Wrong again, idiots.

[ScottHall]

So I got stoned again, and I had this great realization. It is largely accepted as belief that being wrong is undesirable, because when you're wrong you aren't seeing the whole picture and will presumably make more errors because of this. Especially as investors, we're encouraged to admit that we're wrong quickly in order to maximize the power of our capital.

 

Well guys what guys? The status quo had it wrong, again. This thought first occurred to me just minutes ago as I was remembering my struggle with weight loss over the past year. Over a period of several years, I allowed myself to balloon up to a high 170 from my "normal" of 150. It was the only time in my life I had ever been fat, even if it was only a little bit.

 

It freaked me out, and combined with the joint pain I had been experiencing, I decided to call off the weight gain effective immediately, because I did not want to let this go and become obese. This was last last spring, if memory serves me correctly.

 

To accomplish my weight loss, I created what I like to call the Scotty System.

 

I cut out a lot of red meat (for the joints), but for everything else all I did was calorie count. I had done the math that at 1,200 calories a day, I would be happy with my weight loss. What I didn't do was avoid anything; I continued to eat cookies, ice cream, pizza, and potato chips. I just made sure that I had 1,200 calories per day, or less. Sometimes I would eat 600 - 800. Occasionally I would have to go over the 1,200 due to a road trip, but I'd make it up by undereating the equivalent amount the next day.

 

In other words, no matter what, I made sure that the books were balanced and that my plan would succeed. And it did; it took about 2 weights to stop gaining from when I started, but when the tide turned, it turned in a major way. I somehow lost 20 pounds in just two or three months, which is quite a bit above what the math indicated I should lose if I recall right. I lost a substantial amount of muscle mass, probably from the cutting of red meat (used to eat steaks 2 - 3x a week).

 

I got to 150, and my family was concerned about the rapid weight loss and asked if I was going to slow down at all, or attempt to stay at 150. I told them there was no way, because that was at the very high end of a "normal" weight range for someone my size. I told them that it was too dangerous; eating even two cookies could make me overweight. And I really convinced myself of this.

 

This is obviously wrong, as my family rightly pointed out. Weight loss doesn't quite work that way. But I convinced myself that it did, and I kept up on my Scotty System. Even though I could maintain my weight at a higher calorie limit, I thought it was too risky to attempt for a really silly reason.

 

But being wrong about the impact two cookies would have on my weight actually did me a solid, because not longer afterwards I hit a plateau. I continued my calorie counting, but the scale just wouldn't budge. Being so afraid of getting fat by eating two cookies too many helped me keep my calorie consumption lower than it "needed" to be, which kept up my resolve when confronted with my plateau, and probably stopped me from gaining some back and becoming demoralized.

 

Eventually, the weight loss continued and I am now down to 137 pounds. It's as light as I've been since I was a teenager, and although I've had more plateaus, lately I've continued losing about half a pound a week. Although in hindsight my concerns about eating two cookies were silly, they helped give me that extra margin of safety I needed to psychologically stick with the Scotty System. Being wrong actually made me more effective at achieving my goals.

 

I think there are applications in this for investing, too. I know a lot of times in the past, I've looked at how a fund manager invests and think that it's suboptimal and almost scoffing. For example, one of the things that used to get me was people who would only invest in companies that had little to no debt. I've known several. I think this philosophy is weird, because when used properly, debt can really be used to enhance shareholder returns.

 

But it also carries a lot of risk. Is the chance of missing out on the next TCI worth excluding all debt-financed companies? Probably not, for an investor who has the ability to pick the good from the bad. But for many investors, it may be a blanket good policy if you're not comfortable with the economics of highly leveraged companies, and probably helps your performance if you can't distinguish between companies where it makes sense, and companies where it doesn't.

 

Die hard value investors have been WRONG in recent years, when growth has beaten the pants off of value. And if you ask me, I think we've seen structural changes in the way the world operates that make growth more likely to continue winning in future years. But although they've been wrong, it doesn't mean they've been ineffective. It could be that many people who are wired for value investing either don't have the analytical capabilities or the risk appetite to invest in growthy companies, even if the expected value from doing so has been and may continue to be positive.

 

If you don't understand them, even if it's strategically correct to invest in growth, you may well fuck it up. Even if the EXPECTED return is lower, you may be more analytically inclined towards those types of companies and deliver excess returns over the value benchmark. And even if not, if the returns would be worse for you investing in growth, it still makes sense to do it. Even if the average for growth is higher... the median may not be.

 

It's the same sort of argument for the stock market. The studies have proven that most people can't beat the market; they're even worse than most people expect. But that doesn't mean it's impossible for people with certain traits to do so. You're betting against the base rate if you're even reading this right now, and most people report better-than-average returns here, for whatever that's worth. Maybe not much!

 

I suppose this is a long winded way of saying that being wrong and being ineffective are not necessarily comorbid. I think it's important to make sure we don't confuse being wrong with being ineffective; in some cases, being wrong can help make you more effective.

 

 

[DooDiligence]

You just made me realize that my aversion to debt in personal finance has bled over into my portfolio.

 

I still feel comfortable with this approach because I know that I'm incapable of analyzing situations where complex debt structures are employed (can't separate good from bad...) & just about any increased level of debt seems complex to me.

 

I've looked at many of the ideas presented here & when I see big leverage (especially when coupled with lumpy cash flows) I just walk away (believing it's outside my wheelhouse when maybe I'm actually just being lazy.)

 

I like Howard Marks idea that protecting for downside is more important that planning for upside (I view debt as a big factor in this & realize that I can be neglectful of MOS in the process.)

 

I'm wrong for not trying to learn how to look at these things & I'm right for staying with a consistent philosophy?!?

 

Can't always be right but I can remain comfortable...

[finetrader]

"I think we've seen structural changes in the way the world operates that make growth more likely to continue winning in future years"

 

The way I see it, nothing has changed, but interest rates.

 

P/E ratio has increased. So when P/E=7 was cheap for a certain asset. it now trades at 10 times. The hard thing is to decide if P/E=10 for that asset is cheap in this environment (low rates). 

 

 

[boilermaker75]

Sugar, which you are getting in your ice cream, cookies, and pizza, causes inflammation, which will result in nerve damage. Why diabetics get neuropathy. You are slowly cooking your nerves to death.

 

The inflammation will aggravate conditions such as carpal tunnel syndrome.

 

The high levels of glucose in your blood will eventually lead to type II diabetes.

 

Your nitric oxide pathway will be blocked. Nitric oxide regulates blood pressure by dilating arteries. You will get high blood pressure. This will also reduce blood flow to nerves and these tiny blood vessels will eventually clog.

 

Cancer cells use glucose as their energy source, nothing else. No glucose they die.

 

My blood pressure had started to creep up to where my doctor was starting to talk about putting me on blood pressure medicine. That is when I started researching and learned the role sugar played. After about a month off of sugar my blood pressure was down 20 poihts.

 

[giofranchi]

After about a month off of sugar my blood pressure was down 20 poihts.

 

By "off of sugar" which percentage of carbohydrates in your diet are you referring to?

Those days in which I stay below 40% are the ones when I eat no bread, no pasta, and no desserts...

 

Cheers,

 

Gio

[oddballstocks]

Sugar, which you are getting in your ice cream, cookies, and pizza, causes inflammation, which will result in nerve damage. Why diabetics get neuropathy. You are slowly cooking your nerves to death.

 

The inflammation will aggravate conditions such as carpal tunnel syndrome.

 

The high levels of glucose in your blood will eventually lead to type II diabetes.

 

Your nitric oxide pathway will be blocked. Nitric oxide regulates blood pressure by dilating arteries. You will get high blood pressure. This will also reduce blood flow to nerves and these tiny blood vessels will eventually clog.

 

Cancer cells use glucose as their energy source, nothing else. No glucose they die.

 

My blood pressure had started to creep up to where my doctor was starting to talk about putting me on blood pressure medicine. That is when I started researching and learned the role sugar played. After about a month off of sugar my blood pressure was down 20 poihts.

 

Do you still eat fruit?

 

In 2010 I became clued in on health.  Let me backtrack, I grew up in an athletic family, was an athlete in high school and stayed active in college.  But after college I sat in a cube and became pudgy.  I didn't really know what or how it happened.  Then in 2010 a co-worker made an off-hand comment about calories and how drinking a Coke at 140 calories would require about 1.5 miles of walking to burn it off.  He said "it's a lot easier to not drink a Coke vs walk 1.5 miles."  I'd never made that connection.  Long story short, from there I lost 45lbs, became active again and have stayed that way since.  I'm back to running 6-8 miles a day at the same pace (and sometimes faster) that I ran in high school 20 years ago.

 

In terms of diet I try to avoid carbs like pasta outside of dinner.  Breakfast is eggs, lunch: fruit, veggies and nuts, and dinner is whatever my wife makes.  She cooks everything from scratch, I watch my portions.  I've worked to cut down and mostly eliminate sugar, except I recognize I'm getting it in fruit and honey (mentioned below).  I'm on the fence about this.  Supposedly fruit is ok because it's balanced with fiber.

 

When you don't eat as much sugar and then do you can see the difference.  Here and there I'll get this urge to pig out on some candy or something (usually at holidays).  I'll be like a drunk at the bar except my drink is having cookies and cake and seconds and thirds of both.  It tastes awesome, and about 20m later I feel like trash. 

 

Now the converse theory to this is if you're always in a calorie deficit (such as Scott) it doesn't matter what you eat.  If you're in balance what you eat matters, but if you're in a deficit your body will be much healthier.  I used to keep myself in a slight deficit but as I ramped up my running I kept finding myself either bonking on long runs, or extremely fatigued the next morning.  I wasn't eating enough.  Once I increased my intake all of that went away.

 

Here's a pro-sugar tip.  The BEST energy drink/item is pure unfiltered honey.  I'll have a tablespoon of honey right before a long run.  Honey doesn't spike your bloodsugar and there's something about the type of glucose that gets to your muscles quicker.  We buy some local stuff, it's very thick. Stay away from the grocery store crap, it's basically bottled yellow syrup.

 

I do the honey thing 2-3 times a week, yes it's sugar, but I have perfect blood pressure.  I have no idea if I have inflammation or not.  How would I tell?

[boilermaker75]

After about a month off of sugar my blood pressure was down 20 poihts.

 

By "off of sugar" which percentage of carbohydrates in your diet are you referring to?

Those days in which I stay below 40% are the ones when I eat no bread, no pasta, and no desserts...

 

Cheers,

 

Gio

 

Gio,

 

I haven't gone crazy. I still eat plenty of carbs like bread, potatoes, and pasta. I started by just eliminating direct sugars like in cookies, ice cream, chips, pizza, candy, orange or grape juice, soft drinks, etc. I also use heavy cream, but haven't gone all the way to trying butter instead, in my coffee. These steps made a huge improvement.

 

My next step, especially if my blood pressure starts creeping up again, would be to start cutting back on carbs.

 

Boiler

 

 

[LC]

Caloric density I think plays a large role.

 

 

Take "carbs"...a snickers bar weighs about 44 grams and has like 250 calories. a potato weighs 5x as much (about 215 grams) and has 160 calories.

 

Definitely better to keep eating potatoes and pasta and cut out the sodas and candy bars.

[boilermaker75]

Sugar, which you are getting in your ice cream, cookies, and pizza, causes inflammation, which will result in nerve damage. Why diabetics get neuropathy. You are slowly cooking your nerves to death.

 

The inflammation will aggravate conditions such as carpal tunnel syndrome.

 

The high levels of glucose in your blood will eventually lead to type II diabetes.

 

Your nitric oxide pathway will be blocked. Nitric oxide regulates blood pressure by dilating arteries. You will get high blood pressure. This will also reduce blood flow to nerves and these tiny blood vessels will eventually clog.

 

Cancer cells use glucose as their energy source, nothing else. No glucose they die.

 

My blood pressure had started to creep up to where my doctor was starting to talk about putting me on blood pressure medicine. That is when I started researching and learned the role sugar played. After about a month off of sugar my blood pressure was down 20 poihts.

 

Do you still eat fruit?

 

In 2010 I became clued in on health.  Let me backtrack, I grew up in an athletic family, was an athlete in high school and stayed active in college.  But after college I sat in a cube and became pudgy.  I didn't really know what or how it happened.  Then in 2010 a co-worker made an off-hand comment about calories and how drinking a Coke at 140 calories would require about 1.5 miles of walking to burn it off.  He said "it's a lot easier to not drink a Coke vs walk 1.5 miles."  I'd never made that connection.  Long story short, from there I lost 45lbs, became active again and have stayed that way since.  I'm back to running 6-8 miles a day at the same pace (and sometimes faster) that I ran in high school 20 years ago.

 

In terms of diet I try to avoid carbs like pasta outside of dinner.  Breakfast is eggs, lunch: fruit, veggies and nuts, and dinner is whatever my wife makes.  She cooks everything from scratch, I watch my portions.  I've worked to cut down and mostly eliminate sugar, except I recognize I'm getting it in fruit and honey (mentioned below).  I'm on the fence about this.  Supposedly fruit is ok because it's balanced with fiber.

 

When you don't eat as much sugar and then do you can see the difference.  Here and there I'll get this urge to pig out on some candy or something (usually at holidays).  I'll be like a drunk at the bar except my drink is having cookies and cake and seconds and thirds of both.  It tastes awesome, and about 20m later I feel like trash. 

 

Now the converse theory to this is if you're always in a calorie deficit (such as Scott) it doesn't matter what you eat.  If you're in balance what you eat matters, but if you're in a deficit your body will be much healthier.  I used to keep myself in a slight deficit but as I ramped up my running I kept finding myself either bonking on long runs, or extremely fatigued the next morning.  I wasn't eating enough.  Once I increased my intake all of that went away.

 

Here's a pro-sugar tip.  The BEST energy drink/item is pure unfiltered honey.  I'll have a tablespoon of honey right before a long run.  Honey doesn't spike your bloodsugar and there's something about the type of glucose that gets to your muscles quicker.  We buy some local stuff, it's very thick. Stay away from the grocery store crap, it's basically bottled yellow syrup.

 

I do the honey thing 2-3 times a week, yes it's sugar, but I have perfect blood pressure.  I have no idea if I have inflammation or not.  How would I tell?

 

I'll eat fruit that is low on the GI index. I also eat lots of nuts. I've lost 10 pounds and I am back at my college weight, which was 45 years ago!

 

Your fasting blood sugar levels would probably be an indication of inflammation. You want below 100 mg/dL but ideally 75-80 mg/dL. Pre-cutting out sugar my fasting blood sugar level had creeped up to 91 mg/dL. My next physical is this summer and I am very interested in seeing where my fasting blood sugar level is.

[Jurgis]

I just realized that to be a great investor one just needs to get stoned once in a while.  8)

 

It's just that simple bros.

 

 

 

 

 

 

OMG these effing liberals in blue states figured it out first. Again.  ::)

 

 

[LC]

I just realized that to be a great investor one just needs to get stoned once in a while.  8)

 

It's just that simple bros.

 

 

 

 

 

 

OMG these effing liberals in blue states figured it out first. Again.  ::)

 

Buffett has burgers and coke, I've got granola and weed. Whatever works!

[TwoCitiesCapital]

Caloric density I think plays a large role.

 

 

Take "carbs"...a snickers bar weighs about 44 grams and has like 250 calories. a potato weighs 5x as much (about 215 grams) and has 160 calories.

 

Definitely better to keep eating potatoes and pasta and cut out the sodas and candy bars.

 

I don't think it's this simple. Volume matters as much as density and how long it takes to digest. I could eat a massive portion of veggies and be hungry again in a few hours. Meats are more dense than fruits and veggies and take longer for your body to break down and digest. This why people have such success with protein heavy diets - they consume less food and are hungry less often because your body takes a lot longer to digest it.

 

For breakfast, I typically eat 3-4 eggs and 12 oz of oatmeal and I'm not hungry again until 4-5 clock. It's a large breakfast, but a much smaller amount of food than a typical person would have across breakfast + lunch AND it keeps me full just as long on fewer calories despite what this chart would suggest.

 

 

 

[ScottHall]

You just made me realize that my aversion to debt in personal finance has bled over into my portfolio.

 

I still feel comfortable with this approach because I know that I'm incapable of analyzing situations where complex debt structures are employed (can't separate good from bad...) & just about any increased level of debt seems complex to me.

 

I've looked at many of the ideas presented here & when I see big leverage (especially when coupled with lumpy cash flows) I just walk away (believing it's outside my wheelhouse when maybe I'm actually just being lazy.)

 

I like Howard Marks idea that protecting for downside is more important that planning for upside (I view debt as a big factor in this & realize that I can be neglectful of MOS in the process.)

 

I'm wrong for not trying to learn how to look at these things & I'm right for staying with a consistent philosophy?!?

 

Can't always be right but I can remain comfortable...

 

I'm glad my stoned thoughts were useful to you. They're useful to me very often, especially in copywriting.

 

"I think we've seen structural changes in the way the world operates that make growth more likely to continue winning in future years"

 

The way I see it, nothing has changed, but interest rates.

 

P/E ratio has increased. So when P/E=7 was cheap for a certain asset. it now trades at 10 times. The hard thing is to decide if P/E=10 for that asset is cheap in this environment (low rates).

 

I don't think so. I think the tech bubble people were right, just early. I think the world changed in a big way sometime around the turn of the century, and has added a higher class of business economics than was possible at pretty much any other time in history. Companies exist now that are cheap at 30x, 40x, 50x earnings because there is essentially no capital constraint or capacity constraint on their runway, which didn't used to be true.

 

Sugar, which you are getting in your ice cream, cookies, and pizza, causes inflammation, which will result in nerve damage. Why diabetics get neuropathy. You are slowly cooking your nerves to death.

 

The inflammation will aggravate conditions such as carpal tunnel syndrome.

 

The high levels of glucose in your blood will eventually lead to type II diabetes.

 

Your nitric oxide pathway will be blocked. Nitric oxide regulates blood pressure by dilating arteries. You will get high blood pressure. This will also reduce blood flow to nerves and these tiny blood vessels will eventually clog.

 

Cancer cells use glucose as their energy source, nothing else. No glucose they die.

 

My blood pressure had started to creep up to where my doctor was starting to talk about putting me on blood pressure medicine. That is when I started researching and learned the role sugar played. After about a month off of sugar my blood pressure was down 20 poihts.

 

I guess I'm fucked, then, because I'm not giving up my treats. I might even die.

 

Sugar, which you are getting in your ice cream, cookies, and pizza, causes inflammation, which will result in nerve damage. Why diabetics get neuropathy. You are slowly cooking your nerves to death.

 

The inflammation will aggravate conditions such as carpal tunnel syndrome.

 

The high levels of glucose in your blood will eventually lead to type II diabetes.

 

Your nitric oxide pathway will be blocked. Nitric oxide regulates blood pressure by dilating arteries. You will get high blood pressure. This will also reduce blood flow to nerves and these tiny blood vessels will eventually clog.

 

Cancer cells use glucose as their energy source, nothing else. No glucose they die.

 

My blood pressure had started to creep up to where my doctor was starting to talk about putting me on blood pressure medicine. That is when I started researching and learned the role sugar played. After about a month off of sugar my blood pressure was down 20 poihts.

 

Do you still eat fruit?

 

In 2010 I became clued in on health.  Let me backtrack, I grew up in an athletic family, was an athlete in high school and stayed active in college.  But after college I sat in a cube and became pudgy.  I didn't really know what or how it happened.  Then in 2010 a co-worker made an off-hand comment about calories and how drinking a Coke at 140 calories would require about 1.5 miles of walking to burn it off.  He said "it's a lot easier to not drink a Coke vs walk 1.5 miles."  I'd never made that connection.  Long story short, from there I lost 45lbs, became active again and have stayed that way since.  I'm back to running 6-8 miles a day at the same pace (and sometimes faster) that I ran in high school 20 years ago.

 

In terms of diet I try to avoid carbs like pasta outside of dinner.  Breakfast is eggs, lunch: fruit, veggies and nuts, and dinner is whatever my wife makes.  She cooks everything from scratch, I watch my portions.  I've worked to cut down and mostly eliminate sugar, except I recognize I'm getting it in fruit and honey (mentioned below).  I'm on the fence about this.  Supposedly fruit is ok because it's balanced with fiber.

 

When you don't eat as much sugar and then do you can see the difference.  Here and there I'll get this urge to pig out on some candy or something (usually at holidays).  I'll be like a drunk at the bar except my drink is having cookies and cake and seconds and thirds of both.  It tastes awesome, and about 20m later I feel like trash. 

 

Now the converse theory to this is if you're always in a calorie deficit (such as Scott) it doesn't matter what you eat.  If you're in balance what you eat matters, but if you're in a deficit your body will be much healthier.  I used to keep myself in a slight deficit but as I ramped up my running I kept finding myself either bonking on long runs, or extremely fatigued the next morning.  I wasn't eating enough.  Once I increased my intake all of that went away.

 

Here's a pro-sugar tip.  The BEST energy drink/item is pure unfiltered honey.  I'll have a tablespoon of honey right before a long run.  Honey doesn't spike your bloodsugar and there's something about the type of glucose that gets to your muscles quicker.  We buy some local stuff, it's very thick. Stay away from the grocery store crap, it's basically bottled yellow syrup.

 

I do the honey thing 2-3 times a week, yes it's sugar, but I have perfect blood pressure.  I have no idea if I have inflammation or not.  How would I tell?

 

I always like to hear other people's weight loss success stories, to see what changes they made from my own plan and how it has worked for them. It sounds like your system has worked wonderfully for you, congratulations!

 

I might try that honey trick... I do love honey.

 

I just realized that to be a great investor one just needs to get stoned once in a while.  8)

 

It's just that simple bros.

 

 

 

 

 

 

OMG these effing liberals in blue states figured it out first. Again.  ::)

 

I find it incredibly useful. I wish I started smoking pot years ago. It helps me with writing headlines for copy, and also coming up with ideas. My head is usually racing a lot of places at once... when I smoke, it slows down my brain and I find that I'm able to explore my thoughts more thoroughly, because I don't zip off to the next thought that comes to me nearly as much. Sometimes I get interesting investing insights, other times I get marketing/copy ideas, and sometimes I just get really stoned and watch reruns of Gilmore Girls.

 

I just realized that to be a great investor one just needs to get stoned once in a while.  8)

 

It's just that simple bros.

 

 

 

 

 

 

OMG these effing liberals in blue states figured it out first. Again.  ::)

 

Buffett has burgers and coke, I've got granola and weed. Whatever works!

 

I agree with that. I am planning to try some hallucinogens later this year; my shrink thinks it's a great idea. She says it may end up helping with my chronic depression.

[oddballstocks]

Caloric density I think plays a large role.

 

 

Take "carbs"...a snickers bar weighs about 44 grams and has like 250 calories. a potato weighs 5x as much (about 215 grams) and has 160 calories.

 

Definitely better to keep eating potatoes and pasta and cut out the sodas and candy bars.

 

This chart is fascinating.

 

One thing I love to do is light weight backpacking, also called fast packing.  In lightening up a pack you need to critically look at food as well.  The goal is to find food that's 100 calories per ounce or more.  Otherwise you're carrying empty weight.

 

There are some tricks with this.  People will drizzle oil on nuts to bump the calories.  I've found nuts fit the bill, same with some beef jerky as well as peanut M&M's and Snickers bars.  A Snickers is really a perfect energy bar, the sugar, the nuts, very calorie dense for its weight.

 

Sugar is an amazing energy source.  I see it in my kids after they have a treat.  The most random example of this is something I experienced this past May.  I was driving back from an annual meeting in Tennessee and stopped at a gas station and picked up a bag of sour patch kids.  I ate the whole bag, it was way too many.  I was amped up from eating them.  I was on a backroad through some National Forest.  I pulled off and ran up a mountain.  It was about 1,000-1,500 in elevation over a few miles, I sprinted up.  It was those sour patch kids!  My energy level was almost super human.  It didn't last, and thankfully once at the top after I ran out of sugar the trip back was downhill, but it was crazy.

 

Researching the caloric density of food really opened my eyes in a lot of ways.  It wasn't an aspect I'd ever thought about before. 

 

[finetrader]

I just realized that to be a great investor one just needs to get stoned once in a while.  8)

 

It's just that simple bros.

 

 

Definitely helps to have extracurricular activities while waiting for the fat pitch.

 

They don't call us passive investors for nothing

[LC]

 

One thing I love to do is light weight backpacking, also called fast packing.  In lightening up a pack you need to critically look at food as well.  The goal is to find food that's 100 calories per ounce or more.  Otherwise you're carrying empty weight.

 

There are some tricks with this.  People will drizzle oil on nuts to bump the calories.  I've found nuts fit the bill, same with some beef jerky as well as peanut M&M's and Snickers bars.  A Snickers is really a perfect energy bar, the sugar, the nuts, very calorie dense for its weight.

 

Sugar is an amazing energy source.  I see it in my kids after they have a treat.  The most random example of this is something I experienced this past May.  I was driving back from an annual meeting in Tennessee and stopped at a gas station and picked up a bag of sour patch kids.  I ate the whole bag, it was way too many.  I was amped up from eating them.  I was on a backroad through some National Forest.  I pulled off and ran up a mountain.  It was about 1,000-1,500 in elevation over a few miles, I sprinted up.  It was those sour patch kids!  My energy level was almost super human.  It didn't last, and thankfully once at the top after I ran out of sugar the trip back was downhill, but it was crazy.

 

Researching the caloric density of food really opened my eyes in a lot of ways.  It wasn't an aspect I'd ever thought about before.

 

There's a great website for ultralight backpacking: www.reddit.com/r/ultralight

People do everything from shaving toothbrushes down to nubs, and cutting off excess backpack straps, all in order to lighten their pack. Really cool stuff even if you don't take it to that extreme (I don't!)

 

[LC]

I agree with that. I am planning to try some hallucinogens later this year; my shrink thinks it's a great idea. She says it may end up helping with my chronic depression.

 

Well, I would suggest doing some planning...make sure u are comfortable in your head and environment, and do a low dose...there are such things as "bad trips". That said, my drug days are waaay behind me (going back to my montreal bachelor days, haha), so maybe I'm just being old and stuffy.

 

I hope you find help with your depression, that stuff sucks! My buddy has suffered from chronic depression for years...they just changed his pills on him and he had to self-check into a mental clinic for 10 days...I gave him major props for taking that action for himself, but the stuff he was telling me afterwards...it is no joke.

[oddballstocks]

 

One thing I love to do is light weight backpacking, also called fast packing.  In lightening up a pack you need to critically look at food as well.  The goal is to find food that's 100 calories per ounce or more.  Otherwise you're carrying empty weight.

 

There are some tricks with this.  People will drizzle oil on nuts to bump the calories.  I've found nuts fit the bill, same with some beef jerky as well as peanut M&M's and Snickers bars.  A Snickers is really a perfect energy bar, the sugar, the nuts, very calorie dense for its weight.

 

Sugar is an amazing energy source.  I see it in my kids after they have a treat.  The most random example of this is something I experienced this past May.  I was driving back from an annual meeting in Tennessee and stopped at a gas station and picked up a bag of sour patch kids.  I ate the whole bag, it was way too many.  I was amped up from eating them.  I was on a backroad through some National Forest.  I pulled off and ran up a mountain.  It was about 1,000-1,500 in elevation over a few miles, I sprinted up.  It was those sour patch kids!  My energy level was almost super human.  It didn't last, and thankfully once at the top after I ran out of sugar the trip back was downhill, but it was crazy.

 

Researching the caloric density of food really opened my eyes in a lot of ways.  It wasn't an aspect I'd ever thought about before.

 

There's a great website for ultralight backpacking: www.reddit.com/r/ultralight

People do everything from shaving toothbrushes down to nubs, and cutting off excess backpack straps, all in order to lighten their pack. Really cool stuff even if you don't take it to that extreme (I don't!)

 

Ah cool, thanks!  Didn't know about the Reddit site.  I visit backpackinglight.com and whiteblaze.net

 

I did an endurance backpacking event last year, the North Country Trail A100.  Goal is to walk 25/50/75/100 miles in 50 hours through the National Forest.  It's unsupported so you need a backpack with gear, food, water, etc.  Last year I completed the 75 miles and I'm training for the 100 this year.

 

I have my base weight down to 7lbs for a spring/summer/fall setup.  In true value-investor fashion my sleeping bag is a $25 Costco down blanket, pack is a $50 Eddie Bauer pack (650 grams!), cheap Amazon tarp etc.

 

Once I discovered you can go light and fast my eyes were opened.  I used to look at longer trails and think it'd be impossible to do because I can't just stop working for a month.  But now I look at longer trails and realize they can be done quickly.  Something like the Sheltowee Trace or Mid-State trail (300m) is a 8-9 day trip. Suddenly these longer trails are feasible.

[Jurgis]

Depression: not a solution for everyone, but check your vitamin D levels.

 

A friend ;) had depression (not medically diagnosed, so can't say how bad it would have been judged, but with suicidal thoughts, etc.), was suggested to use vitamin D for unrelated issue (elevated blood pressure), depression was gone in couple months.

[Cardboard]

I would keep on smoking pot and maybe accelerate for your chronic depression then schizophrenia might end up being another thing to watch for.  ::)

 

Cardboard

[ScottHall]

I would keep on smoking pot and maybe accelerate for your chronic depression then schizophrenia might end up being another thing to watch for.  ::)

 

Cardboard

 

I've had a huge reduction in suicidal thoughts since I started smoking weed on the regular. It's harmful for some people - I believe the science suggests smoking before the age of 25 can fuck up your brain development. And there are definitely side effects that could be negative depending on the context... but on the whole, for me, all I can say is it has helped me become a better copywriter and has reduced my depression substantially.

 

As with anything, your mileage may vary.

[DooDiligence]

I would keep on smoking pot and maybe accelerate for your chronic depression then schizophrenia might end up being another thing to watch for.  ::)

 

Cardboard

 

Great job Schmucko (stay douchey!)

[ScottHall]

I would keep on smoking pot and maybe accelerate for your chronic depression then schizophrenia might end up being another thing to watch for.  ::)

 

Cardboard

 

Great job Schmucko (stay douchey!)

 

Some people just can't have fun. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[ScottHall]

Depression: not a solution for everyone, but check your vitamin D levels.

 

A friend ;) had depression (not medically diagnosed, so can't say how bad it would have been judged, but with suicidal thoughts, etc.), was suggested to use vitamin D for unrelated issue (elevated blood pressure), depression was gone in couple months.

 

Thanks Jurgis. I may try that for myself; seems like a low risk thing that could pay big dividends.

 

One thing I wanted to mention too, in case anyone here is struggling with weight loss... I really give La Croix sparkling water a lot of credit for helping me. I used to drink a ton of soda each day. 5, 6, 7 cans. It was almost always diet, so it didn't cause the weight gain directly... but my understanding behind the artificial sweeteners is that they don't really satisfy you, and leave you craving more sweetness.

 

I think that's true, because I would eat a LOT of sweets when I was on diet Coke. I still do, but not nearly as much, and I don't have an insatiable appetite for it anymore. I don't think it's a coincidence that when I cut down my diet soda intake to one a week (or less), my appetite for sugar tanked. I credit the La Croix beverage for helping that happen, because it's carbonated just like soda and has a flavor to it... I kind of used it as a half way house for my soda addiction.

 

I still drink it regularly, too. When I saw how much it helped me to STOP drinking the soda, and by extension, to help cut down on my sugar intake... well let's just say they've got a customer for a long, long time.

[Liberty]

Having fun with your copywriting skills, eh?