D4vidDG said:
CainGettingLaid said:
What kind of skin issue do you have?
My skin constantly itches and it's super dry. I have some skin wounds because I used to scratch until my skin bled. Now I scratch less but the problem is still there. I try to take bird showers every day and moisturize shortly after. However, that hasn't solved the problem. I've been dealing with this for three months.
Not sure what you mean by "bird shower", probably a typo
You should go see a dermatologist about this if you haven't already. I recently visited one and most of my acute symptoms were gone within two days of applying the prescription lotion. I should have done it way sooner, struggled with an outbreak for like 10 months.
My condition is very similar. Dry skin, constant itching so severe that one itches til it bleeds. It was diagnosed as neurodermatitis as a child, I still have scars from back then. It was not acute during my teens but resurfaced during my university time due to stress. Have you had more stress than usual in the past months?
As for dryness, frequent washing is not the best thing to do. Showering on a daily basis might feel good but is actually counterproductive. It irritates your skin, especially if you shower with hot water. If you do sports every second day and it is not summer so you are not sweating much I would encourage you to usually shower after sport and skip the days in between. Of course you can shower before certain important occasions additionally, like going on a date.
Showering with soap or shampoo is especially bad for dry skin because that takes the protective oil layer of your skin away. Some advice I read frequently is the following: Only use soap for your armpits, your feet and your ass (the smelly places). The rest of the body does not need soap. Most soaps and shampoos consist of aggressive chemicals that overall do more harm than good to your body. I have abandoned soap/shampoo altogether half a year ago and it works. I was inspired by this article:
https://web.archive.org/web/20150512051801/http://www.boytoystory.com/stop-using-soap-shampoo/
Of course you should still use soap when washing your hands, that is crucial for general hygiene.
Other topic: How are you tracking your daily weight loss goal? By whether you stick to your eating plan? I hope so! Just mentioning this to make sure you aren't measuring your weight on a daily basis. That would be absolutely useless because weight fluctuates based on so many more factors than fat loss (eating, shitting, water storage...). I recommend not weighing more often than once a month. Also, you mention somewhere that you weigh 61.5 kg. I have no clue how tall you are but there is not very much weight you can probably lose. From your profile pic your facial features also look good so you probably aren't overweight. Best idea is to hit us with some belly pics and ask for feedback.
I won't talk you out of your goals
. They all seem to make very good sense. Just don't be too hard on yourself. Finishing the AA program by the end of the year is possible but very ambitious.
D4vidDG said:
Both Andy and Chris encourage you to be active in online dating, so that's why I have a Tinder goal. Maybe I should not put too much effort into improving my looks or taking better photos. Maybe I should focus on completing the AA program first. Would love to know your opinion on that.
I think it is important to have some outside female source of confirmation while doing the AA program. Like some sort of "success" or dating interaction. If you can get a few dates of of Tinder, that is perfect. I gotta admit I wasn't actively using Tinder while doing the AA program. I started reusing it on day 3 but did not improve my pics enough for it to give me any usable results. I was lucky because I had other "outside female confirmation" from a former fuckbuddy and also from a girl I met randomly in the midst of the program. I went into the program with good confidence.
Seeing that you got a lay from Tinder I think you should keep using Tinder. After the first few days the matches plummet though, so the success might not be easily repeatable. So improving pics might be necessary to get more dates.
I encourage improving your looks/style during the AA program either way. It gives you extra confidence and the better you look the more fun the interactions will be on average.
D4vidDG said:
I'm still struggling with doing the last rep with the 4 questions. I don't know why but it's frustrating. Makes me feel I'm not making any progress and I'm going back.
The problem is that I do nothing to increase my momentum again when I'm stuck in a rep, I just walk around feeling bad about myself. Tomorrow, if I see I'm not doing anything, I'll just start again to increase that momentum and make the last rep a lot easier.
If you can't do the fourth rep, you can keep doing rep number 3 a few times to build the momentum, then move on to rep 4. Another thing you can try for the first time you achieve the number for rep: You can try to trick yourself by telling yourself that you are going in for a number 3 rep and then once you are inside the interaction you just hit them with the fourth question anyways.
If you mention in your log which day you are on in the AA program, then giving feedback is much simpler for me and others. For example I had to go back in your log and search to see which day your are on and figure out its day 8.
Bonus tip: You can change the title of your log by editing the title of the very first post. That way you can highlight certain topics that might be of interest to readers/feedbackers. For example the title could read "Davids AA journal and other goals: AA program day 8" or "Davids AA journal and other goals: Pic feedback, should I cut or bulk?". That way, more people will pitch in than if you have the same title all the time.
