Healthy living with herbs and shit

Fraz

Hey y'all, I need some advice.

These past few months I've been living it up, but I feel like shit so I want to pump the brakes and get all this shit out of my system (booze, cigarettes, shitty diet etc)

Here are a few things I'm feeling right now.

1. Extremely Tired
2. Winded
3. My heart races constantly. I'm going to take one of those free blood pressure tests later. I'll report the results
4. Generally feel like shit and it's affecting my school and work

A lot of it is just not partying every day, but I want to clean my body and start exercising and eating right.

I'd also like to take some herbs or supplements that will help clean me up., but I know dick about that stuff.

Is it bullshit? Should I just exercise, sleep right and eat well? Can taking vitamins and herbal supplements help?

If so, what can I take? There's just so much shit out there. It's overwhelming.

CelestialBadger

If you cut down on the booze and give up the cigarettes, you'll probably feel great - no need for herbs, or supplements. They are just snake oil in my opinion.

If you have vegetables in your diet every day, you are probably already getting plenty of vitamins. If not, just start eating fruit and vegetables. Fresh veggies are much healthier for you than vitamin supplements.

Gabriel_Pitt

'Cleaning yourself out' is bullshit.

Exercising, sleeping right, and eating well are the best things you can do. Taking vitamins, in as much as you're making sure you're getting you're getting your daily requirements is good, but 'eating right' will take care of most of those on its own.

supabeast

Is it bullshit? Should I just exercise, sleep right and eat well? Can taking vitamins and herbal supplements help?

Yes. Yes, yes, and yes. No.

corcorigan

I approve of how cynical everyone in this thread is.

It's a little known fact that humans actually survived for millions of years before the diet supplement industry realised they were onto a winner.

Thanatos

Just to elaborate a bit on what everyone else is saying:

You feel like shit because you drink too much, you smoke, you don't eat a healthy diet, you don't exercise, and you don't get enough sleep. You fix this by cutting down on drinking, quitting smoking, eating a healthy diet, exercising, and getting more sleep.

As far as "cleaning out your system" goes, your liver and kidney take care of most of that. Giving them a few days off will allow them to catch a break. The best thing you can do for your digestive system is to starting eating right, including 25g of dietary fiber per day (you can get most of this from a good, hippie-type breakfast cereal; I recommend Kashii). About the only dietary supplement you want to take is a multivitamin; a generic from Costco or Wal-Mart will work just fine.

Even if you can't do all this (which is fine, especially if you're a college student; we all went through it at one time), you can take a few small steps that will probably help you out a lot. The single simplest thing you can do for yourself that you'll see the most payoff from, though, is to start eating a healthy breakfast, high in protein and complex carbs. See also: The Fitness Thread.

Feral

/agree with Thanatos.

Also, drink water. Not soda. Not beer. Just water.

A little bit of juice in the morning is okay (as long as you understand that juice is mostly sugar). A little bit of coffee in the morning (before noon) is okay. Anytime after breakfast, just drink water.

YourFatAuntSusan

Feral wrote: »

/agree with Thanatos.

Also, drink water. Not soda. Not beer. Just water.

A little bit of juice in the morning is okay (as long as you understand that juice is mostly sugar). A little bit of coffee in the morning (before noon) is okay. Anytime after breakfast, just drink water.

Or green tea. All the befits of water with the added benefit of anti-oxidants.

Thanatos

YourFatAuntSusan wrote: »

Feral wrote: »

/agree with Thanatos.

Also, drink water. Not soda. Not beer. Just water.

A little bit of juice in the morning is okay (as long as you understand that juice is mostly sugar). A little bit of coffee in the morning (before noon) is okay. Anytime after breakfast, just drink water.

Or green tea. All the befits of water with the added benefit of anti-oxidants.

You get equivalent (if not better) benefits from coffee, too.

One to two cups of coffee per day would be great for you, and the stimulant effect would probably help mitigate the withdrawal from cigarettes (you won't get that out of green tea).

YourFatAuntSusan

Thanatos wrote: »

YourFatAuntSusan wrote: »

Feral wrote: »

/agree with Thanatos.

Also, drink water. Not soda. Not beer. Just water.

A little bit of juice in the morning is okay (as long as you understand that juice is mostly sugar). A little bit of coffee in the morning (before noon) is okay. Anytime after breakfast, just drink water.

Or green tea. All the befits of water with the added benefit of anti-oxidants.

You get equivalent (if not better) benefits from coffee, too.

One to two cups of coffee per day would be great for you, and the stimulant effect would probably help mitigate the withdrawal from cigarettes (you won't get that out of green tea).

Green tea has 1/2 the amount of caffeine that coffee has, so it's still an option.

I used to drink coffee 2-4 times per day and found that after a while, if I didn't have coffee, I started getting headaches from the caffeine withdrawal. I find those effects minimized by the green tea.

Fraz

Thanks for the advice.

I'm glad I asked before blowing cash on that crap.

JohnnyCache

there are three things that most people do terribly wrong:

They go around jacked on caffiene all day
They skip breakfast
They don't sleep.

If you can mitigate those three things, you will feel better.
Limit your caffiene to breakfast and lunch
Eat something in the morning, even if it's just a quick bite. A piece of fruit and a yogurt, a bagel or something. You don't have to have a Denny's grand slam, but not eating anything after you wake up has a weird effect on your internal rhythms.

Sleep at night. If you life is shitty and you want to run around all night to make up for it, either break yourself of the habit or change your life.

On excercise: Most people don't get enough. Your body is designed to walk for several hours a day, then do some other shit, not sit in a chair and type. 20 minutes a day makes a huge difference. Just a few situps and pushups and a couple stretches when you wake up will make a difference you feel and if you start investing 20-40 minutes every other day or so in a harder session, it will almost always pay back the time spent in terms of better sleep and greater energy - almost no one who works out regularly actually feels like they "lose time" by going to the gym.


Diet-wise, do you drink energy drinks or eat fast food 5+ times a week? Either one of those habits can really start to bog you down - a big energy drink is like drinking 2-4 cans of soda and a big slug of coffee at the same time. Fast food isn't the devil some people make it out to be, but your body just doesn't like dealing with 2500 calorie at a sitting food injections on a regular basis.

Fraz

JohnnyCache wrote: »

there are three things that most people do terribly wrong:

They go around jacked on caffiene all day
They skip breakfast
They don't sleep.

That's every day

kaliyama

I did two things when I wanted to "clean myself out" - took colon cleanse, fasted for 24 hours (water only), and then stuck to brown rice and fruit for a few days. I liked it.

JohnnyCache

Fraz wrote: »

JohnnyCache wrote: »

there are three things that most people do terribly wrong:

They go around jacked on caffiene all day
They skip breakfast
They don't sleep.

That's every day

Seriously, I don't expect anyone with a real caffiene habit to ever quit, but if you can get down say a coffee with food in the morning and then cycle down what you drink in the afternoon, you'll probably sleep deeper and better just from that.

Sleep and exercise are two things many people really resent as time sinks, but the reality is most people get more done with their remaining time when they sleep well and exercise moderately. If I get "off the wagon" with working out, I tend to sit around at night in front of the glow-box in a daze, if I'm just a little bit "good tired" I tend to feel more comfortable physically and I tend to wonder what I could be doing instead of watching TV, and I even sometimes leave the couch and do some of these things.

And keep in mind "breakfast" doesn't really have to be anything huge - I have half a bagel and an apple a lot of mornings if I can't sit down. The idea is you let your involuntary systems know you're awake and you have food left over from yesterday - the parts of you that are still designed to hunt mammoth and avoid bears appreciate these little metabolic cues. You'll also find yourself breaking the "no breakfast, junk snack at coffee break, small lunch, huge dinner" pattern that plagues working America. This is pretty much the worst way to eat your daily calories, from the point of view of what your system likes.

Dixon

The breakfast thing is huge...for like 5 years I was never able to eat breakfast, I had an anxiety disorder. Mornings were always terrible for me and I could never eat early in the day.

I've started to medicate the problem though and even though a side effect of the meds are decreased appetite I eat like double what I used to, including breakfast which is usually miniwheats, OJ/Milk (homo 3.25% i think, I love it) and usually like a peach as I always have them. I feel tons better now during the day to

JohnnyCache

I really believe in dietary variety. I feel a lot better when I don't have "meat and potatoes" for lunch and dinner every night. A little fish, a little chicken, a little tofu, maybe a big fucking steak on thursday because I am only a man, god help me, etc. There's also a transition that comes when you learn a little about nutrition and start cooking more variety for yourself - you realize that certain foods are concentrated and you can eat more and better without them. That's the problem with fast food, really - portion bloat. If you show most people a quarter pounder meal on one side of the screen, and then 2000 calories worth of chicken, steamed veggies, and wild rice, on the other - they actually pick the healthy plate happily - and it will be too much for them to eat. Likewise, if you go to a mcdonalds and DONT supersize things and don't order ridiculous sandwiches with 2 and 3 and 4 patties of beef and slices of cheese on them, you can actually get a normal meal there.

Cooking METHOD matters a lot, too - a deep-fried piece of chicken is a fat bomb equivalent basically to eating a salt-and-candy hot pocket, whereas baking or grilling the same piece of meat can taste just as good and save you a couple hundred calories - a couple hundred. That's like, an entire sandwich's difference between frying and baking a 6 oz piece of meat.

Dark Moon

kaliyama wrote: »

I did two things when I wanted to "clean myself out" - took colon cleanse, fasted for 24 hours (water only), and then stuck to brown rice and fruit for a few days. I liked it.

There is no medical reason to do this. If you placebo'd your way into feeling better, great, but you could achieve the same effects without doing a useless "cleanse", fasting for no reason and eating an unbalanced and stupid diet afterward.

In short: OP, don't do this.

MeeOk

Although everything suggested thus far, especially drinking enough water, and perhaps getting antioxidants from one source or another, I might recommend taking some eccinachea, it can help your immune system. The reason I suggest it, is that drinking, smoking, etc can lower your immune system.

BrotherVoodoo

Some advice. As someone whos a big dude, like 6'4. I have to eat more than other people. But one of the things I try to do that allows me to eat without it all being junk food is eating lots of rice, and bags of carrots. Both are cheap and healthy alternatives. Another thing I suggest is cooking at home, specifically making things on the grill or other low fat ways.

Usagi

MeeOk wrote: »

Although everything suggested thus far, especially drinking enough water, and perhaps getting antioxidants from one source or another, I might recommend taking some eccinachea, it can help your immune system. The reason I suggest it, is that drinking, smoking, etc can lower your immune system.

UofMD website wrote:

However, a rigorous study published in 2005 in the New England Journal of Medicine determined echinacea does not help to prevent or treat colds. Researchers compared the effects of echinacea angustifolia root to placebo on 437 volunteers before and after they were exposed to cold viruses. Volunteers who took echinacea were just as likely to catch a cold and had as severe symptoms as those who received placebo.

Thanatos

BrotherVoodoo wrote: »

Some advice. As someone whos a big dude, like 6'4. I have to eat more than other people. But one of the things I try to do that allows me to eat without it all being junk food is eating lots of rice, and bags of carrots. Both are cheap and healthy alternatives. Another thing I suggest is cooking at home, specifically making things on the grill or other low fat ways.

A Foreman Grill is a lazy cook's best friend.

Kelor

Even sticking to 8 hours a night sleep and doing a 5km run every morning will do wonders for you. It might feel like it sucks for the first week and you lose some time of an evening but it certainly makes you "feel" cleaner or the like once you get into the routine.

As others have said drinking lots of water helps too.

Thanatos

Drinking "lots" of water is unnecessary. Drinking water instead of other things is good, though you only need to drink until you aren't thirsty. The whole " at least 8 glasses of water per day" thing is a myth.

corcorigan

Usagi wrote: »

MeeOk wrote: »

Although everything suggested thus far, especially drinking enough water, and perhaps getting antioxidants from one source or another, I might recommend taking some eccinachea, it can help your immune system. The reason I suggest it, is that drinking, smoking, etc can lower your immune system.

UofMD website wrote:

However, a rigorous study published in 2005 in the New England Journal of Medicine determined echinacea does not help to prevent or treat colds. Researchers compared the effects of echinacea angustifolia root to placebo on 437 volunteers before and after they were exposed to cold viruses. Volunteers who took echinacea were just as likely to catch a cold and had as severe symptoms as those who received placebo.

It might not target the virus-specific bits of the immune system. It might just increase the risks of autoimmune diseases.

I sense an awesome research project here.

FyreWulff

Thanatos wrote: »

Drinking "lots" of water is unnecessary. Drinking water instead of other things is good, though you only need to drink until you aren't thirsty. The whole " at least 8 glasses of water per day" thing is a myth.

However, it's a good target until he fixes his diet and other things.

Last summer I was hospitalized with a racing heart. The verdict was that I was drinking too much caffiene and not enough water, plus stress. I already had a bad history of dehydration (and stress), so combine that with too much stimulant and my heart went into overdrive.

Drinking both beer and caffiene will definitely cause heart racing. What you need to do for now is aim for at least 5 glasses of water a day, possibly 8, but don't force it if you can't drink it. It also becomes easier to drink water if you work out more. Just walking around the block once a day is a good start. After my incident I could barely do anything, but I was able to get it up to about walking around the block 5 times until winter hit, only 5 months later.

Ideally, every time you would reach for a beer or a pop, drink a glass of water instead. You also need to work out by taking long walks or running, to offload some of your stress.

Usagi

corcorigan wrote: »

Usagi wrote: »

MeeOk wrote: »

Although everything suggested thus far, especially drinking enough water, and perhaps getting antioxidants from one source or another, I might recommend taking some eccinachea, it can help your immune system. The reason I suggest it, is that drinking, smoking, etc can lower your immune system.

UofMD website wrote:

However, a rigorous study published in 2005 in the New England Journal of Medicine determined echinacea does not help to prevent or treat colds. Researchers compared the effects of echinacea angustifolia root to placebo on 437 volunteers before and after they were exposed to cold viruses. Volunteers who took echinacea were just as likely to catch a cold and had as severe symptoms as those who received placebo.

It might not target the virus-specific bits of the immune system. It might just increase the risks of autoimmune diseases.

I sense an awesome research project here.

According the NIH, Science and the NCCAM have shown that echinacea does not prevent the common cold or other infections. Science is still out on whether echinacea can reduce the severity and longevity of upper respiratory infections, but there are ongoing studies to investigate.

Fraz

Thanks for the help.

I've cut out booze, caffeine and cigarettes. I've been eating breakfast and other meals.

Some new issues:

1. I feel like I always have a light headache. I'm assuming this is withdrawal from all the shit I suddenly eliminated.

2. My head hurts like crazy when I try to exercise.

3. I'm really fuckin tired. I drank some green tea around 10 a.m. and I took at nap at 3:30, but it's 7:24 and I'm ready to pass out.

Any ideas?

Improvolone

Withdrawl withdrawl withdrawl

Thanatos

The headaches and fatigue are either from quitting cigarettes, quitting caffeine, or (most likely) both.

Feral

Fraz wrote: »

Thanks for the help.

I've cut out booze, caffeine and cigarettes. I've been eating breakfast and other meals.

Some new issues:

1. I feel like I always have a light headache. I'm assuming this is withdrawal from all the shit I suddenly eliminated.

2. My head hurts like crazy when I try to exercise.

3. I'm really fuckin tired. I drank some green tea around 10 a.m. and I took at nap at 3:30, but it's 7:24 and I'm ready to pass out.

Any ideas?

Just stick with it. You're going to feel like creamed dogshit for the first one or two weeks. Then you'll be back to normal for a while, and in a month you'll feel better than you have in years.

corcorigan

Quitting alcohol can be pretty nasty too.

I remember a friend trying to give up booze, cigarettes, alcohol and some other stuff all at one time. He nearly killed himself with water poisoning by sipping water endlessly.

CelestialBadger

Maybe giving up everything at once is a bit too much for your system? Most people have enough trouble with giving up cigarettes only.

Caffeine withdrawal causes headaches. Aspirin helps.