Carlos_the_third

Pfft hair stopping short of his knees? That guy is not a true yogi

Yoga! To be honest I used to think it was complete hippy nonsense, but it is incredible how good I feel after stringing a few days of consistent practice together vs when I’ve slacked off for a while. I actively look forward to my morning sessions now, and it’s becoming a real important part of my routine.

Real tough one to call how to go here. Personally, I think resting key players is just about the way to go - think the first team will be a little half hearted if played as their main task would be to avoid injury/suspension, which is never a good outlook, whereas the reserves will see it as a great chance to try and get some play off minutes. That means mings, McGinn and Grealish on the bench. We could play Hause left back and then use the opportunity to give minutes to both Axel and Tommy at centre back. Hourihane in is a no brainer, then Lansbury probably also. Could even play BB over Whelan, as Whelan has elevated himself to key player these days. Hutton could be played over Elmo also. Would keep ElGhazi playing as he seems to be a real form player and is on a hot streak at the moment. Davis and Kodjia/Green can fill the other two slots in the front 3!

I’d say when you feel comfortable telling someone, then go for it! It sounds as though you’ve done amazingly well in your recovery from a really tricky spot, and that’s part of your life story that you should be proud of and that there’s certainly no need to hide from anyone who you trust. Also, with mental illness it’s always good to talk - the last thing you want to do is hide it for a long time from a partner, then feel the pressure to deal with any future issues yourself as in your head it’d be unfair to involve the partner at that point. So, my advice would be instead of setting a time frame, do it on a trust basis - when you feel comfortable opening up to someone about it then go for it. With some people, this may be easier to do early in the relationship than with others, but either way if they’re not comfortable with the situation i don’t think they’d be a good long term partner anyway, so I’d say definitely don’t feel as though you should have to hide it!

That just felt so comfortable, without us playing all that well. 10 wins in a row is an unbelievable achievement, and to break the record in such a calm manner speaks volumes about the focus and confidence at VP these days. El Ghazi my MOTM, Whelan close behind. Also think that Davis deserves a start against Leeds. Without taking anything away from us or our achievement, Millwall were pathetic. They didn’t even try and push us, and were out of ideas before the game even kicked off. There wasn’t even really an aerial bombardment at the end - it was like they’d decided to take a 1-0 loss and head back to the big smoke. I’d be raging if we’d put in that performance, especially in the midst of a relegation battle (flashbacks incoming).

He seems to have lost confidence in his ability to take on a man or whip in a cross, which is unfortunate but it happens (players are human after all). I really like Albert (seems like a great guy), so hopefully with the pressure off in the next couple of games he’s able to gain some of it back in time for the playoffs - we know from last season and the Wednesday game he is a guy who can pop up with crucial goals so could be vital in tense matches. It may be the case that El Ghazi/CR7 is rested, and AA is moved over to left, where he generally seems to prefer - this may help things also!

Was quality again today, and would’ve had multiple more assists were it for better (any) movement in the middle and at the back post. Love the way he tracks back as well after losing the ball!

Maybe I was being a bit unfair on him then! I haven’t been able to watch all games recently, but just got the impression from highlights and on here (on games I’ve missed) as well as my eyes (on games I’ve seen) that his all round play hasn’t been quite as good, and he had been missing some chances he would’ve previously scored, in the last couple of months compared to the start of the season when he was on fire. That would be totally understandable if it was the case - it’s a long season and he’s been our go to man up front for all of it, with a lot of pressure on especially during the first half of the season when if he and Hourihane didn’t score then generally we didn’t score. Either way, I hope he’s back soon as he’s a vital player for us, and that the break allows him to get a bit of a breather and a recharge in time for the play offs, but I’m looking forward to see what Keinan can do in the meantime!

If he’s only out for one game, it could be a blessing in disguise. He’s not been in the best of form of late (albeit an assist and a goal today - nice when a player can do that when not at his best the last month or two!). We’ve seen twice already this season what happens when a quality player comes back after a break (Grealish after injury and McGinn after 2 match suspension for 10 bookings), and I wouldn’t be surprised if the same happened to Tammy. Also really keen to see how Keinan does on Monday, assuming he is the one to step in - I reckon he could cause carnage with his link up play bringing Jack and John into the game even more than is currently the case.

Did my first 10k today - pleased with a time of 56 mins, especially given last night was spent in the pub for the europa league! Didn’t find it too bad, so may aim for a half marathon in the summer...

In the hypothetical scenario JM gets booked today or Monday, and we need something from Leeds: if SJM gets a 15th booking of the season against Leeds, then ‘mistakenly’ goes through the back of someone in the 93rd minute and picks up a second yellow and hence red, is that only a one match ban for first red of the season? Or still 3 match for 15 bookings? Apologies if this has been answered elsewhere!

Looks like we will have Jedi in at CB. He was great mid week, but Weimann is exactly the type of player I worry about him facing - busy, puts on a lot of pressure, and pretty nippy. Think this will be one of those games where we have to outscore the opposition, rather than a routine win. Given this, and the performance of Kodjia on Wednesday, and the relative innefectiveness of our wingers this season, as well as how solid our full backs have been of late, I’d be extremely tempted by a 4-4-2 diamond, with Hourihane AM as we all know how dangerous he can be there. Risky changing formation at this stage, but given the no doubt end to end nature of this game I think it might be worth it. jed elmo Tuanzebe Jedi Taylor Whelan Grealish SJM Hourihane Tammy Kodjia

That was an absolute masterclass on how to play with 10 men. Clearly, Rotherham aren’t Man City but you would genuinely have believed we were the ones at a man advantage from the level of threat each side were offering. Props to Smith for sticking on Kodjia - the extra attacking threat meant Rotherham couldn’t load players forwards, and JK was quality, which is ideal with Tammy looking to be not quite at his best. Even more props to the 3 man midfield - McGinn with performance of the season, but don’t forget Grealish and Hourihane, as the workrate of the 3 combined basically allowed us to play a standard set up and not just sit back. What an evening!

Really nervous about this one, as not sure what the international break will have done to our momentum - hopefully a Derby-esque fast start will help settle the nerves!

Of course they wouldn’t know this, but it as an indication of how they as fans don’t rate TM anywhere near as much as we seem to do. Fans are often in general a very good judge of how a player is thought of ya their club - opposition fans don’t rate JG, but is £40m for Grealish, our best academy prospect for years and someone who is very likely to make it into the England set up once bedded into the premier league, really that unrealistic (rhetorical as I don’t want to derail the thread)? I had assumed that there is no way in hell that Bournemouth would sell us mings, but if that view is representative of their fans, it may also be representative of the club (loaning is TM could be seen as a way for him to improve fitness, but also given how porous their defence is may be an indication they just don’t rate him), so I thought it was worth sharing.

Will stop spamming this thread soon... However, thought it was worth an update as I knocked nearly four mins off from last week to get my first sub 25 time (24:50)! Made a conscious effort to really push myself this week, and it was also helped by switching course to one that was primarily concrete based rather than swamp based. Pleased as punch as I’m using running as a way to force myself out of my comfort zone, so to see good results quickly is fab

I was speaking to a couple of Bournemouth fans on the way back from the England game last night, who reckoned that they would be more than up for selling TM for £10m as he had been poor for them, and they thought he wasn’t good enough for the Prem. Apparently, they couldn’t trust him in a 2 man central defence, so he only played in a 3, but had poor distribution and ‘bambi on ice’ qualities when trying to bring the ball out from the back. I thought this was very interesting, as I’d say he’s seemed the exact opposite for Villa. Personally, I’d love us to sign him permanently based on what I’ve seen at Villa, and would be more than happy with him as one of a two if we go up!

Watched the extended highlights - thought this would be a comfortable win before kick off, but jeez Boro were awful. Can’t believe that they and derby, who we have combined beaten 13-0 on aggregate over the season, are where they are in the table!

To be honest, I have no idea on what Peterson talks about the rest of the time. From memory he doesn’t even recommend the diet in this podcast, just says how it has worked for him and his daughter. I made sure not to suggest in my post that any diet would help a given individual - if certain diets have helped certain individuals though, then they can help others, and that is what I’ve been trying to get at. It’s up to each of us to work out what works for us, and if other options are exhausted this may mean trying things we are not sure about, or even things that the data suggests doesn’t help most people, to see how our bodies respond. Data obviously has its place, but it’s so easy to get caught up in it that we forget that we are each unique, wonderful beings who are built in our own individual way, and if ‘standard’ things aren’t working for us then it may be time to go off the beaten path for a bit to see if that can improve things - if not, and there is no improvement in a month, we can always return to what we know.

Yeah the Peterson recommendation was more of an interesting listen on the Joe Rogan podcast to see how diet can have such an extreme effect on people - him and his daughter have (according to them) massively alleviated depression/a load of horrendous auto immune issues with the carnivore diet (the podcast does frequently have him saying he is not an expert etc). Given the infancy of such non-mainstream diets, I was under the impression that there was not much info on the effect on long term health, but obviously that is a risk you take if following it long term. My post was generally referencing short term changes Chindie could make - I will alter the original post to clarify this in case there was any confusion!

I have to be honest, I am surprised at this response. At no point have I said ‘you should do diet x’. I recommended to Chindie that he do some investigation into diet, and listed some diets that I have looked into, and that have helped various people with their mental health. I also stated that diet helped me immensely on two occasions with my mental health. Doctors often don’t talk much about diet, so I thought I might be able to add something unique to the discussion over the ‘experts’. Chindie doesn’t have to follow my recommendations - I made it clear I’m not an expert, but I wager that I know more about the potential benefits of diet changes than most people and have picked up a decent amount of knowledge along the way having dedicated a lot of my last year researching how to improve my own mental health (largely through diet) after a breakdown last year. I thought it would be especially useful to share some of this information with someone also dealing with gut issues. With regards anyone recommending anything being a quack, that is ridiculous - a lot of this thread, including your post, contains recommendations. I took some time out of my own day yesterday to try and help out a guy I have never met, because I thought my experiences with poor mental health could perhaps help him point him in the right direction to help him out of a real tough situation. Honestly, I felt pretty happy that I might be able to help - I certainly wasn’t expecting to wake up this morning having to defend my post, and this has left a poor taste in my mouth to say the least. I have deliberately made this post unconfrontational, and my opinions are fully listed here, so I am not expecting a response and will not be replying to one - this thread is about helping fellow villa fans improve their own mental health, so let’s keep it that way without diving into needless arguments (which aren’t all that great for the old brain).

Agreed. We are playing like a team now, and Keinan is a great team player who could help us stay that way - I wouldn’t want to risk the dynamic being altered by bringing in Kodjia who has in the past not been so great at the whole team thing. Hopefully TA hasn’t got a serious knock though, and he is able to return fully rested in two weeks to start regaining the early season form!

Please do look into others. Even with mental health issues without digestive issues, diet can play a massive role - the fact that you also have digestive issues indicates to me that diet could potentially really help things for you. Honestly, it is crazy how some people’s bodies (including mine) react to certain foods. There are anecdotal examples of people changing diet and receiving massive mental and physical benefits from what they deem to be hopeless situations left right and centre online - this does not mean that it will work for everyone or even nearly everyone, but it is 100% worth a try to help yourself feel better. For instance, Keto cuts out virtually all carbs, so your body runs off fats for energy source rather than glucose (massive simplification), and therefore avoids massive blood sugar spikes. This is a huge change, and can really help some people both physically and mentally (obviously some being the imperative word here). if you have any further questions, more than happy to reply here or via pm - I am no expert, but I have been researching diet for my own mental health so may be able to point you in a helpful direction! Please don’t give up on yourself- you’re worth all the effort to get yourself better

Chindie, I’m so sorry to hear you’re going through all of that, it sounds horrendous. I’m no expert on the matter at all, but have you tried a full elimination diet (apologies if yes, this certainly wasn’t meant to come across as me being a know it all)? The gut brain link is a crazy thing, and I’ve found that mental health issues I’ve had in the past and issues I have currently have been really helped by a change of diet (initially gluten free, and then more recently keto). Our gut isn’t really designed to deal with a lot of modern foods - some people’s adapt, whereas others don’t adapt so well. Some diets that might be worth investigating if you haven’t already are the obvious ones like gluten and dairy free, keto, paleo, carnivore etc. Again, I’m sure you’ve considered dietary things so apologies if this is preaching to the converted, but everyone’s body works differently so it is worth investigating all sorts of different diets, as some will certainly help you improve over a ‘standard’ diet, even if just a bit. If you’re going keto, I’d recommend the keto sub reddit - very useful resource. There is also some interesting stuff on carnivore by Jordan Peterson on joe rogans podcast - Peterson is by no means an expert and says as such during the podcast, but he and his daughter have seen a dramatic improvement in short term health from a carnivore diet. Rather than saying this will happen to everyone, this can be used as an example of how diet can have a massive effect on health. Depending on length of time you are on any diet you decide to try, you may want to consider long term risks of being on such a diet - some will have more info on this online than other more recent ones. Also worth bearing in mind when implementing a new diet that it’ll take time for your gut microbiome to change, so give it at least a month to see any effects. i really hope things start improving for you soon. Edit: improved clarity to avoid confusion

28:39 in this morning’s park run, in what can only be described as a windswept bog. 30 seconds better off than last week (77th last week to 50th this perhaps more significant), hoping to get into the 27s soon! Also signed up for my first ever 10k in April, which is something to work towards...