Hi James!

How are things? I read "Postmortem Hate Training" and am glad you are taking steps to shore up your temporary consciousness cage. Atkins/Keto/Paleo is all good but if you find yourself falling off the meat wagon you might check out It is the only diet I recommend to people because it is the only one most people will have the ability to sustain. No Snacks, no Sweets, no Seconds except on days that start with S and Special days. The author recommends two exercises; walking and the "shovelglove." It has been a long time since I read the site but if I remember correctly the author said he saw an old picture of guys working in a coal mine and they were all ripped. As a result he put padding around a sledgehammer for safety (?) and swung it around for 15 minutes a day. I'm sure you have the exercise part covered but I thought I would mention it, especially the walking in reference to the soldiers you wrote about. I remember the author of the no s diet writing something about humans being built to move slowly over long distances. I thought that was a pretty succinct way to put it.

A long time ago I queried my old jiujistu coach what he would do to keep in shape if he stopped training and could choose only one thing. He responded "heavy hands." I laughed but he was serious. I was thinking about all the old people I saw walking around while pumping 2.5 pound weights in the air like a goof. He said that it was a very good and simple system of exercise that could be pretty challenging as the weights are increased. I later found the book titled Heavy Hands by the guy who popularized it. It is a really interesting read and the author is an exercise genius. He noticed that the vo2 max of cross country skiers was really high and surmised it was because they pumped their arms and legs. This all led to his heavy hands routines. The guy who came up with it appeared to be highly in shape at the age of 70. I gotta dig that book out again and start doing those exercises again. Maybe replacing the weights with heavy sticks or pipes...haha James, you could teach cardio stickfighting to me and a bunch of cougars with weighted sticks!

Are you still having the eye problem/headaches with light? If so and you want to try an herbal formula drop me a po box or address and I will send it. Maybe it will help.

Be well enough my friend,

-Banjo

The eye problem has slackened at altitude, except when it is overcast [almost never], and I am also sleep deprived and/or writing or doing heavy work for more than 6 hours a day, so is highly controllable. I have used only 2 doses of medicine, so am banking my refills for coastal climes. The light does always bother it if I do not use sunglasses or eye patch to avoid lateral rays to the right eye. For instance, I write with the lamp to my left. The other thing is, up here, if there is only 1 or 2 irritating factors bringing on an eye-seizure, all I have to do is go to sleep to cure it, while at sea level, it was so bad it prevented sleep.

Thanks for the information and the well wishes, Banjo.

I won't do the hand weights while walking because by shoulders are shot and I need to save all their strength for bag work with stick and hand. Otherwise it sounds very sensible.

I have no desire for physical fitness for its own sake, only as a platform for combat, so I will always do direct combat exercises when there is a choice.

I have never sought physical health as a life goal and have never paid attention to my diet since I stopped body building at age 15 after trashing my shoulders with weights. I have spent my entire life with rotator cuff tears and ostheo-arthritis in both shoulders. I always took weight off by high levels of activity and fasting, which, combined with not sleeping regularly for about 35 years has put my metabolism where it is.

I only consumed the staff of civilized life—bread, grains, snacks and such stuff—because they were cheap. The only calories I ever enjoyed was beer. Beer I've been replacing with tequila. I have no cravings for such food after a month of this. I always enjoyed paleo foods better, but eating on $20 a week really cut out most quality foods. I'm spending $60 a week now eating, half of my total income. Once I get to the weight I want I'll probably start adding beans to my diet to reduce the cost.

This meat, fat and light vegetable diet has totally eliminated my indigestion, which I thought came from meat and fat because that's what I tasted in the acid reflux. But it was obviously the carbs messing up my stomach. I also never have a sensation of food just laying in my stomach.

The other benefit of eating this way is lack of hunger. I just don't get very hungry very often. I was never someone who got edgy or angry or fussy when they were hungry. When I was a kid, the only money I got was lunch money, so I skipped lunch and used that to buy books and spent my teens usually only eating one meal a day. Also, in early adulthood, since my wife did not cook and I worked a lot of hours, I would typically just eat one big meal at a girlfriend's house on the way home from work, or when not getting any pussy, just eat a frozen pizza and a can of peanuts on my lunch break. When I weighed 143, and worked frozen food, when I had to dump the damaged ice cream in the sink and clean the container for credit, I'd eat a half gallon of ice cream for lunch, sometimes my only meal of the day. During this period I would typically drink 1-3 beers a day and eat a half can of peanuts with it while I watched documentaries and fights at home.

I was certainly addicted to sugar, but do not feel any hunger pang for it. To the extent I get a craving it is for specific vegetables like radishes and salt.

My snack foods have been walnuts, roasted almonds and pumpkin seeds about every other day eating a handful.

Thanks, Banjo and I hope to see you this Fall.