Lucky Luke's "Adventures"

[Old Irenaeus]

I sometimes use that as a mouth wash after eating or drinking some acidic juice/food. Have never tried to brush my teeth with it. Isn't baking soda too abrasive?

I don't know. I've been using it for years, and the dentist always says, "Amazing teeth," whenever I go in for a cleaning.

 

[-Luke-]

I don't know. I've been using it for years, and the dentist always says, "Amazing teeth," whenever I go in for a cleaning.

Tried it yesterday in the evening and mixed with saliva it doesn't have a different texture than commercial tooth paste anyway. Plus it dissolves pretty quickly. So I guess it shouldn't be a problem. Thanks for mentioning it!

 

[Mossy]

I don't know. I've been using it for years, and the dentist always says, "Amazing teeth," whenever I go in for a cleaning.

I think the key is brushing lightly. Do you have an idea of the amount of pressure you use when brushing?

 

[Old Irenaeus]

I think the key is brushing lightly. Do you have an idea of the amount of pressure you use when brushing?

I use an electronic toothbrush but I don't push on the teeth or gums.

 

[-Luke-]

Sleep has been a little better the last few days and the depression has somewhat faded into the background. Instead of doing it for a while every now and then I started a routine of stretching, foam rolling, deep tissue work for half an hour in the evening about an hour before going to bed. It helps me to calm down and relax a bit. Afterwards I read until I get tired. In the last few years, I have always alternated between routine/habits and spontaneity and have never really found a balance. Right now routine seems to work and maybe the "secret" is to get into habits that really help and are therefore intrinsically motivating, rather than just doing something because other people say it's good for you.

I think my biggest problem right now is that I don't have any positive vision for the future. Nothing that really motivates me and nothing that I can work towards. It feels like I'm stuck in a place where I don't want to be but don't believe in a better future. It doesn't help to convince myself that there is such a future. At some point, reality comes around the corner and strikes. In the last year or two I made some good progress with not dwelling on the past anymore. I used to do that all the time. Regret was my second name. That has reduced by about 90% and isn't really a problem anymore. But while I can accept that I can't change the past, I don't have much faith for a better future. Maybe the solution is to stop thinking about the future in general and just do what I can do right now in this moment. But it's easier said than done. Maybe it gets better when the minor depression fades even more.

Dental health has further improves or rather the first signs have turned out to be correct until now. I only use xylitol and sometimes baking soda and ditched the toothpaste. I also eat some ginger almost every day and chew on the fibres for a while. That removes some dental plaque when there is some. Vitamin K2 MK4 also helps with that but I get weird symptoms if I take more than one drop of the Thorne K2 per day. Ginger helps with my mood in general. That might indicate a serotonin problem.

 

[-Luke-]

Today the sun came out for a few hours. After it was either dark or gray and cloudy for weeks. Took a walk for an hour and a half in the afternoon and my mood changed almost immediately. There is nothing - no red light device or light device in general - that can replicate the effect of natural sunlight on a nice, but not hot, day for me. Is there a sunny country where it is mostly between 10 and 25 degree Celsius (even though coldness isn't really a problem, as long as it's not dark and grey all the time)? Plus a government that leaves you alone? It doesn't hurt to dream.

 

[-Luke-]

Had a little "internet sabbatical" for a week - no internet except checking e-mail once a day and no podcasts. Gave up my smartphone last year anyway and my TV is broke. I did this to cut myself off from outside information for a little while. I let the news affect my mood too much. In the last few years I fluctuated between hope and complete hopelessness partly within a few hours and for things over which I have no influence. Social isolation doesn't help. Once you experience this, it's easy to see why solitary confinement is considered torture by some and why the rats in the rat park experiments had to self-medicate to cope with it. I can handle it better than other people because I am more of a loner, but only to some extent.

It was interesting to notice during the last week how much time I spend just distracting myself, even without a smartphone. When the biggest distractions are gone, you notice this. I wrote down my thoughts in a private journal every now and then. It helps me to calm down and I'm better at expressing my thoughts in my native language. Might make a habit out of this. Also started to meditate a bit in the morning, after waking up, when the mind clutter is still more in the background.

Nutrition hasn't really changed. I crave dark chocolate and and macadamia nuts a lot. Today I ate 100g of dark chocolate. I wonder if my body just craves something in those foods that it doesn't get enough of. I don't think it's the fat because I eat a decent amount of fat every day. Maybe magnesium? I haven't really been physically active recently because I have some trouble with my left shoulder. But inspired by a few posts in this forum I started focusing more on mobility and posture more. I have actually "built" a standing desk (just put a board across my dip rack - or however that thing is called - and put my laptop on that, lol). I will try to use this daily for a few hours.

 

[Old Irenaeus]

Had a little "internet sabbatical" for a week - no internet except checking e-mail once a day and no podcasts. Gave up my smartphone last year anyway and my TV is broke. I did this to cut myself off from outside information for a little while. I let the news affect my mood too much. In the last few years I fluctuated between hope and complete hopelessness partly within a few hours and for things over which I have no influence. Social isolation doesn't help. Once you experience this, it's easy to see why solitary confinement is considered torture by some and why the rats in the rat park experiments had to self-medicate to cope with it. I can handle it better than other people because I am more of a loner, but only to some extent.

It was interesting to notice during the last week how much time I spend just distracting myself, even without a smartphone. When the biggest distractions are gone, you notice this. I wrote down my thoughts in a private journal every now and then. It helps me to calm down and I'm better at expressing my thoughts in my native language. Might make a habit out of this. Also started to meditate a bit in the morning, after waking up, when the mind clutter is still more in the background.

Nutrition hasn't really changed. I crave dark chocolate and and macadamia nuts a lot. Today I ate 100g of dark chocolate. I wonder if my body just craves something in those foods that it doesn't get enough of. I don't think it's the fat because I eat a decent amount of fat every day. Maybe magnesium? I haven't really been physically active recently because I have some trouble with my left shoulder. But inspired by a few posts in this forum I started focusing more on mobility and posture more. I have actually "built" a standing desk (just put a board across my dip rack - or however that thing is called - and put my laptop on that, lol). I will try to use this daily for a few hours.

Thanks for the update! Your experiment is inspiring.

 

[-Luke-]

Thanks for the update! Your experiment is inspiring.

Thanks! Sometimes I think I experiment too much and it would be better to just take it easy and not take things so seriously. Just like back in the days when you were a kid.

 

[Mossy]

Gave up my smartphone last year anyway...

How is your life complete without Tik Tok and Snap Chat?

I crave dark chocolate and and macadamia nuts a lot.

Is it costly to consume lots of macadamia nuts? If I remember correctly, there's hardly a nut more expensive.

 

[-Luke-]

How is your life complete without Tik Tok and Snap Chat?

Some people probably wouldn't call that a life at all.

Is it costly to consume lots of macadamia nuts? If I remember correctly, there's hardly a nut more expensive.

Yes, definitely not cheap compared to other nuts. I buy them for ~3 euros for 125g and limit myself to about half a package a day.

 

[Atman]

A little later I stumbled upon Ray Peat's work (through that acne forum) and incorporated some of his ideas (lowering pufa or using gelatin for example) without really digging deeper into his ideas.

Ah the memories .... Aknewelt.de and the legendary low-carb thread with over 900 pages... I was there too.

 

[-Luke-]

Ah the memories .... Aknewelt.de and the legendary low-carb thread with over 900 pages... I was there too.

Haha, nice. I read the entire thread once in a couple of weeks. Good old times. It was funny that the thread always had something with "low carb" in the title, even though nobody was advocating low carb anymore at some point. Every now and then someone showed up and asked "Can someone give me a list of which foods are low in carbs?" and we were like "Yeeeeeeaaaah, we're not really doing this anymore".

Do you still remember your username? I wasn't that active and mostly a lurker. Don't remember my username, probably also Luke. But I remember that I had the clown from "It" as my profile picture.

 

[Atman]

Haha, nice. I read the entire thread once in a couple of weeks. Good old times. It was funny that the thread always had something with "low carb" in the title, even though nobody was advocating low carb anymore at some point. Every now and then someone showed up and asked "Can someone give me a list of which foods are low in carbs?" and we were like "Yeeeeeeaaaah, we're not really doing this anymore".

Do you still remember your username? I wasn't that active and mostly a lurker. Don't remember my username, probably also Luke. But I remember that I had the clown from "It" as my profile picture.

I was also mainly a lurker and didn't really understand 90% of what the guys there were discussing back then. I too was still following the Paleo stuff for while until it eventually started to make sense. I find it fascinating that it was an acne forum of all places on the internet where most of the German geeks gathered and discussed advanced health related topics.
Do you still have any contact to other German forum members from back then? I knew Daniel and Gabriel, who also started the German Ray Peat forum, which died rather quickly though due to lack of activity, but haven't heard anything from anyone for a few years now.

 

[-Luke-]

I was also mainly a lurker and didn't really understand 90% of what the guys there were discussing back then. I too was still following the Paleo stuff for while until it eventually started to make sense. I find it fascinating that it was an acne forum of all places on the internet where most of the German geeks gathered and discussed advanced health related topics.

It's funny how that works and how a small decision can start an avalanche. I still remember the night when I googled some crappy acne cream I saw in an advertisement and found that forum in the process. I think it was in 2005 or 2006. What I was looking for was just a quick fix. And it started a still ongoing health journey. In hindsight I'm glad that I had acne for so many years. I hated it every day in my youth. But without it I wouldn't have found that thread and probably would've never heard of Ray Peat's work. I would probably eat either fries and potato chips all day or chuck down fish oil and soy milk by the gallons. Who knows. Out of something bad can always come something positive, even if we don't see it that way while it happens.

Do you still have any contact to other German forum members from back then? I knew Daniel and Gabriel, who also started the German Ray Peat forum, which died rather quickly though due to lack of activity, but haven't heard anything from anyone for a few years now.

I didn't really have contact with other users outside the forum. Had an account on that German Ray Peat Forum but didn't have more than maybe a handful of posts. Maybe some of them are active or lurkers here, too. Would be interesting to know what those guys are up to nowadays. There was definitely a lot of wisdom in that thread. It was a game changer for me.

 

[-Luke-]

Little Update:
I have changed my diet a bit and integrated more dairy products again. I eat some Pecorino Romano every day, which consists only of raw sheep milk, cheese cultures and animal rennet. I'm also drinking a little more milk, from a small sip in my (decaf) coffee to a cup a day. Plus some Greek yogurt. So far, I seem to be tolerating it quite well. I also eat three eggs a day instead of one, and hardly any meat. This is largely for cost reasons. For the same reason, I hardly ever eat "luxury products" like macadamias anymore. I have shrimp about twice a week and beef liver every now and then.

So my diet looks something like this right now:
Breakfast: 1 egg, greek yoghurt, cooked apple with honey, juice (clementine or grape)
Lunch: potatos, 2 eggs, coffee with milk, gelatin and honey, apple sauce
Snack: a few dried dates or some chocolate (or both)
Dinner: potatos (sometimes with white button mushrooms and some onions as some sort of stew), pecorino, gelatin, juice (clementine or grape), some milk
Bedtime snack: some juice, honey, greek yoghurt

Supplements: 2-3g Glycine, Magnesium Oil, some eggshell calcium, occasional Vitamin D and K2

My general health has improved to a certain degree. Itt is unusually sunny outside and there are almost never clouds in the sky. I walk relatively much in nature every day. In the woods, along the river or in the vineyards, which are only a few minutes from my flat. After a dark and gray winter, it feels good. Sleep is a little better. I currently have almost no problems falling asleep. Sleeping through the night has been a problem for years and still is, but then I usually read for half an hour to an hour and can fall asleep again most of the time.

In the last few days, I've realized that I've been caught in a state of learned helplessness for quite some time, and have been repeatedly resenting fate and feeling too much self-pity at times up to suicidal thoughts. I think it's okay to feel temporarily overwhelmed with life. But at some point you have to get back up and take responsibility for your own life. Even if the outside conditions are not optimal. Let's see if I can sort out that mess that is my life step by step. One day at a time, one problem at a time. Will probably look for a new job, since my own business doesn't really work out and my savings are shrinking. Also started learning some Spanish. Who knows what I might need it for someday. I generally try to focus on what I can influence and not dwell on the rest for too long. Easier said than done, but with a little practice and awareness it can work pretty well.

 

[Mossy]

Little Update:
I have changed my diet a bit and integrated more dairy products again. I eat some Pecorino Romano every day, which consists only of raw sheep milk, cheese cultures and animal rennet. I'm also drinking a little more milk, from a small sip in my (decaf) coffee to a cup a day. Plus some Greek yogurt. So far, I seem to be tolerating it quite well. I also eat three eggs a day instead of one, and hardly any meat. This is largely for cost reasons. For the same reason, I hardly ever eat "luxury products" like macadamias anymore. I have shrimp about twice a week and beef liver every now and then.

So my diet looks something like this right now:
Breakfast: 1 egg, greek yoghurt, cooked apple with honey, juice (clementine or grape)
Lunch: potatos, 2 eggs, coffee with milk, gelatin and honey, apple sauce
Snack: a few dried dates or some chocolate (or both)
Dinner: potatos (sometimes with white button mushrooms and some onions as some sort of stew), pecorino, gelatin, juice (clementine or grape), some milk
Bedtime snack: some juice, honey, greek yoghurt

Supplements: 2-3g Glycine, Magnesium Oil, some eggshell calcium, occasional Vitamin D and K2

My general health has improved to a certain degree. Itt is unusually sunny outside and there are almost never clouds in the sky. I walk relatively much in nature every day. In the woods, along the river or in the vineyards, which are only a few minutes from my flat. After a dark and gray winter, it feels good. Sleep is a little better. I currently have almost no problems falling asleep. Sleeping through the night has been a problem for years and still is, but then I usually read for half an hour to an hour and can fall asleep again most of the time.

In the last few days, I've realized that I've been caught in a state of learned helplessness for quite some time, and have been repeatedly resenting fate and feeling too much self-pity at times up to suicidal thoughts. I think it's okay to feel temporarily overwhelmed with life. But at some point you have to get back up and take responsibility for your own life. Even if the outside conditions are not optimal. Let's see if I can sort out that mess that is my life step by step. One day at a time, one problem at a time. Will probably look for a new job, since my own business doesn't really work out and my savings are shrinking. Also started learning some Spanish. Who knows what I might need it for someday. I generally try to focus on what I can influence and not dwell on the rest for too long. Easier said than done, but with a little practice and awareness it can work pretty well.

How do you feel on the glycine? It makes me very tired and a bit bloated, but does help with dry skin issues.

 

[-Luke-]

How do you feel on the glycine? It makes me very tired and a bit bloated, but does help with dry skin issues.

I experimented with Glycine before bed a few years ago and it made my insomnia worse, although I took it just for that. Since a few months I take it in the morning or at noon and have no problems, it rather relaxes me, even if the effect is not outstanding. Never experienced any bloating from it.

I find it quite interesting how different people on this forum react to Glycine or Taurine. Both positive and negative reports. Made me realize that findings in studies (like "Glycine improves sleep quality by x%") are an interesting indicator, but there are some outliers within these studies and self-experimenation always trumps theoretical knowledge.

 

[Mossy]

I experimented with Glycine before bed a few years ago and it made my insomnia worse, although I took it just for that. Since a few months I take it in the morning or at noon and have no problems, it rather relaxes me, even if the effect is not outstanding. Never experienced any bloating from it.

I find it quite interesting how different people on this forum react to Glycine or Taurine. Both positive and negative reports. Made me realize that findings in studies (like "Glycine improves sleep quality by x%") are an interesting indicator, but there are some outliers within these studies and self-experimenation always trumps theoretical knowledge.

For sure. It really is strange how the same supplement, especially one touted as a sleep aid, can energize some. You are fortunate that glycine is working for you. I hope to try it again soon.

 

[PeskyPeater]

dark chocolate has anandamide its affect the cannabinoids and those stabilize mood. I think tht is why you crave it.

oleamide from the fruit ziziphus jujuba has similar actions and is used in china for sleep. I think it can help you. It also stabilizes the mood via GABA.
and assists in the metabilism of acetylcholine like coffee.

edit. and I like to add stress from cortisol and depression change the structure of the brain, some pregnenolon can help to pull things straight in my experience