You need to go to Westwood and see if you can find some more, keep this experiment going

Update, post-week-2.

I'm out. Finished. Done. The container is empty. Unfortunately I have not been able to track down this drink-mix in local shops(1), but then again I've only stopped by 3 of them and there are probably 10 in the area alone. I'll also ask around, a shop in another county(2) may carry but I'm not interested in heading to that(3) county just for a drink-mix.

This year it appears as though I won't be headed to Iran, but I may next year, fingers crossed. If that is the case, I do plan on getting enough for a year's supply. I'd honestly like to give this a more proper long-term test, perhaps even find some willing participants for a more scientific approach with test pools of both placebo and actual product, various levels of activity and so forth. We shall see, it's just a hope for now.

Final comments after two weeks (again, non-scientific, just observations) -
-Muscles continued to feel a little bit more relaxed at the end of the day.
-I got used to the taste. At first it didn't take it perfectly, but now my digestive system seems to be o.k. with whatever is in there.
-I'm not sure whether it's the storage method or the powder itself, but it needs to be a bit finer in order to mix well.
-Appetite has been somewhat lowered over the past two weeks. Stress levels remained the same (as variable as they ever will be for a freelance designer).
Not sure if my appetite will increase now?
-Weight loss remained at a "total" estimate of two pounds. This happened in the first week, second week stabilized. I believe a longer term test will show whether this effect was legitimate or not, or at what rate there is weight loss, or other possible scenarios. Not sure if I'm going to be gaining this back again? Or perhaps I'm going to regain the older level of appetite?

All said, it was fun. No bad effects. Honestly on future travels regardless of the country, if I happen on some other unique product that I have not found locally before that makes claims to some effect that may benefit me, I'm willing to give it a go. I'm not a pro, I'm not being paid to ride or run, or do anything that I enjoy... I just really enjoy all that life has to offer, and I move towards all of that with absolute passion.

Thanks for reading, folks!


Footnotes:
(1) There was a mention of "Westwood" in a previous post. For those of you unfamiliar with this part of the City of Los Angeles, it is one of several areas that has a high population of Iranians (or Persians) - hence, plenty of Persian shops, restaurants, and more. It's been jokingly called "Tehrangeles." It's one of many parts of Southern California which has large concentrations of Persians. Westwood has a particular 'type' of Persian both in region and religion, and other areas have other types.
(2) Different communities specialize in different representations of their origin. For example, LA's Chinatown is more Cantonese and Thai, where as the highly-Chinese-populated cities of Monrovia, Arcadia, and Alhambra are much more Mandarin/Taiwanese or Northern China. "Los Angeles" area has the distinct ability to have niche-communities within niche-populations, it's quite fascinating.
(3) Orange County. I can't begin to describe how much I loathe that area due to its many nuances and ways.

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Exp001

if you ever get that stuff again i volunteer to be a guinea ping in the good name of science. By the way you left out the hispanic communities which are everywhere mostly poorer areas but they do segregate themselves too.

You do understand how wrong this is. I mean you do not come across as having any medical training. No understanding of medical testing protocols or ethics. May I suggest you talk with your doctor before you proceed with this "plan". Frankly I find doping repulsive and the whole culture of doping repulsive. It harms our sport. The "do it yourself" version just adds a level of insanity.

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WW Velocipedist Gargantuan

Rusty, can I call you Rusty?, I agree with you on both accounts. First, I do not have any substantial medical training. Mother is a geneticist, I trained for a while as an EMT (but dropped that), trained as a Sports Medicine Therapist (dropped that for reasons beyond my control), studied "pre-med" for most of my undergraduate through Organic Chem Level II... then got bored and switched out. So no, no medical training but I'm also not completely unaware of medicine and scientific method. Second, I agree that doping is repulsive - however this is not a steroid, clenbuterol, EPO, or any of those types of doping. As far as I can tell (and have observed by the list of ingredients), this is a mixture of ground up nuts and seeds. Does it have opiates in it? I don't know. But, how is this any different than a recovery drink that you buy here (which is sometimes composed of chemicals people can't even pronounce) ? They were both tested for human consumption, they're both sold for human consumption... One is approved (or might even not be) by the FDA - which has a history of being a shady government department anyway, with approval of foods composed of harmful chemicals, ambiguous rules curtailing organic products, and the encouragement of genetically grown crops... The other is approved in another country which, by comparison to the United States, has a far more 'natural' and 'organic' food supply. Hmmm? Is your recovery drink doping? What about the drink mix? In Europe, perhaps, as the laws are more stringent there. But would an all natural, no preservative, no chemicals, no colouring, raw nut/seed mixture be included in that list?

Also, here's a little secret: I mentioned that I was taking this stuff to a doctor who happens to be a neighbor. He's a general practitioner, works in the same hospital system that I go to for my own doctor. He knows my lifestyle, he knows how healthy I am (he has actually told me a few times to not even bother making an appointment for a yearly check up because it would be a waste of my doctor's time and take the time slot of someone who may actually need a checkup). His opinion on this? "Try it, small quantities, stop if you feel ill" That was a bit abbreviated but you get the gist. His notion was that basically if this product is being sold & consumed by the general public in another part of the world, and has been for countless generations in one form or another, then most likely it won't do any harm to me. At the very worst case I may have an upset stomach over it because my digestive system would not be accustomed to it. He compared it to traveling to Oaxaca and eating grasshoppers or ants. It's not a common food here in the United States, and it may not sell very well here where people are accustomed to seeing their protein sourced from anonymous piles of meat slaughtered in factories, but the human body can and should readily adapt to it.

And hey, after traveling through much of the world except for three continents and eating a very, very wide variety of native foods during these travels I'm still alive, still healthy, and perfectly happy.

BTW - Redbull, as an example. I hate the stuff, I think it tastes disgusting, I think people abuse it and all the variations of the 'energy drink'. Guess where it came from? It's simply a re-production of a drink that's been common throughout Thailand. It is still available there, called "Krating Daeng"




Yes, I do know that the hispanic communities segregate within themselves as well over here. I used to live in Koreatown, but I called it "El Barrio Oaxaqueño de Koreatown". Two major arterial streets to the south was pretty much 99% Salve, to the east Chapin. Just used the asian communities as a quick example because it was the easiest to think of as very obvious, very distinct separations by a considerable distance within the same region.

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Exp001

Benefits ..... Ride a bit faster on the bike maybe- Wahooo!

Liabilities........ Your health? Your not sure even whats in it so who can say. Opiates???? I'm guessing banned and possibly illegal. Can't say because we still don't really know what's in it.

A grasshopper? well we know what's in a grasshopper ( well sort of) it is a whole if somewhat disgusting food just like an apple. It is the sausage that you want to watch out for. Who knows what crap goes into it My friend, can I call you my friend, your eating the sausage made by somebody you don't know (pardon the twisted metaphor). Our test is to see if you survive. Thanks for your service btw

Agree that Red Bull is disgusting and the USFDA is controlled by special interest groups that are not acting in my best interests. Yes, I don't trust them either

Natural stuff can be bad for you just as much as processed crap. How could you know? In traditional society you knew who made these products. A built in safety check. As in "Joe you prick, you poisoned me".

Anyway it's your call and none of my business. Hopefully I'm just being hopelessly paranoid.

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WW Velocipedist Gargantuan

well not that many of us are proffessionals and nobody should believe that a substance like opiates will make you faster. recover faster maybe? nausea maybe?
i remeber that once when i high school thay gave us a paper that stated that curiosity did not kil the cat, but if in the remote case that it did the cat had just enjoy the life and satisfy the curiosity that others could not.