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Joe's Progress
Simple has always suited me. In my life I've taken it to a comical degree: I use 1 plate (large steel enamel), 1 fork, 2 spoons (the special silver spoon is for honey, the basic bitch steel spoon is for coffee). I use 1 mastiff themed coffee mug and 1 water glass.
Recently I found a vintage copper clad 16 qt stainless steel pot with lid (on ebay) to do my cooking in, allowing the retirement of my 2 chipped tin enamels, just in time for winter and wood stove cooking. I stole this thing I'm telling you.
I just did grocery shopping today and got 30 lbs brown rice at the oriental store and 30 lbs black beans at the hispanic. Either mexicans see me as touched or they are the nicest people around (or both), because for the second time in a row I was eyed and ushered to the front of a long line with my armful of bean sacks.
With my new larger pot I plan to now cook by dry weight rather than eye. 5 dry lbs of beans have been weighed and are soaking now, and tomorrow they will be cooked and temporarily stored in a tin enamel, allowing the cooking of 5 dry lbs of brown rice. These will then be combined. This gives me 6 full pots of beans and rice before I must make the oriental hispanic trip once more.
The only thing I buy at the white grocery store nowadays is baking soda and salt every month or so, and tp and hypoallergenic laundry detergent every 6 months-1 yr. Once I source my own cows to buy whole I will have made another valuable reduction; I still have to buy a burlap sack of 10 lbs ground beef every week or so from the earth muffins which is quite costly.
I have been off tobacco for 10 days now. The physical withdrawal was almost nonexistent - the cravings only came at night - like a hunger of the chest. I credit the ease of this to low a, and also because I have developed self discipline by first cutting a for 6 months, followed by booze the last 2.
I have been craving gummy candies, to the point of researching them obsessively. It seems Kasugai lychee and muscat gummies are tops for a discerning connoisseur such as myself, while a budget conscious fatass could do worse than buying bulk "Albanese" gummies off ebay. I thought it ironic that I was seeking out gummies which were explicitly not natural. Natural colorings in gummies regularly include beta carotene, vegetable and fruit concentrates, black carrot, spirulina, paprika, and so on.
I was on the point of buying 5 lbs of Haribo gummies today, and then reluctantly researched the petroleum based coloring which I was favoring over "natural". They are almost all precipitated by aluminum: https://drchristopherexley.substack.com/p/the-colour-of-health
Instead, I got myself a quart of the lightest honey I could find and steel cut oats. Apple sauce was an option but I go through it too quickly to make it cost effective. I inhale that stuff when it's around..
We were traveling and my husband bought some elderflower Swedish fish and I found them sort of irresistible, so I know what you mean about the desire for gummies. They seemed kind of innocuous as candy goes. I'm not sure I ever looked at the list of ingredients, though.
I'm going to wager that it could be an urge to CHEW.
But also it could be an urge for fruit, vitamin C, or gelatin.
The candy craving is to do with blood sugar, oral fixation and dopamine. Nicotine satisfied all 3. Candy lights up the brain just like a cigarette. I actually have no problem with sugar, gelatin and apple juice concentrate (the 3 basic building blocks of gummies). It's all the other crap which cannot be avoided, and forces me back to whole foods like honey and apples, poor wretch that I am.
I appreciate that @Joe2, but I never mess with the artificial sweeteners. A quick search showed me that xylitol is associated with blood clots, heart attacks and strokes, and is dangerous to the family pet besides. I know what God is advising me to do, and that is to eat pears and pecans, because those are what are ripening and fixing to fall now!
I tried yet again to switch to store beef in order to save $5/lb. This time I went to a local, country grocery known for its meat. Ground chuck, $6.48/lb. This stuff smells off, tastes off, and sits like a stone in my stomach. I've choked down 2 lbs of this crap over the last three days and I'm throwing the other 5 in the woods. I know it isn't in my head because, first of all, my two attempts were with beef from 2 different stores (in different towns) and secondly, I was laying my money on it being good (or at least tolerable) in order to save $2000/yr. But no joke, it feels just like choking down dog food. I don't know if it's "antimicrobial beef carcass spray" or if the store beef is saturated with adrenaline, jacked up with a dozen mrna boosters, or what the devil reason is here. I would really like to know.
Has anyone else here experienced this?
Not to the extent you are, but yes, I feel like the burger looks yummy all cooked up but then disappoints. Same with chicken breast. Steak and chicken thigh or chicken in the round taste better to me.
Quote from lil chick on October 29, 2025, 2:13 pmNot to the extent you are, but yes, I feel like the burger looks yummy all cooked up but then disappoints. Same with chicken breast. Steak and chicken thigh or chicken in the round taste better to me.
It is driving me nuts because it never bothered me before I started low a. I always bought the cheap 3 lb packs of ground beef and thought they were just fine, or manager's special sirloins. I can't figure out whether it is because I'm not smoking tobacco and can taste food better now, if the beef itself has changed, if the grass fed has spoiled my taste or what. The conspirator in me says that a great way to get people off meat would be to ruin meat itself. I'm at the point where I would gladly go vegetarian if it were possible to *healthily* do so while remaining low a with no supplements.
Quote from Joseph on October 29, 2025, 1:16 pmI tried yet again to switch to store beef in order to save $5/lb. This time I went to a local, country grocery known for its meat. Ground chuck, $6.48/lb. This stuff smells off, tastes off, and sits like a stone in my stomach. I've choked down 2 lbs of this crap over the last three days and I'm throwing the other 5 in the woods. I know it isn't in my head because, first of all, my two attempts were with beef from 2 different stores (in different towns) and secondly, I was laying my money on it being good (or at least tolerable) in order to save $2000/yr. But no joke, it feels just like choking down dog food. I don't know if it's "antimicrobial beef carcass spray" or if the store beef is saturated with adrenaline, jacked up with a dozen mrna boosters, or what the devil reason is here. I would really like to know.
Has anyone else here experienced this?
Did you get the meat from a farmer before?
If so, it's interesting that it's more expensive than meat bought from a store.