#your schedule mostly revolves around water changes and feeding

[fbwzoo]

Do the (hermit) crabs have names? How many crabs are their? Can we get a tldr of crab breeding?

Well, technically yes, I gave everyone Lord of the Rings names when they arrived. But I can't tell most of them apart so I'm not sure who I still have, who I've lost, or who anyone is. The only way to know for sure is to track the bump pattern on their big pincher and I haven't had time to go through and properly get pictures where I can look for a pattern and such. I tried last time I put them back in the tank, but I don't think many of the pics are useful. So the only crab I can pick out reliably is my jumbo boy, Hagrid.

I have probably-14, which is because crabs underground are Schrodinger crabs until they come back up, in case they don't make it through a molt. Right now 6 of 14 are up, the rest are under.

Crab breeding mostly hinges on having a good set up, big enough crabs, and crabs of both sexes, as well as ones that are actually interested in baby making.

THEN you have to hope mom carries the eggs for the whole time instead of dumping and eating them or other crabs eating them.

THEN you have to hope she spawns them correctly in the right water pool, they will instantly die if spawned in fresh water.

THEN you get to start the life-eating part of feeding 3-4 times a day, water changes at least a couple times a day (unless you have a filtered kreisel), agonizing over tiny specks that are smaller than these letters.

And THEN hope enough make it to the last megalopa stage to move to a transition tank, take a shell, and move to land.... and THEN make it through their first land molt to be a fully fledged land hermit crab.

That's not even going into building a kreisel, getting the right foods, finding shells tiny enough for first shells, building a transition tank.....

Tl;dr- Crab breeding is not for the faint of heart & depends a LOT on chance, even if you do all of your part right.

#asks #fbw rambles #long post #hermit crabs #lord of the crabbies #hermit crab breeding #I'm not getting a chance with babies this year #with so many down during breeding season #which is fine tbh #I'm not kidding about life eating #it's hard to focus on or think about anything else at all while raising them #your schedule mostly revolves around water changes and feeding #and preparing tiny shells #i still want to alter my kreisel to be filtered now #and have to set up the transition tank #which may all be a winter or spring project #depending on where I'm at with the other animals #and the store

[brainfoodgp]

Brain Food Garden Project Blog April/2017

“April’s rare capricious loveliness” -Julia Dorr-

April has been a busy month for Brain Food Garden Project and for me personally. April showers helped the French tulip bulbs the ACMH Garden Club planted last fall erupt in color just in time for Passover and Easter. The rains this month didn’t stop us from getting our new standing greenhouse built and starting to plant our lounge herb garden. And a date has finally been set to tape the NY1 Queens Person of the Week segment featuring me and the work I’m doing both at ACMH and Brain Food Garden Project the interview is scheduled to tape on Thursday May 4th.

Our First batch of Brain Food Garden Project t-shirts arrived, and although we aren’t selling them yet, we formed a contest to name this monthly blog and the winner will be one of the first to get a free t-shirt. For more contest information see the end of this blog post. Also, in the future anyone that submits a story to run in our monthly blogs “feature section” if accepted and printed will also receive a complimentary t-shirt for their contribution. More on that in just a minute.

We honored Autism Awareness Month throughout our social media platforms and celebrated Earth Day by volunteering at one of our favorite organization’s and partners Leave It Better kids’ garden in the Bronx. The rain didn’t dampen any of those volunteering’s spirits it just invigorated us to push on and we accomplished so much together in support of making our planet a healthier place for future generations.

When I changed the format of this blog post to a newsletter concept with different sections it was always my intention to open up the feature story section to everyone in the Brain Food Garden Club community. I wanted anyone that had a story to share or ideas on Food Justice or mental health that they wanted to bring to the community to be able to do so. Starting next month for Mental Health Awareness Month we will have our first guest writer. I already have her complimentary BFGP t-shirt ready! I will share more details in our 2nd Annual Special Edition Mental Health Awareness Month issue on May 8th.

That brings me to this month’s feature. This month I have a real treat from one of our new partners Kate Bakewell founder of Brook Farm Group. Kate is one of the top urban landscape architects in NYC. And she recently sent me a rendering of what the possible garden space could look like if we are granted permission to use the space at Metropolitan Community Hospital. So this month I have decided to answer the top 3 questions I am asked in potential partnership meetings regarding why I think Metropolitan hospital is the perfect location for the Todd Petriscak Memorial Garden.  As always we have our latest “Notes from the Resistance,” a wonderful new read for you to check out in my “What I’m Reading” section and a recipe perfect for the warmer weather we are blissfully starting to enjoy. Onwards towards summer and the adventures life has in store for all of us.

The BFGP Feature:

Whenever I am in a meeting with new potential partners for Brain Food Garden Project I am often asked a ton of questions. Many revolve around the potential space I have in mind for the first garden. In this month’s feature I have decided to answer three of the most frequently asked questions in those meetings. The beautiful rendering accompanying these questions has been provided by one of Brain Food Garden Projects latest partners Kate Bakewell an amazing New York City based urban landscape architect. The firm she started Brook Farm Group has an impeccable reputation for making the city scape greener for all of New York’s citizens for more information on Kate and the Brook Farm Group. Click Here. 

Question 1:

Why do you think Metropolitan Community Hospital should be the site of your first hospital garden?

This ultimately is one of the first questions I am asked by new potential partners. By now many people know that Metropolitan Community Hospital is where I spent my second extensive hospitalization. I have told the story many times by now of the excellent care I received while at Metropolitan Hospital Center. This excellent care is one of the primary reasons. Another reason and story I love to share is after I had reached a certain level of recovery and was waiting for an affordable housing option to become available. I would go to my room after lunch every day and look down on this enormous rooftop space sitting empty (pictured in the rendering above). I started planting a vegetable garden on this space in my mind. Every day after lunch I would return to my room and looking out the window I’d plant a new crop, by the time I was discharged I had a flourishing garden blooming. I asked myself why isn’t a real community garden blooming on this space? And why aren’t our public hospitals taking advantage of unused space to help grow and feed our communities? In conclusion it all comes down to wanting to give back to a hospital that gave me a new chance at life.  

 Question 2:

Why do you feel operationally this would be the ideal location for Brain Food Garden Project’s first garden?

Well, first it has to do with available space. Not only do they have the outdoor space available, if future inspections prove safe to build our garden, but they also have unused office space available directly off the garden space. Second, anyone familiar with HHC (NYC Health and Hospitals Corporation) knows that although they manage most of the public hospitals in NYC, none of their direct operating systems are the same for each individual hospital. For example psych patients at Woodhull Hospital in Brooklyn are never allowed to leave the psych ward no matter how well they might be progressing. While at Metropolitan once your medical team has approved you reaching a higher level of recovery you are granted permission to go off ward accompanied by a clinician to use the gym, library and to occasionally take your dinner outside to a gated area to eat. This type of system would prove vital in allowing peers to use the garden as a wellness tool while hospitalized.  

 Question 3:

Why is the first garden to be named the Todd Petriscak Memorial Garden?

Todd Petriscak and I met and became friends while hospitalized at Metropolitan Hospital in 2012. After discharge we stayed close friends and each other’s biggest support system. Todd’s love for science influenced some of the earliest decisions made and overall direction and mission statement for Brain Food Garden Project. Todd was part of the original five team think tank that I lovingly referred to as my Big Green Machine that listened to my earliest ideas and offered advice in how to shape them. Todd lost his battle with manic depression on January 25, 2016. I continue to miss his kindness, intelligence and support every day.

What I’m Reading:

I bought the book The President’s Kitchen Cabinet back in February when it first came out. I had been a fan of author Adrian Miller’s first book Soul Food: The Surprising Story of an American Cuisine, One Plate at a Time. This brilliant follow up book has proven that there is no better historian to dig up the tasty truth and unearth the long overdue contributions of the African community to the American food culture. There could not be a better location to start the process of un white washing America’s food culture than at the slave built White House itself. This book is a must read for all history lovers and food lovers, some of the recipes in the book are simply amazing.

Notes From the Resistance:

The fascist is fast approaching his 100 days mark and other than some very destructive executive orders and one signed bill that will allow people with severe mental illness to have easier access to guns. His agenda has mostly been a wash thanks to the American people fighting it at every turn. Have no fear his next attempt is to shut down the government until Democrats agree to pay for his atrocity of a wall. These are going to be a long four years.

1.    There is an agricultural crisis coming. Click Here

2.    Now Yale Psychiatrists are warning us about the fascists mental health.            Click Here 

3.    Mental Illness is on the rise but where is the access to care? Click Here

4.    The fascist appoints a Mental Health Czar but is she just a hack?                      Click Here

5.   The fascist regime cares nothing about prison reform and people with               mental health concerns pay the price. Click Here

Healthy & Delicious Recipes:

When the warmer weather begins the first thing I need to make is a good old standard a pasta salad. I just crave it and this is one of my favorites I call it the Beltane Spring Salad. Make a big batch for after you’re finished dancing around the May pole.

 Ingredients: 

·         1 pound whole wheat small shell pasta

·         3 carrots, thinly sliced

·         1 (1-pound) bunch asparagus, trimmed and cut into 1-inch pieces

·         8 radishes, halved and thinly sliced

·         2 cups baby spinach, thinly sliced

·         1 bunch green onions, white and light green parts, thinly sliced

·         ½ teaspoon ground black pepper

·         ¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil

·         3 tablespoons lemon juice

·         ¼ cup chopped fresh dill or basil, chopped

·         1 teaspoon fine sea salt, to taste

 Method: 

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add pasta and cook until just barely tender, about 5 minutes. Add asparagus, carrots and peas and cook until vegetables are just tender and pasta is just tender, about 3 minutes more. Drain and cool under cold running water, then drain again.   Meanwhile, in a very large bowl, whisk together oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper. Add pasta and vegetables, spinach, green onions, radishes and dill and toss to combine. Serve at room temperature or chilled; refrigerate in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

HELP US NAME THE BRAIN FOOD GARDEN PROJECT BLOG!

Submit your idea for our new blog title and if your entry is selected WIN a Brain Food Garden Project T-shirt. All entries must be submitted no later than midnight on May 4, 2017. Submit your ideas to [email protected]

[sustainhealthmagazine]

Does Losing Weight Mean Having To Go Hungry?

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For many people losing weight is synonymous with restriction and sacrifice. In an effort to acquire the body of their dreams, patients obsess over every calorie and cut too many corners, leaving their body starved and tired. Dr. Niket Sonpal, an NYC Internist and Gastroenterologist, tells us malnourishment is not the key to a healthy lifestyle and could be the “gateway into difficult health problems.”

Dr. Sonpal, who is an Assistant Professor at Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine and Associate Director of Brookdale Hospital's Residency Program, says, “Starving yourself is a technique that quickly backfires on patients. It can cause ma ss to be stored, water to accumulate, and hormone imbalances, among other things. If we aren’t careful about our nutrition and our weight loss, we can end up worse than when we started.”

Hunger is defined by bodily sensations ranging from mild pains in the abdominal region, headaches, mood changes, a decline in energy or light-headedness. These sensations signal the body’s instinct that it needs to replenish energy by consuming food. Biological cues arising from hunger inform the body of what to how to operate some of its essential functions to adapt to your circumstance. Remember though society has evolved tenfold since the first Neanderthals roamed the earth, our biological instincts are still quite similar, and hunger is at the center of how our body assesses its ability to survive. Simply put, if our body is not receiving the energy it needs, it will adapt its functions to survive what it perceives as hard times. During this adapting period, we can undergo mild to serious health implications that run contrary to our overall goals of losing weight and improving our health.

Read on for 6 Major Reasons to Refrain from Starving Yourself and what to do instead:

our Metabolism

Prolonging your body’s state of hunger regularly and for extended periods can cause your system to slow down your energy expenditure during periods of rest. Your Basal Metabolical Rate dictates how much energy your body burns in order to fuel your essential bodily functions while at rest. In the absence of regular and consistent nourishment, your body may begin to store energy, often in the form of fat.

Many people get caught up in an unhealthy obsession with calories. While calorie counting is sometimes necessary to get rid of stubborn fat and techniques like intermittent fasting can help people jumpstart their metabolism. Studies show that for people who are already obese or lack muscle while packing excess body fat, extended periods of hunger can worsen their situation.

To avoid going down the path of starvation and fat storage, start to slowly and sustainably build a schedule and regiment that has you eating high volumes of low calorie and low carb foods. Vegetables and lean proteins are your friends. Instead of eating two or three huge meals, space them out throughout the day with space for small healthy snacks that keep your energy up throughout the day.

Stress and Bingeing

Hunger and stress have an interesting relationship. People come in a great many varieties, and they react to stress differently. However, it is common for stress, in short doses, to decrease appetite. Prolonged stress, on the other hand, can lead people to binge-eat, especially if someone has developed the habit of food-for-comfort over time. Hunger, prolonged periods of fasting, and eating disorders can increase the body’s production of cortisol, known as the stress hormone. This can make you moody, anxious, and uncontrolled. Stress also inhibits our ability to control our appetite, often leading to overconsumption of calories. Once your system becomes overwhelmed with stress, you break, and the result may very well be binge eating.

Instead, focus on eating as healthily as possible without sacrificing the fulfillment of feeling nourished. If you have a craving for sweets or some treat, navigate the situation reasonably. For example, if you are a fan of chocolate, as many of us are, treat yourself to a piece of dark chocolate after dinner. Dark chocolate is an excellent way to get a taste of cocoa without overdoing the sugar. As for your cortisol production, don’t revolve your entire life around dieting and counting calories. Take time to run outside and feel the sun. Working out is a natural stimulant of endorphins, the hormones that help us feel good. Endorphins are also helpful in helping relieve stress and pain.

Your Calorie Intake Helps Dictate Your Calorie Output

As previously mentioned, our bodies burn calories daily to cover our essential bodily functions while at rest. Reducing calories in an extreme way can reduce the number of calories you regularly burn in an extreme way also. This makes it more difficult over time to lose weight, maintain weight, and remain lean. This is especially true for people who are predisposed to having a hard time shedding pounds, such as postmenopausal women and people with a family history of high cholesterol, diabetes, or obesity.

Instead, focus on the quality of your calories. 200 calories of broccoli will not affect your body the same way as 200 calories of ice cream. Giving our bodies an appropriate amount of food at an appropriate amount of calories is key to our metabolic health. The best way to cover our bases on the calorie front and on the hunger front, meaning fulfilling our energy needs while still satisfying our hunger is to eat foods that are high on nutrients, fiber and vitamins.

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Hydration is key to your health

In their incessant battle for an “Instagram-worthy” body, people concentrate overwhelmingly on the solid foods they eat and very little on the liquids they drink. Needless to say, our bodies are dependent on water to help keep them regulated, hydrated and refreshed. If we are dieting like madmen while drinking sugary drinks, dairy products, and alcohol all the time, we are essentially counteracting everything we have accomplished at the gym and the dinner table. In other instances, people forget to drink water leading to dehydration and water retention.

Drinking ample amounts of water is also an effective way to send signals to the brain, informing it that you are not on an empty stomach. Drinking water before a meal has been shown to effectively decrease the amount of a person consumes once they sit down to eat.

Keep in mind water is extremely useful in keeping your digestion working properly.

Fibre is your friend

Fibre is a useful tool for staying regulated and healthy. Fibre is interesting because, though it is a carbohydrate, the body is unable to dismantle the nutrient to convert it to a simple sugar molecule. This results in Fibre passing through our gastrointestinal tract accomplishing many beneficial tasks to help us with our diet and health goals. Fibre is a healthy way to increase fullness hormones in the body. For many people who have built up resistance to this hormone, called leptin, this becomes more beneficial as your body becomes leaner and you become healthier. Fiber also helps to keep you full and it shows up in a variety of foods from fruits to vegetables to grains. The versatility of fibre means it is easy to work it into your diet without a lot of stress. Fibre helps fill you up as well without the risk of it staying and accumulating in your body to be processed into fat.

Opt for healthier choices that are rich in fibre, as opposed to processed and sugary drinks with little nutritional value. Because of where fibre is found, odds are the foods you eat to incorporate it into your diet will be full of many other vitamins and nutrients that will help keep your body healthy.

Fat Storage

The term “starvation mode” is incredibly common and if you confess your fasting weight loss methods to a caring friend or family member, odds are they will mention starvation mode as a reason against going hungry.  You may be tempted to roll your eyes and ignore the advice, but your loved one may be right. When we are constantly hungry, skipping meals and only feeding our bodies with one or two big meals a day, even if the meals are mostly healthy the body will do everything it can to store as much fat and nutrients as it can. This is especially true if you eat at inconsistent times of the day. Why? Because the body’s biological clock does not know when its next meal will come and how big that meal will be. So while you go hungry, your body grows anxious and looks for ways to compensate for the insufficient and inconsistent way with which it is fed.

To avoid starvation mode, make sure you are eating consistently and snacking on something natural and healthy between meals. Make sure to never skip breakfast as it jumpstarts your metabolism. Breakfast is also a signal to the body that its overnight fast is now over. It helps to keep track of the times you eat and make an effort to stay relatively consistent when it comes to your eating schedule. This will help alleviate some of the body’s anxieties about being left without food until further notice.

About the Expert: Dr. Niket Sonpal is an Adjunct Assistant Professor at Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine and Clinical instructor at Kingsbrook Jewish Medical Center, Brooklyn who specializes in Gastroenterology. He is a graduate of the Medical University of Silesia – Hope Medical Institute in Poland. After completing his residency in Internal Medicine at Lenox Hill Hospital, he was selected to be the 2013‐2014 Chief Resident at Lenox Hill Hospital–Northshore LIJ Health System. Dr. Sonpal has completed his Fellowship in Gastroenterology & Hepatology at Lenox Hill Hospital and continues his work in the field of medical student and resident test preparation. He now serves as the associate program director for the Internal Medicine Residency Program at Brookdale University medical center. He is the co‐author for the best-selling Master the Boards: USMLE Step 2 CK, Master the Boards Step 3, And Master the Boards: Internal Medicine. He is also the Chief Operating Officer for Medquest Test Prep, Director of Medical Education for Picmonic Test Prep, and a recognized expert on medical test prep.

https://tourocom.touro.edu/academics/faculty/harlem/niket-sonpal.php

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#health #fitness #lifestyle #good health #brits

[cosmosogler]

hi guys. today i got up at a less unreasonable hour.

convenience stores often make appearances in my dreams, but rarely do my dreams revolve around them. i spent the majority of the end of my dream in some kind of convenience store/restaurant trying to order ice cream. i’m not sure what was stopping me. i think there was no one behind the counter. i didn’t really want it bad enough to try stealing it. i was mostly interested in the conversation i was having with a “classmate.” 

i don’t think this classmate was anyone i know in real life... maybe someone from christian school. i don’t remember their face, or if i even saw their face at any time. the conversation was surprisingly coherent, but i do not remember what we were talking about. it was either something i thought was odd about the dream, or something i thought was odd in general.

anyway i got up and checked my emails and then i went to individual therapy. i tried to plow through everything that’s happened in the last two weeks and my ongoing guilty-ish feelings for being an asshole teenager like ten years ago. i just wish... i could un-hurt them somehow by apologizing. like maybe i hurt them and they’re still hurting. there’s nothing i could really say that would be an appropriate reason to find and contact most of them...

we also talked about motivation!! i made a short list of things i’ve been doing to move forward and we talked about scheduling some time to draw in the evenings. i mentioned i didn’t really have anything i wanted to draw and then i remembered that i’d pilfered some coloring pages from the group therapy’s resources folder. 

on the way home i stopped at gamestop to pick up the pokums. i also saw some switch games that looked like they would be fun. i was about to buy a used copy of one when i remembered that my family does not have a switch. i talked to mom about it and she said maybe at christmas. you know, when i won’t be living at home any more!! when i got home i made lunch, signed my lease, and wasted time on youtube.

i watched a speedrun of yoshi’s island and i remembered how much i like that game. it’s just a cute, well-made platformer and i’m glad i had it as a kid. i kind of wonder if there are any rom hacks based around that engine. i feel like there’s a lot of potential there. might have to pick up an emulator again...

mom made the other quiche for dinner, along with some garlic bread and peas. i managed to eat most of it! and i ate all of my mac and cheese that i made for lunch even though i really wanted to stop eating!! i felt really awake afterward so i took wiley out for a walk... for 50 minutes. when it got too dark to see we went home. i bopped to some music on my ipod while i was out. 

after i took the dogs out back for a few minutes i went back to my room and goofed off on youtube a little longer. no one has anything interesting to say about adventure time except uncivilized elk and he hasn’t finished his big review for elements yet. everyone else just summarized what happened. i know what happened! i watched the show!! this guy talks about, like, themes and goes into theories about what will happen next and how it relates to stuff that happened a while ago.

at around 10 i settled in and loaded up some music and started coloring. that continued until about 11:45. i am a little over halfway done with the page. i need to figure out which colors i want to use for the little details. might do that tomorrow morning since i don’t think i have any chores i need to finish before group therapy.

now it is 12:10. i will try to get up and go to bed at 12:30. that’s much closer to my target bedtime.

i think the coloring did help... my hand is all cramped up but i feel like i did something productive. and... it just feels nice to draw and color. pencils feel good to use. i have a lot more control over my hands when i make traditional art than when i try to use my tablet, even after like 8 years.

diogi is about the same as yesterday. at least she’s not worse. she’s always excited whenever i feed her anything though, including coconut oil. she’s kind of weird. i am considering buying them more “fun” snacks tomorrow while i’m out, maybe. i mean, what’s the point of living if you don’t have interesting experiences? and since i can’t take her or eve out for walks any more the best i can do is let them try a new treat. right now they just have dry rice meal and lamb or chicken cookies. all three of them went nuts for the chicken jerky strips i brought home the other week.

eve didn’t throw up again today. she’s still not drinking much water, but she never really has. i was still a little more gentle with her today just in case she still wasn’t feeling 100%. 

i can’t figure out what i want to bring up in group tomorrow. i guess... the guilty feelings might be a good idea. start talking about/working on the self loathing a little bit. 

i am a little worried. i have been in therapy for a while now and i still am not sure where the line between “getting help” and “having my hand held” is. i don’t want to be too needy, but i also just can’t really figure this stuff out on my own. leading questions for me to think about might be helpful i guess. i know i gotta make some decisions about which feelings are healthier to spend time thinking about, and change or build some habits around managing my anxiety and depression, but i feel like i am just not there yet. i am going to try to start using the anxiety box i think. i will have to find a suitable box or jar tomorrow. 

it’s basically a way to schedule your worry. you write down an anxious thought you are having and say to yourself “i am not going to worry about that right now. i am going to worry about it for five/ten minutes at 5:00″ or whatever time you want. you put all the thoughts you get over the course of the day in a jar or box, and at the scheduled time you pull out one of the thoughts and think about it for five or ten minutes and see if you can do or figure out anything useful. if you can’t, but it’s urgent, you can think about it for ten or fifteen minutes. if you don’t take care of it, you put it back in the box and try again tomorrow. if you resolve the cause of the feeling, or the feeling itself, then you can throw away the note and pick up a different one at another time.

i noticed that my headache mostly went away when i ate enough food. not entirely, because my headaches are often caused by grinding my teeth and not dependent on how much i ate. but i did feel a lot better when i got most of a meal into my stomach. one thing i noticed that helped me keep my appetite (besides possibly the extra anti-nausea meds) was that i ate a little bit of several different things. so if i got sick of a taste after two bites i could eat a few spoonfuls of peas and then come back to the quiche later and try again. it will probably be important to keep my meals a little varied and small in each portion going forward. i think i can do that. i might need to figure out some, like, full meals styled that way that i can make. 

http://www.whatthefuckshouldimakefordinner.com/veg.php

that will be helpful.

or i could just go eat thai food every day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!