Good discussion. I think you will be fine either direction you decide to go. You’re a smart man.
15 years ago I ordered pins, pct, ancillaries and supplements. My now wife talked me out of it way back then and I’m grateful she did. I did my research and was informed, but that should not have been a priority in my life at that time. Building a family and career were the priorities.
Also, like you I hate depending on exogenous anything. But if I’m a shell of my former self or in pain, I will treat. Quality of life is critical. We only get one.
Again, you’ll make the right decision. I think trying a peptide is a great alternative at least for now, to get you healed up. Then you can figure out the rest as it comes.
I decided to sneak in my squats after putting the kids to bed. My back felt better and now I feel less guilty for my food choices today. Chick-fil-A stopped by the station and gave us approximately 100 chicken sandwiches. I ate one regular and one spicy. Dinner was a couple BBQ pork strips, two slices of pepperoni pizza, and half of a crunchy m&ms bar. That candy bar is 600 calories! Normally I wouldn’t stress about today but last night’s dinner was pizza, cookie dough ice cream, and chocolate cake. Back ofln track tomorrow…hopefully.
Chick-fil-A is awesome. This is the first time they’ve made a delivery while I was working but they give us free food if we dine in and half off if we get it to go.
This is what I was trying to get at with the second paragraph of what I said. I don’t know why I had trouble phrasing it correctly and in a simple manner lol
If I take peptides then it will be for a predetermined amount of time.
If the Dr leads me down the path of TRT then that might be permanent. I’ll always train and I’ll always want to look good. There’s a pretty good chance I’d be okay with doctor monitored and prescribed TRT.
Strength declines as we age. Metabolism and other things change as we age - usually leading to fat gain. I think we’d all be lying if we didn’t admit to being a little vain. This is the question we’ll all face at some point:
Will you take a doctor prescribed drug to look better, feel better, and perform better?
It sounds like snake oil but when it comes to hormones it might actually work.
Ha! When I work overnights on the weekends my Saturday and Sundays start with probably about 1500 calories worth of McDonalds. It serves no nutritional value and I’m hungry an hour later, but it’s quick & easy, and hard to resist.
Well, I received the money on which I’ve been waiting and it’s more than I thought. That means I can pay off my credit card and possibly pay for the peptides I’ve been eyeballing.
The bad news is that it sounds like my wife doesn’t want to spend any money on unnecessary things right now. Dang. Looks like all the money will go towards paying off debt instead. I know that’s the responsible thing but that’s going to take years. I can’t go that long without a few personal treats along the way.
Very interesting discussion here! As a soon (hoping to be) law enforcer myself, these are questions I ask myself as well about the “dark side”. I don’t think I’ll be needing it for years though. But there’s always this shadow… “you could do it, so why not?” “Would Arnold and the others be them without it? Do you want to be Arnold or a random nobody?” Bla bla bla
It’s tough, isn’t it? Another way to maybe look at it is if I pay off ALL our debt, I could then get all the “responsible treats” I desire? But yeah, some cheap pleasures along the way helps keep you on track sometimes.
Awesome! I feel conflicted because my personal beliefs and the law are in disagreement. As a Christian, I hear the question “Do you think that’s what God wants?”
I don’t know the answer. If we’re talking about abusing the drugs then that’s easy. But what about just taking them to heal or get my levels up to high normal? Is it the same as pain meds or antibiotics? I have a human brain so it’s easy to skew the argument to favor what I want.
We’re talking like $30k. It’s going to be awhile and I don’t think it’s worth restricting every little thing because it’s easy to miss out on the enjoyable things in life. But this particular thing is mine instead of ours. I’ll probably end up doing nothing. I guess it depends on how I feel when I finally get the money. I’ll have to make extra to justify it.
I’m hesitating to response to this J, I’m following along, reading your thoughts and feeling your misery with your body and can easily understand what’s going on.
I’ve learned a lot, though. I get a little manic with new things sometimes. I’ll read and research and then do it all again and again until I’m satisfied. In the end, I don’t always end up following through.
For now, I’ll wait. If I still have pain when I get the money ($700) then I’ll probably try the peptides that stimulate natural growth hormone release. If I feel like I’m doing good enough on my own then I might take that money to the tattoo shop for some touch up work and slight addition to my left arm.
$30k will feel a lot heavier if you cut out all the fun spending. I recently cleared off all my (non student loan) debts earlier this year, so I appreciate the instinct to pay it off as quick as humanly possible and get it all gone, but at the same time you do have to live a little. If it completely restricts spending down to the absolute essentials it becomes an obsession and too much of a big cloud over your head.
That’s how I feel about it. Fortunately, I can work a little extra and pay for treats or just make faster progress on the ol debt snowball. My son is in full time daycare so even if I have weekdays off I can pick up extra work without affecting him. In the past, I’ve watched him so if I wanted to work extra then had to pay extra. It’s a flat rate now so I might as well make some extra cash. It also won’t hurt to earn a little extra to help pay for the extra cost. Daycare went from $90 to $180 per week this year.
I’m Free!!!
10.3.19 (17 Weeks Post-Op)
Saw the doctor this morning and I am released to do whatever I please, including work. I’ll be back on the streets Saturday (which kind of sucks), but I’ll be off MTW and back to my three day weekends. This light duty stretch has sucked. Moving from 7a-5p four days a week for 8a-5p five days a week is a horrible tradeoff.
