Inquiry about health (suggestions are highly welcome)

[Applegarden8]

Basically, I am willing to spend a lot of time completely dismantling my lifestyle and building it up again. I would like to know how it is to live healthy. Without it I will have nothing of significance. So, where did you start? How long it took, how many times you tripped? What changed? How is your life now what you really improved your health?

I want to pursue health for the following reasons.

- To enjoy life in it's senses.

- To handle problems that life throws at me.

- To maximize doing and lifestyle of solitude and contemplation.

- To be able to sit alone with my eyes closed for extended periods of time.

- To really figure out what works.

- To not live a mediocre life of guilt, self-hatred and projection.

What are your routines, guides, what psychological tricks, practices or advice worked for you? Have your cravings permanently gone? What were your worst moments? Please, share. Thank you.

[Applegarden8]

@Sidra khan thanks for sharing.

I have some things that have worked to the extent that I did them.

- neem and turmeric intake at the morning;

- usage of haritaki;

- drinking only when I am thirsty, no tea or coffee;

- obviously reducing refined sugars;

- intermittent fasting (no snacking);

- some yogic practices I have done, some purely physical and kriya yoga which is my favourite.

- I have tried some alternative healing techniques and I have mixed results, I cannot say they do not work, but you really have to do them consistently and your lifestyle should be without nervous stimulants and refined sugars for best results. Maybe practicing that for few years daily could make you have a Siddhi, but only for yourself, not others. Plus, I am not sure if you can heal every disease like viruses and other external infections, but psychosomatic diseases it seems like you can.

- from classical medidation practice (dhyana) I feel blissful throughout my body, which I think has helped over the years.

- I think vegetarianism really helps the body.

Edited May 18, 2023 by Applegarden8

[Schizophonia]

I'm pretty sure that good sleep, low stress and enought micronutrients are 90% of the work. 

Edited May 18, 2023 by Schizophonia

[Applegarden8]

8 hours ago, Schizophonia said:

I'm pretty sure that good sleep, low stress and enought micronutrients are 90% of the work. 

Thanks for sharing. We'll I have had the following problem. I cannot have good sleep because of stress, so what other aspects of health I can optimize to help me have lower the stress and have chance to get more sleep.

[Schizophonia]

1 hour ago, Applegarden8 said:

Thanks for sharing. We'll I have had the following problem. I cannot have good sleep because of stress, so what other aspects of health I can optimize to help me have lower the stress and have chance to get more sleep.

How much do you weigh ?
I believe that if you are very active and/or have a history of metabolic problems, undernutrition etc, you should consume a good amount of calories to stop the HPA axis and finally have the torpor to fall asleep.
As a rule of thumb, the more physically and mentally stressed you are, the more calories and fat you need to be.

This can go up to 4000 calories per day.

Me too I have big problems on that side, I suspect malnutrition so I'm going to make a day at, say, 6000 calories.

If so then I should crumble lol.
I'll let you know. 

[Sigitas]

Don't owerload your digestion this worked wonders to me ?

[thenondualtankie]

@Sidra khan Could you tell me what "simple soap" is? Like you mean a bar of soap for your hair? Lmfao

[integral]

On 5/18/2023 at 1:27 PM, Sidra khan said:

- Done hydration dehydration cycle it reduced my skin dryness 90% within 4 days

- Did walk and rest cycle on the first day of my periods and it gave me relieve from periods cramps, legs pain, and acid reflux within an hour. 

Can you explain these more, what did you do exactly for each? 

[Michael569]

On 14/05/2023 at 9:08 PM, Applegarden8 said:

I want to pursue health for the following reasons.

- To enjoy life in it's senses.

- To handle problems that life throws at me.

- To maximize doing and lifestyle of solitude and contemplation.

- To be able to sit alone with my eyes closed for extended periods of time.

- To really figure out what works.

- To not live a mediocre life of guilt, self-hatred and projection.

What are your routines, guides, what psychological tricks, practices or advice worked for you? Have your cravings permanently gone? What were your worst moments? Please, share. Thank you.

There is so much that could be said and written as a response. Ofcourse it depends on your budget, preferences, predispositions and how far you are willing to go deep into this work. 

But overall, if I was to share top 5 things that have made the most difference to me over the years on terms of energy, mental health, cognitive performance and athletic performance it would be (in no particular order): 

1. Batch cooking through use of a pressurised cooker (allows for an extreme nutrient density even on plant diets)
   • and paying attention to:
     •  proper protein intake
     • high complex carbohydrate intake 
2. A combined approach of weight training (gym) 3-4/week and cardio 2/week (HIIT + boxing + rope skipping) 
   • a caveat I would add there is that the training needs to be hard enough to stimulate all sorts of secondary messenger molecules around the body.
     • So in the gym, you want to be pushing heavy, lifting heavy and going through a reasonable amount of discomfort. You know like squatting under a heavy barbell and going bit "grrrrrrrraaaaarghhhh" 2 or 3 times before returning it back so that you really feel it the next day. Without jeopardising the form, obviously. Weight lifting  is perfect for stimulating the remineralisation of bones, increasing grip strength and improving lean muscle density - all of which are significant predictors of a longer lifespan. 
     • In cardio, you want to be mixing up speed drills, mobility, endurance, agility and complex movements - maximising the time you spend approaching your V02 max and aiming for spending more time closer to your HR max during each set. Basically, if you haven't sweated through 50% of your t-shirt surface, you're not going hard enough. One of the aims of all of these is also to protect your fast twitch muscles from atrophy as it may one day save you from hip fracture when you are 70 and can still put one food in front of the other when slipping on ice (and dying in hospital as a consequence pf osteoporotic injury as roughly 25% of such patients do) 
3. Applying some form of stress release / mindfulness practices to regulate stress, improve sleep and help me reconnect with the present moment 
4. Spending more time outdoors and getting some proper sun exposure when possible - doing things like hiking on weekends, running outdoors or taking my cardio training outdoors when I can (skipping rope, TRX and 2* 1kg boxing dumbbells) 
5. Endlessly optimising my sleep routine 

I would say these are responsible for 85-90% of my results. I don't really believe supplements alone do much. You can't supplement to compensate for bad sleep or lack of physical activity, nor can you every hope to achieve the same benefits an ultra-high-fibre diet delivers to your system, not even through the most expensive products. 

Basically, you need to become a bit of a freak, valuing health as your core value number one and ruthlessly removing people and factors in your life that damage it or jeopardise your relationship with your body (e.g. people who don't value health, people who force you into idle socialising, drinking and eating shit food because "the social norm requires it") 

Hope that helps 

Edited June 6, 2023 by Michael569

[Applegarden8]

On 6/6/2023 at 0:39 PM, Michael569 said:

There is so much that could be said and written as a response. Ofcourse it depends on your budget, preferences, predispositions and how far you are willing to go deep into this work. 

But overall, if I was to share top 5 things that have made the most difference to me over the years on terms of energy, mental health, cognitive performance and athletic performance it would be (in no particular order): 

1. Batch cooking through use of a pressurised cooker (allows for an extreme nutrient density even on plant diets)
   • and paying attention to:
     •  proper protein intake
     • high complex carbohydrate intake 
2. A combined approach of weight training (gym) 3-4/week and cardio 2/week (HIIT + boxing + rope skipping) 
   • a caveat I would add there is that the training needs to be hard enough to stimulate all sorts of secondary messenger molecules around the body.
     • So in the gym, you want to be pushing heavy, lifting heavy and going through a reasonable amount of discomfort. You know like squatting under a heavy barbell and going bit "grrrrrrrraaaaarghhhh" 2 or 3 times before returning it back so that you really feel it the next day. Without jeopardising the form, obviously. Weight lifting  is perfect for stimulating the remineralisation of bones, increasing grip strength and improving lean muscle density - all of which are significant predictors of a longer lifespan. 
     • In cardio, you want to be mixing up speed drills, mobility, endurance, agility and complex movements - maximising the time you spend approaching your V02 max and aiming for spending more time closer to your HR max during each set. Basically, if you haven't sweated through 50% of your t-shirt surface, you're not going hard enough. One of the aims of all of these is also to protect your fast twitch muscles from atrophy as it may one day save you from hip fracture when you are 70 and can still put one food in front of the other when slipping on ice (and dying in hospital as a consequence pf osteoporotic injury as roughly 25% of such patients do) 
3. Applying some form of stress release / mindfulness practices to regulate stress, improve sleep and help me reconnect with the present moment 
4. Spending more time outdoors and getting some proper sun exposure when possible - doing things like hiking on weekends, running outdoors or taking my cardio training outdoors when I can (skipping rope, TRX and 2* 1kg boxing dumbbells) 
5. Endlessly optimising my sleep routine 

I would say these are responsible for 85-90% of my results. I don't really believe supplements alone do much. You can't supplement to compensate for bad sleep or lack of physical activity, nor can you every hope to achieve the same benefits an ultra-high-fibre diet delivers to your system, not even through the most expensive products. 

Basically, you need to become a bit of a freak, valuing health as your core value number one and ruthlessly removing people and factors in your life that damage it or jeopardise your relationship with your body (e.g. people who don't value health, people who force you into idle socialising, drinking and eating shit food because "the social norm requires it") 

Hope that helps 

Thanks man, I am really giving it a shot

[Michael569]

@Applegarden8 i know you are ? good luck man! 

[TheCloud]

1- Low-carb or keto diet, under 50g of carbs a day.  My energy levels become more consistent, my hunger becomes more manageable, and I have better mental clarity.

 

2- Electrolyte supplementation.  K, Ca, and Mg (usually no need to supplement Na).  Especially Magnesium, has had a substantial impact on my daily alertness and stamina.

 

3- Prophylactic analgesics (aspirin and acetaminophen).  This one is less general advice.  I have a tendency where, under mental or physical stress, I get headaches.  With my physical labor job, on long hot days this can be debilitating.  I've found that taking a dose of aspirin and acetaminophen in the morning will prevent most of my issues.  If you have pain, don't be afraid to try this.  I regret the years of unnecessary pain I went through trying to minimize my medicine intake, worrying it was somehow bad for me.  Pain is worse for the body than otc medication, if it's a chronic issue with no treatable cause.  Be careful not to overdose on acetaminophen, it can be hidden in medications other than Tylenol.