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Wellness Wednesday for May 13, 2026

The Wednesday Wellness threads are meant to encourage users to ask for and provide advice and motivation to improve their lives. It isn't intended as a 'containment thread' and any content which could go here could instead be posted in its own thread. You could post:

  • Requests for advice and / or encouragement. On basically any topic and for any scale of problem.

  • Updates to let us know how you are doing. This provides valuable feedback on past advice / encouragement and will hopefully make people feel a little more motivated to follow through. If you want to be reminded to post your update, see the post titled 'update reminders', below.

  • Advice. This can be in response to a request for advice or just something that you think could be generally useful for many people here.

  • Encouragement. Probably best directed at specific users, but if you feel like just encouraging people in general I don't think anyone is going to object. I don't think I really need to say this, but just to be clear; encouragement should have a generally positive tone and not shame people (if people feel that shame might be an effective tool for motivating people, please discuss this so we can form a group consensus on how to use it rather than just trying it).

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Does it make sense to eat lysine made for farm animals in case of poverty? Some of mixes contain only 50% lysine but for fixing aminoacid imblanace high purity (pills) is not needed, and seems to be an improvement made to justify high price.

Are you not eating complete proteins? Even vegans get plenty of lysine from soy.

I don't get what is "complete" protein. I eat too much bread because of cost and general unwillingness to cook. Soy is somewhat difficult to buy here, I also don't want to cook from soy flour and I dislike taste of tofu

If you have the time, I highly recommend learning to cook. You will save money, improve your health, and learn a skill valued by everyone around you (might be culture dependent, YMMV).

A complete protein has all the amino acids your body cannot create itself from base ingredients like the glucose in bread. Prolonged deprivation of complete proteins will weaken your body and mind. The good news is that you can get complete protein meals easily by eating meat, milk, or eggs. Air fryer steaks, drink milk, boil eggs. Very easy to do, tasty, but more expensive.

You can also do this as a vegetarian but it takes more effort and you will need to invest more time learning to cook. Beans need soaking, vegetables need washing and cutting, etc. It can work well but needs some attention to pairing complementary sources of amino acids, like beans and rice.

Some nutrients are not absorbed well in human digestion in pill form. There may be genetic variance and/or gut microbiome issues with taking concentrated vitamin or amino acid pills. You may try to compensate for poor nutrient absorption by overdosing and risk poisoning yourself.

The reliable way to get nutrients is to eat real food cooked yourself so you can be assured of the taste and quality. There is no shortcut here, unless you have a trusted family member prepare food for you.

I was lucky enough to have my mom prepare home cooked meals for me growing up. I didn't understand that I was lucky until I lived alone and ate a lot of empty starch like bread and instant noodles. I permanently ruined my health doing a few years of this until I learned to cook a little bit. I just tried to poorly imitate some of my mom's simpler meals at first, but gradually developed my own style.

If cost is an issue, you should pay attention to weekly supermarket ads which usually have a rotating selection of discounted but fresh meats. You can use plastic freezer bags to buy meat cheaply in bulk and save it for cooking later.

You can also do this as a vegetarian but it takes more effort. Beans need soaking, vegetables need washing and cutting, etc. It can work well but needs some attention to pairing complementary sources of amino acids, like beans and rice.

Soy, dairy, and eggs are complete proteins and require next to no effort to prepare.

He said there was no access to soy nearby. Dairy was expensive? And eggs were insufficient?

You mentioned dairy and eggs in the previous paragraph, so it seems fair to point out.

Oh yeah I did. I noticed after posting he said in a different comment chain that dairy was too expensive but at least the ants avoided it and that the eggs were not enough.

I have to believe this is some kind of troll at this point though, I don't think any real person seriously considers eating only bread and livestock lysine pills as a reasonable and thrifty way to live. But in the remote chance this isn't a troll then it's good we encourage him not to accidentally kill himself from radical nutrition lifehacks.

I guess there was always some guy eating weird things to test them as safe for everyone else, or else human society would not enjoy the unusual and tasty things we have today. Look at this mushroom Trog, it's totally tasty and not poisonous at all! Avoid those green ones though.

It'd be much better to learn to earn money. I don't like steaks. Evenmore, all meat products became untasty and rot very fast, so I can't cook for 1-2 days and be done with it.

The reliable way to get nutrients is to eat real food cooked yourself so you can be assured of the taste and quality. There is no shortcut here, unless you have a trusted family member prepare food for you.

That sounds funny.

Some nutrients are not absorbed well in human digestion in pill form.

Does this have something to do with lysine?

you should pay attention to weekly supermarket ads

oh no, more attention... and i have no working freezer.

Sorry, I assumed you were employed already but short on time. Learning to earn money is also a high priority.

Pre-cut meat products do expire quickly, but they usually last in the chilled portion of the fridge around 3-5 days at optimal freshness, unless the source is bad. National US supermarket chains without in-store butchers (centralized slaughterhouses) have problems with quickly expiring meat. I cook beef and chicken with only salt added and no spicing, so meat close to spoiling is easier to detect.

Without a working freezer, your options for saving money on food by taking advantage of deals is much more limited. You also will have difficulty storing precooked meals and raw ingredients, so I understand your difficulties.

Are you renting or owning a home independently? Or is it a situation where you are renting a room from a live-in landlord, who limits your kitchen use and freezer use as part of your rental contract? I have done the latter, and as a student with just a room you still have options.

The very best no-cooking heat allowed option is whey protein shakes. I am lactose intolerant so I used to mix my shakes with lactose-free milk and took lactase pills. You can mix whey with plain water too, it just tastes much worse. Whey protein is arguably superior to meat, the somewhat unpleasant taste of unflavored whey is the main hurdle. You can buy big 5 lb jugs of flavored or unflavored whey protein online and search for the best deals. You mix protein shakes with water in a blender bottle, or a cup and a fork if you can tolerate lumpy clumps of unmixed powdered whey. Whey shakes are a complete protein and extremely satiating, you will have no problems with hunger. Cost-wise whey may seem more expensive than bread but you need much less whey to feel satisfied so it may be a cost savings depending how much you are spending on bread.

What kind of bread are you currently buying? US supermarket presliced white bread? Or are you a customer of a local bakery? How much are you spending on bread every week?

And on the poor human gut absorption of vitamins and amino acids in pill form, I mention it not specifically about your intended lysine use but for nutrition in general. It may or may not apply to lysine, I don't know about that. I only know that bodybuilders usually dislike "wasting" time on cooking but even they will not use single amino acids pills for nutriton because it delivers suboptimal results at best, and in the worst-case scenario you will find yourself paying an expensive ambulance and emergency room medical bill.