This is a thread for ILXors in their 30's!!! yo yo yo breakdancing etc...

day

i have che guevara, boy george and donald trump, but yet to me them in real life

i am 36 and my face looks old now

I'm 36 too, and over this year of lockdown I've gone from looking a lot younger than my age to looking every year of my age, if not older. I guess it had to happen sometime.

I actually made a fucking amazing dish just now

Ive always been eh battered looking at best and between teeth and hair alone i made my peace with age before beauty in my late teens

My thirties were an instruction in not ignoring my body, presentation, maintenance and fitness regardless of all that

https://i.ibb.co/0tjDvWn/IMG-20210221-172947.jpg

Prawn, fennel and garlic Sumatran curry (sachet box pictured), reduced with lime and bayleaf, served over jasmine rice

Fennel is the greatest foodstuff. In curry it fulfils the role of the onion AND the greenery

https://i.ibb.co/LCCBxZh/IMG-20210220-135135.jpg

This one I like to call the Crab of Crab and Crayfish

The latter feeding into gyac's narrative a bit more but I will no longer suffer this misrepresentation

https://i.ibb.co/BBS3Ykw/IMG-20210216-183419.jpg

Maybe a little heavy on the fennel leaf but restaurant-quality ffs. All from the last few days

all look great

i'm tackling spanakopita tuesday - that probably won't end as successfully

That's a little trickier tbf

Pescetarianism is a total wanker move but it's great and I recommend it btw

Oh food pics is it

Just couldn't take it any more. The slander

It’s libel not slander fyi LJ

Neck wound in, that looks edible

i did fail media law the first time and barely passed the second tbf. also ty glad we could straighten out the record

I turned 40 while self-isolating last October so I have decided to have a do-over of 39 again

My thirties began during a period when I was working a shitty retail job, riding freight trains, and getting plowed in the backrooms of Folsom Street gay bars with my husband....and now we own a house, have two dogs, and live on the other side of the country.

I still spent last night drinking beer and taking bong rips with my friends over Zoom.

(I'm 36, btw)

A life lived, all the same!

my 30s are kicking the shit out of my 20s

i keep farting, more and more

my back is killing me so i lean on a chair for support, which simultaneously set the gears in motion to let one rip, and it's just like goddammit

very gassy these days, VERY gassy

Lol km

ah now i understand the ref to breakdancing in the title

I use a desk chair with no real support that I found on the street. it has been with me for many years. I am the only person I know who doesn't have back problems. unsure if related facts

i don't have back problems, but i also shit into a bag, so there's that lol.

(i do at least 50 pull-ups every day, which might explain my lack of back problems)

I’ll be 33 in a month and I have for sure developed arthritis in one of my knees, so that I fall down almost every time I stand up. Currently sitting in an empty laundrette sans laundry just so I can sit at a table on a hard-backed chair (my current set-up is like a fold-out beach chair on the floor). It’s not so bad here.

You undoubtedly know yr knees better than i obv but have you had it checked out at all

I ask as a fella that had written off one of his own as a pain/weak for life after an injury but after two years of avoiding a physio i finally lol bent the knee lol and after two visits and a few mins work each morning for several weeks it was disgustingly improved

30 something venn diagram... right side knee & back problems, left side kickflips, center farting + video games

My back's been pretty bad these last few days. I had a v good yoga teacher for a few years and things got so much better on that front, but post-lockdown I've regressed a lot.

IBS has been the biggest health challenge of my 30's but after literally years I've pretty much mastered the low fodmap diet, which also meant saying goodbye to a lot of frankly terrible-for-you food that I gobbled down helplessly in my 20's.

i have been very lucky to only experience minor back pain up to this point (33). the worst it's ever been was at the start of the pandemic, when my desk chair was sort of gradually falling apart and i still sat in it for 9-10 hours a day anyway. i've since replaced it and now my back only gets tired occasionally, usually when i don't go for a walk

Gonna be 34 next week and I feel OK about it I guess. So far my 30s have not been terribly different from my late 20s, except that I have been collecting tiny ailments, like this thing that might be a small hiatal hernia? I've always been pretty low-key so this age suits me I think.

Lol theres a thought, injuries as (over) extensions of yr personality

It's all one bodymind, maaaannnn

@tangenttangent - what kind of falling down thing is it? i used to have problems with one of my knees kind of "giving out" unexpectedly, and eventually a doctor broke it down for me that my incredibly flat feet were leading to some tendon pulling on some other tendon, something something and as a result the muscles or tendons on one side of that knee were not doing what they were supposed to be doing. getting custom orthopedic inserts has solved that as well as seriously reduced my lower back issues.

not saying that's the case for you! just that these things are worth looking into IMHO.

also i strongly encourage everybody to switch to the most ergonomic chair with the most adjustment points, get an under-desk keyboard tray, ergonomic mouse and keyboard, monitor set at correct ergonomic height.... like get out the boring, badly-designed guides that show you how you should be sitting, how your legs and back and arms should be, and just do it. i think a lot about things i would tell my younger self if i could, and they are mostly about dating and being a nice person, but realistically this is the stuff where i could maybe make the most difference for that poor kid!

^true facts. The worst I've ever hurt my back (like unable to move or sleep, requiring painkillers & muscle relaxants) was due to sitting badly at my office job at age 34. The doctor who saw me also suggested doing some abdominal exercises, which may have also helped

butt exercises help a lot
i got a knee x-ray in november and the PA identified little bumps on a bone in my right knee (osteophytes) that could mean later arthritis. she also told me "you aren't 22 anymore" since i was there about an exercise-induced injury and i felt an internal pang.

You undoubtedly know yr knees better than i obv but have you had it checked out at all

I have not. It’s a good point. I do yoga which should generally be strengthening muscles etc but probably seeing a doctor wouldn’t hurt and I enjoy some good malingering so when I’m not 60+ miles away from my doctor I’ll get it checked out.

Lol theres a thought, injuries as (over) extensions of yr personality

Definitely this. I’m big into humourism which is maybe something I can spin out into a delightful idiosyncrasy for my 30s.

On the whole I’m much less mad so far this decade.

I've pretty much mastered the low fodmap diet

Sneaking into tt to say, Urrrrgh I should do that too, or do it more. How is it? Do you still like food or are you embittered foes after all the pain & suffering? What foods make you happy?

For the general physical woes, I can't say enough--keep moving (barring injury ofc!). I stopped performing/studying dance around age 40 and arrived at 44 practically locked into place and in pain. I started taking turmeric & making time for (gentle) yoga and it's working!! The problem was stopping.

xp to Doctor Casino: the knee ‘giving out’ is exactly what it feels like and I do have pancake flat feet that I don’t pay any attention to. That’s actually really good advice that I will consider.

34 here, feel pretty good, though that's probably because I take care of myself in a way I didn't in my 20s. I've noticed a few changes but it's kind of hard to tell if it's related to getting older or having kids...like, yeah I'm sore a lot, but I also have two gremlins climbing all over me constantly, and the big one still loves to be picked up and carried around all the time even though he's like 60 pounds now. And of course it's easy to think "I can't really handle much alcohol anymore" when you no longer have the luxury to sleep off hangovers. Mentally though, I've changed a lot...your brain no longer thinks the future is limitless, and I think the barrage of climate change/Trump/COVID-19 has convinced me that very bad things can and will happen. It's got me thinking a lot about putting things off and the different aspects of your personality that you want to work on. Having been online since I was 14 really gives you a lot of perspective, since I can read old emails and posts & look at comics I made and reviews I wrote and cringe at how awful my writing used to be, while also appreciating the fact that people really can change a lot over time...the person I was at 18, 21, hell even 27 is pretty much dead and gone, and that makes me feel better about my own future. Really should take up yoga though.

xpost oh i hope that proves helpful! lol when i did finally get to a specialist they concluded, on examination, "your feet ARE pancake flat..."

Having been online since I was 14 really gives you a lot of perspective, since I can read old emails and posts & look at comics I made and reviews I wrote and cringe at how awful my writing used to be, while also appreciating the fact that people really can change a lot over time...the person I was at 18, 21, hell even 27 is pretty much dead and gone, and that makes me feel better about my own future. Really should take up yoga though.

― frogbs, Monday, February 22, 2021 10:30 AM (one minute ago) bookmarkflaglink

damn otm

though of course many of my personal problems are decades long repercussions from trauma and have just taken different forms depending on their context. but even recognizing this is something younger me could not do

I use a desk chair with no real support that I found on the street. it has been with me for many years. I am the only person I know who doesn't have back problems.

i would like to see this desk chair

Having been online since I was 14 really gives you a lot of perspective, since I can read old emails and posts & look at comics I made and reviews I wrote and cringe at how awful my writing used to be, while also appreciating the fact that people really can change a lot over time...the person I was at 18, 21, hell even 27 is pretty much dead and gone, and that makes me feel better about my own future.

Yeah I feel this. Re-reading old stuff - personal emails to friends, those '100 questions about you' surveys people circulated by email in the late 90s/early 00s, livejournal and diaryland (!!!) entries - comes with an odd sense of recognising myself and my past experiences in the writing while feeling removed from the person/time/place they were written. Sometimes I'm grateful for the changes that have happened to me since then, but other times I feel uncomfortable or sad about how far away I am from my past self/selves. Like, I appreciate that I'm less judgmental now than, say, 15 years ago, but I also feel that I don't really have opinions on things anymore, or that I don't challenge ideas I think are stupid, which is frustrating. Younger me was a bit bolder, maybe kind of a dick at times, and sometimes I miss that.

My back problems in my 30s came from an injury early in the decade, which resulted in ~1 year of serious nerve pain, it was a bad scene. Now I'm basically fine, I don't go running outside anymore and I need to be careful, but yoga has helped a ton and I have a core of iron.

I had my UC issues too, under control with medication, I basically eat what I want but try not to go too crazy with portions/alcohol/sugar.

These are essential 30s experiences apparently. Now I truly appreciate things like basic mobility without pain, a varied diet, and a single beer.

my back problems come from being forced to carry the 3rd largest bass drum in marching band as a 100 pound 14-year-old for a summer, and then carrying an even heavier set of quints at an even worse angle for the following three years as a rail thin piece of painful shit

i don't know how i can even walk after that, it was terrible even at the time

Dang, not cool, marching band.

Oh right I did play a bass drum strapped to my chest for a decade in a brass band, that probably didn't help.

"a single beer" indeed. i only started drinking at age 28 or 29, so i only had a few years in there where having three drinks in an evening could be *mostly* counted upon to be a fun, floaty, socially limber and loose and laughing time, and only *rarely* tip over into brutal hangover territory, and/or just being too sleepy and sluggish to enjoy the night in the first place. nowadays those probabilities are reversed. but a single beer with dinner can be a mighty relaxing little pleasure.