#plus there’s fencing over it now to protect them from big predators (but still big enough for the bunnies to go and leave as they wish | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

justauthoring · 6 years

Text

No Reason To (1/50)

Prompt: “And I guess... when it comes down to it, I trust you.”

It has come to my attention that by adding links to my posts, it stops that post from being seen in the tags tagged. So, sadly, I will no longer be able to tag previous parts of NRT on new chapters. BUT all part can be found easily on my “No Reason To Series MasterList!”

A/N: Well, here it is! Please let me know what you all think! I hope you enjoy the first part and parts to come!

Send me a little comment in the ask section or leave it below on what you thought of this chapter. As usual, I hope you all enjoyed!

AGAIN, remember if you’d like me to continue this series, just leave a little comment or an ask letting me know. I will NOT continue the series if no one wants me to.

Please don’t plagiarize my work - I spend a lot of my time writing, copying and pasting destroys that. If you want to repost my work. please ask first - but even then I might say no.

Pairing: Stiles x McCall!Reader

Based off of: Teen Wolf 01x01

Tag List: @potterheadbbc - @sunsetblake - @mythicalamphitrite - @loverofwaytoomanythings618 - @creamychickenuggets - @mnk - @gazebros - @colie87 - @quilliamfears - @quellum - @pessimisticbullshite - @desired-love- @thinkwritexpress-official If you’d like to be tagged, just let me know! Any in italics are those Tumblr won’t let me tag!

“Scott?”

Said boy paused, a gasp of surprise leaving his lips as he whipped around to face you. You didn’t say anything for a moment, allowing your eyes to fall on the bat he held in his hand up to the wild expression in his face.

Crossing your arms over your chest, you rose a brow; “why do you have a bat?”

Scott looks mildly confused for a moment, staring at you with parted lips and a baffled expression. Then, with a slight tip of your chin, gesturing to said object, he glances down at the baseball bat in his hands; “oh!” He suddenly exclaims, causing you to step back slightly.

“Yes?”

“I... thought I heard a noise.”

You make a ‘o’ shape with your lips, letting your hands fall by your side as you sway on your feet. “So...” You started, taking a step towards him, “you grabbed a bat?”

Scott looks genuinely surprised for a moment, as if he can’t begin to fathom why you would ask such a question. “I have to protect you and mom!”

You snort, biting your lip in an attempt to stop yourself from grinning and bursting out in laughter. It doesn’t work.

“Hey!” Scott exclaims, expression turning into one of hurt as he lets his body un-tense, bat falling by his side.

“Oh, shush up, you big baby,” you tease, walking forward until you’re past him, nudging him with your elbow slightly. You walk a few more steps before realizing he hasn’t followed you, and with a glance back, you raise your brow once more. “Coming?”

Scott blinks, “you are?”

“Well, yeah,” you sigh, as if that was obvious. “I wanna see what scared you so much!”

Scott sighs, his cheeks somewhat red in embarrassment and then he’s walking, catching up to you. You let him fall in front, not wanting to hurt his man-pride anymore than you already have. And the two of you continue to walk in silence until you are both on the front porch and Scott has his bat raised protectively once more.

You can’t help it, but you feel your heart beat quicken a little bit at the silence and darkness that surrounds the both of you. You may have made fun of it only a moment ago, but you can’t help but feel slightly thankful that Scott has that bat now.

The two of you continue to inch around the front porch, the atmosphere tense until you suddenly hear a bristling noise and there’s a body popping upside down in front of you. You and Scott both scream, Scott immediately raising his bat threateningly in response as you grab a hold of his shoulders and cower behind him.

It takes you a moment to realize that it isn’t just you and Scott screaming, and rather another.

“Stiles, what the hell are you doing?!”

“You weren’t answering your phone!” Stiles’s screeches in response, until his head turns slightly to the left. “Why do you have a bat?”

“He thought you were a predator,” you cut in, stepping out past Scott with a small smile on your lips. Stiles meets your eyes for a second, the background dimming to the back of your mind. It’s just a moment where Stiles is the only one you can focus on, him the same, before Stiles’s snaps out of his stupor.

“A predator?” He squeaked, coughing slightly. “I-wha-look, I know it’s late, but you gotta hear this.”

Crossing your arms over your chest, you lean back on your feet. “This should be good.”

“I saw,” Stiles continues, ignoring your little comment. “my dad leave twenty minutes ago. Dispatch called. They’re bringing in every officer from the Beacon department and even state police.”

“For what?” Scott grumbles.

“Two joggers found a body in the woods.” Stiles explains before flipping himself up and over so he’s back on his feet.

“A dead body?” You question, taking a step forward to lean over the fencing.

Stiles pops up, “no, a body of water,” he deadpans. “Yes, a dead body.”

“Hey!” You exclaim, brows furrowing in indignation.

You and Scott step back, giving Stiles room to hop over the fence and land in front of the both of you.

“You mean like murdered?” Scott adds, finally setting down the bat.

“Nobody knows yet,” Stiles clarifies, sighing. “Just that it was a girl, probably in her twenties.”

“Hold on,” Scott argued, “if they found the body, then what are they looking for?”

A smile fell on Stiles’s lips as he leaned back in excitement; “that’s the best part.” He pauses a moment for dramatic affect. “They only found half.”

Oh God, that didn’t mean-

“We’re going.”

“I don’t think that’s suc-”

Stiles ignores you, stepping forward and grabbing a hold of both yours and Scott’s wrists, tugging you forward. You turn to look at Scott, trying to tell him, through your eyes, that this is a bad idea. Very bad idea. But he’ll barely even look at you.

Sighing, you pull your wrist out of Stiles’s wrist, causing both boys to halt and look at you.

“I’m not going,” you state, shaking your head as you take another step back.

“What?” Stiles screeches, once again. “But Y/N, this is the-”

“Nope,” you interrupt, waving your hands out before you. “And neither should you two. Not only is it dangerous, but if your dad catches you, Stiles...”

“That’s the best part! The fun is in the thrill of danger!”

You turn to Scott; “Scott?”

He doesn’t look at you right away, hesitating at first before you clear your throat, making sure he knows your patience is wearing thin. Then, finally, he turns his head to glance at you, and you already know what he’s going to say by the look in his eyes.

“Oh, Scott...” You sigh.

“Come on!” Stiles exclaims, his lips curled into a bright and excited grin. “It’ll be fun!”

“Maybe for you two,” you rebut, “but not me.”

Turning around, you move until your back is facing the both of them, heading towards the front door. Just as you’re open to pull it open, your hand resting on the door knob, you turn to see both boys still looking at you. With a small shake of your head, you wave your hand. “Have fun for me!” You call, smiling.

“You’re sure you don’t wanna come?” Scott calls back, hesitating a moment longer.

“I’m sure! Besides, we have school tomorrow, remember?”

“As you all know, there was indeed a body found in the woods last night.”

With your head resting in the palm of your hands, you can’t help but notice your brother turn around, meeting Stiles’s gaze across from him who winks in response. Rolling your eyes, you turn your attention back to the front of.

Boys...

“And I am sure your eager little minds are coming up with various macabre scenarios as to what happened. But I am here to tell you that the police have a suspect in custody, which means you can give your undivided attention to the syllabus which is on your desk outlining this semester.”

A serious of groans follows your teacher’s words, you even following along with a small groan of your own.

Picking up your head, you pick up the piece of paper your teacher was talking about, setting it down before grabbing a hold of your pencil. Just as you’re about to get started on your syllabus, you notice Scott flinch out of the corner of your eye, his body freezing up in response.

With furrowed brows, you watch him look around the classroom, before spinning around in his seat, facing you.

“Scott?” You whisper, voice hushed; “you okay?”

“Yeah,” he replies, and something tells you he doesn’t really mean it. “Yeah, i’m fine.” He turns back around before you can say anything more.

You hesitate a moment longer before focusing back onto your work, watching the back of your brothers head suspiciously before shrugging. There’s not much you can do now, and if he says he’s fine, well... you’re just going to have to take his word for it.

Plus, you’d know if something really was wrong - he’s your twin.

A moment later, the classroom door opens and your principal steps in, followed by a pretty brunet haired girl.

“Class, this is our new student, Allison Argent,” he introduces, and she offers a nervous smile in response. “Please do your best to make her feel welcome.” He leaves then, and Allison steps into the classroom, walking past two aisles before stepping into the one you and your brother are in, taking the empty seat in front of him.

Once again, just as you’re about to go back to your syllabus, you see Scott lean forward, tapping the new girls shoulder.

She spins, eyes narrowed in confusion before they fall on the pen Scott’s holding out for her. “Thanks,” she says, her lips curling into a soft smile, but her eyebrows twitch slightly in bewilderment.

Well, that was... odd.

“We’ll begin with Kafka’s metamorphosis, on page one hundred and thirty-three.”

“That jacket is... absolutely killer. Where’d you get it?”

“My mom was a buyer for a boutique back in San Francisco.”

“And you are my new best friend.”

Out of the corner of your eye, you notice Jackson sweep in next to Lydia, wrapping an arm around her waist, the two of them smiling at one another, before they start making out.

“And i’m Y/N,” you finally speak, pulling Allison’s gaze on you.

“Oh,” she exclaims, her lips curling into a polite grin. “I’m Al-”

“Allison,” you finish, smiling with a nod. “Yeah, I know. We just had first period together.”

“Right,” she nods.

“Don’t mind Lydia,” you whisper with a grin, fully aware Lydia can hear you, leaning forward slightly. “She’s a bit... sudden, but she means well.”

“Of course I mean well,” Lydia replies, butting back into the conversation as she sends you a smirk. “I’m Lydia,” she introduces, setting a hand against her chest before gesturing to Jackson who’s stood beside her. “And this is Jackson. You are?”

“Allison,” you answer for the girl, turning to the couple. “If you weren’t too busy making out, you would’ve known that.”

“Oh, I heard,” Lydia smiles, “just thought I should be polite.”

Rolling your eyes, you laugh lightly, nodding your head. Sometimes, it’s best to just agree with Lydia.

“So,” Lydia continues, turning to Allison. “This weekend, there’s a party.”

“A party?” Allison questions.

“Yeah...” Jackson nods, “Friday night.”

“You should come,” you offer, smiling up at the girl.

“Uh, I can’t,” Allison explains, shrugging her shoulders. “It’s family night this Friday. Thanks for asking.”

“You’re sure?” Jackson frowns, “I mean, everyone’s going after the scrimmage.”

“You mean like football?”

“Footballs’ a joke in Beacon,” Jackson explains, leaning against the locker. “The sport here is lacrosse. We’ve won the state championship for the past three years.”

Leaning back, Lydia wraps her arms around Jackson; “because of a certain team captain.” With a grin, and a slight giggle, she presses a kiss against his cheek.

You look away in slight discomfort.

You love Lydia, but sometimes being the third-wheel sucked.

“Well, we have practice in a few minutes. That is, if you don’t have anywhere else--”

“Well, I was going to--”

“Perfect,” Lydia interrupts, “you’re coming.”

Lydia grabs a hold of Allison’s wrist, pulling her forward but her head turns around, meeting your eyes. “You coming, Y/N?”

The three of them stop and you part your lips to answer before your gaze falls to your left. Catching sight of both Scott and Stiles, you send a quick smile; “i’ll catch up later. Save me a seat!”

“Of course!” Lydia calls back.

“Oh no,” you hear Jackson groan, pulling your eyes on him. “Don’t tell me-”

“Play nice, Whittemore,” you warn teasingly, pointing a finger at him. “He’s still my brother.”

“But you’re so much cooler!”

“Yeah, yeah!” Laughing lightly, you turn your back to your friends, lightly jogging over to Scott and Stiles who are leaning against the lockers. With a bright smile, you stop before them; “hey,” you breathe, “ready for practice?”

“Oh, yes. Of course I am. Ready to embarrass myself.” Stiles groans.

“Hey,” you call, frowning. “That’s not true. Besides, i’ll be there to cheer the both of you on.”

“Thanks,” Stiles grins, shaking his head.

You smile back, turning to Scott to at least get a thank you in return as well but he’s just staring, seemingly past your shoulder. Following his line of vision, your eyes fall on the spot you were stood in not two seconds ago. A light bulb goes off in your head.

“Ooh, new girl, huh?”

Scott blinks, as if registering, finally, that you’re there. “Huh?”

“Allison,” you repeat, “you’ve got a thing for the new girl.”

“I do not.”

Turning to Stiles, you grin; “he so does.”

“I don’t know what it was.”

Following behind Stiles, you furrow your brows at Scott’s words.

“It was like I had all the time in the world to catch the ball,” Scott adds, picking up the pace in his step as he takes a moment to glance back at the two of you. “And that’s not the only weird thing. I can... hear stuff I shouldn’t be able to hear. Smell things.”

“Smell things?” Stiles asked, “like what?”

“Like the mint mojito gum in your pocket.”

Pausing, Stiles shakes his head, “I don’t even have any mint mojito-” He pauses once again, face scrunching up as he pulls out the exact piece of gum Scott had just been talking about.

It takes you a moment to process the information, but the moment you do, you don’t believe it. “Just hold on a moment,” you call, never taking a step forward, causing the two boys to halt again, turning to face you. “You haven’t even explain to me why we’re out here. Or what exactly happened last night that led you to be able to hear and do these things?”

Scott pauses, glancing at Stiles, reluctant.

“Well, you’re the one that forced me to come out with the both of you!” You remind your brother, impatient. “I could’ve been out, being your wing-woman for Allison-”

“Okay, okay,” Scott sighs, interrupting you as he steps forward, reaching you. You jerk back in surprise when he lifts his shirt, your lips opening in indignation before you see the large bandage on the side of his hip. Your eyes widen in concern, lips parting in bafflement.

“Scott, what-”

“I was bit last night.”

Hold on. “By what?”

“A wolf.”

“What he thinks is a wolf,” Stiles cuts in, popping his head past Scott’s shoulder.

“Okay...” You say, slowly. “And you think that’s the reason that all this has been happening?”

“It has to be.”

“And... why are we here?”

“Because it happened here, in the forest, last night.”

Nodding once more, you, Scott and Stiles start walking once more, still puzzled. “So, all this started with a bite?”

“What if it’s like an infection,” Scott mumbles, trying to make sense of it all. “Like my body’s flooding with adrenaline before I go into shock or something?”

“You know what?” Stiles comments, “I actually think I’ve heard of this - it’s a specific kind of infection.”

Scott pauses, whipping around to face Stiles. You do the same, anxious.

“Are you serious?”

“Yeah, yeah,” Stiles nods, “I think it’s called lycanthropy.”

“What’s that?” You asked, voice pitching in panic.

“Is that bad?”

“Oh, yeah, it’s the worst. But only once a month.”

With just those four last words, your shoulders slump, worry dissipating.

Scott reels his head back, still too gullible for his own good, confused; “once a month?”

“Mm-hmm,” Stiles mumbles, “On the night of the full moon.”

Slapping yourself in the forehead, you groan as Stiles imitates (poorly, by the way) a wolf’s howl. “Jesus Christ...”

“Hey, man...” Scott snaps, slapping Stiles in the chest before turning and continuing to walk.

“Hey, you’re the one who heard a wolf howling,” Stiles reminds, making a funny face.

Rolling your eyes, you cross your arms over your chest, hanging back.

“Hey, there could be something seriously wrong with me,” Scott argues, and you frown. It seems a little far-fetched that he’s actually able to do all that he says he is, but he’s not wrong. There could be something wrong with him.

“I know!” Stiles exclaims, “you’re a werewolf! Rrr!”

“Okay,” you butt in, meeting Stiles’s eyes. “That’s enough.”

“Okay,” Stiles’s chuckles, “obviously, i’m kidding. But if you see me in shop class trying to melt all the silver I can find, it’s cause Friday’s a full moon.”

“Stiles,” you call, pulling the boys eyes on you. “He’s not a werewolf.”

You move to walk forward, only then noticing, as Stiles lets out one more soft chuckle, that Scott has suddenly stopped. “No, I-I could have sworn this was it. I saw the body, the deer came running.” He bends down, touching the leaves. “I dropped my inhaler.”

“You lost your inhaler?” You exclaim, eyes widening. What else hadn’t he told you?

“Maybe the killer moved the body,” Stiles offers.

“If he did, I hope he left my inhaler.”

“He better have,” you sigh, shaking your head. “Those things are like eighty bucks.” Stiles and Scott continue to look (uselessly) at the ground, and as you raise your head, gazing around the forest, you never expect to see a man standing to your left. Jumping slightly, a gasp leaves your lips, flinching back.

“Um... guys,” you whisper, slapping Stiles repeatedly in the shoulder.

He looks up, flinching just like you had when he sees what caused you to panic. Doing the same thing you’d done to him, he slaps Scott’s shoulders, pulling the boys attention on the man stood in front of you.

Just as Scott stands up, the man starts walking towards the three of you.

“What are you doing here?” He stops once he reaches you guys; “huh? This is private property.”

“Uh. sorry man,” Stiles apologizes, rubbing at the back of his nervously. “We didn’t know.”

“Yeah,” Scott continues, “we were just looking for something, but... uh, forget it. Umm.”

You blink when the man pulls his left hand out of his pocket, tossing Scott exactly what he’d been looking for - Scott’s inhaler.

He turns then, sending the three of you one last threatening look before walking off.

“All right,” Scott mumbles, “I gotta get to work.”

“Dude,” Stiles moves, slapping Scott in the chest. “That was Derek Hale. You guys remember, right? He’s only like a few years older than us.”

“Remember what?” You shrug.

“His family,” Stiles clarifies, “They all burned to death in a fire, like, ten years ago.”

“I wonder what he’s doing back.”

Eyeing the distant figure of Derek Hale, you shrug your shoulders. “I’m not complaining.”

Both boys send you an affronted look.

“What! He’s cute!”

Raising your hand, you knocked three times on Stiles’s door, clasping your hands behind your back once you were done. Swinging back and forth on your feet, you bite your lip, glancing around the hallway as you patiently wait.

A moment later, the door is practically ripped open, Stiles’s panicked expression the first thing you see.

Immediately, your smile falls and is replaced by a look of concern. “Stiles?”

Without even a single word, Stiles leans forward, grabbing a hold of your wrist and practically yanking you inside. A yelp leaves your lips in response, eyes widening as he slams the door shut behind you. “Stiles, what the hell-”

“Just look!” He interrupts, grabbing a hold of his desk chair and spinning it. For a moment you’re baffled, wondering exactly what you’re looking for, before you see the three large claw marks on the back of the chair. Whatever animal did that, it clawed right through the leather of the chair.

“Oh my god,” you mumbled, pressing a hand against your lips. “Stiles, what did that-”

“Scott.”

You blink, finally pulling your eyes off the chair to meet Stiles’s eyes. “What?”

“Scott did it,” he repeats, eyes still wide with panic.

“Stiles, what are you even talking about? That isn’t possible,” you shake your head, thoroughly baffled and confused. “There’s no way in hell that Scott did that. Those claw marks are from an animal... oh my god.”

“Yeah,” Stiles nods, stepping past the chair so he’s stood before you. He takes a few steps forward, growing somewhat uncomfortably close. “That joke from yesterday? Not a joke.”

“But,” you pause, unsure. “How is that even possible? Werewolf’s are just things of fictions.”

“Apparently not,” Stiles panics, “and tonight’s a full moon.”

Your eyes widen, if possible, even more. “Allison.”

When you’d heard that Scott had asked Allison out to the party and she’d said yes, you’d been ecstatic for him. But now... all you felt was dread.

“Exactly.”

Opening the passengers door to Stiles’s jeep, you shrug.

“She’s okay?”

“Yeah,” you nod your head, “she’s okay.”

Stiles bites his lip, shaking his head in bafflement.

“I mean, that’s a good thing, right?” You clarify, “she’s safe.”

“Yeah,” Stiles nods, slowly. “Just doesn’t make sense.”

You nod too, unable to find any words that would better say that yes, you agree. None of this made sense. “I just still can’t believe this is real. My brother’s... a werewolf... I mean, that doesn’t even make any sense.”

You expect Stiles to reply, but instead, it’s just silent. With furrowed brows, you pick up your head, turning to look at him only to find Stiles already staring back at you. “Stiles?”

“Why’d you believe me so quickly?” He asks suddenly, causing you to blink. “I mean, when I tried to tell Scott, he didn’t believe me. Or... didn’t want to believe. But I didn’t really have to say or explain anything and you just knew... How?”

Biting your lip, you gaze out the front window, thinking. Why did you believe him so easily? Why had you just known that like and how?

“I guess... part of me thought it could be real even yesterday, when you were joking.”

Another moment of silence passes the both of you and you don’t miss the way Stile’s gaze lowers, and his shoulders fall.

“And... because I trust you.”

And just like that, he’s alert, snapping his gaze to you with wide eyes. “What?”

Turning to him, you meet his gaze, no sense of hesitation. “I trust you. So I had no reason to doubt you.”

Stiles glances down at his lap, grip tightening on his steering wheel. “You do?”

“Yeah,” you shrug, laughing lightly to dissipate the tense atmosphere that had flooded the car. “I mean, I’ve known you since I was little, Stiles. Of course I trust you.”

“Oh,” Stiles mumbles, “yeah, yeah. Of course.”

let me know what you thought of the first part!!

and... would you guys like to see more?

3K notes · View notes

evolutionsvoid · 6 years

Photo

While there are many species out there that get mislabeled as "monsters" and "maneaters," the manticore species is one that somewhat earns that title (though I still would be hesitant to call them full blown monsters). This comes from their carnivorous nature and the way they hunt and consume prey. To flesh-based species, manticores are terrifying beasts that are impossible to kill and are capable of devouring even the mightiest of warriors. In reality, they are not all that mythical, it is just that their anatomy and behavior makes them incredibly efficient creatures. Manticores are related to snails and slugs, though they are considerably larger than most others in that class. Though their anatomy may make one think otherwise, they are invertebrates. This lack of bone and spine is probably why hunters and warriors believe these creatures to be incredibly agile and tough. With no bones to hold them back, they are capable of contorting and bending their body in odd ways, which they often do to avoid attacks. Even if a blade were to hit them and penetrate their armor, their thick flesh would protect major organs from damage. To do real harm, you need a long piercing weapon to get past their scales and shells, and through their flexible flesh to hit something vital. This would be hard enough as it is without all those spines and paralytic venom. Manticores can be found in environments that have regular rainfall or are damp for most of the year. This allows them to live in habitats that range from temperate to tropical, but also places like marshes, bogs and even caves. The only places you would never find them in are lands that see extreme heat or cold, as it would wreck havoc on their moist bodies. The other thing they require is large prey for sustenance. When encountering a manticore in the wild, you may find it in one of two different states: hunting or sleeping. While many see them as voracious predators, they are actually quite lazy creatures for a good chunk of their lives. When they are active, then they come off as deadly carnivores, as they partake in the hunt. When searching for prey, manticores stalk the landscape in search of food, moving in a slow, but methodical, manner. This speed helps them hide from predators and prey, as well give them time to analyze potential food sources. What the manticore is looking for is a large animal that is unwary of their presence. They do not like small prey, like rabbits or squirrels, as they are not worth the effort. They want something big and juicy, a creature that will fill their stomach in one sitting. When they spot the perfect target, like a deer drinking at a watering hole, they will creep up towards them until they are in striking range. In a flash, the manticore will whip its tail forward and use its famous deadly weapon.

Coating their long tail are dozens of razor-sharp spines that contain a paralyzing venom. While this appendage could physically strike a foe to take them down, the manticores prefer a more long ranged approach. The spines that grow from the tail have very thin bases within the flesh, giving them a rather poor anchor. The muscles that surround them can actually tighten around the spine and snap the base in half, causing it to become loose and fall out. When a manticore whips its tail towards prey, its muscles will break these spines at the right moment to cause them to fly free from the appendage. The result is a spray of spiny shards that will slice or embed themselves in prey. This attack is not very accurate, but with the amount of spines that are launched, it usually results in two or three hitting the target. Even a glancing blow is good, as just a drop of their paralytic venom will slow prey down and weaken them. After the initial attack, the manticore will let the prey flee, waiting for the venom to take effect. Within minutes, the victim will tire themselves out and succumb to its effects. A few glancing cuts from their spines will result in weak limbs and difficulty breathing, while full penetration from a few spines will cause full blown paralysis. After the prey falls, the manticore will stroll over and assess their meal. If the victim is still moving and kicking, it will unravel its facial tendrils and jab them with their venomous barbs. This will inject a lethal dose, which will shut down the lungs and cause asphyxiation. If prey is full paralyzed and still alive, the manticore won't bother with adding more venom. Their mouths will stretch out from their head shells and distend. Made of strong, flexible flesh, their maw is capable of opening to incredible sizes, which they use to engulf fallen prey. Hundreds of tiny sharp "teeth" will bite into the victim to hold them in place while it slowly swallows them. This act takes several minutes, or even longer depending on the size of its prey. It will swallow them whole, transferring them into a stretchy stomach that can hold the huge load of food. Their unarmed underbellies will swell and balloon, giving them a rather fat appearance after a meal. With a full belly, the manticore will seek out safe shelter and go into its resting state. During this time, they will lay in on spot for days ir weeks on end, slowly digesting their food. Predators or attackers who approach them will get a face full of spines, as they lash their tail out at anything that approaches them. If you know someone who is quite ornery when you try to wake them from their slumber or get them out of bed, then you now know why people jokingly compare these folk to manticores. To avoid becoming prey themselves, manticores have several defenses that make them difficult to take down. The spine-flinging tail is the big one, as it makes even getting near them incredibly difficult. The facial tendrils with the barbs are used when foes come in close, and can strike with lightening speeds. Manticores also boast thick shells on their head, back and forelimbs, which can deflect blades and arrows. Coating their bodies is a layer of thick scales that can repel blows and swipes. Each scale is anchored to a muscle, allowing them to move their armor about at will. With this, they can cause their scales to concentrate on a single area in anticipation of a strike, causing the attack to be even less effective. They can also send ripples through their scaly coat as a method of communication, either with their own species or attackers. When their scales are standing up on end and vibrating, then you know they are agitated and ready to strike. When manticores are seeking mates for the breeding season, their scales will ripple like a grassy field in the wind. The speed of this rippling effect will increase as they approach a possible mate, hoping to see if the potential partner will do the same. If the two accept one another, the movements of their scales will become synchronized. Being hermaphrodites, both manticores will take on eggs after they mate and separate. These eggs are laid by the dozens in hidden, wet places, like rotting logs or small caves. Manticores are well known for their venomous tail and flying spines, but most of their notoriety comes from the fact that they seem to have accepted humans as suitable prey. Something about man's size and behavior makes them a reliable food source, so manticores will purposefully head towards the outskirts of settlements and cities to nab a bite. Due to their resilient nature and venomous spray, they are difficult creatures to slay and are quite feared by poorly defended settlements. The walled cities of humanity do not have to fear too much, but the poor village that can hardly support a sturdy fence has plenty to be worried about. What makes them even scarier is the fact that they swallow victims whole. The idea of a person completely vanishing without a trace is terrifying, though intriguing to certain criminal elements. If one could arrange for a certain target to somehow "accidentally" run into a manticore, then no one would have to worry about cleanup. Fighting off manticores that bed down near settlements is a harsh task, and many town guards will outright refuse to try. It is much better to find a magic user to hit the beasts with ice or fire, as a sword and shield is laughably ineffective. One neat thing, though, that some poorer communities have discovered is that manticores dislike salt just as much as their smaller brethren. By taking sea salt and adding it into water filled sacs, folks have been able to craft "salt bombs" to launch at invading manticores. The salty water is not lethal, but quite painful to their wet flesh. A few good hits in with these have successfully driven off these beasts, though it still calls for one to get within throwing range. People who live alone in the woods may lay down a circle of salt around their property, which will ward away roaming manticores. It also supposedly is good for keeping away ghosts and other bad spirits, so that is a plus! The question is, though, which came first? Did they try to use salt to scare away poltergeists and realized it kept these snail beasts away as well? Or did someone throw down salt at a manticore and think "you know what else would hate this? GHOSTS!" Stuff to ponder about... Chlora Myron Dryad Natural Historian

#manticore #snail #monster #creature #gastropod #mythical beasts #mythical creatures #art #drawing

17 notes · View notes

blumenwrites · 7 years

Text

Erejean Week 2k17-Apocalypse

so usually I don’t join in for these ship weeks but the erejean tag is so dead nowadays and I haven’t written nearly enough for these two a03 link should be up later when the site is working again :(( nevertheless I actually???? met???? a deadline???? wild

Out of the many things Eren missed one of them was the birds. Growing up in the countryside had meant that every morning he would wake to their screeching as they prattled about the trees right next to Eren's window. Even in the evening they would carry on shrieking as if they weren't already being annoying enough. Once, a bird had miraculously flow into his room (to this day he still had no clue how since all the windows were sealed shut) and he had yell at it and direct it towards the open window with pool noodles before it took the hint. At least there aren't any pigeons Jean had said and added besides aren't birds chirping supposed to be sweet? before moving on to complain about how he didn't appreciate Shiganshina for the great place it was and why city life was objectively The Worst. Although he still didn't quite see the charm in those flappy fucks, whilst lying in bed with only the static air to keep him company he had to admit that maybe there was a novelty in the twittering and tweeting of sparrows in the morning.

Eren shifted his head when he heard the door open to reveal Jean walking over towards the bed with a plate of scrambled eggs and a crooked grin.

“Get back in bed,” Eren groaned through a slow yawn, holding open the duvet in invitation and really, how was Jean to resist? He placed the plate on the bedside table and pulled Eren by the waist closer to place a kiss on his forehead. Eren mourned the loss of Jean's stubble from last night but appreciated the scent of lemon soap lingering on his throat and chin. He ran a hand through Jean's thick hair and hummed.

“You need to cut your hair,” Eren mumbled, voice still thick with sleep.

“Hm, only if you do it for me,” Jean replied. “Come on, Eren, you need to get up,” he coaxed as he played with the straps of Eren's tank-top that needed washing. Later. Everything could wait until later.

“No,” Eren whined as if he were a petulant child, burying his head into Jean's shoulder.

“I milked the cows for you but the stables aren't gonna clean themselves.”

“You're not selling this very well.”

“Eren. Get up.”

Eren burrowed himself under the sheets, encasing himself in a protective cocoon. That was until Jean cruelling ripped the covers away, exposing him to the comparatively frigid temperature of the room.

“Ugh, fine! By the way, I'm breaking up with you,” Eren scowled, ripping off his pajamas to change into his usual flannel shirt and jeans.

“Love you too,” Jean beamed and god, Eren hated how cheesy it felt to say it, but it felt like stepping into the sun for the first time after a long winter.

Staggering into their shared bathroom, Eren frowned at the flecks of shaving foam that Jean hadn't cleaned off the mirror and the toothpaste growing crusty in the sink. He never was particularly fussy about cleanliness but then he had met Levi and ever since even seeing a speck of dust made him recoil. Unfortunately, Levi's wrath hadn't had the same effect on Jean, meaning their bedroom floor was normally scattered with yesterday's clothes before Eren could pick them up, leading to a lot of raised eyebrows and muffled laughter from their friends.

Although Eren missed commercial toothpaste their own-brand baking soda concoction did the job well enough. It wouldn't be uncommon for them to just forego a typical cleanliness regime but basic hygiene was one of the few things keeping Eren on the borderline of sanity. Plus, morning breath was something no one wanted to deal with.

Eren finished his plate that Jean had prepared and made a mental note to thank him once his fury at that morning's betrayal had simmered down. He trudged down the aching stairs and cursed the sun that blinded him the moment he stepped outside. It was an irritatingly bright, cheerful day and Eren just wanted to crawl back to bed.

“Afternoon, Eren,” Armin greeted with a wide smile.

“I've just woken up, therefore, it's morning,” Eren grumbled, feeling far too much like an old man for someone who was only twenty-five. “Do you need any help?” Eren nudged his head towards the weeds Armin was pulling up.

“Don't worry, I've got this for now. Some of the carrots are already prepared for harvest though so if you could get around to that later that'd be great.”

“Okay, I'll do it soon.”

They departed with mutual waves and continued to their respective jobs. When Eren wandered into the stables he spotted Jean brushing off the amounting dust on Julius' flank, face sour but his shoulders relaxed. Eren picked up a stray comb and began picking out straw from his mane.

“This little shit, honestly, I swear he was rolling in his hay for the fun of it. And he knocked over his water on purpose too,” Jean grumbled, brows creasing in a way that never ceased to make Eren snigger.

“I understand where he's coming from. Pissing you off is incredibly fun,” Eren laughed as he tugged at a particularly intricate knot.

“I hate you both,” Jean scowled like a wet cat. Eren blew a kiss that was not received kindly.

Even so, they worked comfortably in silence for the rest of the afternoon, tending to the stables, checking the water supply, harvesting early food, and salting the meat for storage. When the sundial indicated that it was nearing seven, Eren and Jean walked down together towards the perimeter to greet a tired looking Mikasa and Annie. Eren's nose twitched at the scent of decay and ash.

“One zombie in the morning neared the fence and we burned the body as protocol,” Annie explained as Mikasa swung off her crossbow to hand it to Eren. “Other than that, no activity like normal. There's six arrows and two rounds left for the rifle.”

“Anything else to report?” Jean prompted whilst positioning himself on his usual branch of the thick oak tree that was probably older than earth itself.

“No. As always, be careful,” Mikasa said before turning to join the others for dinner. Eren would be bitter he was missing roast night but he had already made Mikasa take his shift the night before so it was only fair.

Staying on watch was a painfully dreary job that included a whole lot of doing nothing but they had learned to appreciate the quiet after months of running from shack to shack with danger waiting to pounce around every corner. Making it to Armin's grandfather's farmhouse had been a massive risk and yes, they complained and about the back-breaking upkeep but everyday Eren was grateful for their safe haven in what would otherwise be hell on earth.

“Eren, look!” Jean stage-whispered, jerking his head over the fence. Eren searched the green but empty terrain beyond and located what Jean was staring at. What looked to be a small ball of fluff that could easily fit within one's hand was sniffing around, padding around to twitch its nose at the strands of overgrown grass.

“Wow, when was the last time we saw an animal outside the gates?” Eren mused aloud. Even without the buzzing of the electric wired fence and the scavenged barricade of rusted materials and pikes to ward off predators, most animals had been infected or eaten at this point.

“It must have been a year ago with the dear Connie spotted,” Jean answered. Eren had felt guilty for having to shoot it but it had provided a week's worth of food for the entire group. Besides, even if they had let it go, eventually it would have been bitten but this, a small, harmless rabbit, this they could appreciate.

“Mikasa and I used to have a rabbit when we were younger,” Eren reminisced, the sudden memory of begging his mother to allow him to get a pet gracing a smile to his lips.

“What was its name?” Jean asked, beaming at Eren in a way he never would've imagined anyone to look at him. The sun caught the flecks of gold in his eyes and Eren was momentarily stunned.

“She was called Flopsy,” Eren replied, turning his head slightly to hide his blush. Jean snorted, causing Eren to chuck a pebble at him.

“I'm sorry, I just didn't expect you to be so predictable. What else, did you have a black and white dog called Oreo?” Jean snickered.

“God, I want Oreos again,” Eren groaned. They shared a moment of silence for all the junk food that was no longer a ten-minute walk away. At least they would never have to relive that month on canned runner beans again. Now even looking at peas made him flinch.

“I think Sasha was mentioning that she was working on a doughnut recipe,” Jean offered in reassurance.

“If this ever blows over the first thing I'm doing is going to McDonalds and ordering six Big Macs, five Oreo McFlurry's, and three chocolate milkshakes to go with it.”

“Eren, don't; we haven't eaten yet.”

“What would you go for?”

“I'd go to Krispy Kreme and eat an entire Premium Dozen for myself and no one could stop me.”

“Same. Sometimes it's just the pointless shit I miss, you know? Family and security in knowing I have the next day in front of me aside sometimes I just miss ordering Dominos at 11 p.m. for my hangover the next day.”

“Yeah.”

The sun was beginning to sink and the rabbit had gone. Eren glanced at Jean and smiled softly with a gentle sigh, taking his offered palm in his, stroking his fingers along the callouses and scrapes.

“When society gets its shit back together again we're gonna go on one of those food tours around America and eat twice our weight in greasy food,” Jean promised with a grin that made Eren's heartbeat stutter.

Eren squeezed his palm and leaned against his bony yet comforting shoulder.

“I'd like that.”

#my writing #erejean #jeanere #erejean week 2k17 #erejeanweek2k17 #au #alternate universe #fanfic #fic #fanfiction #snk #aot #shingeki no kyojin #attack on titan #one shot

31 notes · View notes

fitnesswomenshealth-blog · 6 years

Text

5 Reasons that counting calories will make you dumb and fat

New Post has been published on https://cialiscom.org/5-reasons-that-counting-calories-will-make-you-dumb-and-fat.html

5 Reasons that counting calories will make you dumb and fat

If you’re trying to lose weight, let me guess…

Have you weighed yourself too often? Counted food calories too often? Counted exercise calories too often?

Obviously, if you burn more calories than you consume, you’ll lose weight.

But how do you do it? What healthy habits can you create to lose weight and keep it off?

A lot of weight loss programs focus on empty processes going for instant calorie deficit. You know the fatigue and epic binging that follow. The orange Cheetos stains might still be on your fingers.

You’ve always felt there should be a healthy AND satisfying way to do food and exercise, but we’ve lost it.

Until recently.

“Ancestral” diets have surfaced, as well as new exercise and lifestyle methods.

If you want to silence the calorie-counting health app on your phone, there are truly effective concepts for weight loss.

Let’s start with these five…

1. Modern wheat was invented in the 1960’s to slow starvation in third world countries. Great idea, iffy results.

Wheat, corn, and soy are out of control.

Understanding that our bodies are the same now as they were 30,000 plus years ago helps guide new research. We evolved as hunter-gatherers with wild sources of food that were scarce.

Farming started only 10,000 years ago. Yet Homo sapiens like us were thriving and evolved eons before.

The Primal Diet, Bulletproof Diet, etc. have preached omitting most grains completely. Research has shown that grain has led to modern diseases for various reasons.

Are you grain-sensitive? Meaning you’re sensitive to me telling you not to eat bread or pasta?

Grain is now 20–50% of the diet in most modern populations. If you’re not eating it directly, you’re eating animals that eat it and taking in lectins and toxins either way.

The current version of wheat grain was invented in the late 1960’s. Norman Borlaug won the Nobel Prize for the new hybrid and his production methods. They would help limit starvation.

It led to a much bigger yield and then over-consumption. Gluten is but one of the lectins in grains. Actually, “whole grains” have even more lectins than white grain products. Lectins cause auto-immune diseases and increased intestinal permeability (leaky gut.)

Lectins upset your body’s internal communications, and hormonal functions get disrupted. That makes weight management and other functions more difficult. Arthritis, Alzheimer’s, Diabetes, and autoimmune diseases are linked to the lectin situation.

Have you tried stopping all grain consumption for a bit? Also, stop the grain-fed dairy you’re consuming. Try it for a month. Switch to grass-fed butter. Eliminate milk and cheese. Double or triple your veggies (not nightshades) and add a little fruit.

Some of these “healthy whole wheat” products are packaged as low calorie, but their lectins make you fat and diseased. It’s easy to be tricked by calorie talk. Artificial sweeteners have zero calories, but study after study prove that they make you fat and diseased.

So, in case of starvation, eat wheat. Other than that, let it die on the shelf. Should take a few months.

2. I can’t get no… satiation.

Don’t you feel like food should be tasty and satisfying. Shouldn’t that lead to not overeating? Why do we want more and more? And more.

Satiety and satiation refer to nutritional signaling to the brain to give you happy satisfaction from your food choices. The signals will tell you to stop. The signaling may also say “Put the pie and the vodka down, you freak.” It depends, your signaling may be a little sassier than mine.

Satiation makes you stop eating, and satiety keeps you feeling satisfied for a while.

For the two S’s you need high-fiber foods, protein, or fat. The fiber and protein might make sense to you, but some of us still think fats are unhealthy. I get it, you’re a bad girl or boy, and you don’t want to be too good to yourself. Keep reading.

Choosing the right fats (non-toxic ones) is huge for being healthy and having satisfaction. Again, the ancestral diets have this down very well. Toxins are stored in fat and meat on animals. So, eating fat from toxic animals will transplant the toxins to you.

Guess what’s wrong with fat from healthy, pastured, grass-fed animals. Nothing.

The toxic fats will start a fat storage process in your body. These inflammatory fats have the same 9 calories per gram as healthy fats. So again, staying lean will not happen from focusing on calories.

Toxic, oxidized oils like soybean and canola will make you fat from inflammation and oxidize your cells, placing you squarely in free-radical city. Free radicals cause inflammation and disease. And they will rip your cardiovascular system to shreds.

There are truckloads of soybean oil and canola in grocery store and restaurant product. These two oils alone might make up over 30% of your total calories! That crap is in everything.

If you want to stay lean, you gotta eat your veggies and leafy greens. Veggies provide satiety from the fiber. They’re also super low-calorie if that still turns you on. The mass of fat-soluble vitamins and minerals in veggies are absorbed if eaten with fat. Plus, the fat makes a veggie portion even more satiating.

Make veggies as delicious as they’re supposed to be. Most of them need to be cooked. Season them nicely, and butter them up. Cook them slowly without killing them completely. Or make a huge salad with lots of olive oil. Remember to stay away from the nightshades with lectins. All ancestral diets will agree.

Are you feeling me yet that only focusing on the number of calories in your food is dumb at best? Satiating, non-inflammatory foods will keep your appetite and fat storage down.

Don’t delete your health app just yet. I’ll show you, it is good for something.

3. Cavemen cooking with fire is what evolved our big ole brains.

Believe it or not, modern humans didn’t evolve to our state until after we began cooking with fire.

That’s right. Our brains didn’t finish their growth past other humanoids until after cooking. The book “Catching Fire” by Richard Wrangham goes into great detail.

The caveman version of chef Gordon Ramsey was cranking up his fire pit and cursing out his entire clan even 40,000 years ago.

We couldn’t scarf enough calories to feed this big ole brain without some cooked foods. Beginning to cook and process more calories is what gave us the larger brain and also guts that were smaller than apes.

The right raw foods are awesome as well, obviously. Avocados, and salad greens come to mind. Some of the diets focusing too much on calories try to use mostly raw foods because they’re so low in calories. They ignore poisonous lectins and think that raw is natural. But cooking, which we’ve done at varying levels for 200,000 plus years is also natural.

Most fruits are going to be good in limited quantities, in season. If fruits or veggies taste good raw, they’re usually good for you raw. If not, they are probably slowly poisoning you with phytates, protease inhibitors, or lectins. Those are the protectants used by plants to slowly poison their predators. Believe it. These little green guys are trying to kill us!

Take a bell pepper for example. It doesn’t seem to taste very good raw, but you may be on the fence. That bell pepper has a lot of the poisonous demons I described. Cooking and removing skin and seeds will help, but some lectins will remain. In Italy tomatoes are deskinned and deseeded to be rid of most lectins.

Gluten is the most famous lectin, and lectins are the reason that almost any wheat, corn or soy product will be harmful with regular use. I refer to Dr. Steven Gundry’s extensive work and helpful lists when it comes to lectins. Lectins aren’t only making us fat. They’re truly killing us.

There is a long list of produce that carry the especially dangerous lectins that includes nightshade vegetables as well as squashes, legumes, cereal grains, white potatoes, soy, corn, and others. This would be why everyone is telling you sweet potatoes are okay but white potatoes are the devil. Nothing to do with calories. The lectins are in fact, the devil.

Here’s some good news while I’m ruining your day trashing all the foods you love. White rice has less lectin than brown rice, and white bread, especially sourdough, is better than whole wheat. Feel better?

4. Mitochondria are so important, humans are mating with them.

You heard me right. Two people use their DNA to mate with a third person’s healthy mitochondrial DNA. Test tube style.

A 3-parent baby. The last time this was legal in America or the EU was back in 2000 when a now 17-year-old named Alana was born.

Mitochondria are unique organelles in most of our cells. They are the power plants of the cell. Uniquely, they have their own DNA. They were originally bacteria hosted in our bodies that became part of us.

Recently, nutrition experts Dave Asprey, Mark Sisson, and Robb Wolf have told us that modern mitochondria are struggling. They need improvement for optimal energy, metabolism, and disease prevention. Food, sleep, drugs, stress, and even artificial light are harming our little partners.

Nutritional ketosis and intermittent fasting are being used by people to reprogram the DNA in mitochondria.

Imagine your mitochondria being so powerful that you can utilize 600 calories a day from compounds called ketones from the liver. That’s 600 less food calories you need for energy. That results in less oxidation, better energy, and better weight management.

With too much carbs and also frequent meals, we’ve created weak and scarce mitochondria that are not burning as much fat as they could.

That’s why everyone is talking about intermittent fasting and ketosis, two methods that build mitochondria. See my article about how I was tricked into nutritional ketosis here…

Clearly, if couples are adding a 3rd anonymous parent to the mix, there’s something to the mito-hysteria.

Would you skip breakfast or decrease carbs every now and then to boost mitochondria and become a fat burner?

It’s not about calorie counting and doesn’t require going hungry. It’s about boosting mitochondria. No need for test tube polygamy, unless you’re just into that.

5. Your prehistoric ancestors never did Pilates or circuit training.

I’m a former Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist (CSCS.) I was a full-time strength & speed coach, mainly for a major college football program, and I’m telling you, we were not meant to exercise.

Great news, right?! Well hold up, don’t strap up your hammock yet. We respond better to lots of “physical activity” than to lots of intense “exercise.”

Physical activity as light as walking or mild yoga is awesome for us, but too much strenuous exercise can be detrimental. Walking is good for fat burning in a hormonal way, not necessarily for the calories burned.

Obviously, athletes the world over are doing frequent, intense work with great success, but they are usually in their teens and 20’s. They usually don’t have insulin resistance yet from all the carbs and protein required. They can also afford to sleep like crazy, supplement like crazy, and do any modern training methods to recover and get the job done. They’ve had hundreds more ice baths than you.

Do not train like an athlete unless someone is paying you handsomely. And get a good, guaranteed contract.

Nothing good happens in your body without hormones. Growth hormone, for example, burns fat and builds muscle. Deep sleep is a big factor in growth hormone production among other things. Many factors affect testosterone production, and it’s also a crucial hormone, and there is much more to the endocrine system than just these two.

If you’re doing things right, you aim to do the minimal effective dose to get the hormonal results you want. Too much training can stimulate the stress hormones like cortisol. That’s bad unless you like more sugar in your bloodstream. The Russians did oodles of exercise research in the 1980’s as they were going to ridiculous measures to win the Olympics. I think they won a few medals, and much research has been done since.

We’ve learned that time under tension in a weight-lifting workout drastically improves the hormonal response that will build muscle and burn fat.

The time under tension workout in Dr. Doug McGuff’s book “Body by Science” will do in 12 minutes a week what you accomplish in three 45-minute workouts. It does more actually, and yes, that’s 12 minutes per 7 days. I still do a second lifting session, with a few heavy lifts and a lot of stretching and maintenance work. Nothing intense.

I can’t believe I used to do 3–4 long lifting sessions a week for worse results. Too much lifting also got me into sleep deprivation and adrenal fatigue, which increased food cravings and fat storage.

Those McGuff workouts include all of 5 sets total, one set of each exercise. Each set is about 5 super slow reps(about 10 sec up/10sec down) with the set lasting 90 seconds to 2 minutes. You get to failure on each set with very little time between sets. Believe me 90 seconds is an absolute eternity, much less 5 of those back to back. Go for it, you’ll see.

The hormonal response to this workout is off the charts for muscle maintenance or growth as well as fat burning and a cellular aerobic benefit.

Raise your hand if you’ve had a trainer, or a machine, or a phone app telling you how many calories you’ve burned. Let’s say it’s 600 calories over forty minutes that your trainer jumped, twisted, rolled, punched, and lunged out of you.

A long, intense workout like that will cause a need for extra food calories that surpasses the calories burned in the workout. So, you went backwards. There’s no way to green smoothie your way out of it either. The craving for extra calories is now there. Better make sure it’s the type of workout that gives you massive hormonal benefit.

Keep it short, very intense, and infrequent versus long, torturous, and often.

And what about that extra sleep the long workouts cause a need for? Yes, that’s a thing. Do you have 9 hours of sleep in your time budget? You’ll cause a need for 8 or 9 hours with the long workouts but probably only get your normal 6 or 7. Now you’re sleep deprived. Here come the extra food cravings and insulin resistance.

One or two short, intense lifting workouts a week with one or two 10 to 20-minute, high intensity interval runs would be ideal for most of us.

Fitness Master Thomas Delauer

I also recommend light jogging or something in the morning on an empty stomach. Keep it around 120–140 bpm depending on age and go 15–40 minutes. Very effective fat burner and toxin mobilizer, and it’s very mild. You should be able to have a conversation. It’s not the long tortuous, detrimental workout I described earlier. Thomas Delauer agrees.

Strenuous activities for extended periods every couple of weeks are great. Maybe a 1–3 hour mountain biking trek or random adventure. The rest of the time, lots of general physical activity like walking will be better for you. And that’s where your phone’s health app comes in. The step counter or mile counter will let you know you’re being a Home sapiens and moving around enough. Health apps have some very smart features, but too much focus on calories does more harm than good.

As a hunter-gatherer you didn’t have to chase down a bison 5 times a week. We walked a lot, climbed, carried stuff, slept a lot, and we did some intense activity every now and then. Your hormones respond well to that life with movement. It’s not about the calories in or out.

“Make your long, easy workouts longer and easier, and make your short, intense workouts even shorter and more intense.” -ancestral living guru Dr. Mark Sisson

https://www.marksdailyapple.com/introducing-the-new-primal-blueprint/

If you are here, and you are… then you were meant to really punch it every now and then to survive something serious. As a hunter-gatherer, if you didn’t go with max intensity when it counted, well that genetic version was eaten by a tiger. Or evaded by the bison you were hunting and starved. That version of us was naturally deselected out, plucked out of history. Those genes are gone from us.

So, keep that in mind when doing the “Body by Science” workout and getting to failure on each set. Your genes are made for it. Consult your physician first.

Make America Human Again

Things as holistic as nutrition or exercise are tricky to optimize. Our bodies, stresses, relationships, mentality, and proximity to Whole Foods Market are ever-changing.

You want to find simplicity, but you need to learn some sound concepts and see if you can execute them with satisfaction.

Focusing on an instant net calorie deficit is far too simplistic and not truly satisfying or effective long term.

Imagine that caveman version of yourself again. Add a smartphone and some clothes, but everything else about your vision is Paleolithic.

What preserved, boxed foods are around? Where are all the caged chickens cooped up? All the antibiotic-laced, GMO-fed livestock? Where are all the refined carbs? Or the year-round fruit? Where are the three meals a day? Where’s the office chair and the car? Where’s the 5 days a week at the gym?

Recently, we have tested some sound ancestral concepts with modern, tech-savvy methods. You can even keep more than just your phone and clothes, and you can still hit the gym.

Join millions of people who are using science and anthropology to pioneer their way to health and satisfaction. You’ll really enjoy being a human for a change.

Source link

0 notes

andrewysanders · 6 years

Text

Spring on the Farm: 2018

It only took six years, but I think I’ve finally figured out how to manage spring on the farm without completely losing my shit, and it only requires two things:

Do not get new animals.

Do not get new plants.

(For all of my friends and family who keep sending me pictures of baby goats… TAKE NOTE.)

Truthfully, things are really good on the farm this year. A lot of the work I’ve done in previous years to build new spaces (like the pergola, the bonfire pit, and the veggie garden) is paying off in that I have beautiful spots on the farm to enjoy with just a little maintenance and upkeep (and upgrades of course, but minor ones this year.)

And I’ve established the things like the orchard and vineyard (with tons of help from my mom) that now just need a few years of maintenance and care so they can flourish. Which, if we’re being honest, is still a ton of work (and a pain in the ass) but it’s not let’s-build-200-ft-of-grapevine-trellis-and-plant-30-vines-in-one-spring kind of work.

Here’s what things look like these days…

In The Garden

First, I still have not re-built the greenhouse since it blew over last spring (sigh), but I did spent some time last year putting in a really good foundation for it , so a lot of the heavy lifting is done. Now I just have to resign myself to repairing and re-assembling all of the pieces. (I hate doing re-work, so I’ve been avoiding it, but I’m committing to have it done before fall of this year.)

In an effort to give myself plenty of excuses not to start re-building the greenhouse, I have been adding more raised beds to the garden this year.

Originally I wanted to have border gardens around the inside perimeter of the fence, but after 4 years I’ve finally given up and realized that anything that isn’t in a raised bed will be impossible to maintain around here. People often ask me about the benefit of the raised beds, and all I can say is that in my case they are far easier to keep weed-free and maintain the soil composition of. (It may just be because we’re starting from scratch and have been keeping them up fairly well, but whatever it is, it works.)

I’ve added 5 new half-sized beds to one side of the garden and will add 5 more on the other side, plus a few more full-sized beds in the area I’d been trying to grow “row crops” like corn. For now, though, there are 19 beds (and 5 half beds) planted and growing some awesome things, including these native flowers my mom picked up at a native-plant sale recently…

The other fun thing about the garden area are these two full-sun flower beds that my mom and I created a year ago, at which time they looked like this…

In 15 years of home-ownership (and 3 houses) I’ve never had a full-sun garden where I could plant pretty perennials and watch them come back year-after-year, so these two little garden beds are oddly exciting for me. The peonies and “front” clematis were the first to bloom this year…

Still waiting on the butterfly bush, black-eyed susans, coneflowers (thanks mom!) and the fall blooming clematis that we moved off the pergola and is doing amazing on the garden trellis this year…

In The Orchard

Every spring there’s a moment where no matter how big the trees get, I’m convinced that the grass and weeds will grow tall enough to swallow them whole. This was that moment…

Due to some epically rainy weather (only on the weekends, of course) I was a couple of weeks behind in orchard maintenance this spring. I finally gave up on doing this during the weekends and promised myself I’d handle three trees a night for a week until all 15 were un-caged, weed-whacked, pruned, fertilized, mulched, sprayed, and re-caged.

I’m just saying, last week was a long week.

But we got there…

For the most part the trees are doing well, although only a few of my apple trees are bearing fruit and none of the peach trees are bearing any (and for the last few years they’ve produced more fruit than any others.)

I’m honestly not sure if this has to do with weather (was there a hard frost after they budded?) or lack of pollination? (I lost my second bee hive in late winter this year so I didn’t have any honeybees in the immediate area this year, but there are so many native pollinators it hasn’t been an issue for the pears or apples.) I’m really not sure, but the good news is that even if I’ll sorely miss my usual peach harvest this summer, the trees look great and they can focus their energies on growing bigger and stronger this year, instead of producing fruit.

I can’t wait to get a few more years of growth on these trees so that I can really start harvesting some fruit. In the meantime, other than the heavy maintenance in spring, they don’t take much work other than another dose of fruit-tree spray in another month or so.

In The Vineyard

The vineyard continues to be difficult to establish and keep under control. (As my mom said last weekend, “We’re just trying to grow a damn grape!”)

Here’s what it looked like a week ago…

Good luck finding a grape in that mess.

The weather, as per usual this spring, was beautiful and perfect all week, and then started raining bright and early Saturday morning. Which means my mom and I opened a bottle of wine bright and early Saturday morning and started working in the rain…

I can only mow so close to the trellises, so there’s a lot of weed-whacking needed just to get things under control. We also un-caged the vines, fertilized them, weeded, mulched, and re-caged. (Those cages are my deer protection.)

The 4 concord vines I have are definitely doing the best, and there are few other that are holding their own, but I tend to lose a lot of the growth every year, and the shoots start over from the ground rather than last-years growth.

I’m not sure if this is weather related, or due to the fact that I’ve been battling Japanese beetles for the last two years, and they’ve managed to strip the leaves off some of the vines before I get them.

Either way, it’s slow going. This year I need to get a better grass/weed management plan in place for the rows, finish the 3rd trellis, and spend all of my free time walking around picking beetles of the vines like a crazy person.

Around The Farm

No new animals means no new fences, or pens, or coops need to be build this spring, but I did make a few much-needed upgrades to the chicken run that Mom and I built last year.

This thing was so handy to have, even after I discovered the chicken-killing culprit that was wreaking havoc on my flock last year (dog down the street was sneaking out to come “play” with the chickens when the owner was napping…) and was able to let the flock free-range again, I still used the coop to acclimate my new chicks to the outdoors…

And to get the new guineas acclimated to the farm. The only problem is that I originally built it to be an extension of the indoor coop (where there is plenty of shade) but when I was using it as it’s own coop to keep the birds separate, I needed more sun and rain coverage. So I did what any reasonable person who owns every tool know to man would do…

Stretched a tarp over it?

Yeah. I’m a disgrace.

In an effort to redeem myself this year, I put an actual roof on the thing.

I was planning to use metal (or plastic) roofing panels from the local lumber yard, but then I saw these Ondura corrugated asphalt panels at Lowe’s and thought… why the hell not. (I don’t love buying building materials I haven’t used before or researched, but this is a low-risk project.)

So, I added some bracing to the roof…

And then spent a lot of time hammering nails into this stuff in the rain.

So, the roofing panels are fairly light and easy to cut (you can cut them with a utility knife vertically, or a circular saw with the blade on backwards horizontally) but the downside is that there’s a lot of hammering that needs to be done to secure them and if you miss the nail you’re going to put a solid dent if not an outright hole through this stuff. I’m pretty accurate with a hammer, but out of 250 nails I did still put two sizable dents in the roof.

I also don’t really care because I’m not really trying to keep every drop of water out of the coop, but I wouldn’t use this roofing on any kind of barn or house that I actually want to keep dry. And pretty.

Still, it did the job for the coop.

I also added some wood around the bottom of the walls to discourage any predators from pushing at the wire mesh (similar to what I did with the actual coop.)

It looks and feels a lot more substantial now. I still have a few clean-up details, but it’s nice to have a usable space if I need to introduce new birds to the flock, or so the chickens have an outdoor space when I’m traveling for work (which is fairly often these days.)

So, overall spring has been pretty manageable on the farm this year, and I’m looking forward to a little rest before starting a big summer project… (I’m looking at you rotted wood siding on the back of the house.)

from Home http://diydiva.net/2018/06/spring-on-the-farm-2018/ via http://www.rssmix.com/

#home

0 notes

prouxvaire · 6 years

Text

Spring on the Farm: 2018

It only took six years, but I think I’ve finally figured out how to manage spring on the farm without completely losing my shit, and it only requires two things:

Do not get new animals.

Do not get new plants.

(For all of my friends and family who keep sending me pictures of baby goats… TAKE NOTE.)

Here’s what things look like these days…

In The Garden

In an effort to give myself plenty of excuses not to start re-building the greenhouse, I have been adding more raised beds to the garden this year.

The other fun thing about the garden area are these two full-sun flower beds that my mom and I created a year ago, at which time they looked like this…

Still waiting on the butterfly bush, black-eyed susans, coneflowers (thanks mom!) and the fall blooming clematis that we moved off the pergola and is doing amazing on the garden trellis this year…

In The Orchard

Every spring there’s a moment where no matter how big the trees get, I’m convinced that the grass and weeds will grow tall enough to swallow them whole. This was that moment…

I’m just saying, last week was a long week.

But we got there…

In The Vineyard

The vineyard continues to be difficult to establish and keep under control. (As my mom said last weekend, “We’re just trying to grow a damn grape!”)

Here’s what it looked like a week ago…

Good luck finding a grape in that mess.

Around The Farm

No new animals means no new fences, or pens, or coops need to be build this spring, but I did make a few much-needed upgrades to the chicken run that Mom and I built last year.

Stretched a tarp over it?

Yeah. I’m a disgrace.

In an effort to redeem myself this year, I put an actual roof on the thing.

So, I added some bracing to the roof…

And then spent a lot of time hammering nails into this stuff in the rain.

Still, it did the job for the coop.

I also added some wood around the bottom of the walls to discourage any predators from pushing at the wire mesh (similar to what I did with the actual coop.)

from https://ift.tt/2LQq3pL

0 notes

darensmurray · 6 years

Text

Spring on the Farm: 2018

It only took six years, but I think I’ve finally figured out how to manage spring on the farm without completely losing my shit, and it only requires two things:

Do not get new animals.

Do not get new plants.

(For all of my friends and family who keep sending me pictures of baby goats… TAKE NOTE.)

Here’s what things look like these days…

In The Garden

In an effort to give myself plenty of excuses not to start re-building the greenhouse, I have been adding more raised beds to the garden this year.

The other fun thing about the garden area are these two full-sun flower beds that my mom and I created a year ago, at which time they looked like this…

Still waiting on the butterfly bush, black-eyed susans, coneflowers (thanks mom!) and the fall blooming clematis that we moved off the pergola and is doing amazing on the garden trellis this year…

In The Orchard

Every spring there’s a moment where no matter how big the trees get, I’m convinced that the grass and weeds will grow tall enough to swallow them whole. This was that moment…

I’m just saying, last week was a long week.

But we got there…

In The Vineyard

The vineyard continues to be difficult to establish and keep under control. (As my mom said last weekend, “We’re just trying to grow a damn grape!”)

Here’s what it looked like a week ago…

Good luck finding a grape in that mess.

Around The Farm

No new animals means no new fences, or pens, or coops need to be build this spring, but I did make a few much-needed upgrades to the chicken run that Mom and I built last year.

Stretched a tarp over it?

Yeah. I’m a disgrace.

In an effort to redeem myself this year, I put an actual roof on the thing.

So, I added some bracing to the roof…

And then spent a lot of time hammering nails into this stuff in the rain.

Still, it did the job for the coop.

I also added some wood around the bottom of the walls to discourage any predators from pushing at the wire mesh (similar to what I did with the actual coop.)

0 notes