Lemur Journal!

Where are you and where are you going?
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Lemur
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Re: Lemur Journal!

Post by Lemur »

The author has a challenge:
https://www.thepermanentejournal.org/do ... TPP/14-229
For two weeks, cut out all added sugars and artificial sweeteners.
He brought in 20 of his colleagues and "95% said moving forward, they would use less or even no sugar (19 out of 20 people responding)"

More information pertaining to artificial sweeteners as well:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25231862/

I typically don't have an issue with sugar itself, for me its always been "sugar-free" energy drinks, sparking waters, and the occasional ice cream. But I have failed to completely change my palate over the years. And I think the point of failure there was a focus on calories and giving a pass to zero-calorie drinks. But turns out this is faulty logic - the artificial sweeteners are also preventing me from making the lasting change I'm looking for. Perhaps a drastic change s-curve style is in order. https://earlyretirementextreme.com/bett ... urves.html

I've probably linked that ERE article before but whenever I think about changing habits, that usually pops in my mind - certainly one of the most impactful articles for me at least. I remember stumbling upon it years ago. I also take just about every behavior I want to change as a "challenge" now. Seems to motivate me with the end goal of being a lasting change.

The energy drinks can be replaced with plain instant coffee.

Dig through my journal and you'll see that I failed this once (or twice...) before but I think I'm more empowered now 8-) . Over the years, I've used these methods to take cold showers daily, read daily, rid myself of fast food, and consume much less overall. I'm now doing time-restricted eating with the fasting MMG and that has been 100% compliance. So this is one more to add to the list with the no sugar challenge.

Sugar - its laced in damn near everything. Even bread has a few grams. The store-bought pasta has 7-9 grams. This is no coincidence. Unless you're eating whole foods only, just about everything has 2-8 grams in it. I think the food scientists are aware of its addictive properties.

What is to be gained - not only some savings but regular Whole Foods should taste more satisfying.

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Lemur
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Re: Lemur Journal!

Post by Lemur »

February 1, 2023

No January update as I used an end of year update for that.

Net-worth:
$578k (Up $54k)

Finances: January saw some market recovery. I've continued to make small amounts of money this year writing puts but lost half of those gains from an attempted collar position that I backed out of. I took a 25% realized loss on MU today to buy even more SoFi shares.

My spreadsheet shows some interesting numbers regarding my SoFi cost basis. At a price of $9.26, I breakeven on SoFi Stock (and this was a stock I bought a lot of last year in the $14s-$17 range and have been averaging down since). At $12.00, I breakeven on my Sofi Stock basis PLUS my 2022 and 2023 realized losses. So part of my motivations betting big on SoFi is to get my portfolio back to where it was before the 2022 crash.

And I think this is possible - the catalysts are there but we shall see. SoFi has been up 60% in the past month and I'll need another 25% gain or 62% gain respectively to make this a reality.

Spending: I am adding a new section to my monthly updates for spending itself. I had a surprise dental bill this month that cost me $1,233 (my back molar cracked...) but if I annualize that (just divide it by 12), then spending for the month came in at $2,304.50. I usually consider it a good month when we stay under $2,500. This implies as SWR of 4.78%. So that is nice.

Physical Health / Diet: Intermittent Fasting is good - still 100% compliance. Not hard to follow an 8 hour eating window. I'm also 6 days without any sugars & artificial sugars. That has meant no energy drinks as well which is new. One surprise effect here was that I am feeling at bit more satiated with my regular diet and I think that is due to dropping the artificial sugars. I've come across some papers showing that people tend to eat more later in the day or the next day to make up for the brain being tricked into thinking it had gotten calories from the "sugar." I'm also sleeping better. I miss the extra caffeine though but I'm starting to get past most withdrawals. I do one plain coffee in the morning and one decaf coffee at 1pm or so. Lastly - I got bloodwork done for the first time in 6 years and want to do this annually now. I'm curious to see how my numbers compare since being 30 pounds less and rarely eating meat...and eating lentils almost daily for the past few years. I found my old results just going to Lab Corp's website.

Mental Health: Good. I can't remember the last time when I did not feel okay here. :D

Job: A little less boring this month but there really is never anything for me to say here these days. Just counting down.

Gardening: Not yet but spring is coming and I'm excited for that.

Reading / Other: I'm still reading through "The Collected Works of Ted Trainer" and "The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity." I also google around and read different takes on Absurdism.

Goals: Keep food spending low. Last month was a record low at $341.46 for a family of 3. A large part due to the fact of not buying any liquids but also a drop in junk foods. This correlates to Spouse & I wanting to get things back on track post-holidays.

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Lemur
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Re: Lemur Journal!

Post by Lemur »

March 2, 2023

Net-worth:
$544k (Down $34k)

Finances: Net-Worth down due to market conditions. Still accumulating SoFI Long Call Options (SoFI $5. Jan 19). I've short puts on PLUG $14 expiring this week that are going against me so I'll be managing that position in the coming weeks. Doh. My 2023 options history this year has been profit...profit...profit and then bam one bad trade wipes out previous gains YTD that I'm stuck managing. (Edit: As of today, I got damn lucky and ended up profiting on this position) So I need to adjust strategy. I did calculate the dividend yield of my portfolio and it was a fairly low 1.77%. I'll be adjusting this higher when I feel ready to shift risk to be more conservative.

Spending: February came in at $2,562.83 which is a little bit above my $2,500 cap. A lot of it is attributed to added Food Costs and Gas. We did a lot of short-term travel in February.

Physical Health / Diet: On point as always. I'm reading "Burn" by Herman Pontzer to get some more knowledge on the history of metabolism, and how its measured. Just to gain some knowledge on the Krebs Cycle https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citric_acid_cycle .

Mental Health: Good.

Job: Previous status: Boring. Current Status: Still boring but an uptick in responsibilities actually due to "hey Mr. Drone, you've been here a year now so here is some more stuff for you to handle so I've some stuff to type for next year's annual review." TBH, whatever kills the clock. And I actually like these responsibilities because it gives me opportunities for overtime pay since they've to be done at weird hours. I'm home all day anyway so why not. Easy money. (future posts and I'm sure I'll be regretting this position). But I'm rather recharged. I'm at a mental state these days where I just take things as they come. I'm not in a rush for anything or trying to beat any clock anywhere. Except maybe library book deadlines.

Gardening: Getting there. In 2 weeks or so we could start doing some greens I think. Will have to check our gardening schedule but about time! Excited to get outside more.

Reading / Other: I'm still reading through "The Collected Works of Ted Trainer". Completed "The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity." Also reading "A Universe from Nothing" by Laurence Krauss and "Astrophysics for People in a Hurry" by Neil Tyson. I'm dipping my toes into a little bit of astrophysics and cosmology. I won't be working out maths. I just want to get a general understanding of this field from a high-level layman perspective and understand where its heading. I find it fascinating recently.

Edit: Almost forgot to mention another topic I'm digging into is Ethics. I've a book by Peter Singer "Practical Ethics" and Julia Driver "Ethics: The Fundamentals" coming in.

So lots of reading this month.

Goals: Last month was a record low at $341.46 for a family of 3 but this month was higher than usual due to all these little trips we took. Next time need to plan better and pack things.

Fun activity this month was I calculated the present value of the pension I'm trying to secure for us when I'm 62. I want to understand how much money I'm leaving on the table if I were to walk away before the years in service. Turns out the PV is $100,029.58. Today, I would not be willing to walk away from that. I'm almost at my annual 1 year in my job I think (I'll have to check paperwork) so about 4 years to go.

avalok
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Re: Lemur Journal!

Post by avalok »

Hey, you mentioned you had finished The Dawn of Everything; I saw this on BBC Radio and thought I'd share in case you'd find it interesting too. I was able to listen over a VPN routed to the US, so it shouldn't be restricted access.

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Lemur
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Re: Lemur Journal!

Post by Lemur »

Thanks Avalok - I've been influenced greatly by some anarchist thinkers. David Graeber died too young. I laughed when Wengrow mentioned he doesn't like the anarchist label to which someone had quipped "that is a very anarchist thing to say." :lol: Chomsky, Ted Trainer, Ran Prieur, Bookchin, Tolstoy were a few others I should mention.

I've read wide ranges of economic / political discourses at this point. Younger me read a lot of neoliberalism like Ann Rand, Henry Hazlitt, Ludwig Von Mises, etc. but I always felt off from these because I felt social responsibility was lacking. So I turned to socialism/collectivism for a bit...but then I became skeptical of collectivism, authoritarianism, and top-down solutions in general... and I became weary of losing individuality should these systems be permitted unchallenged.

In any case, it is important to read across a range of perspectives. Lest you end up in a bubble and fall for your own confirmation biases.

I don't think any of these ideologies have "the answer" for creating some sort of utopia. But I am more drawn to self-change before advising others. The idea of living ethically and in tune with social responsibility is something that is resonating with me a lot lately. Which is why I am digging into ethics.

Something I came across reading Ted Trainer's work today:
It is one thing to be boldly socially responsible when that involves blaming the capitalist class for all the problems, but it is quite another when one’s own ‘living standards’ are suggested as a cause.

OutOfTheBlue
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Re: Lemur Journal!

Post by OutOfTheBlue »

I might be waxing lyrical and going off on a tangent here, but I believe ethics to be one of these areas where we might be demanding/relying a bit too much on/from our analytical thinking and where rationality and philosophy has its limits.

When you arrive at a sense of deep belonging-to-the-world and of connection to/kinship with others and the greater web of life, when you've come a long way into wholeness and tranforming woundedness, you don't have to "think twice" or "think it over".

There is no longer a need to define or abide by a set of objective ethical rules when you act from a place of full membership and community that still honors individuality/subjectivity. Action springs naturally from that embodied alignment.

---

Currently listening to Jerrick Jensen's A language older than words, and it is another author that I'd add to that list.

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Lemur
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Re: Lemur Journal!

Post by Lemur »

@OutofTheLoop

I hold opposite viewpoints on this. Every community has objective ethical rules - generally they're formulated when you're young and mostly unspoken due to "common sense."

I don't agree with our societies current ethical rules such as "we've a duty to full-time employment" or "you need to buy things to keep the economy growing." It becomes worth it to study ethics more in depth...

On the contrary, I don't think we do enough analytical thinking when it comes to ethics. Especially in the U.S. that relies more on various Christian values. I wasn't taught philosophy/ethics in school for instance. Philosophy I've done some self-learning over the years. But ethics I've yet to study in depth. The only ethics I can think of that we might have been taught in school were "business ethics." I was just brought up by common values in my community which I find myself constantly at odds with. I sometimes wonder how many of my behaviors I don't think about but in many years from now would be considered unethical. Or what can I do now to live more ethically?

We should just not assume that we have the answers to this... or that non-secular reasons can fill in the gap.

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Re: Lemur Journal!

Post by OutOfTheBlue »

Thanks for your answer. I too find myself at odds with many ethical (and other) values that have been passed on to me and that tend to be internalized and taken for granted.

And I agree there is great value in bringing these implicit values to the fore and examining them to determine what holds true for us. Sometimes, we may end up confirm such a value and not reject it, but having consciously arrived at such a conclusion is still so valuable.

I guess I was trying to bring up a point that I will come back to in a more articulate manner and that is very present on my mind recently, about the limitations of relying on thinking as the sole or dominant mode of consciousness/knowing.

For instance, isn't feeling another mode that informs our ethics? Can empathy be only intellectual?

Finally, I didn't mean that ethics must derive from an outside godly/spiritual authority. Far from me such an idea! But if secularity is only the purview of rationality, and analytical thinking, then I guess it becomes part of the problem for me.

loutfard
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Re: Lemur Journal!

Post by loutfard »

I don't think any of these ideologies have "the answer" for creating some sort of utopia. But I am more drawn to self-change before advising others. The idea of living ethically and in tune with social responsibility is something that is resonating with me a lot lately. Which is why I am digging into ethics.
I wouldn't call ERE an ideology, but it does seem to stimulate the growth of balanced personal ideological frameworks. Efficiently extracting income from the market, lowering consumption from it, and growing sources of sustenance outside of it seem to be at the core of ERE. This yields unique autonomy from the market, agency.

I aspire to lead by example and spread this agency. To me, it feels like a joyful kind of my capitalism with my human face. Not a forced march towards someone else's utopia, but an invitation to personally explore ways to utopia.

When it comes to ethics and morality, I like the simplicity of John Rawls' veil of ignorance. as a guiding principle. It's not perfect, but so much more versatile than the biblical "do unto others" and simple enough to easily pass on.

OutOfTheBlue, I see value in making my personal ethical guidance explicit like this, even if as simple as what I just described.

OutOfTheBlue
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Re: Lemur Journal!

Post by OutOfTheBlue »

Lemur wrote:
Sat Mar 11, 2023 7:30 pm
@OutofTheLoop

I hold opposite viewpoints on this. Every community has objective ethical rules - generally they're formulated when you're young and mostly unspoken due to "common sense."

I don't agree with our societies current ethical rules such as "we've a duty to full-time employment" or "you need to buy things to keep the economy growing." It becomes worth it to study ethics more in depth...

On the contrary, I don't think we do enough analytical thinking when it comes to ethics. Especially in the U.S. that relies more on various Christian values. I wasn't taught philosophy/ethics in school for instance. Philosophy I've done some self-learning over the years. But ethics I've yet to study in depth. The only ethics I can think of that we might have been taught in school were "business ethics." I was just brought up by common values in my community which I find myself constantly at odds with. I sometimes wonder how many of my behaviors I don't think about but in many years from now would be considered unethical. Or what can I do now to live more ethically?

We should just not assume that we have the answers to this... or that non-secular reasons can fill in the gap.
I have been sitting with this for some time.

I realize that I misread that last sentence in my last reply. I see now it was related to the comment on "values Christian values", not whatever I wrote. Sorry!

Taking a step back, I again want to stress that I fully agree with what you said in your reply.

I am also definitely interested in hearing more about your study of ethics and your reevaluation of culturally inherited values. These books/authors sound like very good choices.

I just want to point out that while what I wrote could have been formulated better, it comes from a perspective that also challenges culturally inherited values. I hope that this too can be acknowledged.

I guess the same could be said about someone who insists the earth is flat, but this is not a case of delusion. I really concur when I read that our culture tends to over-rely on thinking and (partly sensing), while actively repressing feeling (not merely emotions) and imagination. We need all four modes of consciousness/windows of knowing in equal measure, and none can be left behind.

That said, I also understand how what I wrote prompted your expression of disagreement. Maybe the point I was trying to make wasn't such a good fit for the subject at hand. If so, apologies :-)
loutfard wrote:
Sun Mar 12, 2023 1:28 am
OutOfTheBlue, I see value in making my personal ethical guidance explicit like this, even if as simple as what I just described.
Yes, I'll have to agree with you on this.

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Lemur
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Re: Lemur Journal!

Post by Lemur »

OutOfTheBlue wrote:
Sun Mar 26, 2023 11:51 am

I guess the same could be said about someone who insists the earth is flat, but this is not a case of delusion. I really concur when I read that our culture tends to over-rely on thinking and (partly sensing), while actively repressing feeling (not merely emotions) and imagination. We need all four modes of consciousness/windows of knowing in equal measure, and none can be left behind.
@OutOfTheBlue - Thanks for the follow-up. One point - ignore the point I made between secular/Christian values. That was not where I intended to go with regarding culturally brought up values and there is a potential can of worms there that I don't wish to see further. That was my mistake.

I think the highlighted bold is the source of our miscommunication and not really disagreement at the core of my argument and this could very well just boil down to temperament but let me explain my point from another angle.... And this could very well be my own confirmation biases but I will continue to assert that we're not thinking hard enough about ethics. And once again I am finding that ethical reasoning appears to be underdeveloped in our culture and daily practice. Without a basic level of knowledge, ethics 101 if you will from book study, our ethics and values derive almost wholly from whatever the default ethics and values are for the society we're brought up in. And this is why I am saying we should not rely on feelings to enhance our ethics ... certainly integrate them but primarily do so from reasoning. Why? Because our given ethics and values we're brought up with are potentially not logically sound. Relying on feelings can be distracting - something can "feel right" but not actually "be right."

An example where we see a mismatch between cultural values (lets say personal consumption seen as helping the economy and thus being a "good" act that supports the middle-class) and reasoned ethics is the idea that western affluence from personal consumption is partly to blame for third-world suffering. Most people can not see the connection here even if you explain it to them without them understanding some basis in utilitarian ethics. A common retort might be something like "why should I not buy this thing for myself when [insert famous person] rides a jet all over the United States?" This sort of retort is common in the climate change circles as well when someone argues for reducing individual carbon footprint.

The individual retorting in the consumption example would not agree with a "hey this makes sense" but instead would respond in feeling - anger, aversion, perhaps even feeling patronized. If they had a basis in ethical studies, they're much more likely to slow down and think first though before responding. Again some of this boils down to temperament, but a basis in ethical reasoning can only help. I doubt that anyone growing up in the United States for instance (unless they went to a really really good school?) were taught about utilitarianism, consequentialism, Kantian ethics, social construct theory, etc. I certainly was not which is why curiosity in the subject caught the better of me and why I'm studying it now...I need to understand the why behind my behaviors and actions. And at least for me personally, feelings have always been fleeting and unreliable. But that is just me. I feel better understanding things logically. 8-)

My base argument has nothing really to do with operating from logic/feelings. This is where we would agree I believe - What is ethical reasoning anyway without a basis in feelings? Well...nothing. I'm not even sure if one could perform ethical reasoning without feelings. For the most part, the majority of ethics is a reduction in suffering and an increase pleasure. Applied both to individuals and society as a whole. These are rooted in feelings. All I'm saying is as a culture we're taking ethical reasoning for granted. And I believe that if we as a society had a better understanding of ethics, we could see an improvement in overall cultural well-being - increases in pleasure and decreases in pain and suffering.

loutfard
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Re: Lemur Journal!

Post by loutfard »

Without a basic level of knowledge, ethics 101 if you will from book study, our ethics and values derive almost wholly from whatever the default ethics and values are for the society we're brought up in.
I'm not so sure. If I look at myself, I am definitely not well-educated when it comes to formal ethics 101. There definitely are significant differences between the ethics and values of my upbringing and mine.

I might be misunderstanding your intentions here. If you were not actually trying to express a strategy to inject a bit more sense of ethics into society, you probably want to ignore my below comment.

Jacob recently pointed me at https://nces.ed.gov/pubs2014/2014008.pdf . The context was very much different, but I think the pointer is very relevant here too.

If four or more years of university education can't teach two thirds of university graduates numeracy, how are you going going to get even a small subset of people to ethics 101 level? The easiest way probably is to ignore the vast majority and form a coalition of the willing:
- build a visible (sub)culture of people with mental room to go beyond the cookie cutter ethics framework of the day. ERE does exactly that. It's a filter for people with surplus time and a proven willingness to actually use it.
- build a visible (sub)culture of people to whom ethics and morality matter. I'd argue that there is a very high concentration of people with an independent sense of ethics in the ERE world.
- find quick win ways to introduce ethics and morality improvements to a wider culture. "Don't do unto others" was an order-of-magnitude improvement over "An eye for an eye". The veil of ignorance is probably a next large step to somehow be widely popularised in order to make actual gains.

In the popular culture, the ethical question might be "Is this a good idea? Is this the right thing to do?". The traditional pop culture answer would translate "Don't do unto others" into "Would I want this to happen to me?" . "What would my black jewish lesbian great-granddaughter say?" would probably be my popular translation of the veil of ignorance answer. If I can expand the room for that in dominant culture in a tiny way, I think I've made a valuable contribution to human culture.

Again, please ignore my above brabbling at your discretion...

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Lemur
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Re: Lemur Journal!

Post by Lemur »

Good points @loutfard
loutfard wrote:
Tue Mar 28, 2023 5:04 pm

I might be misunderstanding your intentions here. If you were not actually trying to express a strategy to inject a bit more sense of ethics into society, you probably want to ignore my below comment.
More so this here…. My thoughts on ethics is more speaking to my own opinion and curiosity in the subject.

Young Lemur in a school setting would’ve slept in this class so you bring up good points. I’m not sure where I’d really begin to discuss building society ethics as a whole…but I’m generally not for top-down solutions. Though I do think the subject should still be in schools. Intro to algebra still helps me today. Even just an exposure could lead towards positive effects down the road for some.

In any case, if I were to strategize in the way you pointed out, if I had that will even, I feel as if I need to study the subject more thoroughly.

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Lemur
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Re: Lemur Journal!

Post by Lemur »

April 2, 2023

Net-worth:
$591k (Up $47k)

Finances: Net-Worth up a lot due to to market conditions. I also made money selling puts on FRC (extremely risky do not try this at home lol) and selling puts on SoFi. I'm also up a bit on MU.

Spending: Came in at $2,584.16 which is two months in a row above $2,500 cap. Once again a lot of driving this month and higher than normal food costs.

Physical Health / Diet: Slightly out of shape by my own standards... I saw my weight climb to 175lbs (so I'm above my 170lb limit) after tweaking my knee and being a couch potato for much of March. Its possible I needed the break as I've not broken my routine in a long time. I'm healing up and with the weather finally getting better, I'm extra motivated to get back up running again.

Mental Health: Good.

Job: Hit my 1 year mark. 4 years to go to hit minimum pension requirements. The increased responsibilities hasn't been bad at all. It has helped the days go by a little quicker.

Gardening: We will start planting greens soon. Just spinach and kale.

Reading / Other: Completed Astrophysics for People in a Hurry by Neil Tyson. I'm still reading through
  • The Collected Works of Ted Trainer. (Taking me forever. This read is sort of depressing in a way and feels extremely ideological but Ted himself is extremely practice in his endeavors. Definitely Google Pigface Point if you've the time. Quite interesting stuff! It made me want to get vaguely hands on to build things...just don't know where to start or find the time).
  • A Universe from Nothing by Laurence Krauss (I've not started reading yet)
  • Practical Ethics by Peter Singer (Funny enough this book had a short holding period and I had to return before finishing...so I've it on hold again)
  • Ethics: The Fundamentals by Julia Driver (This is the perfect book for the layperson. I'm finding it really helpful)
Goals: Fix my knee. Drop the added weight. Actually finish my readings instead of spending too much excess times on my Sister's PS5 she just bought (lol).

I found this routine helpful for doing at-home rehab for my right knee.
https://youtu.be/ikt6NME0k9E

I probably tweaked it overdoing it on the walking and jogging last month. So taking time to heal and build up strength is probably the right thing to do.
Last edited by Lemur on Mon May 01, 2023 4:06 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Lemur
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Re: Lemur Journal!

Post by Lemur »

Ah hell...I had a really long monthly update written up but I took too long and lost it when the login cleared. lmao...so I'm not typing all that again. This will be shorter.

May 1, 2023

Net-worth:
$599k (Up $9k)

Finances: Reached close to our all-time high. I think we hit just above $600k at some point in the past but we're inching up. Check my last months status and note that I was damn lucky on some trade (I profited selling short puts on FRC). In April, I made a few grand selling puts on SPY. We would be well over $600k today had SoFI not had a disappointing earnings result. I've 100 short puts expiring May 19 for $6.00 strike that will likely need to be rolled out. This month I will be very inactive in options trading - every month I seem to feel less reason to continue on. I'm happy to index fund and set and forget and just track 2 stocks (SoFI and MU).

Spending: Came in at $3,001. Once again above cap of $2,500. The increases were due to a spike in food costs (I'm buying a lot more protein), paying all my 6 month car insurance premium in one bill for a 10% discount, and purchasing weight equipment for about $100.

Physical Health / Diet: Fixed right knee and started running again. The Vo2 max thread ignited some competitive spirit in me so I'm upping my cardio from shorter runs / 1x a week long run to 3x a week long sessions. This is due to a desire to build my cardio base. I did some googling and key is to be in this zone 2 range for minimum 45 minute sessions for building this endurance base. This aligns with some things I've figured and heard before so I'm going with that. I'm also adding strength training with weights (previously calisthenics only). I'm more concerned with being in a habit and doing something everyday so I'm not gonna optimize for full-body workouts and instead just do a body-part split. As far as diet is concerned, I am now in the habit of ensuring 0.7-1 gram of protein per pound of body weight for adequate recovery and muscle building. This is a change from my plant-based diet. Less carbs, more protein, more fat. The diet has to fit the training.

Mental Health: Could be better but family dramas have kept my mind racing a bit. Luckily exercise is an excellent outlet. This is the one where I had a long story on but its just a short story now. Grandfather is near the final stages of life and decided to finally give in and check himself into a nursing home. My Father lives with him but has no money, in debt, medical issues, mental issues, etc...and will need a place to live. He can't stay at the house because my aunts want to sell it so my Grandfather can use it for the nursing care costs.

We're helping my Dad find a place, budget, etc. due to a sense of filial obligations but our relationship with him isn't all that good due to long family histories of drama, dysfunction and all that stuff you'd see in a bad sitcom. Worst case scenario, he may have to live with us for a bit. We want to avoid this as much as possible but have acknowledged it as a possibility for he will at least need a roof on his head to save up some money for a deposit somewhere. My Mother also has a heart issue. That wasn't on our bingo card. Brother at the same time is moving back to DMV and asked once again if he could move in. That boundary was put up and won't be happening. Once again my Sister continues to be the family backstop and we're here by association. My Spouse is getting irritated. Can't blame her. At some point we've to ask ourselves is the savings rate worth it or should we start exercising some of our financial independence and finally get a place for ourselves? Anyway...the silver lining is my Dad is getting a large trust when my Grandfather passes away. And this trust was set-up so it spits money to him monthly for 30 years. That is a good thing because if he was given all this at once then it would be gone in weeks due to creditors and my Father’s inability to think past a time frame of what he is eating for dinner. So trust + social security + part-time job should be manageable if he decides once in his life to be responsible.

My parents are in there 60s, divorced, health problems, mental problems, debts, etc. I suppose having financial secure stable parents without medical and mental health issues is a luxury but idk. Also does it matter? - at the end of the day we need to deal with the cards we're dealt with and handle them like adults.

Job: Almost got employee of the quarter actually out of ~1,000 of us. Was nominated and finished as a runner-up. That was cool. My employment is already secure being in the government but if I need more evidence, there it is.

Gardening: Plenty of spinach. Squash is coming up. Some bell peppers too. I never extended beyond 2 beds due to time constraints and laziness.

Reading / Other: Finished reading "A Universe from Nothing" by Laurence Krauss. Interesting book and half the time over my head because I did not take physics in high school...but Krauss does a good job speaking to the layman for the most part. But I think he assumed this layperson took physics in high school at least which I did not lol. "Ethics The Fundamentals" by Julia Driver was also another good read but I've no major takeaways. It was a 101 read and I don't think I read anything that surprised me or taught me anything new. Though I suppose it was a good exercise to read the history of how ethics is building. I'm still reading Singer's book "Practical Ethics."

Goals: To build my Vo2 max and cardio base, 2-3x sessions a week of zone 2 cardio for at least 45 minutes (minimum required for adaptations). Don't miss a cardio workout and hit each muscle part at least 1x a week in strength training. My 100lb set isn't much but should last a while before I get strong enough to need more weight.

Western Red Cedar
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Re: Lemur Journal!

Post by Western Red Cedar »

Lemur wrote:
Mon May 01, 2023 3:10 pm
As far as diet is concerned, I am now in the habit of ensuring 0.7-1 gram of protein per pound of body weight for adequate recovery and muscle building. This is a change from my plant-based diet. Less carbs, more protein, more fat. The diet has to fit the training.
I tend to gravitate towards a plant-based diet, but have been lifting regularly for the last couple of years and have tired to optimize for protein as well. I struggle to hit that protein target above unless I'm eating quite a bit of meat (usually chicken/turkey breast or fish). Some of this is related to intermittent fasting though.

Can you elaborate on your diet, where you are getting your protein from, and how it feels compared to the plant-based diet?

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Slevin
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Re: Lemur Journal!

Post by Slevin »

Western Red Cedar wrote:
Fri May 05, 2023 11:28 am
I tend to gravitate towards a plant-based diet, but have been lifting regularly for the last couple of years and have tired to optimize for protein as well. I struggle to hit that protein target above unless I'm eating quite a bit of meat (usually chicken/turkey breast or fish). Some of this is related to intermittent fasting though.

Can you elaborate on your diet, where you are getting your protein from, and how it feels compared to the plant-based diet?
Not OP but a block of tofu (around a lb) can have 70 grams of protein, my lunch is usually a 1/2 block of tofu made into a spread (and that spread also includes nooch), turned into 2 sandwiches, which ends up being (35 tofu + 10 nooch + 20 bread) 65ish grams of protein. Throw in a 30-35 gram protein shake later and you get to 100 grams of protein per day basically without trying, and you don’t have to optimize past there to hit the 0.6 or 0.7.

I’ll do it anyways though. Then for dinner, take the other half of the tofu and turn it into a tzatziki sauce with some dill or something, roast up 1 can equivalent of chickpeas to be toasty, and serve it over a whole grain. (5 grain + 35 tofu + 15 chickpea) 55 grams of protein there, putting you at 155 for the day, pretty easily, while being fairly low effort and plant based.

Some people would say eating 1 block of tofu per day seems like a lot, but no bodybuilder or athlete balks at eating 1 lb of meat per day, so whatevs.

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Lemur
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Re: Lemur Journal!

Post by Lemur »

@ Western Red Cedar

I'm feeling like my energy levels are more balanced and I'm recovering from workouts much quicker. I have been an on/off vegetarian for the past couple of years and most of the time barely scratching the surface of getting 100 grams of protein. A lot of those days under that. At some point along the way, I started to feel a bit physically weaker (like the wind could blow me away) and started getting more energy swings from the high carbohydrate intake. I'd eat tons of fiber which is great but oddly enough I could get full from meals but never truly satisfied or satiated and I'd be hungry again in no time at all.

Those problems have dissipated rather quickly and I feel great right now having increased my protein and meat consumption. Some may comment well how was your zinc, vitamin d3, vitamin b12 levels, etc. Well they were good. Fantastic actually and it showed in my bloodwork though my glucose levels were starting to inch upwards toward 100. But I still couldn't shake the feeling something was off.

I haven't had trouble meeting my protein requirements. I tend to rely a lot on dairy and lean cuts of meat (I still want to limit my saturated fat intake). I think the key is just about everything I eat has some protein in it. Here is yesterday's log for instance:
  • Protein Shake for Breakfast: 2 cups of skim milk (16g) + 1/4 cups of whole grain oats (3g) + 1 scoop of whey (24g) + banana (1.3g) + 1 tbsp of ground flaxseed (1.3g) + 1 tbsp of peanut butter (7g) = 52.6 grams of protein.
  • Lunch: 3 cups of cooked lentils (49.5g) + 1 cup of skim milk (8g) = 57.5 grams
  • Post-Workout: 2 cups of homemade whole yogurt (17g) + 1/2 cup of blueberries (0.6g) = 17.6 grams
  • Dinner: 300 grams of boneless chicken thigh (47.6g) + mixed salad of spinach/kale (2g) = 49.6 grams
  • Total for the day: 177.3 grams
I've really liked reading Donald Layman's work regarding protein intake: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2666737/
He has an interesting podcast with Peter Attia as well that summarizes all this anyway: https://youtu.be/BqmG2y4IeY8

@Slevin

I suppose one concern, having experienced both diets now, is that plant-based protein foods have a lot of volume so you gotta eat more. For instance, 100 grams of chicken breast for 30 grams of protein doesn't nearly fill up your stomach as much for the equivalent amount of protein in lentils for instance. Another concern with plant-based proteins is that for muscular recovery and hypertrophy purposes is that bio-availability is not as good and some amino acids, like Leucine which is needed for muscle protein synthesis, come in lower quantities. So you end up having to eat more to make up for that - which is harder to do because the foods are already carbohydrate loaded and have fiber. So if you've a caloric target you're trying to meet as well it becomes tougher to do so.

Even still - I do try to at least make one of my meals plant-based to reduce meat consumption and costs. Usually I just rely on plain lentils mixed with curry seasoning. It makes for an easy lunch.

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Slevin
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Re: Lemur Journal!

Post by Slevin »

Lemur wrote:
Fri May 05, 2023 1:33 pm
@Slevin

I suppose one concern, having experience both diets now, is that plant-based protein foods have a lot of volume so you gotta eat more. For instance, 100 grams of chicken breast for 30 grams of protein doesn't nearly fill up your stomach as much for the equivalent amount of protein in lentils for instance. Another concern with plant-based proteins is that for muscular recovery and hypertrophy purposes is that bio-availability is not as good and some amino acids, like Leucine which is needed for muscle protein synthesis, come in lower quantities. So you end up having to eat more to make up for that - which is harder to do because the foods are already carbohydrate loaded and have fiber. So if you've a caloric target you're trying to meet as well it becomes tougher to do so.

Even still - I do try to at least make one of my meals plant-based to reduce meat consumption and costs. Usually I just rely on plain lentils mixed with curry seasoning. It makes for an easy lunch.
I hear you 100% On the volumes of food, and that can be a pain while cutting. I would again recommend the tofu route over the lentil route as a specific intervention on that problem. Tofu is slightly processed beans, it comes along with much less fiber, etc, per gram of protein. Call it the "chicken thigh equivalent" of veggie / plant based. It is still about 30% more calorie dense than chicken thighs (because it has about 50% more fat than chicken thighs).

If you are explicitly worried about the leucine, you can just match on the leucine content though (especially if just doing a protein shake every day) just by supplementing the leucine. This seems totally fine from the research results we have so far. I mean, we also just see matched strength and tissue growth when using high protein amounts anyways.

None of this is to say you shouldn't just use the methods that get you the results you want and can stick with, and you feel happy with. I'm always a fan of sustainability of the thing over a "perfect" way that feels shitty and will end up being abandoned over time. I'm just pointing to @wrc how to make it work on the plant based way if he's struggling with that.

If anyone wants a good primer here (with a focus on leucine specifically), check out this discussion from one of the researchers in the field.

Dave
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Re: Lemur Journal!

Post by Dave »

Just want to +1 a lot of what you're saying here regarding energy, subjective sense of well-being, body fat management, and strength & muscle building progress as a result of upping protein*, specifically from more bioavailable, superior amid-acid profile containing sources (i.e. animal products). My experiences matches yours.

I spent a lot of years predominately plant-based iterating different combinations of it (raw vs. cooked, meal timing, higher fat vs. lower fat, all whole food, higher protein [higher soy intake + plant-based protein shakes]) and despite everything (including supplementing intelligently and confirming bloodwork looked good) I never felt as good as I do when I eat more meat, eggs, & dairy.

Some plant-based advocates like to brush aside the protein issue, but IMO some are conflating what is adequate protein to survive with optimal quantities of high-quality (see above) protein to thrive, particularly for certain people and for certain people who perform certain physical activities.

It seems many people perform better with more animal protein, and this is frustrating for those attuned to the environmental impact of animal agriculture. Regenerative ag is great, but probably not scalable at present to the whole population. So you have these tough questions like how do you weigh the incremental benefit of feeling and performing better vs. an increased environmental load. It's a personal call, but it's not easy.

*This isn't even to dip into the other essential nutrients in meat that plant-based diets are lacking in which are likely to be making a meaningful impact on the issues stated above beyond the impact of just protein. Plant-based proponents don't draw attention to this, but meat is just not a bag of fat and protein, but contains a lot of critical nutrients. Compare the nutrient profile of beef liver to whatever plant superfood you want, and you might be surprised.

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