CumBroth

!zerowaste@lemmy.ml

Adding to what you said about interest rates: We're at the end of a long period of cheap borrowing (very low interest rates) during which overvalued assets were used as collateral to secure loans for investments. These propped-up assets are beginning to drop to their true (intrinsic) values. In other words, speculation and irresponsible practices were propping up a house of cards that's starting to collapse, and now investors are scrambling to cash in or cut losses wherever they can. So they're deciding that time has run out for online platforms that promised to grow but still haven't hit their numbers/monetization goals.

tl;dr: Infinite money glitch got patched (because it was wreaking all sorts of financial havoc) and now investors need to end life-support for risky/unprofitable investments.

I see people are chiming in with their own experiences with IF, so here's mine: I've been doing IF for about 4 months myself and it's done wonders for me and positively changed my lifestyle. I lost weight much easier than ever before, but it's hard to tell how much of that is because of IF itself and how much is due to the dietary changes I implemented at the same time (zero processed food, significantly reduced sugar intake, etc...).

However, the biggest benefit I got from doing full IF is that it's become much easier for me to go without food for longer periods of time. I noticed this particularly on my most recent business trip, where I'd planned to travel for 6 hours starting at 6 AM with a rather hectic itinerary and several changeovers, so there wouldn't have been enough time to stop for snacks. When I arrived at my destination, I realised that I'd woken up, ate nothing, and then spent 6 hours on the road without even having thought of food.

I also noticed that it's become possible for me to switch from an eating-for-pleasure to an eating-for-sustenance mode without having to struggle with cravings and trying to suppress them.

My entire plan was as follows:

First I spent 6 weeks avoiding all sugar, just to reset my tolerance, so to speak. This was by far the hardest part. At the same time I got myself a so-called "multi-cooker", which is basically an air fryer and pressure cooker combo, because it seemed to me that it would make cooking and preparing large quantities of healthy food easier (that did prove to be the case).

At the same time, I started IF by allowing myself to eat only between 9 AM and 1 PM, unless I don't have access to food during that window (for example because I'm travelling and didn't have time to prepare food for the trip). Initially, I still counted calories when I ate even during that window, but then I noticed it was becoming effortless for me to not overeat. As long as I didn't introduce unhealthy food into the diet, calorie counting was no longer needed. In fact, I swung so much the other way at one point that I had to make sure I was getting enough food into my stomach during that four-hour window. I only ate one or two meals at most a day.

I was already working out regularly before IF, but it wasn't enough to maintain a healthy weight and make me feel energetic overall. I realised that after making changes to my diet.

After a while of doing IF, I started relaxing the rules a bit, especially with regards to what I'm not allowed to eat. However, I made sure to measure waist circumference and overall weight at least once a week and to take corrective measures as needed. I found that I'm able to have a chocolatey treat once or even twice a week, but still maintain a healthy weight. I still fast every day, but sometimes I extend the meal window to, say, 3 or 5 PM. I think that finding this balance after the initial period of culinary deprivation is an important final step in the journey, and is not to be underestimated. This was perhaps the second-hardest bit after quitting sugar abruptly (the withdrawal was real, albeit brief).

The best thing I ever did with that one used Chromebook I bought was install Gallium OS on it. I ended up with a fully functioning laptop that was able to fulfill my mobile computing needs for $50. It's a shame Gallium got discontinued. ChromeOS was very primitive and restrictive when I tried it 5 or 6 years ago, but you say they even support Steam now, so apparently they've made some improvements. Still wouldn't want to use it over a Linux distro like Gallium that would let me have full control of the device, though.

In case anyone reading this is interesting in alternatives to ChromeOS, more info can be found here: https://mrchromebox.tech/#alt_os

Tablets are good for reading comics as well as PDFs that don't fit very well on an e-reader's screen.

This might prove very useful for my non-tech-savvy friends and family members (yes, using Tor is too complicated for some of them).

I used to be a lurker, but I find myself more encouraged to participate on Lemmy. This here is my THIRD comment in the last two days, which is a lot of engagement compared to my usual levels on Reddit.

I finally upgraded my graphics card to a 4070 Ti, despite the ridiculous pricing (been waiting for over 3 years to upgrade and I've using a GTX 1050 on a 1440p monitor this entire time). Now I'm working through a considerable backlog of GPU-intensive games that I was unable run well or even at all.

Started with God of War and I'm loving it! Next up is Read Dead Redemption 2.

It's already happening and there's nothing we can do to stop it: https://www.twitch.tv/trumporbiden2024