When I can’t sleep, I turn around and sleep “upside down” - moving my pillows to where my feet were beforehand, and my feet to where my head was beforehand - and I stick with that for a week or so. It gives me a week or so without insomnia and then wears off, so I have to turn myself back around for the next 7-12 day period.
Admittedly this could just be a me thing, but let’s put our faith in this method and let the power of placebo effect take hold. Boom, minor bouts of sleeplessness are cured.
What are your own examples of this?
This is cooking advice.
If you struggle with cooking or find that you mess up often, try preparing all of the individual ingredients before you start cooking. Eg. measure, wash, cut every ingredient. Apparently this practice is called mise en place.
If you ever watch a cooking video and it looks so effortless this is probably why. It was a game changer back when I was learning to cook. Suddenly it felt like I could make every recipe with ease.
This practice has drawbacks as it could dirty more dishes and increase cook times but it allows you to tackle most dishes at your own pace. I definitely recommend it whenever you make something new for the first time.
I don’t particularly struggle with cooking and like to think I’m quite good at it, but I’ve started doing this, because I realised that every time I messed up, it was because I left something on for too long while prepping the next bit to go in the pan.
Having everything chopped, measured, and ready means you can pay full attention to what’s currently going, so you’re not rushed and panicking.
Also read the whole recipe including the method and notes; some love to just slip things in that aren’t in the ingredients list (something to grease a pan, etc.) and knowing times and temps is very useful.
Mise en place is essential in my mind and one of the most important skills I learned early on in culinary school. At home if you don’t want to dirty a ton of dishes, you can organize ingredients (veggie ones anyway, still need bowls for spices/liquids) into small piles on your cutting board. Then just grab a bench scraper or the side of your knife and toss the ingredients in as needed.
Also, get a kitchen scale. You won’t need it all the time but it’s so much easier to just stick a pot on top of a scale and add 500 ml of chicken stock than it is to have to measure 2 cups in a separate container. This is especially good if you’re looking to blanche/simmer something in a flavorful liquid like stock or broth
If you’re experiencing brainfreeze, press your tongue to the roof of your mouth. Works for me every time.
This has never worked for me
I’ve been told that brain freeze happens because the roof of your mouth detects cold, causing constriction of the blood vessels about your skull. (I looked this up and Wikipedia says it’s only a theory.)
Therefore, to combat that quickly, one needs to warm the roof of your mouth. I’ve gotten mixed results with using the tongue for warmth; I assume that, when it doesn’t work, it’s because whatever cooled the roof of my mouth also cooled my tongue.
Therefore, if your tongue doesn’t do the job,
communicate with your partnerconsuming anything at least a little warmer than the food item that originally caused the problem should help. As the other commenter said, usually a warm drink will suffice, though in my experience it doesn’t even need to be particularly warm. I’ve drunk ice water to help before when the problem was something very cold like ice cream.
If you have black coffee either because you’re out of creamer or doing a non-diary thing, sprinkling a tiny bit of salt into the coffee will take the bitterness out of it without tasting salty.
Or try coconut oil. The thick stuff in a jar, nothing added. I had my doubts but it’s surprisingly good, really helps to have a jar when your stuck with really bad coffee.
If you ever hurt yourself, you can hit yourself in the nads so that the other part of your body that hurt don’t hurt anymore.
You can also be a solid bro to any guy you see in pain by smacking their junk as hard as you can. As an added benefit this form of first aid works on women as well.
“Oh look, someone is coming to help!”
[Confusing violence ensues]
If the nads are inaccessible, a punch in the tits works almost as well
When I cook a broth, I add egg shells to it to keep the broth clear.
Okay so this aounds very counter-intuitive 😂.
How does it work?
Apparently:
An eggshell is mostly calcium carbonate, riddled with microscopic pores, and lined with a thin protein membrane. In hot liquid, that membrane behaves like a natural flocculant, encouraging the tiny proteins and vegetable fines that cloud your stock to tangle together. The shell’s rough surface provides places for these particles to gather, and once aggregated, gravity does the rest. You don’t need much. For 1 litre of broth, the shells from one or two eggs can be enough to coax clarity.
Based on how that page loaded on my phone, I recommend reader mode if using Firefox.
Firefox on desktop worked no worries here, but see how this looks - I love archive.ph / archive.today: https://archive.ph/0A6tq
Here’s how I quit smoking about 15 years ago.
Step one: for about a month, every time I smoked I told myself I’m ready to quit. Every cigarette, every time.
Step two: the next month, every cigarette, every time, I told myself they stink and taste like shit.
Took about 3 weeks into the second month and I never picked up another. Oh and I can be around other smokers and don’t crave them. They still fucking stink.
YMMV
I realized it was causing a lot of anxiety for me. Easy quit after that because the reward was less anxiety after a few days.
smoker in my early 20s and this advice might change my life.
Honestly, quit as soon as you can. After the two week mark, you’ll start smelling things again. At the one month mark, you’ll notice that you’re not constantly out of breath. Cravings still occasionally happen, but it shifts from “god damn it I need a donut right now” to “hmm a donut sounds good right now… But I don’t wanna bother with going to the donut shop.” The cravings never fully vanish, but they definitely change and become easier to dismiss as a passing whim.
Something like 20 years ago now, my pack-a-day wife decided to try a vaper. Not clouds-of-vape, just a pedestrian vaper.
She never went back to cigarettes. She decreased the nicotine and nowadays vapes maybe 2-3 times per day, I think her current level is 6… whatever units of nicotine, it’s not a lot.
I don’t care that she still vapes at that level. If there is anything bad, it’s not much at that rate, so screw it.
If you have the hiccups, putting a facial tissue over a glass of water and drinking through it will fix them.
I thought it was the stupidest thing I’d ever heard, but I tried it and it works pretty much every time. Paper towels can work, but aren’t as effective
Breathing in as much as possible and holding it for as long as possible usually works. S
It’s sorta like allowing the diaphragm to fully relax, with the expanded lungs helping to lightening the tension from the ribs.
May have to try this next time! Normally I gulp lots of air until I can’t anymore, then hold my breath until I can’t, and breath out really slowly. It works but can be uncomfortable to do at times.
Yeah, apparently something along those lines has been shown to work:
Drinking through a straw with the ears plugged is a folk remedy that can be successful.[34] In 2021, a scientific tool with a similar basis was tested on 249 hiccups subjects; the results were published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).[35][34] This device is named FISST (Forced Inspiratory Suction and Swallow Tool) and branded as “HiccAway”. This study supports the use of FISST as an option to stop transient hiccups, with more than 90% of participants reporting better results than home remedies. A non-commercial resource describing a similar suction-based technique using a regular straw and water bottle has also been published online.[36] HiccAway stops hiccups by forceful suction that is being generated by diaphragm contraction (phrenic nerve activity), followed by swallowing the water, which requires epiglottis closure.[37]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiccup#Folk_remedies the “non-commercial resource” referenced: https://hicfix.com/
Another approach that worked for me once:
A breathing exercise called supra-supramaximal inspiration (SSMI) has been shown to stop persistent hiccups. It combines the three principles of hypercapnia, diaphragm immobilization, and positive airway pressure. First, the subject must exhale completely, then take a deep breath. Then, they must hold their breath for ten seconds. After ten seconds, they must take another small breath without exhaling, then hold their breath for five seconds. Again, without exhaling, they must take another small breath and hold their breath for five seconds. Upon exhaling, the hiccups should be gone.[33]
This device is named FISST (Forced Inspiratory Suction and Swallow Tool)
Sounds hot!
It’ll cure your hiccups… BUT AT WHAT COST!!!
wife walks in while your buddy fists you
“HONEY IT’S NOT WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE!”
it’d be funny if the hiccups were just transferred from fist-ee to fist-er.
Lightly waterboard self? I think I’ll take the hiccups.
I bought a straw off of Amazon that helps, I imagine that it takes advantage of the same mechanism.
Free version: https://hicfix.com/
My husband and son get the worst, most painful full-body hiccups so when I heard about the straw I thought, why not? It does work. However, it’s stupid expensive for a plastic straw so it stays at home all the time and sometimes they get hiccups when we’re out. We’ve found that jamming a regular straw flat against the bottom of a cup and then sucking really hard will pretty much work. The trick is making it hard to suck the liquid up the straw, so that your diaphragm is really working for it, and it’ll help reset things.
So the cure for hiccups is milkshakes…
Who knew?
I take 10 sips of water while holding my breath. Works.
The tissue basically forces you to take those sips very slowly, which I think is what helps. The holding my breath trick almost never works the first time for me.
For me it’s not holding my breath, but pushing as much air into my diaphragm as possible, kind of like swallowing air and pushing it down until it hurts.
Yeah, this works for me 100%. Just holding breath isn’t enough, though.
To try and control impulse shopping, I immediately grab an item I think I want.
I will continue shopping for things I actually want/need, until I look at or feel for the thing I originally grabbed. I will lose sense of interest of grabbing it and put it back.
It takes practice and time. Especially works if you know, are low on money anyways. The idea of this is, to get you thinking about what it is about that thing that made you want it and whether it would have any use or make you happy having it.
If it doesn’t after the time you’ve been having it around, be it holding it or in the cart, then it wasn’t meant to be. It was simply an impulse.
I kinda do this, except I don’t pick it up. I’m just sick and tired of having useless junk lying around, so when I see something I want I consider if I’m actually going to use it or if it will just be relegated to a drawer somewhere. If I haven’t been missing it (ie. it’s an impulse purchase) I will almost always just leave it be and move on. I don’t need all this junk.
If it is something I decide I need, then I consider if it should be this thing, or if I should try to find a good quality version instead, since what I usually find is in the supermarket where it’s almost universally cheap junk. That also grants me more time to decide that no, I don’t need this thing after all.
or if I should try to find a good quality version instead, since what I usually find is in the supermarket where it’s almost universally cheap junk
Or take the opportunity to check the second-hand market for it! Craigslist/FB marketplace, thrift shops, ebay (used, private seller), garage sales, etc. Tends to be a lot cheaper, great for the environment (because less resources needed for new production and less stuff in landfills), and keeps your money away from evil corporations.
I do the same thing, sort of. I think about where I will put the item and if I don’t have a good place for it, then I won’t buy it.
As big as my Steam backlog is, it would be 100x bigger if not for the Wishlist. I try to limit myself to 100 games in the Wishlist and trim it every once in a while when a game has been sitting in it for more than a couple years. It’s the same psychology here. Put it in a cart and let it sit there for a while. If you don’t really want it put it back.
I’ve had some games go 90% off and I still have to think about if I really want the game. I then use that no as reason to take it off the wishlist.
Yup, me too.
Why would you ever have a backlog in the first place? Why would you buy a game and then not play it?
Put the games you want to play in the future on your wishlist. When you’re ready to play a new game, pick one from your wishlist, buy it, play it.
The games aren’t going away, they’re not going to run out of digital copies. Why would you ever buy it before you’re ready to play it? It doesn’t matter whether it’s sitting in your wishlist or your hard drive, so let them sit in your wishlist, where it’s a lot cheaper for them to sit.
(Okay, sure, games go on sale on steam occasionally, and you might want to pick one up while it’s on sale. Even then, though … games tend to get cheaper over time as they get older. Just waiting and buying it later might ultimately be cheaper than the ‘on sale’ price.)
Why would you ever have a backlog in the first place? Why would you buy a game and then not play it?
I don’t know why, but i think we all do it, lol. I feel like people only need about 2 or 3 good games that they can keep on coming back to, and this takes away all our time to explore the free steam handouts or games we grabbed from sales.
Some games i paid for that I haven’t played through:
spoiler
- Frostpunk (im too obsessed with Anno instead)
- Lego Marvel Superheroes 2 (it was buggy)
- Disco Elysium (i misunderstood what it was and troed to be a perfectionist/try out several different stats so now i’ve played the intro section five or so times?? And i’m bored of it)
All of those are highly lauded games but somehow i have felt no compulsion to try them… i guess too much choice is a bad thing. 90% of my steam library reads like negative space to me, and I’m compelled to continue projects on the three games currently in my circulation
This is a black and white view on backlogs. Yes you can just not buy a game when you’re not ready to play it. That’s not usually how it always plays out. Yes I do buy games while they’re on sale and have been out for 5+ years. I buy games with the intention to play them. That doesn’t mean right away as soon as I buy it.
Most games I buy I fire up at least once. For the rare handful of games that I bought and never tried it’s not a big deal because I only paid a few bucks for these games. If it doesn’t click right away but I want to keep trying it goes on the back burner. If it doesn’t click at all, I refund it. If it’s a game I started and liked but fell off of for something else it goes in the backlog. Sometimes I just want a game in my collection. I know I won’t play it right now but if I have the means to buy it, I’m gonna get it so it’s in my collection and I don’t have to worry about it later. That’s a more rare situation and most games like that will sit in my Wishlist for years, but it does happen.
Sometimes games do go away. Command & Conquer wasn’t on Steam for years and then all of a sudden the whole collection showed up. Same as Dino Crisis in the last couple days. I used to have physical copies of the games but they got lost to time, be it giving them away to friends who wanted to play them, or losing them in moves, or selling them. Some of my backlog is older generation games that have been freed from their console shackles. They just announced MGS4 for PS5 and PC. I last played that game almost 15 years ago on PS3. I would love to play it again in the future. Even if I wait for a sale, I know I want it in my collection.
Games don’t always get cheaper as they get older either. Most Japanese games stay above $35 these days when not on sale. Even classics that are multiple generations old at this point. If I think a game is worth it at full price, I will pay full price.
Lastly my Wishlist isn’t just a catch all for games I want to play in the future. If that was the case there would be thousands of games on it. It’s a little bit more curated than that. It’s mainly for smaller games I do wait for because they’re in early access. Most big AAA games on my Wishlist are waiting for sales. The majority isn’t released or I’m waiting for reviews to see the quality on. Yes there are games I’m interested in but are not 100% sure I would play. That’s why I cull the list every few months or so.
Several reasons:
- They came with a bundle
- I bought them while I was still dual booting, and by the time Proton was released I didn’t cared for them anymore.
- I bought them to play with friends/partner and never got the chance
- I played them (even for lots of hours) but haven’t finish them and some other new shiny game took it’s place
- Game is essentially infinite
- I bought it on sale while playing another thing, but when I finished the other game I was playing I went to play something else
- I feel like playing a certain style of game so I buy a few on sale, but after playing a couple I want to play something different
For a stronger version, don’t buy it this time, just take a picture. If you really want it, then you should be motivated to come again to get it.
And while online shopping never buy something immediately, always wait until the next day.
Ya, and if you shop online put purchases in your shopping cart and let them sit for a few days.
I have heard this can cause the retailer to email you a discount code/coupon, but that’s never happened to me so I can’t corroborate.
This totally works on eBay. Often when I see something used that I’d like, I’ll put it in my cart and let it sit. If the vendor offers a discount then I’ll consider, if not then I guess I don’t actually need it.
So if you ever get a random headache that is just a pinching pain in a random spot then try breathing there. I don’t mean breathe deep or breathe into that spot but actually concentrate super hard into that spot and imagine this is where your lungs are. Concentrate when you breathe and think about how the air goes exactly into that spot directly from your mouth cause this is where your lungs are now, and how you breathe out from there. Keep concentrating and breathing there.
I don’t know why it doesn’t work if I just take deep breaths but this is legit the only way I can stop the pulsating stabs until they are gone. Concentrate hard tho because once you stop the pain returns unless the attack is over.
I’ve harvested so much knowledge from this thread, lol. Saved for later. Thanks
Drink more water. Eat more fiber.
Yeah if you like poop and pee
“if”
“like”
“poop”
“you”
Go on…
Man, I still eat like shit, but when I switched to drinking only water (instead of mainly soda/juice), I was easily able to lose the excess weight that had been building up.
No other changes. Just drink water. Only water. Water is good.
I keep a pitcher of cold, filtered water in the mini-fridge by my desk. That shit is delicious. And I don’t even miss anything. If you’re struggling with the switch to water, get yourself some good water.
I mean, you can also get some taste in your water by drinking tea.
If I wanted it to taste bad and bitter, sure.
Tea (black and green) is only bitter if you don’t know how to make it. Get good quality tea leaves (not the ones in the bags, they are usually the worst quality) and look up what temperature the water needs to be for your kind of tea. Usually around 70-80°C for green tea and 80-90°C for black. Especially green tea is only bitter if you prepare it with boiling water.
bro doesn’t know how to put sugar in their tea
Don’t put sugar in your tea - don’t drink calories.
If sweetening with artificial sweeteners tastes “bitter”, try a trick: Use packets of multiple types - one “equal”, one sucralose, one stevia, for example. You get the sweetness from each and not enough of the background bitterness (which is different).
That’s the main reason Coke Zero is pretty good as compared to Diet Coke - different formula, but they use two artificial sweeteners and get that affect - sweetness from two sources with half the bitterness (since each is different).
Oh no! Not the 48 calories! In my 0.7 giant fucking mug of tea! My diet is ruined!
Like, seriously?
You understand that most of the beverages are far less calorie-dense than your average snack, meal, or whatever, right? And that our stomach capacity is limited? Once you drink enough of even the sweetest tea, you won’t have the room for anything more dense for some time.
Do what works for you.
If I put sugar in it, I might as well be drinking soda and juice again.
HOW MUCH SUGAR ARE YOU PUTTING IN YOUR TEA!?!?!?
ENOUGH THAT I CAN USE IT AS A SUBSTITUTE FOR PANCAKE SYRUP IN A PINCH IF NECESSARY!!!
/c/ShitUSiansSay
Yes, eliminating an excess of calories is a good way to lose weight. Don’t think this is sarcasm, this is AWESOME and I’m glad that’s all it took for you - or at least that was a good contributing factor.
The only thing I would say: Don’t drink calories. i.e. I assume you meant regular soda and juice you were drinking. Milk is in that category as well.
Coffee, tea, diet soda, crystal light or any packet you put in a bottle of water - look for the things with basically zero calories, and that should be what you drink most of the time.
For those that are worried about things like caffeine being diuretics and dehydrating you: Coffee and tea and diet soda are NEARLY as hydrating as plain water. It’s not a large difference.
If you can drink plain water, great! If you need a bit of flavour to help? That’s also fine - the important bit is not drinking calories.
To those consuming this, 100% try it. The first 3 or 4 days suck because your body expects calories with it’s drink and the buzz of sugar and caffeine. You can escape this by having a small chocolate with your water when you feel the craving.
Second point, mineral content, processing, temperature, and plumbing play a big role in your enjoyment. Personally I can’t drink cold water, it has to be room temperature and tap water here is too mineral heavy. Instead I refill 5 gallon water jugs and use a water crock.
yes. you need water more than calories and while the rule of threes is basically about calories with the three weeks if you don’t have fiber with those calories you will have a medical emergency on your hands. Granted though you can have to much water and fiber so its kinda a balance. I mean granted with water its more about to much water and not enough electrolytes.
Dude, what on Earth are you blabbering on about?
water and fiber and the need for both in a diet but also that they can be overdosed.
Rule of threes (survival) - Wikipedia https://share.google/Gc0HVUDXToxTKHD0A
Why is this a Google link?
Guess I wasn’t paying attention. I googled it and then tried to share the Wikipedia page. Guessing I must have clicked on some ai result instead of the actual page. Annoying, unintentional.
Hyponatremia . We called it hyponatriosis or ‘water-drunk’ in the army. We had a girl in our platoon over-hydrate and go floppy on a march, and my swear-to-god buck-oh-five bunkmate had to play crutch for the rest of it while we all redistroed all their collective gear. (calm your breathing: they marched in back with the medicos under obs the entire time, and we didn’t fail the little exercise we were on, and it was her choice to continue at every stage, and she was lauded for it afterward. This is a heroism story.)
Water with occasional electrolytes ok?
Also did you all reprimand the
deadweight“hero” in private or not?
While most probably would be okay with hydrating more, do be careful:
- The “eight glasses per day” thing was made up whole cloth
- The advice I’ve heard is that for MOST people, drink when you are thirsty.
But if you’re trying to figure out what’s wrong because you feel a little bad, or have a headache, or are sleepy, or feel like you might be hungry but think you shouldn’t be, or any number of other situations - drinking a glass of water usually doesn’t hurt, and does sometimes turn out to have been the issue. So it’s rarely terrible advice.
(Unless you’re on dialysis like me and have fluid restrictions) :)
You are the first person I have ever met (other than my mom, who I learned it from) who does the “sleep upside down” thing. It totally works!
Thanks, i was worried it would be too widespread and nobody would find it remarkable 😂
Erin in The Office does it too.
When you feel a sneeze coming and you don’t want to sneeze, press the tip of your tongue firmly against the roof of mouth. Works nearly every time!
similar but for hiccups, hold breath for 10s then without breathing in between drink a cup of water. hiccups gone
I’ve heard that thinking about the color purple does it too.
Alternatively, push your finger against the space between your upper lip and your nose, like using your finger as a mustache. Push hard. A hunter taught me that so I wouldn’t sneeze and give away our position.
deleted by creator
Who are you, so wise in the ways of science?
I am Arthur, King of the Britain.
An easy trick to immediately get a better posture when walking is to pretend that you have laser cannons attached to your nipples and you are trying to zap people you meet in their faces.
Ah so you’re saying that good posture is ultimately down to whether your nipples are pointing at peoples faces? But that doesn’t work for people with really large breasts, right?
You can’t make yourself calm down because our emotions control us, not the other way around - but you can control your breath and your breath can affect your emotions. Box breathing, 4-7-8, or even just deep “flower breaths”. All work great at centering yourself when emotions are getting out of hand
Box breathing makes me feel out of breath, which is not an improvement.
Yeah, I’m told that it takes practice. I usually just do intentional deep breaths. Works great for kids (IME at least)
I did it for years and im pretty sure it is the cause of the mechanical apnea i have. Ive cut box breath out of my habits and traded it for body checkins. I think its improving the apnea. Slowly. Once the brain builds a habit of holding breath it is super hard to make it let go.
You can control your emotions. It takes effort. For example if I’m in a bad mood I can step back and realize I’m actually hungry and that’s why I’m temporarily negative.
But you can learn to control your emotions better. It starts with listening to them.
The emotional thing:
It is important to remember feelings are things and they arent given to us. But they belong with us. And while you cant suppress or choose to not have an emotion : You can control your actions, reactions and responses around emotions. Cognitive therapy can help.
The breathing thing:
be careful with it. Some people with mechanical breathing disorders (apnea) might be worse off if messing with breath counting and to just make sure they are taking a full breath or acknowledge breath and swifty move on to something automated like heartbeat or checking in on body parts so as to not mess with the mechanics of the brain for taking a natural breath.
After decades of meditation using breath work it started to make my anxiety worse as i found it made my waking and sleeping apnea way WAY worse. Im pretty sure it is what caused the mechanical issue in the brain to hold a breath or not pull it in for too long until suddenly dizzy.
Takes a lot of time with habit building on letting it go to break this cycle in the brain.
