Wrong again, idiots.

[Cardboard]

"Great job Schmucko (stay douchey!)"

 

While you are at name calling... I am going to have right now a good glass of Knob Creek 100 proof with ice and regular Coke thinking of you .......!

 

While I like the taste and the feeling, I am fully aware of the side effects on physical and mental health.

 

I am glad Scott if pot does not contribute to your depression and actually decreases it. I have to say that I have seen too often the ravages that it had on many people.

 

Cardboard

[Jurgis]

I can't drink sparkling water (does not work for me). I stopped drinking sodas by switching to tea. Even sweetened tea - I drink both sweetened and unsweetened about half/half - has way less sugar than soda. Now I drink some plain water too, but still mostly teas (black, green, white, herbal).

 

Diet sodas always tasted like crap, so never drank them.

 

Sorry, Warren.  ;)

[TorontoRaptorsFan]

Scott, with all the in-fighting going on perhaps you need to host a "Festival of Friendship"  8)

[Liberty]

Scott, with all the in-fighting going on perhaps you need to host a "Festival of Friendship"  8)

 

That's a great idea. Let's use our powers for good, guys and gals.

[DooDiligence]

Scott, with all the in-fighting going on perhaps you need to host a "Festival of Friendship"  8)

 

That's a great idea. Let's use our powers for good, guys and gals.

 

I'm for Colorado or Amsterdam!

[LC]

 

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.

 

Two other things you may find cool:

 

One is the barkley marathon, which is a brutal 5 day marathon in the Tennessee backcountry (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barkley_Marathons)

 

There is a good documentary about it on Netflix I think. Looks really crazy!

 

The other is another reddit site where people make their own backpacking gear (https://www.reddit.com/r/myog/)

 

People make their own packs, tents, quilts, camp stoves, etc...pretty creative stuff. I'm not sure how cheap it is compared to just finding a good deal online, but I think the nice part is being able to customize it for exactly what you need...so a sleeping bag that is exactly your size and just enough material to keep you warm. No excess to carry around.

 

It's still winter season here in Colorado so I'm saving all my backpacking/trail running energy for the summer...ski season is in full swing!  8)

[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.

 

A common test to determine inflammation is to test for C-reative protein in the blood

 

http://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/c-reactive-protein-crp#1

[bargainman]

remember Lustig's talk.  Apparently fructose is the biggest culprit, not necessarily glucose.  Apparently it's digestive pathway is like alcohol and generates all sorts of toxic byproducts.