Asayake

Did you come to any resolve regarding this? I am recently experimenting with taking vs not taking certain vitamins and it does seem like I feel better overall when I'm NOT taking Vitamin D, despite living in a dark country. Super strange, I'm pretty sure it's not placebo, although that's possible as well of course. @Craigxt22

I'm not sure reverse osmosis is the best, I've heard things about it potentially depleting minerals in the body because it's too clean, anyone knows something about that? Carbon filter seems to be a good middle ground but I'm not sure what a good carbon filter would be. In my country there seems to be no good carbon filters available as far as I can find. I believe tap water isn't good, the tap water where I live is insanely high in calcium which is not a good thing, increases risk of kidney stones and other issues so I want to get this part of my health figured out. Edit: I just noticed Leo adds back minerals and stuff into the water after the reverse osmosis, could be worth pointing that out for anyone who didn't read the blog post, I think reverse osmosis without doing that could be dangerous.

This might not be something you're willing to do but how about decreasing your fat intake drastically? Let me explain how I view this. As far as your lunch goes.. particularly sausages and eggs are high fat foods, they take a lot of energy and time to digest, about 4 hours or sometimes longer. During that time your body will put an increased effort into digestion and you will feel sluggish and slow. Look at how runners or cyclists eat, they don't eat sausages a fatty meats before a running race unless it's like some keto ultra marathon guy, it would slow them down and make them preform poorly, not only physically but also mentally. Look at what Magnus Carlsen consumes while playing chess - a glass of orange juice, the most low fat food there is. That's what you want to feel and preform your best, something light yet high in energy. High fat foods decreases your body's ability to handle sugar/carbs and temporarily thickens your blood which worsens your blood flow. Increased blood flow = better oxygen transportation amongst other things. There are many reasons why high fat foods can make you sluggish, so I would try cutting down on those or cutting those out entirely and see how that makes you feel. Opt for chicken or white fish over sausages and eggs but an even better option is opting for a bean chilli without meat and oil, or simply steamed vegetables as sides to your grains. You will likely feel the best eating as high carb as possible, it's clear energy. Things like a fruit smoothie(with sugar even if you want) or a bowl of rice will digest in 30-60 minutes and you're ready to go. The key is to eat something light, which more or less can be summed up to something high carb low fat low protein. You can still eat til you're full, you don't have to eat a small quantity of food, you just need to eat the kinds of food that are light on the body, in other words easy for the body to digest, and those foods are high carb low fat foods. Examples of such foods can be rice, potatoes, sweet potatoes, couscous, bulgur, corn, chickpeas, lentils, beans, carrots and other vegetables. Chicken breast and white fish are pretty low fat but they're very low in carbs as well so that's a downside, they don't give you much readily available energy. As far as your mornings go.. you're skipping breakfast which puts the body in a fasted state where it is forced to rely on cortisol because you're depriving it of sugar/carbs. Then you're adding on coffee on top of that which is a cortisol stimulating drug. What your body really wants is clean energy from foods like fruit or grains but you're depriving your body of that and mistaking the body's stress response for sustainable energy. But the coffee spike lasts a couple of hours and then your energy will crash. This will compound with the high fat lunch you're eating. They're teaming up to knock you out, so to speak. So I would suggest also trying to substitute coffee for fruit, a fruit smoothie, fruit juice sooner or later. You can even try pouring some sugar on top for extra energy, it will make it easier to quit coffee if that's something you're willing to try, it will simply give you more readily available energy and lower your cortisol. Also drinking water early in the mornings will help your body rehydrate from sleep which will make you feel better and get you going faster, 3 glasses when you wake up and then down some fruit. Also you're working out quite a bit so high carb is important to help your body recover and the working out is going to be increasing your cortisol levels so sugar/carbs will help you regulate those levels so you don't burn out from overtraining/stressing yourself out like I did last year. The reason you like to have carbs before sleeping is that it helps your body lower cortisol, which is good. But imo you should be focusing way more on carbs overall throughout the day, it will keep you feeling better and recovering better overall, carbs alone aren't going to make you gain much weight but carbs + fat + protein will so if you really want to gain weight some fatty foods are fine. But keep in mind it's likely not going to make you feel your best imo, because fatty food does tax our body. If you're going to keep high fat foods in there maybe eat them on the later part of the day so you don't get knocked out at lunch. You could try just for a week eating fruit, fruit smoothies, canned fruit for breakfast & lunch and grains & veggies or grains & legumes or grains & white fish or chicken breast for dinner and see how that makes you feel.

Can you go more in depth about your diet?

Judging by Leo's posts on the forum, I believe him to be an INTJ. He seems to use Ni a lot to me. He also give off a certain "INTJ vibe".

Yeah, pretty much. I obviously don't think it's a good idea to drink just sugar water as it would leave you deficient in nutrients. Just added to fruit or a fruit smoothie will do, it compensates for lack of ripeness/quality of fruit and provides the energy necessary to feel better and become more active physically & mentally. But any kind of sugar works, brown sugar/maple syrup, whatever you think is the best, they're all pretty similar from my point of view, they're forms of readily available energy. The body will convert everything it gets its hands on to glucose as that is what the body's cells use for energy. Organic is probably the best but I think the difference is not that big.

That article didn't seem all that concerning to me. It even states most lectins can be removed by soaking beans & lentils before cooking Lectins are just one piece of a large puzzle which is why I don't think it's a problem. Yes beans & lentils contain lectins but they also contain minerals, fiber, phytonutrients and lack the most harmful nutrients such as saturated fat & cholestorol. Beyond this beans were consumed by some of the healthiest and longest living populations such as the okinawans. I think avoiding lectins is possible to do in a healthy way if you wish, I just think it's not the best thing to focus on, it seems to me like focusing on one minor detail that is not really the main issue. But if you're experiencing some issues you're trying to resolve you might as well try it and see if it works for you. 6-7 bananas, 250 grams of frozen blueberries, 1 decliter of white sugar and you got 1000 calories. Fruit don't cause cancer and fruit contains sugar. Adding sugar to a fruit smoothie just jacks up the ripeness level of the fruit in the smoothie, pretty much. Chug one smoothie like that down in the morning and go for a run and you burn off the 300 calories that was in the added sugar. And adding the sugar will make you feel like you actually want to go for a run because it increases your dopamine and you get a surge of natural energy instantly. The reason sugar is considered to cause heart disease is because it's considered to contribute to obesity & diabetes which is not really true. People who eat fat & oils just can't handle high sugar well because the fat & oils they're eating is causing insuline resistance by increasing blood fat levels & blocking the insulin receptor site. You'll struggle to find fruitarians with diabetes type 2 or obesity, they're all mega thin. A coke contains no fiber, vitamins or phytonutrients. It also contains stimulants in the form of caffeine which increases cortisol levels. It's also very acidic which is bad for the enamel. It's not the worst food out there but it's lacking in nutrients, drinking it every morning for breakfast would not be the best choice. Fatigue from a lack of sugar/carbs keeps us reliant on stimulants or dopamine increasing substances to get going. Physical inactivity is going to be worse for our health than consuming some extra sugar in our food is. The extra sugar will be burned off quickly by our increased activity and the body & immune function will thank us for not jacking up its cortisol levels with caffeine or other drugs to compensate for our lack of energy.

Lectins are not a problem. Also, I don't have any problems eating beans, problems from beans just means you're poorly adapted to fiber or are eating too much fat. Meat is low in carbohydrates which is the natural energy source for humans that cures fatigue. It's high in potentially cancer causing animal protein and heart disease causing fats that increase your blood fat levels. It also is high in cholesterol which is bad for some people. Difference in acne between two different brands of chicken could depend on many things. It could be that one is higher in B12 or fat which both can cause acne. The solution to not having to eat 25 lettuce heads for lunch is to smash down a banana blueberry smoothie with added sugar for breakfast. Boom 1000 calories of high quality energy for body and mind. High in vitamins, fiber, phytonutrients, sugar, water, it's the wombo combo. Tastes amazing. And low in cancer & heart disease contributive properties.

Yup

I've had very weird reactions to Magnesium in the past so interested to see what answers you're gonna get. I had a period where I suspected I had a magnesium deficiency and took a magnesium supplement and I couldn't sleep afterwards. I also had an intense surge of nauseousness. I tried it once more but had the same result and that put me off it for good. Personally this would only be an issue for me if it happened with vitamin D as there's no sunlight where I live. The other vitamins might not be necessary for you to supplement depending on what you eat.

Short answer: Increase sugar/carb intake by a lot and you'll be sleeping like a baby and have more energy during the day. This is not about micronutrients/supplements most of the time, you're just undercarbed and dehydrated and that's what's giving you the black circles under your eyes. And you likely have high cortisol levels which is ruining your sleep. Eat a big bowl of rice & potatoes before you go to bed, as much as you can tolerate, and you'll sleep like a baby. And drink 3 glasses of water each morning to have better hydration during the day.

The main problem with this from my point of view is that reducing carbs will reduce your motivation and your ability to train and recover. Consistent cardio is a good idea if you want to lose weight and eating more carbs is going to make that process more enjoyable and sustainable. It's not as simple as carbs increasing insulin which leads to weight gain, that's just one side of the coin. Carbs have other functions that are important for weight loss as well. Firstly, they enable you to excercise more and get more stuff done which will increase the amount of fat you burn. Blood sugar spikes will plummet your cortisol and high cortisol levels is what fucks with your ability to recover fast after training. High cortisol puts the body in a survival mode where it will try to pack on belly fat because food seems scarce, rather than try to recover. And it will screw with your sleep quality, which will impact your hormone levels negatively and make it harder to lose fat. It will also weaken your immune system which will possibly result in more off time from training. Carbs fill numerous important functions in the body, no matter if you're trying to lose weight or gain weight. Also, high protein foods too cause raised insulin in the same fashion as sugar. So the question is, if we're cutting out carbs to e.g. increase chicken/meat or something like this, what are we doing? We're giving the body less readily available energy so it's forced to run on cortisol and in the long run it has detrimental health effects. Those high protein foods are the most anabolic because they will not give you energy to get shit done like carbs will, they will just contribute to growing body mass. Fat doesn't cause an insulin increase but it's not a good energy source(takes 5+ hours to convert to energy). If you eat carbs and want to start out your day taking a run, you just eat a jar of canned fruit in syrup or a couple of bananas or a liter of Orange Juice and off you go. 100-150g of carbs is very low, keep that in mind. You can easily burn that off on a run or cycling and then you'll be out of readily available energy for the day and you'll be running on cortisol, there's a difference in how you feel and function. But I think you should try whatever you think is best and see for yourself how things work. You can try cutting down the carbs and if it's not working well for you that's a lesson learned. If it works out for you that's great too, just keep being aware of how it is making you feel as well. If you're going to stay calorie restricting for 3 months it's important that you feel good while you're doing it, It's probably not worth losing 45 pounds if you're feeling worse by the day and struggling to get by. Losing 45 pounds shouldn't feel like doing military service in Afghanistan. It should be harder than chilling on your sofa all day, but if you're struggling big time to maintain your restriction it's likely too big to be sustainable and you should try reducing your restriction by adding in more carbs. If you notice your stress levels are increasing you should up the carb intake, and make the calorie deficit smaller. Keep in mind that the fastest route to the goal is often not the best route. It's tempting to have a big calorie deficit to try and drop weight quickly but that might teach you a tough lesson, which is probably unavoidable either way in life, but that's the best advice I can give you.

If I was slamming down 4000 calories daily I probably would start to gain weight if I didn't do a lot of cardio. But when you eat no oils or fatty food gaining weight is difficult, I eat below 10 grams of fat most days currently. First of all there's a lot of calories in a small volume of fat, foods without fat generally require much more volume for the same amount of calories which means you'll get full a lot quicker, it's harder to eat as many calories. Also, eating 4000 calories per day on purely fruit is not realistic unless you're eating many fat fruits like avocado, durian or including nuts in your diet. Eating 40 bananas per day would leave you nauseous on your bed unless you're running an ultra marathon, or so I believe, I've yet to try that lol. I eat 1 deciliter of added white sugar per day to my fruit and that sounds like a lot but it will only amount to roughly 300 calories. I believe if anything the biggest problems with eating only fruit is that it's hard to get in enough calories if you don't add in the fat fruits and nuts, many fruitarians get unhealthily thin because they can't manage to get enough calories in. They basically live in starvation mode similarly to someone who restricts their calories to drop weight does. This is not good, it leads to high cortisol levels and burn you out and cause fatigue. This is why I eat cooked foods and sugar too, not just fruit. Restricting calories is not a good mindset imo, that's why I phrased it as slamming down the calories, I don't really count calories at all but I eat til I'm full and often even beyond that. I will track a couple of weeks of eating sometime in the future to see more clearly what I'm actually eating but I would estimate I hit atleast 2000 calories per day of almost pure carbs, probably I'm more like in the 2500-3000 range. Calories In/Calories Out is an oversimplification of how things really work. When you think about it it's obvious that 3000 calories of protein, fat or carbs are all going to make you feel completely different and do different things in your body. Your day is going to be completely different depending on what you eat, what you end up doing and what you'll burn off will change. Eating a lot of calories from sugar/carbs will give you energy and increase your motivation, it will increase your metabolism in multiple ways both direct and indirect. It will also improve your sleep by lowering your cortisol levels. Blood sugar spikes are vital for our well being because they crash cortisol. Blood sugar spikes are the body's way of knowing that we're not in starvation/survival mode. When the body thinks we need to gather food to survive it will give us cortisol spikes, blood sugar spikes plummets the cortisol. Fat decreases the body's ability to handle sugar spikes by blocking the insulin receptor site. This is why fat people are a lot more prone to Diabetes type 2 than slim people, they will have increased levels of fat in their blood. But someone who eats a lot of fat will also have higher levels of fat in their blood. When the body can't regulate the blood sugar properly blood sugar spikes turn into elevated blood sugar, which is bad. Lowered cortisol leads to improved sleep which leads to improved hormone levels, increased motivation, mood, increased metabolism. It will give you the energy to make stuff happen in your life, give you increased motivation for things like taking a walk or a run and other fat burning activities. It will increase your mind power, ever noticed how the champion of Chess himself, Magnus Carlsen, used to drink Orange Juice when playing since when he was a child for an energy boost? It makes a bigger difference than most would like to believe. Slamming down carbs has improved my mood and emotional stability a lot. Many people today are addicted to caffeine, nicotine, weed or stimulants like ADHD meds. These are all ways to artificially increase cortisol levels, as a compensation for lack of energy. Someone who wants to quit an addiction would have a much easier time doing so if they went on a diet like this because they wouldn't have that same fatigue or trigger for their addiction, which stems from a lack of readily available energy in the body. Keep in mind that every cell in the human body runs on sugar, it's what we're best adapted to use for energy, and energy manifests itself in so many different positive ways that it's difficult to summarize in a post. Beyond this, as far as storing fat in the body goes. The body highly prefers to store fat as fat. That's why scientists can look at your body fat and know what foods you've been eating, because the fat from the food is directly store onto the body. For the body to store sugar/carbs as fat however, a conversion has to take place due to adaptive thermogenesis where 25% of the energy is lost in conversion due to increased body temperature. I used to be cold a lot of the time, especially during winter as it's quite cold here in Sweden where I live. But since I've started eating this way my body temperature has gone up significantly. I believe this is a sign of adaptive thermogenesis/increased metabolism. If you eat 4000 calories of carbs & fat, the carbs will be used for energy and then when no more energy is needed the fat will be directly stored onto the body. If you eat 4000 calories of carbs, the carbs will be used for energy and when no more energy is needed, your metabolism will increase during the conversion of sugar to fat, so you will store less fat from eating 4000 calories of purely carbs than from eating 4000 calories of balanced macros. There are 2 ways to lose weight, either you decrease your calories and put yourself in starvation mode and live with elevated cortisol levels, worsened sleep, lowered metabolism(because the body thinks it's starving and tries to CONSERVE energy when in a sugar deficit), lowered motivation, lowered mental stability, worsened hormone levels, which will make your weight loss unsustainable in the longterm, the bigger the calorie restriction is, the less sustainable it is. Many people who restrict their calories by a big amount end up bouncing back in weight because they can't tolerate the lifestyle for long or end up becoming addicted to stimulant drugs like sugar free energy drinks/coffee to be functional with their mental fatigue. The other way you can lose weight is that you eat as much calories as you want from sugar/carb foods only, so you have increased energy to get more shit done, you can sleep properly at night and have no mental fatigue as well as increased emotional stability and many other benefits that increase your well being. The weight loss might be a lot slower, but it's sustainable because the journey is more pleasent, it's a lifestyle rather than a diet. I've eaten high fiber vegan(WFPB) for 4 1/2 years before but it didn't work for me personally. Back then I avoided sugar and it all worked great in the beginning, and I did become VERY slim. But I ended up becoming fatigued and had issues come up which ultimately led me back to an omnivore/bodybuilding style diet with higher fat, which worked well to begin with but ended up in health issues related to increased cortisol levels and the body not being able to relax. On this super high sugar/carb style of eating with no restriction, I feel back to my healthy peak self. It's a blessing for me!

Yeah, I would say mostly based on my limited experience, but there is a comprehensive logic to it as well. My experience so far is that I feel very good eating this way, it makes room for a lot of high energy food, I have increased mental clarity. I eat whenever I want and as much as I want, I slam down the calories but am not gaining weight. I have noticed many benefits so far such as lowered stress levels, improved sleep, more energy throughout the day, lowered anxiety, increased motivation, improved mood overall. I'm not excercising much currently, just some cardio. I am weighing myself regularly and I'm maintaining weight so far, not gaining weight despite pouring sugar on my food and eating til I'm full 2-3 times per day, sometimes more. I eat a lot of fruit and fruit smoothies with added sugar and supplement with Vitamin D3, K2 & B12. When I'm tracking my micronutrients I'm getting good amounts of vitamins and minerals, pretty much the only thing that is considered low is my protein intake, but so far it seems like a non issue. If I notice any concerning downsides to my low protein intake I'll start adding in beans & chickpeas. I do like how those foods taste but I definitely prefer how low protein foods make me feel, I notice a different on a day to day basis in how I feel depending on what I eat. Fruit smoothies with 6-8 ripe bananas, 250 grams of frozen blackberries and 1 deciliter of white sugar make me feel the best. One can speculate all they want about wether eating 90/5/5, all fruit diet or carnivore is good or bad but the only way to find out if it's worthwhile is to try it for yourself. I would rate 90/5/5 fruit/rice/potatoes/sugar/pasta diet highly so far. Probably pretty bad for bodybuilding lol, but the question is if bodybuilding truly is healthy. Sure a lot of guys want a muscular & ripped physique, but how come it's so difficult to maintain such a physique, perhaps it's not the natural or healthy physique for most humans. Ok, I believe that makes sense. I believe that's probably a pretty healthy diet and a safe bet that's going to work pretty well for most people.

@Michael569 When talking about a Mediterranean approach, what do you mean by that? Because I think that's associated with a lot of different things for people. Do you mean largely whole food plant based with some fish? @bazera I don't think current protein recommendations are accurate for humans. I eat 90/5/5 ratio of carbs/fat/protein and seem to be doing very well on this ratio so far. But we've yet to see how I do long-term, maybe I crash on this, who knows. But personally I don't think humans require more protein than can be found in fruits & grains. I'm not a fruitarian though, I think that would be difficult to sustain long-term simply because you would have to eat huge amounts of fruit to not get too thin, or add in many fat fruits like avocado, durian and olives. And I don't think fats are the best for human health. Not to mention that fruit quality in many countries is poor af. I add sugar on much of my fruit to compensate for the fact. I don't see why a more balanced macro ratio would be better necessarily. Fruitarians often think humans are designed to eat fruit, for them 90/5/5 is what proper macro balance looks like.

I see you guys point, but what is balance really? That is still very subjective in the case of nutrition, is it not? The word balanced in this context seems to be more or less synonymous with healthy to me. Because what's the point of eating in a balanced way if it's not healthy. In my mind 90/5/5 vegan, WFPB or carnivore could all be candidates for a balanced diet if they turned out to be the healthiest for humans, or in other words in balance with how humans have adapted to eat & thrive. If the health guidelines are where it's at then why is dietary associated diseases like heart disease and cancer as bad as ever? I feel like there should have been positive results if the guidelines are pointing in the right direction. Then some things to think about regarding sugar. Sugar free alternatives have been on the rise for many years, almost everyone I know buys them instead of the sugar containing alternative. Many of the same people are still overweight. I know you probably don't promote sugar free sodas but if sugar is as bad as it's made out to be by health guidelines then why doesn't more people avoiding sugar seem to net public health results? Poor asian farmers practically lived off of sugar (rice, sweet potatoes) for hundreds of years and seemed fine. Meanwhile my overweight dad who is a doctor is very careful with his carb portion sizes and has terrible health. Also @LfcCharlie4 sorry, I didn't quite get your question before. Could you explain what you meant?

I think the journaling situation is problematic. I think enabling users in the journal section to delete comments on their journals could potentially be a good solution and it should be looked into further. I think this would improve the state of the forum, at least short-term. Other possibilites I can think of are for example a replys disabled mode for the journal section. But that would take away the ability for people who get along to interact with eachother in the journal as well which isn't optimal either. I guess as long as there's communication in the journal section it's going to be prone to misuse and drama. But giving journal creators increased control of their journals doesnt seem too far fetched for me and might reduce the problems a fair bit. I can think of many situations where this could be useful as well as reduce a lot of unnecessary work for the mods. Another solution that comes to mind is making it so the block function isn't only hiding messages but actually blocking people from posting on the journal. Whatever the solution I think this needs to be looked into,

For sure, I am heavily influenced by Durianrider in particular. I was aware of him years back but I just thought he was crazy. After eating a more high fiber low sugar vegan way of eating for 4 1/2 years, followed by an omnivore high protein bodybuilding style of eating for the past 1 1/2 years I found myself in a position with declining health. Then I rediscovered Durianrider and went on his protocoll. I should disclaim I have only been on this super high carb/sugar style of diet for roughly a month but I can confidently say that it is working very well for me so far, my health both physical and mental has improved significantly in a considerably low period of time. But I don't know for sure yet how it's going to work longterm. But I think there's a logic behind it that checks out and makes sense in regards to my prior experiences with diet. There was a MD in the 1940s that used a similar diet to treat patients of many varying ailments like malignant hypertension, chronic kidney disease, obesity amongst other things with good results. His name is Walter Kempner and Durianriders way of eating is basically the Walter Kempner rice program adapted to fit a more active lifestyle(no caloric restriction). It's also important to mention that it could also be that it's just the mainstream omnivore diet that is very unhealthy and that the benefits I have noticed so far are from being freed from that diet, it's possible a more normal WFPB diet would have had similar positive effects. I am going to experiment with this further in the future but for now I'm going to stick with high sugar as long as it doesnt cause any issues, atleast for a few more months. I will keep those article tips in mind for the future.

Yes, I believe the olive oil industry is an industry that makes profit from sugar being seen as something bad, just like the energy drinks industry, coffee, adhd meds, chocolate, seed oil, meat, protein powder and more industries either try to replace the energy increasing & stress reducing effects of sugar or the taste by adding oils and/or sweeteners. Or they simply make money by selling something that's free of sugar. I am more of a believer in the China study than in a mediterranean style of eating. I believe in a meditteranean style of eating they eat other things that cancel some of the negative effects of consuming olive oil like a lot of wheat and vegetables. I believe oil is a bad source of energy(every cell in the body runs on sugar). I also believe oil/fat increases insulin resistance which gives sugar the brain fog effect people complain about(the insulin resistance causes elevated blood sugar which is responsible for brain fog, not the spikes), and makes people add on weight which is not bad for everyone but obesity is a bigger problem in the western world than being underweight. Unless one is underweight or wants to gain weight I see no reason for eating oil. Regarding the article I believe blood sugar spikes are not a problem so I would say I generally disagree with her view on the matter. I believe sugar spikes are a natural way for the body to regulate cortisol levels. Basically I believe that sugar spikes is how the body knows it's getting enough fuel and without them the body will release cortisol to compensate and crave energy in other forms like stimulants(weed, coffee, chocolate, amphetamines, modafinil). You can test this out for yourself by eating a big bowl of rice or rice & heinz canned beans in the evening, you will be hit by a strong relaxation and have an easier time falling asleep. What is called feelings of fatigue in the article is not actually fatigue imo, it's strong feelings of relaxation from crashed cortisol levels, which is a good thing if you're trying to relax and will happen only if you eat a very big meal of starch or A LOT of sugar. The stronger the blood sugar spikes, the harder the cortisol plummets. Cortisol is the body's way to compensate for low blood sugar, it gives you this fight or flight caffeine like feeling/headspace. it's the body's stress/survival mode hormone. If you avoid blood sugar spikes you will avoid diabetes but you will miss out of the benefits of blood sugar spikes which includes increased motivation(dopamine), increased content & mental clarity(serotonin). When I need energy I eat fruits. canned fruit in syrup, low oil cereal & white sugar. If I need to relax I slam down a big meal of rice, potatoes or pasta. I believe a better way to avoid diabetes is to cut out oil & fats because that's what causes insulin resistance, which is what we should really be fearing, not blood sugar spikes(as long as the blood sugar levels return to baseline afterwards which requires good insulin sensitivty).

Good post. To the carbs point I would like to add that I consume 100-150g of white sugar added to my food per day and my blood sugar levels are very stable, no brain fog. I believe it's because I eat no oil and no fatty foods and it increases the body's ability to regulate blood sugar because there's less fat inhibiting insulin function. I do think that oil is bad though, unless you want to put on extra weight but that's probably healthier to do with whole food anyways.

Just saying, comparing that Discord server to Heaven's gate is a strawman. I don't see why being in that Discord would have made me more likely to believe such a thing than being anywhere else, because no one I met in the Discord seemed to have that belief as far as I could tell. In fact I'm pretty sure people would have argued against me if I would have proposed that as an idea there just like on this forum. This disproportionate fear I sense here regarding the Discord posing a risk for being a cult seems more like a projection of the fear that this forum could potentially become a cult more than anything else in my opinion. As far as the value of forum vs chat I think they both have pros and cons. I think it might be easier to open up about stuff in chat in a sense because you can have a casual conversation that can naturally lead to a vibrational frequency where both parties can open up more easily and share stuff with eachother and connect in a way that is not as likely to happen on a forum for some people, it can simply put feel safer. There's also less pressure in a chat to put forward well formulated ideas. Sure, this can amount to lower quality of content some of the time, but that's a part of the process, chat has a more creative and personal flavour to it while the forum feels more academic, there's great potential in chat just like in a forum. When you put things out on the forum you know a lot of people will read and judge you based on it. In chat it can feel better to share because you feel more easily that there's other people you're connecting with there. And you can develop another kind of chemistry there because of more dynamic range with faster as well as slower replys available. The most beneficial conversations I had personally on this forum were 1 on 1 conversations through DMs or 1 on 1 chats via Discord. The forum boards seems to to be more useful for sharing insights, useful resources and sharing things like trip reports or book reviews and discussing specific topics but not as good for connecting with others which is also important for healing and spiritual growth. A benefit of the forum is that it can host a lot more people than a Discord because the conversations would become very chaotic with a huge Discord chat where as on the forum they are organized by threads and post timers. But I still think chats are better suited for connecting with and understanding others more deeply, it just feels more human, like chatting with irl friends contra communicating with them on a forum, it's a different vibe and you can get a better sense of who people are through chat than through their forum posts, because it tends to be less polished. Forum and Discord simply have different strengths. Don't underestimate Discord just because it is new technology. Connecting with people through chat can make you understand them better which reduces conflicts based on misunderstandings which seem common on the forum.

This fear of cults is getting ridiculous, has it ever occured to you that this place is more likely to be a cult than that casual discord channel ever was? There is no comparison to be made to Heaven's gate, it's just a ridiculous comparison. Sure there might be cult Discords out there but that Discord server was more like a casual server where people chatted about random stuff and psychology. Reminded me more of my friends Discord groups than some spiritual haven. If the Discord proposed suicide as the solution I would have quit it instantly. Also, this forum is no guarantee to not misunderstand spiritual teachings. I'm sure people misunderstand spiritual teachings on here all the time.

I would like to double up on Cinema Paradiso and Manchester by the sea. Great movies!

How is it possible she was eating too much fruit? She was surely eating other more calorie dense foods as well, 20 bananas = 2000 calories that puts into perspective how difficult it is to overeat most fruits. I guess it could be possible if she ate a couple of watermelons a day. I whole heartedly agree with this thread, I am currently pouring white table sugar on my fruit as well to compensate for the fact that most fruits available in my country are in poor, unripe condition and it gives me energy when I need it and helps me lower cortisol and relax when needed. I am currently on 90/5/5 carbs/protein/fat ratio and have been for a couple of weeks. Short term this feels amazing but personally I think it's sustainable longterm too.

Am I intepreting you correctly, are you going to attempt a 1-year no fap? If you can pull that off you might have stumbled upon an entirely new path to enlightenment.