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