A reader (Josh Mangum) writes:
The flavorless calorie diet lets me drop weight whenever I need to. I was usually 10-15 lbs overweight and up to 25 lbs when under stress. Both my parents are overweight so I was worried that I would put on weight under stress and not take it off. My dad especially has followed the pattern of gaining a few pounds a year his whole adult life and is now about 75 lbs overweight. Besides the obvious advantages of losing weight now it’s really nice that I don’t have to worry about being very overweight in the future.
Flax oil is more subtle. I think it’s improving my sleep and mental ability. For sleep I’ve noticed being rested and having more vivid dreams. There seems to be a dosage effect. One night I tried 6 tbls of flax oil, had very vivid dreams and felt very rested the next day. The other thing that seems consistent with it working is that I can go back to sleep for a couple hours after waking at 7 am if I’m still tired. Previously I was never able to go back to sleep whether I woke at 2 am or 7 am.
I write software and notice that it seems easier while I’ve been using flax oil. It seems to be easier to hold large problems in my head and work though them than previously. I don’t notice much effect on how often I’m “insightful” or “clever” though. So rather than being smarter it seems like being adequately smart more often. This is subtle though and it could be the phase of the project or my outlook or just better sleep. Maybe the effects are just the result of coming out of the shorter foggier San Francisco winter days.