My gun habit has been broken

[boattail]

........temporarily. I have not pulled a trigger in months. My reloading bench has been idle for more than a year. Normally I would have popped 6,000 rounds off by this time of year. I usually spend 7-10 weekends a year shooting pdogs and practice with my pistols monthly. Ever since the plandemic and the ammo and reloading shortages I have stopped even looking for components . I have enough ammo and components to shoot 1000 center fire a year for 40 years so I'm not hurting for ammo. I just have a hard time shooting when I cannot replace what I shoot. A typical day shooting pdogs would cost me $75 in gas and $35 an hour in ammo. Now that same trip would be $150 in gas and who knows what the ammo cost would be if I had to buy ammo. Last year I made only one trip to shoot critters and by 9:30 am I had a medical emergency and went to the ER for 8 hours.....I have not shot a rifle since.

I usually buy one or two guns a year and I haven't even looked for anything. Even the Blackhawk project I want to build is on hold. Without the guns to play with I got busy working on my house and a Jeep project. I spent the early spring redoing one bathroom and now I'm working on another bathroom. This one is getting off to a slower start as I cannot get my supplies. Everything is backordered. To fill the time gaps I am rebuilding an engine for the Jeep. Even that project has backordered parts waiting to show up.

A cool opportunity presented itself to make some extra money and with gas prices and everything else going up I took on a teaching job part time at the local college in the morning before my normal job starts for the day. Now with two jobs, remodeling, and engine building my time is even thinner. With summer here in full swing heading to the range to blast some ammo seems not very fun in 100* temps. At least the teaching job is fun, I get to drive logging trucks and play in the woods, something I have not done for 30 years. Working for the college has meant the ccw gun has to stay home so I find myself carrying less now. If I am going to be at the college I have to plan ahead and not have the gun on me.

My guess is this drought of mine will last another year at least. I have taken my wife and her friend shooting twice in the last year and what little trigger time I have had with them has been it. I have to re qualify for my ccw this December so I see a November trip to practice and the December class to shoot as my only two opportunities to shoot I will get before the end of the year. Hopefully next year I will find components so I can feel good about shooting again and maybe I can get back to a more normal pattern of shooting. Right now my guns are taking a break.

Read More

 

[arakboss]

........temporarily. I have not pulled a trigger in months. My reloading bench has been idle for more than a year. Normally I would have popped 6,000 rounds off by this time of year. I usually spend 7-10 weekends a year shooting pdogs and practice with my pistols monthly. Ever since the plandemic and the ammo and reloading shortages I have stopped even looking for components . I have enough ammo and components to shoot 1000 center fire a year for 40 years so I'm not hurting for ammo. I just have a hard time shooting when I cannot replace what I shoot. A typical day shooting pdogs would cost me $75 in gas and $35 an hour in ammo. Now that same trip would be $150 in gas and who knows what the ammo cost would be if I had to buy ammo. Last year I made only one trip to shoot critters and by 9:30 am I had a medical emergency and went to the ER for 8 hours.....I have not shot a rifle since.

I usually buy one or two guns a year and I haven't even looked for anything. Even the Blackhawk project I want to build is on hold. Without the guns to play with I got busy working on my house and a Jeep project. I spent the early spring redoing one bathroom and now I'm working on another bathroom. This one is getting off to a slower start as I cannot get my supplies. Everything is backordered. To fill the time gaps I am rebuilding an engine for the Jeep. Even that project has backordered parts waiting to show up.

A cool opportunity presented itself to make some extra money and with gas prices and everything else going up I took on a teaching job part time at the local college in the morning before my normal job starts for the day. Now with two jobs, remodeling, and engine building my time is even thinner. With summer here in full swing heading to the range to blast some ammo seems not very fun in 100* temps. At least the teaching job is fun, I get to drive logging trucks and play in the woods, something I have not done for 30 years. Working for the college has meant the ccw gun has to stay home so I find myself carrying less now. If I am going to be at the college I have to plan ahead and not have the gun on me.

My guess is this drought of mine will last another year at least. I have taken my wife and her friend shooting shooting twice in the last year and what little trigger time I have had with them has been it. I have to prequalify for my ccw this December so I see a November trip to practice and the December class to shoot as my only two opportunities to shoot I will get before the end of the year. Hopefully next year I will find components so I can feel good about shooting again and maybe I can get back to a more normal pattern of shooting. Right now my guns are taking a break.

How is your weightloss journey going?

 

[boattail]

How is your weightloss journey going?

Holding steady. I got down to 183 and hovered at 185 - 188 for a long time. I tried to get back down and it's been slow as the second job has meant I need to eat more to combat my vertigo and dehydration issues. I'm still holding under 190 pounds but really wish to get down under 180. I'm just not sure my body will let me go that low.

I feel great since dropping the 28 pounds off and will not let myself go back up. My body really liked being 185 and now with the summer heat here I have to drink tons of water. With that I need food as well and cannot tolerate being hungry very well. I'm doing a pretty good job of regulating my food intake but I will have a day or two in the week where I just have to eat a bit more or the vertigo hits quickly.

If I can stay in the 180's I'm not going to fight it....anything above that I will drop back down quickly. I have only went above 190 one time and most of that was liquid weight and a few pieces of pizza then stepping on the scale.

I was locked out of this place for a while and gave up trying to get back in......did you ever make your goal?

 

[arakboss]

Holding steady. I got down to 183 and hovered at 185 - 188 for a long time. I tried to get back down and it's been slow as the second job has meant I need to eat more to combat my vertigo and dehydration issues. I'm still holding under 190 pounds but really wish to get down under 180. I'm just not sure my body will let me go that low.

I feel great since dropping the 28 pounds off and will not let myself go back up. My body really liked being 185 and now with the summer heat here I have to drink tons of water. With that I need food as well and cannot tolerate being hungry very well. I'm doing a pretty good job of regulating my food intake but I will have a day or two in the week where I just have to eat a bit more or the vertigo hits quickly.

If I can stay in the 180's I'm not going to fight it....anything above that I will drop back down quickly. I have only went above 190 one time and most of that was liquid weight and a few pieces of pizza then stepping on the scale.

I was locked out of this place for a while and gave up trying to get back in......did you ever make your goal?

Working on it. I still have about 20ish lbs to go by end of October. I am doing a really low calorie fast this weekend to break a plateau. My energy level has been in the toilet for a long time now. Once I reach my goal or the deadline arrives I am going to start eating a lot more but healthier foods. Hopefully that will bring my energy levels back up.

 

[boattail]

One thing that has helped me is no access to food in the mornings. I get up early and eat a small breakfast. I cannot eat much as I need to control when I can use a bathroom. Driving truck does not allow the freedom to stop. So, I eat a little bit and then take a slug of Pepto to hold it in. Once I am out of the truck for the day I eat a small lunch. I have to drink a ton of water and I am stopping to pee at least twice an hour or I am not drinking enough. My wife will pack my dinner and she usually packs too much so I bring part of it home. I no longer feel the need to eat everything in my bucket. She is the one upping my portions and I cannot tell her no. I just bring food home. She sees me wrung out at the end of a 16 hour day and wants to feed me more.

 

[Member 53328]

Working on it. I still have about 20ish lbs to go by end of October. I am doing a really low calorie fast this weekend to break a plateau. My energy level has been in the toilet for a long time now. Once I reach my goal or the deadline arrives I am going to start eating a lot more but healthier foods. Hopefully that will bring my energy levels back up.

Have you tried intermittent fasting? I had to cut a bunch of weight. I cut out alcohol completely (3+ years sober) and went to intermittent fasting. I lost crazy amount of weight by doing this. I still fast daily. I don't eat my first meal until 1300 at the earliest and I don't consume any food after 2000. Gives me a 7 hour window to eat. Outside of that it's a lot of water and coffee.

 

[arakboss]

Have you tried intermittent fasting? I had to cut a bunch of weight. I cut out alcohol completely (3+ years sober) and went to intermittent fasting. I lost crazy amount of weight by doing this. I still fast daily. I don't eat my first meal until 1300 at the earliest and I don't consume any food after 2000. Gives me a 7 hour window to eat. Outside of that it's a lot of water and coffee.

I tried It but it didn't really work me. I would just pile in extra calories during my feeding window. I even did OMAD on Sundays for a few weeks and was able to eat more calories than I needed to eat. Avoiding carbs and fat is key for me. It's really hard for me to over eat lean protein. Carbs and fat are easy for me to eat in excess.

 

[boattail]

A gal at work went from 280 down to about 150 in a year and a half by cutting out sugar.....amazing what that one ingredient did for her. You really need to try different approaches to see what works for you. I have cut out most sugar but still eat more than one should......sugar has been one of the only foods I can eat that does not mess with my IBS. All the good food that I want to eat like a salad is off limits. This last year I have been eating more vegetables that I can tolerate but my wife doesn't share the same appetite for what I can eat. I get the veggies I can eat in about half the meals she prepares.

 

[trevi]

One thing that has helped me is no access to food in the mornings. I get up early and eat a small breakfast. I cannot eat much as I need to control when I can use a bathroom. Driving truck does not allow the freedom to stop. So, I eat a little bit and then take a slug of Pepto to hold it in. Once I am out of the truck for the day I eat a small lunch. I have to drink a ton of water and I am stopping to pee at least twice an hour or I am not drinking enough. My wife will pack my dinner and she usually packs too much so I bring part of it home. I no longer feel the need to eat everything in my bucket. She is the one upping my portions and I cannot tell her no. I just bring food home. She sees me wrung out at the end of a 16 hour day and wants to feed me more.

A gooooood wife!

 

[The B]

"intermittent fasting" aka meth

 

[trevi]

A gal at work went from 280 down to about 150 in a year and a half by cutting out sugar.....amazing what that one ingredient did for her. You really need to try different approaches to see what works for you. I have cut out most sugar but still eat more than one should......sugar has been one of the only foods I can eat that does not mess with my IBS. All the good food that I want to eat like a salad is off limits. This last year I have been eating more vegetables that I can tolerate but my wife doesn't share the same appetite for what I can eat. I get the veggies I can eat in about half the meals she prepares.

I am sure by now you know about which are the good and bad sugars. Added sugar (and excess salt) is always the worst. Read the ingredients labels on packages you buy and watch for key words regarding sugars like high fructose and the likes. Not a nutritionist or health nut, but i am at near 39, making sure i never have to buy new larger-sized clothes for a long time.

 

[boattail]

I am sure by now you know about which are the good and bad sugars. Added sugar (and excess salt) is always the worst. Read the ingredients labels on packages you buy and watch for key words regarding sugars like high fructose and the likes. Not a nutritionist or health nut, but i am at near 39, making sure i never have to buy new larger-sized clothes for a long time.

You're about the age when my system started to go sideways. By 39 I was already not able to eat lettuce or tomatoes. Each year another food went on the sensitivity list. When I was around 45 I cut out Pepsi and it had zero effect on me but I knew it would eventually. The last food to get put on the list was chocolate. That cured my need for candy bars. Sweet tea and a few snacks I can still eat but don't eat them to excess anymore. With my diet change of simply eating the same food but less of them my sugar intake has gone way down.

My last blood work shows I need more color in my diet so I am trying to eat vegetables at every meal. Meat and taters have been the staple for most my life. Each persons individual health requires a special way to diet. I have always been lactose intolerant and that progressed into IBS and all the foods I cannot eat anymore. Recently my second bout with heat exhaustion has made heat something I cannot tolerate very well. Add to that as I get older the stupid little things that made me dizzy as a kid are now full blown vertigo. So the dehydration coupled with vertigo and then the IBS create a cocktail of issues I have to navigate.

I have to drink a shat ton of water right now in the heat but if I try and replace the electrolytes those make my IBS kick off and I dump it all in grand fashion. I am going to try a natural salt tablet soon and see if that effects me any differently than the sports drinks do. I get an electrolyte overload from sports drinks and must thin them out to about 1/3 to not have any side effects from them.

At 56 I am pretty tore up in places like knees and shoulders. But, from the outside someone looking at me would think I am in pretty good shape considering all the things I can still do. What I have learned is a lot of my other issues physically can be corrected with the right physical therapy. It's just finding time to do those exercises that I have trouble with. I have impingement syndrome in both shoulders that the doctors do not want to operate on. My impingements have not torn anything yet....they just effect my strength, range of motion, and are painful. The doctors tell me the trade off that surgery will bring me is not worth it in my case. They want me to do my exercises and not stress them out.....well, flinging a chain and cable over a load of logs 8-10 times a day is not what I would call taking it easy on them but it has to get done, pain or not.