So you changed three variables at once - supplements, paleo, and strength training... how are you supposed to know which one is working? You could be doing two of those unnecessarily!
1: four variables... she also added a fourth kid. Remember, the condition that the Dr. diagnosed was "life with three kids." Maybe the fourth is an energy-booster.
I've thought of getting my iron levels tested because I've been beyond exhausted and struggling to hold onto my easy run paces, but I'm too busy to keep an appointment, so I just decided to take a multivitamin and see if that helps.
Of the factors you've mentioned, diet + vitamins are probably bigger factors, but, hey, good for you. Energy is nice, isn't it?
This reminds me that I need one of you to come kill me if I don't get an IUD or ablation in the next 3-6 months. But my first energy goal is to get down to 4 wakeups/night or something at least for a night or two.
Look at it through new eyes, this post might be irritating if I were not feeling top o' the world at the moment. Apologies.
I'm not irritated! Too tired to be irritated.
Too tired to be irritated.
I am completely unfamiliar with this state of being.
Discussion boards with lots of moms are full of women who discovered that their thyroid levels were out of whack. Either all these women are just being humored by their doctors or your doctor was being an asshole. (The American Thyroid Association -- no idea how reliable they are, this was just a quick google -- claims that postpartum thyroiditis occurs in 5-10% of women.)
Unfortunately, I've found that the gender of the doctor doesn't make much difference when it comes to dismissal of your silly little woman concerns.
I did feel totally dismissed, but she did also check my thyroid levels and they came back fine. (I think she should have checked whether I was anemic, however - that's my current suspicion.)
Or in general, she should have tossed out some ideas other than the one I came in with, and taken it as a real problem.
Although if she'd said "Diet and exercise?" I would have been totally offended, given that I was exercising frequently and with high intensity, and carefully watching what I was eating. I really wanted her to seriously consider that something might be wrong medically. (And not like I needed kid gloves, necessarily, I wasn't deathly ill.)
Right: so your thyroid levels were fine. But apparently that's not the case for a lot of postpartum women! 5-10% is a lot!
Oh, I see what you're saying. Right, she didn't need to be a jerk about it, since it's a reasonable possibility.
The medical establishment is often annoying, but particularly with respect to the needs of postpartum women. So much misery we're expected to just suck up because there was also a baby made.
5: Thorn, get the damn IUD. If it doesn't work, you can have them take it out. I have the copper one which is obviously different from the Mirena, but the insertions were not that bad. (First was expelled after 5 years.)
I mean it hurt, and they had to dilate my cervix, but I took ibuprophen. The second time I made sure that my hot water bottle was ready, and I just took it easy.
I wonder about the thyroid level thing. Well, more specifically, I wonder how well we understand what's going on there. IIUC, they mostly measure the performance of the thyroid-regulating system, checking that TSH levels aren't pegged in one direction or another. If that level is OK, the actual amount of thyroid hormone is also assumed to be OK. T3 and T4 can also be checked directly, but if they were in the accepted-as-normal range (a range that is population-averaged at best), you might well be in a range where more T3/T4 would be good for you but it won't show up.
Is that crazy?
15: I'm not worried about the pain, just bad about making the appointment.
I was completely exhausted for the past month, ever since I got back from visiting Chicago to help with my ailing grandpa. Yesterday and today were the first days in a long time that I've actually felt on top of things. Up till now this semester, I've been barely keeping my head above water. I think it was psychological (dealing with very sick relatives who are close to you: hard). But even if it wasn't psychological, I'm not going paleo.
18: Actually if it was psychological, than paleo is the best solution. By going paleo you escape to a time before psychology.
My energy levels have been pretty crappy recently. Some of it is winter, but a lot of it is unhappiness with my job. I'll be leaving it in a few months (please dear god), but that brings with it more anxiety - my company is definitely not prepared to deal with my absence (even with plenty of notice like I plan to give) and it's going to make life harder for my co-workers, who I love. But I have to get out before I go crazy!
Oops, premature entry. So, basically, all I want to do is sleep and read. No energy for anything else!
Anxiety is exhausting. I recommend starting a Minecraft game where you dig a trench from the surface to the bedrock and see how far you can make it run.
So, basically, all I want to do is sleep and read.
If you're not one of those paleo/Crossfit people, what else is there?
During times of extreme stress, I do play a ridiculous game called "Mega Miner." All you have to do is collect all the buried treasure and not run out of fuel or overheat. It's brilliant for managing my anxiety. (Though not good at making me an interesting or productive person.)
Of course, the one true demon is Corn.
I have developed specific rules for how it must be played that are so silly and yet provide such comfort! My partner always knows when I'm stressed out if he looks over and sees that on my screen.
If you're not one of those paleo/Crossfit people, what else is there?
Indeed! Eating & drinking, I suppose, which I do a lot of as well.
During times of extreme stress, I do play a ridiculous game called "Mega Miner."
I got my first tablet this year and so far the most useful thing about it is playing dumb tablet games.
There's definitely a point at which I don't have the energy for internet or TV at which computer games are a totally acceptable way to pass time -- which is different from playing computer games that are fun and engaging.
That said, I'm happy to report that the big project at work has been going well, I'm proud of what we're pulling off, and I've been tempted to brag about it here a couple of times but keep erring on the side of, "it's unseemly to brag and bad karma to brag before it's actually done."
Crossfit/paleo is super into sleep. Like 10 hours of sleep per night every night minimum and there are even special mattress companies about how you should sleep. Needless to say this is one area where I fall well short.
30 makes me angrier than any of the other stuff, because of course I will never lift a gazillion pounds and probably not eat anything reasonable for a few more years, but 10 hours of sleep is just rubbing it in.
To to sleep shortly after sunset, wake up midnight and tell stories around the fire, go back to sleep, and then wake up with sunrise. If paleo people make this conventional, all their silliness will be forgiven.
That part would work well for me, and I like having the call to prayer to structure the daylight hours, too. But it was a bad week for asthma etc. and I went from Saturday to Thursday without having a full hour's sleep at a time, I think, and spent two nights in Selah's room while she was feverish and needy and I'm just wiped out. I would like that sort of setup but it's not really compatible with the rest of my life as I live it now. So maybe I should quit life and sleep nights?
New xfit owner-brother brought on a new partner, who is absolutely absurd. I'm FB friends with him out of sheer desire to gawk. He is super into this supple leopard mobility nonsense and also makes and hocks tons of Bone Broth. He recently posted a big chart about how we're all in sleep deficit from all our exercise. They really are into their sleep.
I mean, it would work for me in theory. In practice I stay up angrily folding laundry and reading the internet and grumping around in general and then get up well before sunrise this time of year.
Ooh, who had the link to the twitter account that tells all the bone broth people that it's just stock?
Back on the veldt, if you were asleep, the saber-toothed tigers wouldn't eat you.
Ripper, I'd bet your artificial light exposure is way out of line with Paleo standards.
It's not just stock. It's FLOW.
Thorn: WHAT DO WE NEED TO DO TO HELP YOU MAKE THE APPOINTMENT? Seriously
Criminy, Thorn, so little sleep.
When I find myself playing simple tunes on Circle of Fifths it's way past time to go to sleep.
(sounds good, NickS, I wouldn't jinx it either.)
40: I'll call Monday and get the general checkup scheduled, I promise. I did call once and had to cancel because someone else was sick. It's hard because my work goes in busy cycles where I'm not allowed to take time off and then once that's over I want to decompress a little and don't make the appointment and next thing I know I'm back in a busy period and can't take time off. So we'll come out of one at the end of the month and presumably the doctor can see me in March sometime, or at least before the mid-April restart of peak.
Honestly, I don't like to call it "depressed" because I don't quite think I count as falling there (although Lee does) but I've been very sad and touchy and angry this winter, and lack of sleep doesn't help but lying in bed being angry and stressed-out and aching doesn't help me sleep either so it's a vicious cycle. And then someone comes home drunk and wakes me or wakes up needing comfort or is sick and I have to slip into caring mode and then after have to figure out how to get back to sleep. It's not ideal, but the big girls only wake me once or twice a week at most and eventually Selah will get there.
I would be in awful shape with so little sleep. My preference is for something like nine hours. Fewer than seven, and I turn into a cranky mess. I guess maybe it's time to rethink my commitment to carbs.
I'm pretty picky about my sleep. In bed by 9, asleep by 9:30ish. Up between 5:15 and 5:30 am during the week. (Rascal is usually up 2x/night, but we've got our routine down to where I can maintain a half-awake dozing state.)
"I can maintain a half-awake dozing state." - this is my goal for the entire going to the gym process, I'm specifically trying to recreate what I learned when nursing. Would be vastly helped if the gym would dim the lights and lose the horribly auto-tuned pop.
eat anything reasonable
I knew meat-eating was a slippery slope!
"Give child bone broth" has been on my list of desperate gambits to add calcium to her dairy-free diet, since "hide kale in stuff" hasn't gone over well and "get her to drink more than one sip of almond milk a day" has also stalled. if it's just stock, then is the calcium thing spurious too? According to the labels, IIRC, most beef & chicken stock has little to none.
I have had actual nightmares about autotune.
21 could be me. But I left that job today. I gave a months notice and they haven't even started to look for a replacement. I will miss most of my colleagues and from the nice things they said, they'll miss me. I fully expect my entire team to quit by midsummer. So sad. But I exhaled easily when I left work today.
Isn't the stock that's "bone broth" one that's cooked way longer so that you get more bone breakdown and calcium and the like and the other nutritious stuff that Kobe and other enthusiasts like. Definitely not the stock you get from bouillon cubes or whatever, not that (I'm sure) any of you types would ever deign to use such things.
Energy has been a problem for me for a long time, but when I asked my psychiatrist to order ALL the thyroid tests, nothing came up weird. I suspect that I need iron or vitamin supplements, but I also suspect they're a scam. Mostly I just buy them and don't take them.
I know I need to exercise, and to stop eating so much crap. And meditate. And either change my career situation or figure out how to live with it. But I'm depressed, and don't have the energy, so none of that is going very well.
I also suspect that the Lamictal that my shrink added to my med cocktail--a drug I tried a few years ago but began to suspect was causing me to gain weight--is once again causing me to gain weight. Still trying to decide whether I want to pay out of pocket for the new magnetic brain shock therapy. Anyone know how I can get into a ketamine trial?
Re bone broth, confusingly the butcher shop I went to this afternoon had both stock and bone broth. I shoulda asked them what the difference was.
On topic for the mention of dumb games upthread, recommend me some dumb iPhone games? Absolutely mindless is good, puzzles are good, strategy is good.
53: Threes is good, similar to (but much less mindless) than 2048. Monument Valley is great, although it's not terribly long.
51.3: Here. Green = recruiting. You can limit by geography, too, either in the search field or by looking at the "Results on Map" tab.
Auro!
Definitely not mindless. In fact, you fuck up your ranking if you play it when you're too tired. It's a strategy game.
https://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/id912559144?mt=8
Circle of Fifths is another descendant of Threes, with harmony.
As much as I snark on Crossfit bro culture, a lot of the supple leopard mobility work is very, very good, as long as you think critically about some of the recommendations. I have Starrett's Ready to Run book, and it's pretty good (though I'd recommend Anatomy for Runners over it.)
So, basically, all I want to do is sleep and read.
Me too. For the last couple of months I haven't finished much work but I've gotten through a big pile of books. I was blaming the cold and snow.
Oh god. This is just a paleo/xfit blog now, huh?
yay! It has kind of a steep learning curve, but at least they've dealt with their previous "doing a crappy job teaching it" issues. The current tutorial is good.
If it helps, I'm still commenting from a bar.
I saw you mention it on FB -- you know the programmer or something?
63: And I just ate a garlic knot.
I know the animator/composer (or, the composer of some of the pieces -- the ones that sound orchestral rather than synthy). I also play it all the time! I don't *just* promote it for his sake -- it's a really addictive game. In fact, I'm on the internet now in part out of frustration because my tablet is too low on battery for me to play Auro.
On topic for the mention of dumb games upthread, recommend me some dumb iPhone games?
This is going to be embarrassing but here's what's worked for me (note, all of these are android games, and I haven't checked to see if there's an iPad version, but there should be):
The one game I unreservedly recommend is rymdkapsel -- it's short, but lovely.
The other games are all decent games that happen to hit my sweet spot:
Card Dungeon -- the nostalgic board game aspect of it works for me.
Game Dev Story -- so mindlessly addictive, has meaningful strategy but also feels like playing a slot machine with the odds tilted in your favor over and over again.
Desert Golfing -- unlike the others, I can't play this for an hour or two at a time but, by contrast, I don't expect to get tired of it any time soon.
The two games that I was excited about but didn't really like were Auro (which Tia had recommended earlier) which is fun, but I never achieved the gaming version of "suspension of disbelief" and World Of Goo, which looked like exactly the sort of thing I'd like but ended up being a little too difficult and timing-based. It made me anxious, rather than feeling like tasty pablum.
68: it is topologically identical to a garlic breadstick.
Garlicky lump of baked pizza dough.
I'm too full of fries and shrimp to care about how unhelpful that was.
Breaded shrimp is nature's perfect food if somehow chicken wings are seen as unnatural.
Also, y'all sleep a lot. I think Apo has noted how he stays up late because that's the only quiet time he gets. I do the same. Bed sometime between 11:30 and 12:30, hopefully asleep within 30 minutes of that, and kids are up and yelling by 6. Predictably, I'm insanely irritable all the time.
For puzzle games, I enjoyed The Heist, but that was a few years ago.
51 - Have you tried some of the various kind-of-sketchy-but-technically-legal* drugs that people lump under the label 'nootropic'? Given that they're mostly popular among weight lifters, 'brain hackers', and people wanting something to hold themselves over until they can upload their brains into a computer (any day now) they're kind of a suspect category but I've seen surprising effects from some of them, especially when it comes to mood/motivation, which lamictal screws with a bit (for me). This falls into the category of "maybe you should consult with your doctor or maybe not depending on how they react to this sort of thing" though.
Ketamine trials are probably hard to get into to non-existent, but I bet if you know someone who goes clubbing regularly you could get yourself into a "trial". And if you want to save money on the magnetic thing you could just go straight for its cheaper, more metal equivalent which is just running a current right through your brain.
*Status dependent on FDA continuing to not really care.
Have you tried some of the various kind-of-sketchy-but-technically-legal* drugs that people lump under the label 'nootropic'?
For some people Adderall works really well as a mild antidepressant. Just go fake some adult ADD.
51.last reminds me that I was reading the Michael Pollan article in the latest New Yorker about clinical trials of psychedelics for treatment of depression/anxiety/OCD/etc. Combined with the conversation here a little while back about them, it really made me think I might be much happier if I could get over my reservations about them.
(That said, the digression in the article about whether or not the revelations users had during the trials were "true" was spectacularly woolly-headed even for Pollan.)
It doesn't even rise to the level of anecdotal evidence, but I'm pretty sure that doing them helped me about a fair bit. I never had access to ketamine though, which is apparently the surprisingly effective one. I wasn't surprised in the slightest to learn about their 'feeling better about the terminal disease thing' effects when those studies came out, though.
Adderall is just amphetamines, by the way, and I bet gswift has some idea of who sells amphetamines in SLC. You could ask him to hook you up. He might know about ketamine too.
recommend me some dumb iPhone games
Wire Storm
Black market amphetamines are for noobs. Getting a scrip from a GP for Adderall is easy as hell so why anyone would risk that felony is beyond me. I don't see much vitamin K around but I hear the easy way to get at it is to date a girl into the horse/riding scene.
I hear the easy way to get at it is to date a girl into the horse/riding scene.
Ann Rom/ney: drug kingpin.
79 and 83: just to make things fun, I actually have ADHD. I take a boatload of Dexedrine (adderal and Ritalin had absolutely no effect on me at all), and it does have a noticeable antidepressant effect. Unfortunately, that still leaves me fairly depressed.
I am way too much of a worrywart, on both legal and medical grounds, to take anything illegal. Hell, even if it worked I'd be plunged back into guilt and anxiety over the welfare of the dealer and the potential destination of the profits.
I take loads of dexedrine, but only at the holidays.
I am way too much of a worrywart
You know what would help with that?
I now know two poli sci people who probably took dexedrine.
79: She might not have to fake it. There was a point when I had some issues which my shrink was willing to prescribe stimulants for. I was too concerned that they would make me anxious or manic-y.
He said straight up, "That doesn't mean you have ADD. Stimulants make everyone concentrate better."
I still wonder if I should have finished my dissertation. It seemed like it would have been too much work for not wavy any more money.
If you finish out of school a lot of the time they'll let you come back and defend it for the degree.
I've been ABD since 1996. The ship has sailed.
ABD can last twenty years or so. I mean, it mostly depends on your department/adviser I think, but people do take a long time off and then come back later with a dissertation.
Ah, J, Robot. Well, wrong coast and a little far from Mexico but... I dunno?
Every time Moby comments, someone should encourage him to buckle down and finish that dissertation. It's what a friend would do.
Sympathy, J, Robot. I'm sorry to hear this. I know you've mentioned it before, but still.
The head of my committee retired and moved to Canada to supervise people being Jewish. I'm more even joking.
More s/b not. I'm serious, but drinking.
One of my classmates was working outside Boston before moving to a wisconsin and getting full professor-hood.
One is at a university in Wales. The rest of us turned to drugs and normcore.
Anyway, the bartender has taught more classes than I have. But English classes don't count.
Moby, as much as I enjoy your comments, you should probably try to outline a chapter tonight.
I'm going to Wales later this month. Probably not the same one.
Some are mathematicians
Some are carpenter's wives
I wonder a bit about the ABD-ish scenario in 99. I mean, I bailed out instead of writing the thesis for a weaksauce terminal master's degree; the project I did worked, and was useful, but has long since been ripped out and replaced with something else. Hard to imagine it's worth the trouble now.
I can support a family and a subclinical drinking habit as things are now. What would a doctorate add besides a reason to move to somewhere either shittier or where I could not afford either?
I'm so happy for my friend. He's really been struggling and hoping for his game's success.
Moby should comment wavy-style more often.
He should write his dissertation that way too.
Wavy's just another name for nothing left to lose.
Since NickS recommended Android games, I can too:
GAMES
10000000 -- the combat is a matching puzzle.
Shelter -- a perfectly designed zombie-themed single-player collectible card game.
ArkanoidX -- The best Arkanoid clone on the market and better than the original.
Cut the Rope Free -- intuitive puzzle game
Wavy would probably know how to get you some therapeutic psychedelics.
115 - There are lots of benefits to have a doctorate, all of which you could have without moving, changing jobs, getting a different family, or whatever.
For example, you could start using the phrase "Now, as a Doctor I strongly recommend that you...". And there are plenty of other benefits too, which I would tell you about except that's pretty much the only one I know of.
easy way to get at it is to date a girl into the horse/riding scene
Probably true, but I think ketamine's pretty tightly regulated. Thundersnow kept it in her work truck; she used it for sedation (say, during castration or other surgery) and also (I think) during euthanasia.
If I had to kill a horse, I'd want to be high also.
75: Letterpress is fun, except random people playing it are super slow.