u/Tuesday_Addams

I've been lifting weights seriously for about 7 years. My friends think of me as the "fit one" and will occasionally solicit workout advice from me, which they usually don't take anyway lol but it's all good.

Anyway lately I've had multiple people ask me for advice about starting creatine. These are friends who average <1 day/week at the gym, some who maybe only go 1x/month or whatever. A friend who I know for a fact does 0 resistance training was just texting me a bunch of questions about what type of creatine she should buy, what time of day she should take it, etc. I politely answered her questions and told her what I do. I stopped short of telling her that with her current (lack of) routine, creatine is not going to have much noticeable effect and she should probably start by just making the gym a more regular habit first before she starts tinkering with supplements. That felt kinda rude to say so I left it off but it's the truth, no?

I guess creatine is basically harmless and if you add it to your routine even if you don't do resistance training, it's not going to hurt. And maybe you'll still get some of the cognitive benefits? But I feel like the real answer is, go to the gym and lift weights following some kind of progressive overload routine for like a year first. Once you have some kind of baseline muscle mass and are plateauing, then creatine can become a useful tool for getting more reps or more definition.

I personally do take creatine daily and have the subtle but noticeable results one hopes for. But I lifted weights for probably 5 years without any creatine supplementation before I added it to my diet. So I actually had a baseline that I could compare against. It seems as though some people have it in their heads that creatine is some kind of miracle working fitness substance that's going to take them from 0 to hero and misunderstand what it's actually proven to do. I guess this isn't really a big deal, it's part of the nature of things that the culture cycles through these so-called "fitness hacks" that get really trendy for a while and then fall away. It's just funny/slightly frustrating.

I also think it's funny that the same female friends of mine who are wary of resistance training because they don't want to get bulky are now suddenly interested in creatine. I don't consider myself a truly bulky lass by any means but creatine has definitely helped me grind out more upper body reps and increased the bulk of my shoulders and arms. W in my book, they would probably call that an L though lol

A gut punch of a book. It hit me particularly hard as I feel like I’m at a bit of a crossroads in my own life right now, where I can make the choice to let inertia carry me forward on my current path, or I can summon my force of will to change my circumstances which will be much harder but probably more rewarding in the long run. But there is nonetheless something very seductive about the path of least resistance, it’s not without its charms. The titular steppe in the book is a great metaphor — the scenery that compels him to stay at the fort is vast and awe inspiring, though of course, ultimately empty.

And at the prose level, it was just exquisite. This is the kind of book that I think would be worthy of a reread every decade or so.

I just started using Skinceuticals CE ferulic as part of my routine. Most days I’m makeup-free, but this weekend I went to a music festival so I wore makeup. My routine the morning/day of the festival was this:

Skinceuticals CE
Eucerin daily moisturizer
Algenist sublime defense mineral sunscreen
Danessa Myricks blurring balm
Rhode pocket blush
Orbella chrome powder eyeshadow
Milani setting spray

I will note the vit c serum is new and does not appear to be oxidized in the jar. Normally when I wear makeup my routine is some version of the above (skinceuticals is the only new addition to my routine) and the danessa myricks balm has never given me any issues. But on Saturday by midway through the festival I had large brown streaks along my jawline that I had to remove with a wipe. And by the end of the night I had brown streaks around my eyes and nose too. It was so bizarre! The only other factor I can think of was that it was raining on and off throughout the festival so that might’ve affected my makeup, but I don’t understand why patches of my face turned brown. Has anyone else experienced a bad interaction with vitamin c serum and makeup like this before? Or did something else cause this? Is there any way to avoid it? Or should I just skip vitamin c on days I plan to wear makeup?

Go on and clown if you want, it's fine. Yes flying Spirit was at times an abusive experience, I didn't like the hidden costs of their pricing model, their customer service was bad etc. I've flown them a million times, so believe me, I know intimately what all their downsides were. Did plenty of grumbling while they were around.

But I live here and my parents live on the west coast. Spirit was the only one besides Delta to offer routine nonstop flights to where my parents live, and their prices were always 1/2 or even 1/3 or Delta's fares (and even if I chose to add a carryon or checked luggage on Spirit, I'd still often come out at least $100 ahead of a comparable Delta ticket). I probably have saved thousands of dollars flying with Spirit over the years. I don't need Biscoff or seatback entertainment or even wifi really. I just need a mode of transit from A to B. Most I ever paid for a ticket to see my parents on Spirit was probably $450 at the holidays (booked kinda last minute) with a checked bag included. I just looked for Delta tickets for about 6 weeks out from now (yes I know that's the start of summer vacation season, and thus more expensive than normal) and their fares start at like $698...! It sucks! I guess I'll have to start thinking about flying out from Chicago, or maybe taking a chance with Frontier and their layovers. IDK. I hope someone besides Delta can take over the Spirit routes and infrastructure at DTW to at least bring some semblance of competition back.

Everyone, wish me luck!