Stardust

You did also ask if you should, which factors in to what @calanthrophy is getting at. Personally, I went vegetarian for health reasons for about six months, and then I dropped it again. I felt marginally better doing it, which turned out in the end to be quite a placebo effect, since what was really messing with me was the dairy, which I also dropped at the time. I hear from a lot of my friends "Oh meat makes me feel so tired and bloated all the time" while ploughing through a colossal 500g of steak, or a grease-laden burger doused in fake cheese and wrapped in a high-carb bun. Make sure you're aware that meat free doesn't equal healthy. Oreos and pringles are vegan. It extremely easy to eat like garbage and justify it with "Oh but it's vegetarian!". Extremely easy. Also be aware that if you do decide that this is the path for you, you'll need b12 supplements. It's non-negotiable. There are some vegan sources of b12 out there, but not many, because the main source is from meat. Without it you're looking at anemia and permanent nervous system damage in the long run. It's not pretty. Meat is a ton more satiating and a lot less addictive than refined carbs. Be prepared to watch the amount you eat a lot more, because it's a lot easier to overeat, especially to begin with. Calorie tracking and portion control help immensely with this. Also, if it IS meat making you feel crappy, cutting it out and then having an occasional burger is far more likely to make those moment feel a whole lot worse on your body and mood. It might not, but it's definitely more likely. Like Calanthropy said, if you're determined that this is the route for you, absolutely go for it. Just go in with your eyes wide open. I've seen more than one person proudly announce that they're vegan, only to jump off the hype train when they gain 10lbs from overeating or just eating garbage. It's not a miracle eating plan that instantly makes you healthier and slimmer, it takes just as much work as an omnivorous diet does.

Here should be a link for vegan food excluding fruit. You're still gonna find some things you can't have, but there's gonna be a whole lot more that you can. Foodgawker is the greatest site I've ever discovered, my meal variation has skyrocketed.

Hahaha...haaaahahahaha. The short version, painstakingly slowly. With a whole mess of re-evaluation.

True to form, nursing a brand new injury. I don't think I've made it through a challenge without one!

A strained trapezius is just what I wanted to have! That's the neck muscle that runs down the spine, and facilitates the up and down motions. Not only that but because of where it is, I feel the burn from lifting my arms, turning my head, adjusting my posture, walking. Almost anything. You don't appreciate your neck until it screws you. I'm building a ladder slowly. Right now I'm focusing on getting out of bed every day, making sure I don't overwork the muscles and make them worse. The worst part is bedtime. I can't get comfy enough to sleep at a decent time and I'm pretty sure having to mooch until I'm exhausted. But getting there.

Never was one for cartoons much, this was more my childhood...

Yeah, lol. I'm trying to rest my damn bioclock. I'm a morning person and my ex was literally half a world away, so scheduling got a bit screwy because I was staying up late but still getting up early. Ending things means I kept the staying up late part, but the melancholy shifted my wake-up time to about 10am. Not okay for someone who gets seriously crabby if she wakes up after 8:30 at the VERY latest, because then half the day is wasted! So with Mum being back in the UK and me being over here, she was just heading to bed around when I wanted to be up so she spam called me. Naturally my skype decided that today it was NOT going to make any sound for those calls and I slept through 32 attempts. She found this hilarious after I'd specifically said I was a light sleeper for calls and would likely answer on the first one!

Yeah, after 6 months of merry go rounds with my (now ex) fiance, I'm not game for any more unhealthy relationships! Thanks So far so good, apart from the 32 missed calls from my mother when I woke up this morning. Whoops!

I've seriously overdone it today. Didn't hit my walking goal at all, but I definitely bust up my back bad. Honestly, I crashed and burnes pretty hard, it's been a colossal fuckup of a day. I slept terribly, horrible nightmares, and it just screwed the entire day for me. Tomorrow the sun will rise on a new day, and it starts all over again. But today is pretty much a total write off

Every time I'm trying to pronounce regazzo/regazza (because that's where I am learning) I'm so conscious of my R haha. Just gotta keep practicing I think!

Alas I'm the other way out by the hills. Real close to Lesmurdie Falls though, I could walk there in about half an hour or so on a good day.

Thankyou! Right now the only thing I'm having issue with is trilling my R's, I have the more guttural sound of the germanic languages easily, but the tip of my tongue doesn't trill. Lots of practice ahead!

Because the universe can't let me settle my goals in peace, the courses I was using to get a beginning grasp on japanese before progressing out have been abruptly placed behind a paywall. Marvellous. I'm sure there's another couple of dozen resources out there for me to utilise instead, but a few hours of research didn't produce any that really resonated with me. So, Italian on duolingo for now. I might pick up Japanese later, I'm fond of languages and given the option I'd learn all of the hundreds there are (Wonder Woman was omnilingual, why can't I? ) but one at a time. And duolingo is balls garbage for asian languages, personal opinion.

All good, misreading happens

That's what the "I'll try my best but if I don't get there, I don't get there" means. I'm accepting that it's an unrealistic goal at the current time and just rolling with it.

New year's lesson one: Walking, 30+ degree (100+ F) weather and 163kg bodies just do not mix. I've skipped over half my walking the last two days because it's strenuous enough to dehydrate me in minutes. I'm a heavy sweat-er at this size, it doesn't mix. In the spirit of my word of the year, acceptance, I'm going to accept that this was a mistaken goal to set for this time of year. I'll try my best but if I don't get there, then I just don't get there. Beating myself up about it and calling it failure just discourages the desire to keep trying.

Did about 10,500 miles, England to Australia, few years ago. Okay, numbering points: 1) There are pros and cons to every avenue, and in the end the best advice is to do what works for you. When I moved I slept on my grandma's couch for a month after my lease was up just to get my finances and paperwork in order without the stress of added bills. That's not entirely possible for everyone. If you operate better with a deadline, sell the house when you're living in it and then short term rent there. I know a couple of people who kept their old house and leased it out as a secondary source of income. 2) Other people have better advice on this, I rehomed my kitty with my ex, she didn't travel well. 3) If you've not vacationed there, take a vacation. Go for a couple of weeks, rent a car and drive around. Find neighbourhoods you like the look of, go back after dark and drive around again. A neighbourhood during the day can be completely different after dark. 4) You've always got time in advance to do your research, make lists and think about this stuff. When I got here the amount of stuff I urgently needed to get done was actually a lot smaller than what I thought it would be. I needed tax documentation, a medical card and a bank account. I'm discovering other things as I go along, but nothing has sprung up on me suddenly enough for me to go "Whoa, this has completely thrown my entire living here out of whack!" 5) Resettling is pretty easy, to be honest. Do your research on things like banking beforehand and you won't have to stress about them. The rest is an adventure. Life isn't set in stone, you can change a doctor or a grocery store pretty easily. 6) Then you go back. Or you pick up and go somewhere else new. Avoiding new experiences for fear of the unknown is a recipe for monotony. I know plenty of people who are quite happy with their static, unchanging routines. But for those people, the idea of moving 2000 miles away wouldn't even occur. Personally, I would rather take on the experience of a mistake, than spend the next 20 years wondering what could have been.

I don't doubt it in the slightest. But I've suffered with joint issues since I was 17, and muscular problems a few years before that. 30 is just the point where I'm noticing more significant impact of external stimuli on my physical wellbeing, and I'm all too keenly aware that it's all downhill from here. So the faster I adapt to the situation, the better

Yeah, sneaky bugger my Dad is. I mentioned briefly once in conversation that if I had a food processor I could make a whole mess of things. I don't even know how he managed to sneak the box into the house without me noticing, the thing is huge! You've got a fair point, I'm adjusted to my mother's stream of logic where it doesn't have to make sense, as long as she read it once on a blog somewhere then it's gospel truth. I've stopped giving reasonable and rational thought to these things, and stopped discussing them with her altogether since she hops from one fad diet to the next no matter what advice I give her. And yeah, not a fan of store bought much at all. I get the whole, we need certain preservatives in our diet, jazz. But if I can make something myself from scratch, then I prefer to make it from scratch. I like to know what's going into my stomach, instead of a string of e-numbers. Especially as my digestive system is changing. Good ol' age, I'm cutting gluten and lactose from my diet because I just can't tolerate them anymore, celiac or no celiac.

Tapped out on my steps today, but in fairness the reason I tapped out was it was just too hot. Even hydrated and fed I had absolutely no energy, my feline instincts kicked in and I just wanted to laze around. So I managed 3200 ish and then I couldn't find my get up and go. Cool showers are glorious, but the heat kills my appetite so I skipped dinner. I already ate a reasonable chunk of calories today, a couple hundred wasn't a huge difference. Groceries arriving tomorrow. I was given a Christmas/birthday present of a monstrosity of a food processor, so all my frozen fruits and chia seeds have been ordered for that breakfast smoothie goodness. Yeah, I know that you get more nutritional benefit from the whole fruit but smoothies are just delicious and easier to manage in the summer for me. This is the season of not much eating, so whatever keeps my calories healthy and stable I'm okay with.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure it's a symptom of my Too Much Gene. Not knowing what's reasonable is a recurring theme of my life in general

Welcome back on board! My highest weight was a few pounds shy of your highest, and I'm not that far under it right now either, and docs have been offhand mentioning the surgery route for a while now for me too. So I get your motivation in a big way. Starting keto is rough because of the ol' carb flu. Feeling crappy and miserable tends to lead to comfort food eating (at least for me anyway) and it devolves into a vicious cycle. Best way to get through that phase is make sure your fat intake is good and your electrolytes are all kosher, then it doesn't hit quite so bad. Great starting point, now it's just putting one foot in front of the other. You've got this.

Oh lawd on the oven! Dad has done that before, now I have to check every night or I can't sleep! Good job on not hitting Macca's and getting your bike

You know the downside of starting a new challenge in summer when you're so fat? Doing literally anything is an uphill struggle! That being said, I hit my targets (barely)! It's odd though, because in my head I should feel better about the success of the day. Especially with it being the new year when everything is fresh and shiny all around. I'm just kinda meh and chill. Which is better than sad or grumpy, I guess. Just observations on mood.

Thankyou and thankyou Mine was for a while as well, it's been pulled back out for an overhaul and refocus this year. The last couple of months of last year hit some real sour notes and it messed with me quite badly emotionally and mentally, having somewhere to focus my energies helps.