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Yup. I used to smoke 1-2 packs per week for many years (mostly in social settings), then went up to 1 pack per day due to general life stress pre-COVID19. When
by cutty 6y ago
Yup. I used to smoke 1-2 packs per week for many years (mostly in social settings), then went up to 1 pack per day due to general life stress pre-COVID19. When shelter in place began I freaked out, quit cold turkey, and immediately started running and lifting. The first few weeks were rough but I've been totally smoke free for about 4 months now and am in the best shape of my life!
- pen2l 6y agoProud of you. :) Me, I ditched junk food (used to do taco bell drive-thru pretty regularly when coming home from work, stopped cold turkey too!). Doing a lot more salads now, I'm so happy that I'm developing a taste for healthy foods!
- cutty 6y agoThanks! Congrats on eating healthier as well! There are so many upsides to preparing your own meals, and you'll find that it can actually be a very therapeutic activity.
- awinder 6y agoFor years I had on/off tummy trouble and yesterday I had the realization that I couldn’t remember the last time I was seriously hurting in the gut. I haven’t done carryout since February. I never believed that modest dietary changes really could have that big of an effect but kinda a believer now.
- peteretep 6y agoHaving been deeply skeptical of “gluten intolerance” (as contrasted with coeliac) for many years, I eventually realised wheat was causing me chronic heartburn after I cut it out as part of a low-carb diet undertaken for other reasons. Having had much the same thing happen with eggs and eczema, and not having made the link before that, I guess I’m now an advocate of people trying exclusion diets
- graeme 6y agoTwo things I can say as someone who went this route: * Try a gluten test if you have had exposure recently enough to do it. It’s good to know. * A sizeable chunk of people who have trouble with gluten may actually have trouble with fodmaps. They’re in everything wheat except sourdough bread. Why does this matter? In the case of celiac you can’t have a crumb. In the case of fodmap trouble you can’t have a bunch of wheat, but a trace amount won’t hurt you. I now have found gluten not to be an issue, and was able to identify a bunch of food triggers due to them being in the fodmap family. It’s made life simpler in that I know for sure I don’t have to worry about exposure, and can have moderate fodmaps as well. Fodmaps are hard to get a handle on. There are good apps where you can quickly look up things you eat. Before that I never managed to try fodmap elimination because it was too complicated. Note that I am not saying you, OP, don’t have a gluten problem. But there will be many people reading your post, who have digestive discomfort and other issues but nothing life threatening. To those people I would strongly recommend a gluten test before you quit, and check fodmaps if you test negative. I had a wide variety of digestive symptoms that are similar to some celiac symptoms, but that was not the cause. And gluten being nearly all high fodmap makes for possible confounding. (Fodmaps are mostly in carbs, so a low carb diet can also be a fodmap reduction diet)
- irrational 6y ago> They’re in everything wheat except sourdough bread. Why is that? The only difference between sourdough bread and non-sourdough bread is yeast vs starter (and some people still use yeast in addition to their starter).
- flywheel 6y agoThe fact that doctors generally don't ask about a patients diet says more about doctors than it does about the importance of what you eat. Diet has a huge influence on so many aspects of health and well being.
- AnonHP 6y agoDoctors (the allopathic ones) spend hardly any time studying nutrition. So it’s more the system that doesn’t expose them to much. They also tend to believe the marketing they see on TV, magazines, etc.
- nobrains 6y agoWhat did you change? What were you eating before and what are you eating now?
- wirrbel 6y agonot the guy you are replying to but a bit of a similar experience so I can answer from my perspective. I went sort-of keto + fasting (inspired by Dr. Jason Fung, primarily for weightloss but with the side effect of having better bowels after 2-3 months of adjustment to the high-fat moderate-protein low-carb diet.
- awinder 6y agoUsed to eat out for lunch most days (felt like middle-of-the-road options, maybe rarely fast food) and now mostly eat sandwiches with lean meat (and homemade levain bread, the parallel comment on fodmaps intrigued me around this line). We used to cook I would say 5/6 dinner meals a week but it’s strictly 7 now. Not too much change there, not intentional anyways. Maybe less snacking too but the only big intentional change has been the eating out.
- rorykoehler 6y agoDiet is medicine.
- chiefalchemist 6y agoYou are what you consume. That applies to food. It applies to reading, watching, and listening. It applies to your environment (e.g., friends). The pandemic is a wakeup call. Let's hope - in some regards - we never go back to normal. The data is clear, that old normal (i.e., preventable preexisting conditions) played a key role in getting us here.
- qrbLPHiKpiux 6y agoThe US food industry really needs to do something about sugar.
- chiefalchemist 6y agoThat would help. But even more so US citizens need be mindful of the importance of diet and how it relates to health. It doesn't help that the narrative continues to focus on the healthcare system. Yes, it can be improved. But supply is limited. We keep increasing demand. And expect prices to fall? That's not the way it works.
- cheez 6y agoHow are you lifting with gyms closed?
- eropple 6y agoA home gym is not hard to put together, improvised or no.
- JoshGlazebrook 6y agoIt was impossible to even find a single dumbbell when lockdown started. Has it changed?
- chrsstrm 6y agoTheraBands are readily available and won't have the delivery driver cursing at you for ordering weights. They are just as effective.
- cheez 6y agoOh this looks very interesting.
- chubot 6y agoI just bought a kettlebell last week on Amazon and it came today. It was the last one of its model, but I'm sure you can find some others. I've never lifted weights before but the kettlebell sounds appealing because it's supposed to be "functional strength", not overworking a single muscle like big gym machines can.
- metrokoi 6y agoYes, it is pretty much impossible. Buying weights off craigslist or Facebook has always been the better bet anyway, because it's not as if a chunk of iron can get worn out and they are much cheaper. Listings are probably harder to find and more expensive, though. You can also make plates out of concrete, although that also requires more room than dumbbells and for you to already have a barbell.
- throw_m239339 6y agoCOVID didn't make me quit. Cigarette prices did. I vape CBD a bit right now but yes practicing sport is essential to kicking the habit. Smoking is bad, don't even smoke or start vaping young people, you'll always regret it.
- exabrial 6y agoJust want to say congrats for coming out of the pandemic better than you started
- throwbacktictac 6y agome = ditto - (best shape of my life)
- mrslave 6y agoAmong my work colleagues, friends, and family, it seems alcohol consumption has either slightly increased or significantly decreased. I made a conscious choice as Coronavirus was just getting its shoes on to completely stop drinking alcohol. I haven't felt this great in ages and intend to teetotal beyond the crisis. The occasional dinner out with drinkers since some of the restrictions were eased has not been a problem and - company depending - as enjoyable as usual. I'll probably skip the pub socials when they reopen but dinners, lunches, and sports seem fine. Next stop: more exercise!
- gibolt 6y agoBeing the one to say 'I don't drink' is generally awkward, as few people expect that response. What I've found is usually at least one other person per ~10 people will follow up and say they don't either. From there it can be contagious, with others questioning themselves drinking, or at least drinking less.
- Raphael_Amiard 6y agoIt's pretty common amongst my geeky social circles in Paris, much less (for obvious reasons) amongst the musicians/partyers social circles, unfortunately. What's very annoying is the social pressure: feeling compelled to say something, anything, when somebody say they won't have that drink in a social gathering. Just shut the hell up! (Saying that to myself too!)
- intellirogue 6y agoOne thing I've found fascinating since moving to Germany is that you'll be judged here if you say "I don't drink beer", but drinking non-alcoholic beer is perfectly acceptable. It's not the alcohol that people care about.
- wirrbel 6y agoDepending on the region, "I don't drink beer" can sound a bit snobbish (as in "I only drink wine and champaign"). Other than that I've never heard anything bad when I ordered Apfelschorle (apple juice + carbonated water mix). And I think "Alkoholfreies Weizen" would even be accepted among very beer-centred groups. One cultural difference between Germany and the states is, that drunk-driving is much more actively shunned so its more acceptable to not drink.
- xwolfi 6y agoIn France they give nicotine patch to nurses because they discovered, to their horror, that smokers are heavily under represented in critical cases. Something to do with nicotine. They're annoyed because that would be like asking people to eat raw sugar to stop drinking Coca Cola, but I'm not yet stopping my cigarets :D
- distant_hat 6y agoI don't know why you are getting downvoted. This is corrected. It is theorized that nicotine represses ACE2 receptor numbers which the virus uses to enter the cells.
- zajio1am 6y agoMost issues with smoking cigarettes are unrelated to nicotine, but to breathing combustion products. Nicotine itself is a mixed bag, it is addictive, but it seems to have some neuroprotective qualities.
- moron4hire 6y agoNicotine damages the liver
- iorrus 6y agoYeah I took up smoking over quarantine for this reason. Big difference in the case numbers!
- boudin 6y agoCongrats! I quit smoking 11 years ago now, i was smoking a bit more than half a pack a day. I went cold turkey too, originally more as an experiment. (I wanted to feel how some of everyday actions were not driven by my decision and choices but by habits or physical need). In the end it was so benificial in just 2 weeks that i never smoked again. Now i can't stand smoke at all. It takes a while for some of the associative habits to go away though (like while drinking in a party, this kind of thing). I would advise to never tell yourself that you can smoke a cigarette once in a while. I don't know anybody who stopped and didn't go back to full time smoking after smoking a cigarette once in a while for a few months. I also noticed that it's important to involve smokers around you so that they don't offer you cigarettes. I also noticed a type of smokers who try to get me back to smoking. I found that doing stuff like destroying their cigarette pack when they try to have you get one with insistance was the best way to stop that.
- deafcalculus 6y agoAwesome! But there's some evidence that smoking reduces the risk of severe COVID somewhat, although that's not a good reason to start again!
- aembleton 6y agoHave you got a link to that research? Here's some suggesting that smoking increases risk in young adults: https://www.jahonline.org/article/S1054-139X(20)30338-4/fulltext https://www.jahonline.org/article/S1054-139X(20)30338-4/full...
- deafcalculus 6y agoSmoking Prevalence is Low in Symptomatic Patients Admitted for COVID-19: https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.05.05.20092015v3 https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.05.05.20092015v...
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]