with MS and a lady with chronic psoriasis alongside stress reduction techniques. But someone else might not respond to it at all, in fact some people actually get worse on a high-fibre diet and you need to support their gut before even attempting to do anything else. Also, you want to avoid anyone who makes grandiose claims, makes guarantees, offers money back, already telling you what the approach will be (e.g. making claims such as "heal all disease with keto/paleo/vegan") and all sorts of shady bullshit. A proper evidence-based health practitioner will actually, in advance, tell you that odds of healing might not be as high and you might simply be looking for a lifelong management of the condition (although it can still happen). This is, in fact, the case for many people with autoimmunity, allergic diseases, cancer etc even those treated by their masters in the field of various health modalities. Health can be complicated, and full healing is not always possible. Hope that helps