It's been awhile, though I recall I saw a fat fetish story somewhere, with a very dark premise. The protagonist was kidnapped, and placed in a cell with a sink, toilet, bed, TV, electronic scale, unlimited food of any type, and not much else. The door would only unlock when the scale measured at least 100 lbs higher than when the protagonist went in. The catch was also that a 9 month deadline was set, or else the door would never unlock.

That meant the protagonist had no choice to not only eat as much as possible, but actively try to stuff even more to gain even faster, if there was any hope of escape. Of course, after escape, the newly established eating habits remain and the individual will never get to be thin again.

I didn't really like that story, but it is a pretty common theme.

As for real-life, that sounds like hell. COVID was already bad enough, and that was still with the ability to shop in person at supermarkets and box stores (albeit with those damn masks or face shields), or to visit parks. I'll fully admit that one of the nice things about COVID was it was a great excuse to gain a lot of weight, but I still wouldn't want something like that again. Personally I got through it unscathed, but I know a LOT of people weren't so lucky.

And yeah, a lot of people went fucking nuts during that time. At a local pediatric hospital, admissions quadrupled about 1-2 months after lockdowns started, but just before the enhanced unemployment benefits finally kicked in. They weren't for conditions directly related to COVID either. Most of those cases involved physical injuries ranging from stitches to more severe conditions like broken bones.

It was likely do to some who likely had little to no savings, but then lost all their income as they worked in fields affected by the lockdowns. Combine that on top of an already very high stress, precarious existence, and the results are explosive. It's not hard to see how emotions might run high, and practicality and logic goes out the window. Physical abuse makes no more logical sense than punching holes in walls, but unfortunately it happens anyway.

But yeah, fuck COVID. We don't need that again.

I think you just have to take it easy and not go too overboard, I think.

Another thing you have to remember, is one of the negative consequences of a permanently connected world from advances in technology, and how that relates to news. You also have to considered most news organizations are profit-seeking private enterprise; more on that later.

In the past, most news would have been delivered via the morning newspaper, though many large cities might have had an afternoon/evening edition. The point is, that was only once, or at most, twice a day. Broadcast TV has been around since the 40s, but the news segment would have still been once or twice a day. This meant there was time to consider what news stories to share, and to more easily vet the stories.

Fast forward to within the last 20 years, where there's pressure to provide continuous news throughout the day. Also consider that most news outlets are profit-seeking private enterprises, reliant on advertising revenue, especially since most folks don't want to subscribe, which was the norm for newspapers.

Thus, they are financially motivated to publish content that gets more views. This is why we have click-bait titles, and why it seems the headlines are more scandalous and incendiary than ever. They're meant to motivate you to click, for more ad impressions.

And unfortunately, it does seem that negative news and information tends to travel 5 times as fast.

Same thing with the algorithms on Facebook, YouTube, et. al. The algorithms are carefully crafted to increase engagement, whether positive or negative, because to them it really doesn't matter, all to increase ad impressions for revenue.

I can't speak about Feabie, but FantasyFeeder has no algorithm; it's all first come, first serve, the latest is what's displayed, no matter what it is.

As for YouTube, maybe don't watch the news, political pundits, etc. Maybe try watching fun things that are interesting but aren't that serious or of little to no consequence. For me, that might be videos about esoteric computer hardware or silly challenges without practical value that someone does "just because they can." Modern Gentoo Linux on a 486? A striped storage array consisting of 12 floppies? Why not?! Or how about playing Bohemian Rhapsody on a 100+ year old fairground organ, even going to the trouble of making the paper tape? Video game lore theories and challenges are gold, too. Portal 2 without portals? Maybe! Or can you beat Zelda: Majora's Mask in a single 3 day cycle? Spoiler alert: Yes you can, if you know exactly what you're doing. I think you get the idea.

The world is not as grim or horrid as the news sometimes makes it out to be. It's not this big scary place where life-threatening danger lurks around every single corner. Most folks are still decent to a fault, like before.

But yeah, I think maybe just take easy from time to time, it doesn't always have to be so long. You don't have to be checking the news every minute of every day. You don't have to respond to every message within 5 minutes or even half hour.

Still, I'm glad to hear that you intend to basically "touch grass" for a little while, it can be good to do from time to time. I support your plan.

While not directed to anyone in particular, sometimes I get the impression some folks need to do that more often, and when they do, the world would be a better place.

Another necropost where the OP is long gone. Thread locked.

Another necropost where the OP is long gone. Thread locked.

Another necropost where the OP isn't even here anymore. Locking this thread too.

Holy necropost! The OP doesn't even appear to be around anymore.

Locking this thread. If the OP does return, and wants to post another ad, she can make another thread.

I don't know if this counts, and I don't expect this will be a regular thing, as I haven't been doing this every day.

But a few times, shortly after waking, instead of regular coffee I made what's in essence a heavy cream based cafe mocha. That's 1 cup of coffee, 2 packets of hot chocolate power, and about half a cup of heavy cream. Adds up to about 720 calories, apparently. It also seems to help quell the hunger I might have, particularly when it's not convenient to eat something.

First of all, are you sure? I think you may have read the label incorrectly.

Ensure Plus, and any of it's related knock-off products, are about 350 calories per bottle, which contains 1 cup (8 fluid ounces, about 237 mL).

There is something called Boost VHC (Very High Calorie) that's 530 calories per 1 cup bottle, but it's extremely expensive for what you get, at a staggering more than $2 USD per bottle. I'm about 99.99% sure there is no product of a similar type that has a higher calorie density than that.

What you described would contain 580 calories per cup, which so far as I know doesn't exist. If you can provide a link to the exact product in question, I would be very curious. I feel like if such a thing were to exist, I would already know about it.

That said, I do like Equate Plus, which is Wal-Mart's knock-off brand of Ensure Plus. I know Wal-Mart doesn't exist in the UK, but the point is I'm familiar with those types of products. For any American readers, Kroger also has a similar knock-off product called Fortify Plus, which is almost as cheap as Equate Plus.

Not really an answer, but more of an idea. One very simple recipe is to mix 1 cup of Ensure with 1 cup of heavy cream (or double cream in the UK). Stir with a straw, then enjoy. It tastes kind of like a melted milkshake, except thicker and less sweet.

The catch of doing so, is it can have an effect of suppressing appetite, which is why I say to only have it before going to sleep.

It's also a pretty high fat diet, so you might not want to do that every day, although I think you'll find yourself skipping some days.

I also must emphasize, for anyone reading, that most of your calories should not come from these sources. Also, for some reason, it seems to work best shortly after you ate something. So for example, drinking this after eating say, a couple double burgers or a proper meal yields better results.

In 2023, I gained about 20 lbs. While I don't know if I can credit this exclusively to these shakes, but they likely helped.

Anyway, if you drink these straight, not mixed in with anything, at least the chocolate flavored ones, can taste a lot like chocolate milk, though might be slightly oily, and quite sweet, maybe almost too sweet. I don't know how many of those you can drink in one sitting, though I'd expect anywhere between 2 to even 4 of them shouldn't be too hard.