Posts by placidjackal97

nimbledriver81 said:Might as well jump in here...
Calcium-rich foods include: broccoli, kale, spinach, oranges, peas, beans, tofu (soy products generally), peanuts, sesame seeds, almonds, and even brown sugar—plus salmon and sardines from the sea.
Keep in mind you need Vitamin D to actually absorb that calcium—if you aren't getting enough sun, look toward fish or mushrooms again. Also, phosphorus can mess with absorption, so maybe cut back on the soda.

thanks 🙂 when I tally up everything listed above—most of which I eat several times a week—and factor in my milk and dairy intake, I’m basically hitting a massive calcium surplus. 😉 anyone want to buy some off my hands?😁

on the idea of women having the option to abort—legally and under safe conditions

I personally could never bring myself to do it—ever (regardless of whether I was single or if the father was in the picture)—but people should have the choice

Lisa Ortiz17 said:I noticed something today—my skin feels incredibly parched. I’ve already applied moisturizer twice. Honestly, I forgot my face cream yesterday and ended up trekking all the way back home just to get it. Do you guys carry cream with you? Do you moisturize right after leaving the tanning salon?

I never used anything before tanning—just applied lotion once I wiped off. My skin never really gets itchy.

Those standing spray tan booths are actually pretty big in Germany right now. It's perfect for people who want the glow without the UV exposure, especially if they can't manage to rub the lotion in evenly themselves.

Jeffrey Torres said:I honestly just wish Michael Bublé had won—(from Mexico)—because that song is incredible. It doesn't matter who's listening; there’s just something about it that really hits home for people.
I’d never even heard of him or "Ian Moj" before, but now that I have, I've got it on repeat in my car until I'm sick of it. Anyone know where I can find an instrumental version without the vocals??
My favorite part was seeing the US give them 10 points—this track isn't about politics or anything else, it's just a pure love ballad. Simple as that.
We were absolutely hopeless back then—though, honestly, it's even sadder when artists sing in English instead of their own native language.

Man, I have to sign off on this whole post by Jeffrey Torres from start to finish. 👍 (And hey, your car isn't bad at all 😉 we're finally getting somewhere here 🙂 )

Generally speaking, when a doctor suggests bumping up your intake of a certain vitamin or mineral, they’re talking about supplements—it’s just hard to rely solely on your diet to hit those numbers, unless you’re already incredibly healthy.

I agree—the only exception is when a doctor prescribes higher doses specifically to manage an existing health issue.

I was talking about people who are otherwise healthy, and looking around, it seems like everyone is popping something. I get this nagging feeling that in today's fast-paced American lifestyle, a pill has become the "easy button" for way too many people.

Personally? I don't think it's the best way to go.

I spent years swallowing whatever they suggested to fix my iron deficiency—it took forever to see results, but I've realized you can definitely make up the difference through natural food instead.

Regarding those supplements—I still have some left, but here we go

Since osteoporosis runs in my family... getting enough calcium is non-negotiable for me... so I stick to tablets.

Personally, I don't think pills should be the default—unless you're pregnant—but if you can't stomach dairy, there are plenty of other ways to get your calcium naturally.

- my main gripe is why milk is constantly pushed as the ultimate calcium gold standard when—let's be real—it's everywhere else too.

I didn't get the feeling anyone was actually arguing against it.

Look, even as someone who enjoys a good glass of milk, I know plenty of other sources exist—but it’d be a lot more helpful if people actually gave examples instead of just repeating that vague "it's in other foods" line over and over without ever mentioning 😁
which ones.

Can someone list some other calcium-rich foods? I’m thinking leafy greens, right?

Basically, this whole thread feels like a digital version of those heated debates over whether milk is actually good for you or not.

Look, coming from someone who absolutely lives for dairy—I’m definitely biased here—I know I’m not exactly an objective voice in this debate.😁 - I just wanted to point out that even top-tier nutritionists argue that you can't just replace real food with a pill.

Instead of reaching for a supplement instead of milk, or a vitamin instead of a carrot, or another one for iron (I totally went through that phase where I thought those little pills—well, if we're talking about things like Amway, they aren't even little—could fix everything...😁 - back when I was dropping $50 a pop on multivitamins 🙄)—maybe we should focus more on giving our bodies what they actually need through fresh, whole foods.

After all, a pill doesn't have the scent, the flavor, or the vibrant color of a fresh orange, and our brains definitely notice that difference.

Now, obviously, that’s for healthy people—if someone has a specific medical reason, like recovering from a broken leg, they might need high-dose supplements, which is a totally different story.

In this day and age, eating balanced and healthy isn't always easy or straightforward—but man, the payoff is worth every bit of effort.😉

this was supposed to go right after Kate Martin76's post 😉

I'm sipping on some 🙂

Just because it tastes good—simple as that.

To be honest, I haven't really crunched the numbers on what our grocery bill will look like once we officially become a family of four (though in my head, we already are 😁). But since kids generally eat and drink way less than adults, it probably won't be a massive shocker 😉

Either way, we both have a major thing for milk in all its forms—cocoa, whole milk, iced coffee, Nesquik, cereal, muesli, you name it—so it definitely takes up a decent chunk of our fridge space.

Some pretty scary stats

Look, you haven't actually proven how bad milk is—you've just shown how much damage is being done by mass-scale industrial production.

We really need to make that distinction.

Besides, getting informed is easy enough if you actually bother to look—it's not that hard.

Check out *Fast Food Nation* by Schlosser—and I don't just mean the burgers and fries at McDonald's; I'm talking about those pinkish sausages you see everywhere. That color is totally synthetic—you'll never find anything like that in an organic grocery store. It’s a real eye-opener...

damien said:It strikes me as odd that nobody’s mentioned milk quality yet. Honestly, I’m seriously considering switching exclusively to buying milk from that one lady at the local farmers market.

Because—take a big brand like Borden, for example—I’ve heard from ladies working in their labs that it’s almost better not to drink it at all.
I highly doubt things are any different with the other big national brands we see in the aisles.

It’ll probably be a long time before the industry actually cleans things up enough for us to know what we're actually swallowing...

The stuff I buy from grocery stores here in Germany (which isn't any better than what you find in American supermarkets) is basically just colored water to me.

I grew up on my grandma’s homemade milk, so now I buy it directly from local farmers here—real milk in glass bottles.

They’re clean, organized, and they get hit with unannounced inspections several times a year; over here, the laws are incredibly strict and the standards are so rigorous that you can't even slap an "organic" label on a bottle without jumping through hoops.
If I miss the farmer's delivery, I'll grab organic from the store—it's not perfect, but at least the cow ate real food. It wasn't stuck on wet, cold concrete in a dark steel barn alongside a thousand others.

At the end of the day, those are just the compromises we make in life.

Knowing exactly what’s on my table and where it came from is huge for me—it’s why I drive a smaller car (though we can all squeeze in if we pack the stroller and the kid in tight), why my house is smaller, and why I don't always grab the most expensive brand at the supermarket... I just refuse to compromise when it comes to food.

You can definitely tackle depression—at least the mild stuff—with just a psychologist. They can't write you a prescription, obviously, but honestly, some people don't even need them.
If they eventually realize you actually *do* need medication, they’ll refer you to a psychiatrist (or just write a note to your primary care doctor to handle the script). They'll also send you off if they spot signs of something more serious, like psychosis and all that.

My husband is seeing a therapist right now to work through some old baggage. He isn't on any meds—he doesn't need them.

He just needs someone neutral to listen—and unfortunately, I can't be that person; it has to be someone outside the family—so he can finally vent everything he's been bottling up for years.

It's not even about depression, really. But if he hadn't started therapy when he did, maybe we would've ended up there.

And what happens when they actually want something? 😕 It’s not like it’s doing any harm.

My kids—the ones at the daycare center—are pretty much used to having a glass of cocoa and a cookie for their mid-morning snack.

I’m basically a self-appointed milk and dairy critic—right now, I’m hitting about a quart a day. Not all at once, obviously; more like a glass in the morning, then some warm cocoa in the evening, plus the occasional shake or something to toss in my granola.
I also have cheese on the menu daily, usually something fresh like a goat cheese or feta.
And yogurt? That was my go-to morning ritual for ages—just grab a probiotic drink and an apple before heading out—though now I just do it when I can find the time. During the day, I'll grab some Kefir or something similar... I think I read somewhere that hard cheeses actually pack more calcium than the soft stuff, though I can't quite remember the specifics.
I totally blanked on the explanation, though.

Personally, I’m a firm believer that our bodies absorb vitamins and minerals much better from actual food than from a pill. I still take multivitamins myself—and added prenatals during my pregnancy—but you just can't rely on supplements to do all the heavy lifting.😉

Rita said:Honestly, I actually prefer the way things used to be at Eurovision. Nowadays, everyone just sings in English—it all starts sounding like the same song after a while. It would’ve been way more interesting if he hadn't felt the need to hide his American roots. He probably would have done better if he'd just sung it in English.🙄

He didn't really have any choreography to carry the performance—so he likely figured if he sang in English, the lyrics wouldn't land with the crowd anyway, leaving him with nothing left to fall back on.

Anyway, my husband actually liked 😉

Alex Wilson said:Just wanted to say thanks for all the help. 🙂

I made it out of the Spa alive—barely.

And everything went exactly how Megan Long96 said it would.

You guys are great—I actually just went ahead and grabbed an annual membership for the Spa. 🙏

🙂Tell me about it...

If you go to http://www.wiesbaden.de/ and search
for the Spa, then click the link for the Spa area, you can see all thirteen different types they offer. I had an annual pass there all last year—and during those particularly rough weeks, I’d just grab a weekend package to reset... felt like being born again.
🙂

Cheers once more from a fellow spa addict. 😁 👋

placidjackal97 said:Does she remind anyone else of that music video from a few years back—you know, that girl group stuck in the mud? It was kind of like Wilderness, filmed at some landfill out in the outskirts of Chicago...😁

My bad—I just got a call from someone back home, turns out the song was actually called Water world.😁

That Ukrainian girl is basically a living Xena.

Does she remind anyone else of that music video from a few years back—you know, that all-female group standing in the mud? It felt a bit like Wilderness, filmed out at some landfill in Brooklyn...😁

Germany votes based on their migrant population size

The thing is, those votes represent what the viewers in Germany actually cast. When you consider how many Turks live over there, it’s pretty obvious they just voted for their own people.

It's an open secret—Turkey is always going to rack up points from Germany because those folks have been gaming the numbers to make sure everything blows up—I guess Berlin's lines just got crossed at some point. 😁