Author: Henry Barnard

I am a voracious reader and also enjoy writing. I often have a very different point of view than the popular one. I do see value in debate, and thought it might add to the public debate on controversial issues if I were to express my contrarian opinions. I also started keeping my poems recently (I've written little pieces my whole adult life but never kept any); and I've been a photographer now for over 25 years. So I will be adding an occasional poem and hopefully interesting photograph to the blog along the way, just to spice things up.

Can You Take It?

One of the most valuable things a boxer can have is a tough chin. If you can take the biggest punch your opponent has to offer and just shake it off, that’s gold. It means you can walk in and have at it with immunity.

When that happens to a fighter during the war in the ring, when he takes what he knows is the other fighter’s best shot and survives it with ease, that’s when a fighter can really become aggressive and go after his opponent relentlessly — because there is little to fear.

So, paradoxically, a very defensive ability turns into pure offense.

Beliefs

5-Day Mimicking Diet

I’m on day 3 of the 5-day mimicking diet. 800 calories per day, except the first day I went without food entirely.

Focus on the mimicking diet is minimizing protein so to maximize the amount of autophagy. Less than 20 grams of protein per day, except that first day was 0. From Longo’s book The Longevity Diet.

Really want the body to have to scavenge for protein wherever it can find it — all those wayward (and cancerous?) cells.

Longo says a healthy person should do this 3 times per year. Someone with diabetes much more often.

I knew I could do this because I did one similar 800 calorie day before and it wasn’t difficult. I thought I could boost the benefit by not eating that first day, which I knew I could do because I’ve done 48-hour fasts before.

Those more strenuous fasts one has to work one’s way up to them imo. Not sure I want to do a 5-day water fast because I do notice with a 48-hour fast that my energy level goes down significantly. One must feel very depleted after 5 days with no nutrition — really don’t want to experience that level of fatigue.

Insulin Spikes

Never Loved?

I don’t think I ever actually loved anyone. Never. I desired the woman I married — a strong desire — but did I love her? The marriage ended in divorce, so one must conclude I did not — would one divorce someone one loved? I think not.

I care about family members, and am distraught whenever something bad happens to any of them, but is caring and loving the same thing? I think not.

There have been many friends — a few close friends, many casual friends — but friendship, while a kind of love, isn’t really love, I don’t think. Not really.

So one looks at couples who have been together for years, even decades, and concludes, now that is real love! But have they merely endured each other, for fear or dread of being left alone and isolated?

One is reminded of the 60s Joni Mitchell song Both Sides Now. Does one really know love at all? I don’t. And, sadly, never have.

I think parent’s love for their children must be unadulterated love — pure — at least in the beginning. But I never had children, so I didn’t experience that either.

So I will die having never loved — a small tragedy in an insignificant life. So be it.

So if YOU have ever loved, count yourself among the lucky ones — not everyone has.

Beliefs

Insulin Spikes

It has only been just recently that I’ve come to realize the importance of keeping blood glucose levels steady compared to having large insulin spikes and the inevitable crashes, as when blood glucose levels drop severely, that’s when one feels very fatigued. Having steadier glucose levels that don’t vary that much means you avoid that fatigued state. That’s the benefit. No doubt, this has a very big impact on one’s mood. I would venture to guess that depression and low glucose levels go hand in hand.

Cutting Carbs, Cutting Protein

Cutting Carbs, Cutting Protein

When I started this, I was 10 lbs. from my ideal weight at 140, having lost 40 lbs. over 3 years with 20:4 intermittent fasting. Now I’m only 3 lbs. away. A 2-day per week Keto approach broke through that plateau at 150 — and at the time it was starting to climb. When I get to 140, I may cut back to only having 1 Keto day per week — that should be able to keep my weight very steady.

Mind you, I don’t really think the Keto diet per se is a very healthy one with all that fat and such low fiber, and it doesn’t come close to the nutrition one gets from a GBOMBS diet (that’s very obvious when you compare the two in cronometer — a typical Keto day to a typical GBOMBS day), but I do appreciate what it can do with such a low level of carbohydrates relative to ketosis.

Similarly, I’ve been thinking one might get a benefit from drastically reducing protein if one is about to do a longer fast for the sake of autophagy. Similar logic. I’m very interested in all the health benefits for someone my age of autophagy, particularly potentially with fighting cancer. I’ve been planning to do a 5-day mimicking fast starting as per the guidelines in Longo’s book The Longevity Diet — for the sake of autophagy. The 2 days before that begins, I will be cutting protein down to an absolute minimum.

Bread Frustration

Bear Market

The bear market that started with the dot.com crash in 2000 lasted through 2002 — 3 years. If this bear market plays out the same, the light at the end of the tunnel won’t appear until mid-2025. So don’t expect any quick turnaround here. This is going to be grim. 2002 in particular was very difficult — the market went down relentlessly the entire year, month after month.

Afraid