[cutty]

Yup. I used to smoke 1-2 packs per week for many years (mostly in social settings), then went up to 1 pack per day due to general life stress pre-COVID19. When shelter in place began I freaked out, quit cold turkey, and immediately started running and lifting. The first few weeks were rough but I've been totally smoke free for about 4 months now and am in the best shape of my life!

[pen2l]

Proud of you. :)

Me, I ditched junk food (used to do taco bell drive-thru pretty regularly when coming home from work, stopped cold turkey too!). Doing a lot more salads now, I'm so happy that I'm developing a taste for healthy foods!

[awinder]

For years I had on/off tummy trouble and yesterday I had the realization that I couldn’t remember the last time I was seriously hurting in the gut. I haven’t done carryout since February. I never believed that modest dietary changes really could have that big of an effect but kinda a believer now.

[peteretep]

Having been deeply skeptical of “gluten intolerance” (as contrasted with coeliac) for many years, I eventually realised wheat was causing me chronic heartburn after I cut it out as part of a low-carb diet undertaken for other reasons. Having had much the same thing happen with eggs and eczema, and not having made the link before that, I guess I’m now an advocate of people trying exclusion diets

[graeme]

Two things I can say as someone who went this route:

* Try a gluten test if you have had exposure recently enough to do it. It’s good to know.

* A sizeable chunk of people who have trouble with gluten may actually have trouble with fodmaps. They’re in everything wheat except sourdough bread.

Why does this matter? In the case of celiac you can’t have a crumb. In the case of fodmap trouble you can’t have a bunch of wheat, but a trace amount won’t hurt you.

I now have found gluten not to be an issue, and was able to identify a bunch of food triggers due to them being in the fodmap family. It’s made life simpler in that I know for sure I don’t have to worry about exposure, and can have moderate fodmaps as well.

Fodmaps are hard to get a handle on. There are good apps where you can quickly look up things you eat. Before that I never managed to try fodmap elimination because it was too complicated.

Note that I am not saying you, OP, don’t have a gluten problem. But there will be many people reading your post, who have digestive discomfort and other issues but nothing life threatening. To those people I would strongly recommend a gluten test before you quit, and check fodmaps if you test negative.

I had a wide variety of digestive symptoms that are similar to some celiac symptoms, but that was not the cause. And gluten being nearly all high fodmap makes for possible confounding.

(Fodmaps are mostly in carbs, so a low carb diet can also be a fodmap reduction diet)

[irrational]

> They’re in everything wheat except sourdough bread.

Why is that? The only difference between sourdough bread and non-sourdough bread is yeast vs starter (and some people still use yeast in addition to their starter).

[Raphael_Amiard]

That's related to what FODMAP are: fermentable carbohydrates. They'll be decomposed in the fermentation process for sourdough bread.

It has been noticed by many people who think they're gluten intolerant that they digest sourdough bread much better. The likelyhood that this is linked to the changes incurred by the fermentation process is high, since, as you said, that's the only difference.

[maxnoe]

It's the only difference in ingredients.

But the difference is a world apart.

The best example is rye bread, which won't develop a crumb without sour dough.

Concerning the fodmaps, it is the usually longer fermentation that reduces those.

[OJFord]

> yeast vs starter

Commercial yeast vs. starter [naturally occurring yeast, flour, and water]

[myrandomcomment]

Did the Whole30 diet. No gluten, no dairy for 30 days. Life of allergy pills and skin cream (6 shots a week as a kid in the 80s) Got worse as I got older (40s now). 20 days in no ezcema no pills. Day 31 you add something back. Had some udon and a beer. 5 minutes later turned red, had issues breathing and itchy all over. Hum. It’s gluten. Test (blood) from doc no celiacs. WTF? Do some research, get butt scope to look at my intestines. Hum, looks like you should not eats stuff with gluten. I miss beer and the perfect cheese steak (the roll is a major factor in the yum level). Feel so much better. It’s a pain to eat out. Cross contamination is a bitch.

Still drink wine every dinner and smoke a cigar everyday :)

[test1235]

After 40-odd years of suffering, you must be elated!

I've not much to add other than to say I'm very happy for you - it's hard to comprehend what a torment it is to have deal with conditions like that on a daily basis.

[WA]

There’s gluten-free beer. Maybe you can grow a taste for that. It’s not too bad.

[distances]

I agree. Normal beer you can totally, and easily, replace with gluten free. Not so much for the speciality beers though.

[dfinninger]

Someone close to me was having issues with Gluten for years. Went gluten-free for most of the last decade to stave them off. Had chronic heartburn and difficulty swallowing in some situations (throat felt “too small”).

Turns out it was some sort of allergy resulting in Eosinophilic esophagitis. Now that they are medication, most all of the symptoms have dissipated.

If you are experiencing throat issues related to gluten (or other things in the exclusion diet) it may be worth getting checked out.

[wirrbel]

Here the same, deeply sceptical of the gluten intolerance stuff, also looking at the research. Jumping on and off of Keto I am now very sure that either carbs in general were the source of my stained underwear problem. Haven't' made the differential test yet whether its gluten or carbs in general but currently don't really feel a need for it because I continue to lose weight on keto + fasting

[rorykoehler]

Diet is medicine.

[chiefalchemist]

You are what you consume.

That applies to food. It applies to reading, watching, and listening. It applies to your environment (e.g., friends).

The pandemic is a wakeup call. Let's hope - in some regards - we never go back to normal. The data is clear, that old normal (i.e., preventable preexisting conditions) played a key role in getting us here.

[qrbLPHiKpiux]

The US food industry really needs to do something about sugar.

[chiefalchemist]

That would help. But even more so US citizens need be mindful of the importance of diet and how it relates to health.

It doesn't help that the narrative continues to focus on the healthcare system. Yes, it can be improved. But supply is limited. We keep increasing demand. And expect prices to fall? That's not the way it works.

[flywheel]

The fact that doctors generally don't ask about a patients diet says more about doctors than it does about the importance of what you eat. Diet has a huge influence on so many aspects of health and well being.

[AnonHP]

Doctors (the allopathic ones) spend hardly any time studying nutrition. So it’s more the system that doesn’t expose them to much. They also tend to believe the marketing they see on TV, magazines, etc.

[nobrains]

What did you change?

What were you eating before and what are you eating now?

[awinder]

Used to eat out for lunch most days (felt like middle-of-the-road options, maybe rarely fast food) and now mostly eat sandwiches with lean meat (and homemade levain bread, the parallel comment on fodmaps intrigued me around this line).

We used to cook I would say 5/6 dinner meals a week but it’s strictly 7 now. Not too much change there, not intentional anyways. Maybe less snacking too but the only big intentional change has been the eating out.

[wirrbel]

not the guy you are replying to but a bit of a similar experience so I can answer from my perspective. I went sort-of keto + fasting (inspired by Dr. Jason Fung, primarily for weightloss but with the side effect of having better bowels after 2-3 months of adjustment to the high-fat moderate-protein low-carb diet.

[cutty]

Thanks! Congrats on eating healthier as well! There are so many upsides to preparing your own meals, and you'll find that it can actually be a very therapeutic activity.

[boudin]

Congrats! I quit smoking 11 years ago now, i was smoking a bit more than half a pack a day. I went cold turkey too, originally more as an experiment. (I wanted to feel how some of everyday actions were not driven by my decision and choices but by habits or physical need). In the end it was so benificial in just 2 weeks that i never smoked again. Now i can't stand smoke at all. It takes a while for some of the associative habits to go away though (like while drinking in a party, this kind of thing). I would advise to never tell yourself that you can smoke a cigarette once in a while. I don't know anybody who stopped and didn't go back to full time smoking after smoking a cigarette once in a while for a few months.

I also noticed that it's important to involve smokers around you so that they don't offer you cigarettes. I also noticed a type of smokers who try to get me back to smoking. I found that doing stuff like destroying their cigarette pack when they try to have you get one with insistance was the best way to stop that.

[throw_m239339]

COVID didn't make me quit. Cigarette prices did. I vape CBD a bit right now but yes practicing sport is essential to kicking the habit.

Smoking is bad, don't even smoke or start vaping young people, you'll always regret it.

[mrslave]

Among my work colleagues, friends, and family, it seems alcohol consumption has either slightly increased or significantly decreased.

I made a conscious choice as Coronavirus was just getting its shoes on to completely stop drinking alcohol. I haven't felt this great in ages and intend to teetotal beyond the crisis.

The occasional dinner out with drinkers since some of the restrictions were eased has not been a problem and - company depending - as enjoyable as usual. I'll probably skip the pub socials when they reopen but dinners, lunches, and sports seem fine. Next stop: more exercise!

[gibolt]

Being the one to say 'I don't drink' is generally awkward, as few people expect that response. What I've found is usually at least one other person per ~10 people will follow up and say they don't either.

From there it can be contagious, with others questioning themselves drinking, or at least drinking less.

[Raphael_Amiard]

It's pretty common amongst my geeky social circles in Paris, much less (for obvious reasons) amongst the musicians/partyers social circles, unfortunately.

What's very annoying is the social pressure: feeling compelled to say something, anything, when somebody say they won't have that drink in a social gathering. Just shut the hell up! (Saying that to myself too!)

[intellirogue]

One thing I've found fascinating since moving to Germany is that you'll be judged here if you say "I don't drink beer", but drinking non-alcoholic beer is perfectly acceptable. It's not the alcohol that people care about.

[wirrbel]

Depending on the region, "I don't drink beer" can sound a bit snobbish (as in "I only drink wine and champaign"). Other than that I've never heard anything bad when I ordered Apfelschorle (apple juice + carbonated water mix). And I think "Alkoholfreies Weizen" would even be accepted among very beer-centred groups.

One cultural difference between Germany and the states is, that drunk-driving is much more actively shunned so its more acceptable to not drink.

[randomdata]

Somebody must be drinking a lot more. Sales at my brewery have approximately tripled over last year. It has become a business challenge in not having the capacity to keep up with demand.

[riffraff]

as someone who stopped consuming most alcohol a couple years back: pubs are tough, but depending on the one you choose you may get some non-alcoholic drinks which are ok :)

[xwolfi]

In France they give nicotine patch to nurses because they discovered, to their horror, that smokers are heavily under represented in critical cases. Something to do with nicotine.

They're annoyed because that would be like asking people to eat raw sugar to stop drinking Coca Cola, but I'm not yet stopping my cigarets :D

[distant_hat]

I don't know why you are getting downvoted. This is corrected. It is theorized that nicotine represses ACE2 receptor numbers which the virus uses to enter the cells.

[zajio1am]

Most issues with smoking cigarettes are unrelated to nicotine, but to breathing combustion products.

Nicotine itself is a mixed bag, it is addictive, but it seems to have some neuroprotective qualities.

[moron4hire]

Nicotine damages the liver

[iorrus]

Yeah I took up smoking over quarantine for this reason. Big difference in the case numbers!

[deafcalculus]

Awesome! But there's some evidence that smoking reduces the risk of severe COVID somewhat, although that's not a good reason to start again!

[aembleton]

Have you got a link to that research? Here's some suggesting that smoking increases risk in young adults: https://www.jahonline.org/article/S1054-139X(20)30338-4/full...

[deafcalculus]

Smoking Prevalence is Low in Symptomatic Patients Admitted for COVID-19: https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.05.05.20092015v...

[exabrial]

Just want to say congrats for coming out of the pandemic better than you started

[cheez]

How are you lifting with gyms closed?

[chrsstrm]

Here's a nice big collection of programs that either don't require equipment or use minimal equipment you could improvise - https://darebee.com/programs.html

No account or login, no ads or affiliate sales, and all programs are PDFs you can download.

[macintux]

Thank you, that's exactly what I needed.

[rorykoehler]

You should post this on here as a top level submission.

[alexpetralia]

What a wonderful resource.

[cheez]

This is amazing.

[wmichelin]

You can do most workouts with those reusable tote bags at home! You can also do push-ups, sit-ups, pull-ups with no weights. Planks. You can get pretty ripped without workout equipment.

[mod]

I think it was Herschel Walker that famously got jacked doing like 4 (body weight) exercises.

[couchridr]

And, never took pills. I think he said he didn’t take his first aspirin till he was thirty.

[cheez]

Yep I do bodyweight with sonny boy.

[anonytrary]

Why do you need to lift weights, exactly? You can get extremely fit with a small set of basic bodyweight exercises and some creativity. All you need is a mat, or even a soft carpet.

[PakG1]

Really would prefer to not have all my sweat dripping into my carpet though. :)

[eropple]

A home gym is not hard to put together, improvised or no.

[JoshGlazebrook]

It was impossible to even find a single dumbbell when lockdown started. Has it changed?

[chrsstrm]

TheraBands are readily available and won't have the delivery driver cursing at you for ordering weights. They are just as effective.

[cheez]

Oh this looks very interesting.

[chubot]

I just bought a kettlebell last week on Amazon and it came today. It was the last one of its model, but I'm sure you can find some others.

I've never lifted weights before but the kettlebell sounds appealing because it's supposed to be "functional strength", not overworking a single muscle like big gym machines can.

[metrokoi]

Yes, it is pretty much impossible. Buying weights off craigslist or Facebook has always been the better bet anyway, because it's not as if a chunk of iron can get worn out and they are much cheaper. Listings are probably harder to find and more expensive, though.

You can also make plates out of concrete, although that also requires more room than dumbbells and for you to already have a barbell.

[weavie]

Rogue can notify you when their kettlebells come in stock. I managed to nab one the other week. You have to act fast though, because they sell out pretty quick.

https://www.rogueeurope.eu/rogue-kettlebells-eu

[eropple]

I just bought a power cage for the garage of my new house, no problem.

Already had the weights, though.

[ta17711771]

Body resistance.

[notatoad]

gyms aren't closed everywhere.

[throwbacktictac]

me = ditto - (best shape of my life)