u/eyeofthestormgirl

Not too long ago, I posted about being depressed on keto on day 9, after cold-turkey going on a water fast, then quitting carbs (as well as nicotine and alcohol): https://www.reddit.com/r/keto/comments/1vl1c1q/comment/p3cvw5k/?screen_view_count=3&ext-referrer=DIRECT

Well... someone must have said a little prayer for me because, like magic, on day 10, suddenly the fog began to lift. From feeling flat, tired, overwhelmed and borderline depressed, I've now experienced the following benefits:

• Bizarre increase in serotonin and general motivation
• Calmer energy and better sleep
• Finally got my period so all the deep PMS sadness and irritability went away (now considering I may have PMDD, which may have worsened the depressive feeling initially – probably not a good idea to transition diets during my luteal phase)
• Huge de-bloating effect around my face, belly and upper arms
• 9lb weight loss (incl. water weight, of course)
• Pretty much ZERO food noise
• Genuine enjoyment of everything I eat and appreciation of flavours
• Ease in navigating social situations (I went to a long Italian baptism lunch and just went to town on the porchetta! Saying no to cannoli didn't even break my heart)
• More confidence
• Hope for the future

I thought this was going to just be a 3-month thing but I'm feeling so good I now understand why people stick to it over the long-term. This is truly incredible, I finally get it now!

My life situation now: gone back to the gym, feel like my dream bikini body is definitely within reach, got a job interview tomorrow, feeling in a better place with my fiancé after coming to some hard home truths about our mental health and how it's affected our relationship over the years, now creatively inspired and having so many ideas pouring into me about the future and how I can live my best life possible.

I just want to thank the people who supported me in the comments of my first post, which was when I was in a really bad place. Your kindness helped me keep going and I'm so relieved I came out the other end. I hope this post helps anyone struggling right now.

Hey friends, it's been about 8 weeks since I last puffed on a vape. Admittedly, I did smoke a few cigarettes here and there up until two weeks ago, but I am now nicotine-free. I thought maybe some of my own personal learnings might be of use to someone earlier on in their quitting journey.

1 - It's easier to quit cigarettes cold-turkey than quit vaping cold-turkey (probably because you take in less nicotine via cigs so it's more of a tapering effect).

2 - An extended program of nic replacement stuff is a waste of time IMO, all it does is continue the sense of withdrawal and cravings for a longer period of time. You're better off just white-knuckling withdrawal for 3-4 days and then getting used to everyday life without this highly potent chemical playing with your brain receptors.

3 - This may be controversial, but I reckon you're way better off having the odd couple of cigarettes at a party or barbecue to take the edge off after a few drinks than vape all day every day (because "vaping is healthier than cigarettes"). Cigs might F with your lungs bad, but vapes F with your mind SO MUCH WORSE. If you never smoked cigs before, don't pick it up, but if you're someone who has dabbled / is addicted to both, then this advice might be useful to you.

4 - I started keto diet 2 weeks ago when I had my last cig. Weirdly, eating low to zero carbs has drastically reduced my desire for nicotine. If I wasn't on a diet, I'd be inhaling every chocolate and snack food in sight to cope. But instead, I've totally stabilised my blood sugar levels and my body is feeling and looking better and better every day. There's evidence to suggest keto chills out your mind. A veggie-packed oily fish and avocado salad is now what I look forward to instead of Peach Ice chemical vape flavour. I imagine the anti-inflammation healing unfolding throughout my body right now is insane.

5 - Reducing triggers temporarily for the first few weeks is essential. Because I get social anxiety, I'd reach for my vape to calm down in group get-togethers. Cutting down on those events (or just completely out) has really helped me avoid temptation.

6 - Get a smart watch, clock 10,000 steps a day in a nice park and listen to podcast / make phone calls to get through your spare time. Walking and talking is extremely stress-reducing, and it helps you get a better sleep at night too.

7 - Don't panic when you get a craving or the feeling that if you don't vape you'll never ever be happy again (yes, your brain can be that dramatic – at least, mine is). Just remind yourself that a craving usually only lasts a few minutes before the intensity dies down. The best quick fix for a craving is to pick anything from this list as a distraction:

• Ice-cold glass of water through a straw and minty gum
• Call someone you feel comfy catching up with over phone and go for a brisk walk outside
• Eat something (anything helps, but comfort foods work well here (even better if healthy) and put something genuinely inspiring, funny or calming on TV to watch while you eat – WARNING: beware of putting shows on where smoking/vaping is glamorised or kinda looks cool, i.e. Mad Men, as this this can actually worsen cravings
• Shower, wash and scrub whole body, brush teeth and get into clean socks and clothes
• Do a quick goal-setting check-in where you write down some simple things you want to achieve by the end of the month or end of year (and how you'll do it)
• Hit the gym and listen to hype music on your headphones (whatever you like)
• Go to the library, get 5-6 books and anytime a craving hits, start reading.
• Make posts in your Reddit communities, actively engage, have conversations

8 - It's okay to cry over the suffering addiction and withdrawal causes. After a good cry, think to yourself "at least, I'm starting to feel again." Vaping made it harder to feel your emotions. Maybe you thought that made you stronger, but actually it just makes you less resilient over time because you can't handle your own feelings. The only way out is THROUGH. I swear, feeling sad or angry for a bit isn't going to kill you. Express yourself, groan, writhe, cry, scream in your car, whatever, and then have your dinner and go to bed. You'll feel surprisingly much better the next morning.

9 - Focus less on shame and guilt and more on inspiration. Forget about where you've been and who you were, think more about where you'd like to go and who you are becoming. That's where things start to get super interesting.

10 - Don't beat yourself up if you fail. Yes, you'll feel bad, but if anything it's just a reminder that vaping genuinely sucks and feels kinda awful - like an artificial high instead of genuine pleasure. So quit again. It might take a few attempts before you properly quit for long enough to keep going – but it'll happen. You just need to want it bad enough. You need to figure out YOUR personal reasons and get really clear on them. Everything else will fall into place.

Any questions, let me know!

While driving down the highway, Melissa’s third eye scanned through the receipt of her regrets.  Firstly, the name had to be a piss take. 'The Teat Retreat'. Seriously? Weren't mothers' groups supposed to support women? Remind them they had whole-arse identities beyond their bruised, leaking nipples? 

Secondly, it was June who'd asked Melissa. That June. The chirpy woman from around the corner with perpetually red nostrils who looked like she'd come out of the womb already a mother herself. "It'll be fun!" she’d warbled, tossing a grape into her mouth from that damn Tupperware snack box. They'd been standing outside the school, waiting for the kids. Melissa's were the girl Gia, six, and the boy Josh, nine – two pale brunette acrobats with astonishing levels of energy, crumbs and demands. June just had one: the fat red-head Eggy (short for Egbert) who was in the same year as Josh.

"Teat Retreat sounds like it's more for mothers of newborns" was all Melissa could manage. "Oh, nonense!" chirped June. "It's for all sorts. It'll be cool. We'll do our nails, talk about our stresses… you know, really unwind. I’ve got a masseuse coming in!”  

Melissa pulled up to the house at 2pm on a Saturday afternoon. It was an old weatherboard Airbnb June had rented out in the sticks, half-concealed by a grassy, unkempt garden. A line of cars snaked out of the driveway onto the street.  

June answered the door before Melissa had even stepped fully out of her car.

And so the afternoon passed by hazily, buoyed along with green tea, treatments and complaints as tiresome as Melissa had expected.

By 4pm, there was one last activity: the Confession. 

“Anyone played it?” June asked, with a grin too dirty-looking to resist. She explained that it was time for the women to share who they’d have become if they’d never become mothers.

“I would’ve given my art a proper go,” said a woman called Jupiter, who had a tattoo of a butterfly behind her ear and flabby arms. “I miss painting.”

“Maybe a supermodel,” laughed one older woman called Nadia, who had a thick Eastern European accent and an impeccable blow wave.

“I don’t even want to imagine it,” piped up one younger Asian girl, Marianne. “I really like being at home with my wife and kids.” 

“I’m not sure,” Melissa found herself speaking without thinking. “It’s hard to say. Maybe I feel the same way as Marianne.”

She felt herself smiling. Yes. I feel the same way as Marianne. Something warm bloomed in her heart.

Eventually, it was June’s turn. “I would’ve continued to be an addict. Meeting Todd and having Eggy damn turned my life around.”

Jaws fell. That June?

“Life doesn’t feel so exciting sometimes,”June went on. “And I know we all get sick of it. But God, don’t I feel so lucky sometimes. This boring, lucky, lovely little life of mine.”

Melissa hugged June for a very long time before she drove home in silence.

I'm on day 9 and my mood has been extremely flat. It's not because I feel restricted by the foods, I actually love what I've been cooking and I'm not really craving or thinking about carbs that much.

I just thought I'd be fat-adapted by day 3 or 4, and that then I'd feel better in my brain? It's like keto has induced some kind of depression in me. Granted, my life situation isn't great right now: I'm spending all day alone job searching, in financial hardship, in my luteal phase with PMS (and my period is over a week late), and struggling with relationship difficulties.

But all my life stressors seemed to be more manageable when I was smoking, drinking, going out, living life with no rules. Oh yeah, and I quit smoking a week ago.

I don't know, I just need some words of encouragement. I thought keto's anti-inflammatory effects would calm my brain and give it more serotonin and dopamine from all the meat and natural L-tyrosine etc.

Does anyone know if I'll feel better anytime soon? Or if there's anything I can do to feel more...happiness? I just want to cry in bed all day.

For exercise, I'm walking 10,000 steps a day. Don't want to return to the gym until I get my period because this fatigue is out of this world and the walk every day is enough right now.

Hey pals, what do we think of those chin socks or straps popular in Korea? I don't even know what to call them, all I know is I've seen ads for them on Tik Tok etc.

I'm not really looking to make my chin more of a V-shape (like how many of these straps are advertised), I'm looking to mainly reduce double chin, better define my ageing jawline and tighten sagging skin. Some of them come with serums infused so this could help with the tightening effect (hence why I'm asking about this in AusSkincare).

I would love to know if anyone has experience with these, how you use them, or if they're just a bit of a scam. Cheers!

Hello pals.

I've just started a ketogenic diet, which I'll be sticking to for the next three months for various reasons (don't wanna go into health stuff rn).

I've read a lot of studies about how keto helps people with schizophrenia, bipolar, depression and anxiety but not a lot about how it may help with BPD.

Side note: do y'all feel like nobody ever studies shit about BPD? Like seriously, even with psychedelic research - it's all the other mental health conditions, but nobody looks into alternative treatments for us. (Victim rant over).

Anyway, my question is: would anyone be interested in my findings about how a low-carb diet might affect my BPD symptoms? I'm happy to keep a diary and maybe make a post here once in a while if I've noticed anything interesting.

Or is this a bad place to write about it, 'cause some folks may have body issues or eating disorders etc. I don't want to encourage restrictive eating, I'm mainly just using myself as a guinea pig for assessing mental health changes while I'm already on the diet for other reasons (mainly for anti-inflammatory effects).

Let me know! Xxxxx

Hello friends.

Before I begin, these are my stats:

Sex: Female

Age: 33yo

Weight: 62kg (137lbs)

Body fat: 30%

Height: 167cm

I tend to carry all my fat in my midsection (tummy, hips and waist). My arms and legs are kinda skinny but also flabby and have basically no visible muscle tone.

So I guess you could say I'm skinny-fat.

I'll admit it, I'm mainly hoping to get results on keto for aesthetic reasons. My plan is to also go to the gym 4x a week for a comfortable, beginner-friendly resistance training circuit (I've already planned this with a trainer), and continue my aim to walk 10,000 steps a day.

I transitioned into a keto diet earlier this week after a 48-hour water fast (since day 1 of the water fast, it's now day 4). I'm only planning to go on keto for three months in the hope that I will de-puff, de-bloat and lose the unsightly belly fat and bloating. Then I'll try to just transition to a relatively low-carb, healthy Mediterranean-style, intuitive way of eating (I'm a major foodie so not interested in cutting out any food groups for the rest of my life).

Anyways I'm just wondering...

Is there anyone who is smaller like me and has only had a small amount of weight to lose (e.g. 10-20lbs) but is more interested in fat loss and body recomposition? Or specifically gains fat in their midsection and has good tips on how to lose it? And may have some inspirational before/after pics or tips to share for my specific issues?

Sorry if this was too rambly, I'm as newbie as they come.

Hello friends.

Before I begin, these are my stats:

Sex: Female

Age: 33yo

Weight: 62kg (137lbs)

Body fat: 30%

Height: 167cm

I tend to carry all my fat in my midsection (tummy, hips and waist). My arms and legs are kinda skinny but also flabby and have basically no visible muscle tone.

So I guess you could say I'm skinny-fat.

I'll admit it, I'm mainly hoping to get results on keto for aesthetic reasons. My plan is to also go to the gym 4x a week for a comfortable, beginner-friendly resistance training circuit (I've already planned this with a trainer), and continue my aim to walk 10,000 steps a day.

I transitioned into a keto diet earlier this week after a 48-hour water fast (since day 1 of the water fast, it's now day 4). I'm only planning to go on keto for three months in the hope that I will de-puff, de-bloat and lose the unsightly belly fat and bloating. Then I'll try to just transition to a relatively low-carb, healthy Mediterranean-style, intuitive way of eating (I'm a major foodie so not interested in cutting out any food groups for the rest of my life).

Anyways I'm just wondering...

Is there anyone who is smaller like me and has only had a small amount of weight to lose (e.g. 10-20lbs) but is more interested in fat loss and body recomposition? Or specifically gains fat in their midsection and has good tips on how to lose it? And may have some inspirational before/after pics or tips to share for my specific issues?

Sorry if this was too rambly, I'm as newbie as they come.

Started out talking to God, writing to God and praying with ease. Believed in fairies, too.

I grew up with Catholic teachings, some resonated, the school and oppressive culture didn't.

Kinda took an interest in other spiritual traditions as I got older (i.e. yoga, magic, soul healing etc.) The whole kit and caboodle.

Now I just feel that this is the way. And though I've read a little about gnosticism and Christian mysticism, I hardly know anything at all - not compared to most of you people.

So why do I feel so sure about this path if I don't quite know what lies along it... or at the end of it? Could I be that I simply want to broaden and expand my spirituality but I don't want to let go of Jesus? Or that Jesus wants me to grow but won't let go of me?

P.S. I'm also deeply interested in shamanism. Just looking for some perspectives.

I'm a Fitzroy North local and like to go on daily walks around the area, especially Edinburgh Gardens.

It's dark so early these days but I've got to get my steps in somehow. I've recently noticed there is absolutely ZERO lighting kept on in Edinburgh Gardens. It's like a pitch black void, not even the skate park is lit after dinner.

I don't recall this being the case in summer?!

This is an extremely dangerous hazard for pedestrians who may wish to walk their dogs or walk home through the area (especially women), not to mention it's bad for our mental health to no longer have a green space we can comfortably and visibly walk through... in the depths of winter.

Any other folks know what their park lighting is like from 6pm onwards? Is there someone I can contact about this? Why not just LEAVE THE DANG LIGHTS ON until at least midnight.

Hey BB locals, my partner and I are driving through this arvo after a long road trip and would like to sit somewhere pleasant and have a few beers and cigarettes. What is the best beer garden / public bar that allows for smoking a few rollies? Cheers

Hello friends.

I got sick last week commencing with a pretty rough 2-day fever so decided to use it as an opportunity to quit vaping. Almost within the week, I’ve felt all my happy brain chemicals come back to me and the depression I was in before has pretty much fully lifted (and I’m actually in my premenstrual phase so this improvement definitely can’t be hormonally related.)

I’m going to a big party next weekend with a group of friends that tend to go wild and pretty hard. I really REALLY don’t want to drink, as I know it will just make me crave nicotine, and I really don’t want to pick up a cigarette or vape. Because I feel so good and don’t want to fall back into addiction. But I also get really bad social anxiety and seek comfort and distractions in social situations.

Does anyone have any tips or tricks? My plan for now is to do this in order: arrive, eat something, grab a non-alc drink, chat with some people, have a dance or walk around, grab another non-alc drink, eat some more snacks, sit down and talk to people, hopefully get into an interesting conversation, have another dance, then eventually retire to my van to sleep by 2 or 3am (we’re bringing our van to the party since it’s interstate).

I feel so good in my health right now and really don’t want to go back to old bad habits. If people think I’m boring now and nobody likes me, well that’s too bad, I shouldn’t have to ingest or breathe in poison for people to want to be in my life.

Peace xx

I know that some believe using face wipes to cleanse your face is a mortal sin. But for an assortment of reasons, I prefer to have the convenience from time to time.

Unfortunately, your classic drug store pack of wipes is pretty average: horrible synthetic fragrance, feels scratchy on the skin, contains questionable ingredients or causes breakouts. The options at Sephora and Mecca (I'm in Aus) are also pretty limited.

So does anyone have a superb rec for go-to face wipes? Ones that feel incredibly luxe for those nights or days where you're opting out of a full multi-step routine? Bonus points if they're biodegradable and eco-friendly.

Partner and I jammed in our home studio for a bit, rather efficiently put three song ideas together. I feel very much that these are just demo ideas, but my partner seems to think they're totally finished and good in their rawness (I'm the female vocalist and I wrote the lyrics and melodies, partner wrote the backing music and recorded in Ableton). Would appreciate if y'all could give us feedback.

Skip forward to these timestamps to change song:

00:00 Song #1

03:10 Song #2

06:35 Track #3 (ambient jam, not really a song)