I'm going to complain about not having a primary option for president, vote for the left-most person I can in the primary, and then vote down-ballot (D) in November. There's nothing I need to research with respect to these modern conservatives. Most democrats aren't really much better in most ways, but at least I can look my marginalized friends and colleagues in the eye after the election.
snoopfrog
There's only one thing I still do that requires tipping, and that's because I want to get tattoos. After I started seeing tipping screens at restaurants where I pick up my food at the counter, I stopped eating out entirely. I don't even do fast food. I'm tired of trying to remember or decipher what is socially expected and am just done participating in that system. Just pay people a living wage, charge what you need to charge for that, and if you're offering a worthwhile service, you'll be fine.
This is the perfect situation where a purely democratic vote is appropriate (not that we should even have to vote on this, but I digress). This doesn't affect your wholesome, small-town voter at all. All they have to do is not have an abortion, and they can make abortion illegal within their own life just like that. Of course people are going to vote for the freedom of their own choice as to whether they have to carry a parasitic body within their own. They should have that freedom to do it or not to do it.
M | 41 | 6'2 (188cm) | 325lbs --> 189lbs --> 192lbs (147.5kg --> 85.75 --> 87). I'm not educated on the matter or an expert but can share from my experience.
I am a spreadsheet nerd and get a lot of satisfaction knowing that I'm tracking and working with good data, regardless of what I'm doing. So I weigh myself daily at the same time (morning after I use the restroom but before I eat/drink anything or get dressed), weigh and track my food (Cronometer is my app of choice), and I use weekly averages to observe trends and adjust calorie intake. That's only part of it though.
I had to address why and how I became overweight myself. I was binge eating to help calm myself down, mostly from stress and anxiety. I reduced the stress (different job), went to counseling, and looked what I was binge eating. It was always sweets. I haven't had anything with more than 1-2g of added sugar in several years now - I just don't do it. That's the only thing in my diet that's off-limits at this point, and it's just going to stay that way.
I started weight loss pretty extreme by cutting all carbs and just having lean meat with some green veggies for two weeks. I wanted to kill the sweet tooth, and I did. I slowly reintroduced carbs. I added an apple a day, then a second apple, then wild rice, and so forth - always healthy carbs. I started reintroducing fats in the form of largely unsaturated fats with peanut butter and nuts. I do consume dairy as well and have no digestive issues with that, but I do so in more moderation. I reintroduced these types of foods over the course of ~1-1.5 years.
I also started exercising after losing the first 40lbs (18kg). I haven't found cardio I like enough to program regularly (not that I skip it entirely), but I love weightlifting, so I focus on that. I started with Starting Strength for a few months, moved onto 5/3/1 (several variations of this - I bought his books) for a couple years, and now that I can handle more volume, I do PPL/UL (push, pull, leg, upper, lower) each week. I've tried to do PPL six days a week, but every time I try to add that extra day, my body complains about the volume, so I move back to PPL/UL.
I'm at the point where I'm actually trying to lean-gain, which is freaking terrifying after walking around overweight for so many years. Even a 200 calorie surplus makes me feel more nervous than it should, but I'm sticking to it for the fall, winter, and spring to see if that + the work in the gym will help me gain a little muscle mass. If not, I'll just cut a little to get back to the ~14% body fat I was at, and maintain there. I think of food as fuel now and don't really care what I eat as long as it's good, whole food. I don't really eat out and prepare all my own food, including meal prep for work lunches. Cooking has kind of become a hobby. Figuring out flavor/seasoning and making my own sauces is kind of fun.
I've seen an actual dumpster fire. I was the person who reported it and pulled the fire alarm in the building it was sitting next to. Let me tell you, it's hard to look away from a good dumpster fire.
I saw it when it was smoking with just a small flame. When I pulled the alarm in the residential building next to it, I also grabbed an extinguisher, but it was too dangerous to climb back up by the time I got back out there. I thought I might be able to slow it down but it quickly raged out of control and became a beautiful spectacle of destruction.This Reddit thing is like that for me.
(the building was not damaged, thankfully, but I have different hopes for Reddit since they're shunning the very things that built them)
I'm admittedly not well-versed in international affairs, but hasn't Israel been waiting for an opportunity to do exactly what they're doing for decades? We've armed them to the tooth, and that has always been at least a little concerning because we understood this to be their disposition. I fully expected some light genocide after hearing about the Hamas attack. It's looking like they might exceed expectations too. I'm a little shocked at our indifference.