Thanks Keith! I really appreciate you taking the time to share your ideas here. I have been casting about for some time with all of this stuff. The NHE plan implemented flexably seems to be a great option. As to my original question about acid/base ballance if I do not add huge quantities of olive oil to most meals it is fairly easy for me to reach a net alkaline state with cabbage, brocoli, chard and what not. The extra olive oil boosts the calories significantly which brings up a few other things. I have also been trying to figure out where my total caloric intake needs to be. I think I am taking in a bit more calories than you are but my activity is high as I follow the workouts at www.crossfit.com and practice Capoeira several times per week. Probably a bit excessive but as a friend pointed out if one is to have a vice exercise is perhaps a good compromise! I havee flashed back to something Art said about his body falling into a long term attractor and his weight not changing much one way or another regardless of calorie intake. I have certianly experienced this as I will boost my calories up to around 4-5000Cal/day and gain a little muscle (165 lbs to 170lbs) but when I fall back to an intake of 2500-3000 weight imediately drops to 163-165. I had a hydrostatic weighing and my BF is at 5% so things are workign well but I am ever tinkering. Correct me if I am wrong but you are not following the NHE recomendation of very frequent feedings correct? I remember you mentioning incorperating some of the philosophy of the Warrior diet in this and the large daily gap in feedings which you occaswionally do seems in line with this. How is that working for body comp, muscle mass, strength etc. I am assuming pretty well but just curious. I have noticed that i consume a large surplus of calories I am simply warm all the time. This would seem to be simply inviting additional oxidative damage and is emptying my wallet unnecesarily! Thanks you again for your response and any thoughts you might have on my additional ramblings would be much appreciated. Robb _________________________________________________________________ STOP MORE SPAM with the new MSN 8 and get 2 months FREE* http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail ----------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list send an email to [log in to unmask] with the words SIGNOFF EVOLUTIONARY-FITNESS in the _body_ of the email. To get a copy of the old archives or the FAQ, look in the EvFit folder at http://briefcase.yahoo.com/dryeraser