The big name movies now are so cringeworthy and require zero thought on the part of the viewer. I’d be almost embarrassed to go watch them. The worst part is that I used to watch them because there was just nothing else to see, until one day I was so bored that I walked out of the theatre. To my surprise, I was even approached and given a refund by the manager without asking… maybe they watched it too and understood the pain.

But are those the things that get marketing? I’m with you on loving that content, but none of the main theatres in my area (a city of 7 million) even show them. A couple will put them into the standard screen theatres at oddball times to fulfill their contracts, but the good content is in the local dollar theatres where, of course, the movie gets less traffic.

I think what they’re saying is that the movies that you’re “supposed” to watch are things like those god awful Harry Potter prequels (literally any fanfic amateur could have written them better), the ten thousandth Marvel movie (seriously, just stop), or those Adam-Sandler style low effort white trash movies that run solely on the recognition of the probably male and supposedly “so talented” lead actor.

But are those the things that get marketing? I’m with you on loving that content, but none of the main theatres in my area (a city of 7 million) even show them. A couple will put them into the standard screen theatres at oddball times to fulfill their contracts, but the good content is in the local dollar theatres where, of course, the movie gets less traffic.

I think what they’re saying is that the movies that you’re “supposed” to watch are things like those god awful Harry Potter prequels (literally any fanfic amateur could have written them better), the ten thousandth Marvel movie (seriously, just stop), or those Adam-Sandler style low effort white trash movies that run solely on the recognition of the probably male and supposedly “so talented” lead actor.

They’re fighting a losing battle, but I hope a side effect of it is that new people come in and change both the economics and artistry of Hollywood. Most Hollywood content sits in a very rigid box. It’s repetitive, unoriginal, and unappealing. People are encouraged to eat ramen for every meal in order to “make it”, simply because far too many of them try (which is partially the result of the “follow your dreams” narrative in America as well). The further down you are, the worse your compensation. Good ideas get missed or thrown out and relegated to dollar theatres all the time.

If this strike goes on long enough that it starts to flush people out, I’m ok with that. Sucks for the people who are going to lose their livelihoods, but for some of them that was an eventuality. Hopefully in the end creators will have more creative freedom and receive more proportional compensation.

By this magic where they OPERATE IN EUROPE.

With some difficulty :)

There is quite a bit of overlap between all of these simple living/financial independence communities and the child free (or even regretful parents) lifestyle, simply because they’re damn near mutually exclusive. If you try to imagine the “opposite of simple”, it probably looks something like managing a huge ranch and having five kids, depending on your exact approach. I’m not saying that you should go drop your kids off at the adoption centre, but just that you need to be realistic about what you can do when you have two kids, especially young kids.

With that said, I think the best angle you can take is the adoption of habits that you also want to pass on to your kids. It depends what your take on “simple” is, but you could try the following:

• Simplifying food. Food is not only so influential for your kids, but a huge time suck and money suck and equipment suck. Things like avoiding fast food/takeout entirely (one of the biggest blessings you can give your kids imo), eating mostly unprocessed plant foods, and building a repertoire of cheap meals that can be made without perishables can cut down on decision fatigue, time, junk food, and trips to the grocery store and replace them with family time. Consider two scenarios:

Scenario 1: It’s almost dinner time. Your kid has just raided the oreos in the cupboard. Ugh fuck, we don’t have any food in the house. The kids start begging for fast food, because they’re five years old and already hooked. SO you load up the volvo, drive to the House of Ronald McDonald, and your kids eat cheeseburgers and play with whatever toy they got on the way home. You’ve just spent $50 on dinner instead of like $10, and you still have no food in the house. Not one person has eaten a single vegetable all day.

Scenario 2: It’s almost dinner time. Your kid is HUNGRY, as you’ve been told about 20 times now. They’re climbing into the cupboard and “helping” you by stacking cans of black beans, their current favorite food, on the floor. Alright, you can probably whip up some shakshuka in 15 minutes. You prop them up on the counter and open the cans, and they get to dump them into the big bowl. At the kitchen table, your wife is sitting with kid #2, talking to them about the different colors of the vegetables. The shakshuka sizzles in the pan, your kids set the table (well, sorta), and you sit down and eat. Kid #2 will eat anything, kid #1 just picks out the black beans. You’ve spent $10, built a relationship with your kids, and they build an emotional connection to those foods and experiences from an early age.

• Try to strip down routines like laundry, as well as your physical space. Periodically go through and declutter, or at least keep clutter in one “zone”. If there’s a toy your kid hasn’t played with that’s just been pushed around the living room for a year, snap a picture and post it on facebook for someone to pick up. Kids clothes don’t need to be separated if you don’t have time. The dishwasher doesn’t need to be full before you run it. Not everything needs to be purchased on sale, sometimes you just have to pay the extra 25 cents for pasta. If you wear makeup, see if you’re ok with just some concealer and mascara.

• Think long term to get rid of decision fatigue. Don’t repeatedly do something that you could do once and forget. You know toilet paper? Yeah, you’re going to be needing that for a while, so go buy as many rolls of toilet paper as you can stuff under the stairs and just cross that off your list for the next year. If you eat canned beans, don’t buy one single can. Go buy a few cases. Get that non-perishable almond milk instead of the perishable stuff. If you’re making a meal, put in more ingredients and freeze the extra portions so that you can stop making lunches altogether. Kids need socks? Buy one size bigger as well so that next time kid needs new socks, you don’t have to go to the store. At the gas station? For the love of god, FILL UP YO DAMN TANK. There is no rule saying that you must go to the grocery store every week, or that you must not buy more than one bottle of shampoo at a time. It’s a free country.

• Try to retain one hobby, or connection to your own identity. If you like coffee, then sign up for a coffee subscription. If you like gardening, then maintain a small garden. Just anything that acts as a release valve and connects you to your sense of self.

Sorry, unfortunately nutrition is more complex than what you can sum up in a few sentences. To answer that though:

• Chicken isn’t categorically “unhealthy” in the same way double stuf oreos cooked in lard are - I said in another comment that it’s the ultimate neutral food, and if you look at its profile I think that’s a fair statement. It’s not completely devoid of nutrients, it has a couple of things in significant quantities - phosphorus, selenium, and B3 for example - but overall it’s not very nutrient dense. It doesn’t have a ton of huge negatives either - a bit of saturated fat, but nothing to write home about. If you’re looking at a “Hitler-Hanks” spectrum where the lard oreos are on one end and a spinach chia seed broccoli whatever salad on the other, then chicken is probably right in the middle somewhere. Its D&D alignment is True Neutral. The point I was making in my earlier comment was that “protein” doesn’t make a food healthy, and that there’s a lot more to it than that, and if people use that mental shortcut they might end up making misinformed decisions.

• The nutritional profile of chicken would be a lot to type out, but you can look at the NCCDB or Cronometer Gold (which uses NCCDB among others) for an elaborate breakdown. Just keep in mind that it doesn’t capture everything - it’s an amazing tool, but it won’t cover the catechins in your tea, for example.

Ultimately though, if you’re reading this, let me take this opportunity to encourage you to GO SEE A REGISTERED DIETITIAN. Your insurance will often cover 80+% of your first appointment, but even if they don’t it’s an amazing investment. You’ll live longer, probably spend less on food, and spend a lot less on hospital bills after your first heart attack.

It’s also just addictive. I don’t think all mods are “power hungry” in a bad sense - certainly many of them mod communities well and responsibly, but most of the ones that put in a lot of time are hooked to that community for one reason or another - either it gives them a sense of accomplishment or it’s comfortable and familiar or they just feel valued there. It’s easy to slip into that trap.

That’s interesting, I didn’t know that.

That’s interesting, I didn’t know that.

I know there are some people that find they get stomach pains, but never heard that. Everyone’s different though.

I don’t care what people consume, unless they’re telling other people things that aren’t true. Eat a twinkie-only diet if you want - if you’re happy then I’m happy for you. If not, go talk to a dietitian and educate yourself.

Lean protein =/= healthy. Like, at all. This is a myth from the freaking 1980s. Nutritional profile is a breakdown of the micronutrients that a food has, and it determines whether a food is “nutritious” and therefore, in general terms, “healthy”.

Please, oh please, don’t go around telling people that food is healthy if it is a lean protein. I’m sure it’s well intended, but it’s also misinformed. If you want to learn about how to assess whether a food is healthy, go make an appointment with a dietitian - your insurance will often cover the first appointment.

Macronutrients are not what makes a food healthy. In particular, high-protein does not make a food healthy. By that reasoning a lot of fast food could be considered insanely healthy, but it’s not. That’s just our downright shitty levels of education surrounding nutrition.

What actually makes a food healthy depends on a lot of different factors, but a common one and relatively reliable standard bearer is whether it is “nutritious”. When a food is nutritious or nutrient dense, it is micronutrient dense. This includes things like spinach and beans and seeds and broccoli and all of the other foods that your parents made you eat. Micronutrient poor foods are ones that have relatively few micronutrients, but usually are relatively calorie rich. This includes things like mozzarella sticks, wonderbread, fruit gushers, heavy cream, twinkies, and so on. We do need macronutrients, but virtually anyone who gets enough energy (calories) from food also gets enough of them, except in specific cases like being a professional athlete. The athlete wouldn’t die of protein deprivation if they didn’t pay attention to their intake, but it would make it harder for them to perform well.

So no, chicken is not, by any standard, “really nutritious and healthy”. It’s not completely devoid of nutrients - it’s relatively rich in phosphorus and selenium if you eat it on its own, for example, but it’s far from what anyone would consider nutritious. It’s somewhere in between fried mars bars and spinach.

Everyone is going to like different things, but tofu is a bit like wonderbread. It also tastes bland, but you get addicted to it anyway. I can’t explain why, but at this point I just put thick slices of tofu into the air fryer for 5 minutes and eat it as-is. You’re right, it doesn’t taste like much, but nevertheless it’s hard to stop eating it after you’re hooked.

Some things you can try:

• Try smoked, extra firm tofu. You can eat it as a snack straight out of the pack, and the taste is somewhat stronger. It’s brown and kind of leathery.

• GRILL your tofu. Get some good char on there. It tastes absolutely heavenly and smoky.

• Put soft tofu into your smoothie. It thickens it a bit but won’t change the taste.

• Tofu tastes good in a lot of salty, carby dishes. For example, one of my 5-minute meals is chow mein noodles and canned mixed vegetables (beans sprouts, corn, and carrot) sauteed with sesame oil. It sucks some of the moisture out of the tofu, allows it to absorb flavor, and offers a firm, meaty contrast to the other components of the dish.

• You can put tofu into any “soup” - chili, curry, etc. and this is another pretty standard use.

• There are troves of marinades and dry rubs out there. A good way to start is to go to a restaurant and try bowls with tofu to get an idea of what you like, and then to use that as a template.

Can I kindly suggest maybe making a guideline post as to what constitutes “healthy”? It was really sad to see all of the people on the previous sub posting their supposedly “healthy” meals that weren’t anywhere close to healthy. I get that there’s a need to leave room for people who are starting at zero and still improving, but it also shapes people’s perceptions in a very real and misguided way. If reliably sourced and well moderated that would make the space a lot better.

If it’s all the same to you a higher ratio of quinoa is preferable.

Ramen is NOT healthy though my dude. Ramen with an egg on top is empty carbs in a bath of salt water and cholesterol, with very little nutritional integrity to speak of.

Chicken has been heavily, heavily marketed as a health food, and while it’s not the worst thing you could eat, if you actually look at its nutritional profile it’s not particularly nutritious or “healthy”. That’s just Tyson Foods & co working their magic. It’s more like the ultimate neutral food - nothing terrifying, nothing great.

BEANS

Addictive carbs and salt, dirt cheap, and healthy as shit. Also convenient and compatible with most dietary/ethical restrictions.

If you learn to like beans when you’re 20 and throw it into an index fund, you’ll have a modest retirement fund just on the money you saved (yes, I calculated it based on money saved and growth of the S&P).

Honestly, if they use their current rage to join the protests with all the firepower they can muster, then it’s a win-win-win.