4 principles of eating

I have been doing my own research into eating for some time now.  Looking at the different philosophies and what 'evidence' they put forth.  I have come to the conclusion that there is only 1 paradigm and 4 principles that can be followed:

Paradigm:
There is no such thing as a one size diet fits all.  Everybody's body type is different and will process food differently.

4 Principles:

1. Stay away from processed foods.  All of the food we eat is processed to some extent.  The apple is plucked from the tree and transported to a holding warehouse.  It is potentially cleaned at this point and sifted through to see which ones are to be sent to the stores.  The stores receive these apples and possibly wash them again.  Consumers will purchase the apple and take it home. Again, they will possibly wash the apple.  Now that is some process.  So, am I saying don't eat any food bought in stores?  No, what I mean by processed foods is food that has more chemical ingredients than biological ingredients.  But everything is a chemical!  So, am I saying don't eat any food?  No, if you are unable to determine what is a chemical and what is a biological; then the second principle will help narrow this done.
2. Eat foods closest to the source.  When choosing foods to eat, first look at foods that are closest to the source.  No one can argue an apple is about as close to the source as possible.  However, one could argue that high fructose corn syrup is not close to the source at all.  It is a highly processed chemical that comes from a food source, but is no longer that food source. So, when looking at ingredients of foods figure out how close to the food source are these ingredients.  Minimize the number of chemicals you eat.  Just moving to a whole foods (not to get confused with the grocery store chain) eating habit will greatly help.
3. Eat the amount of calories based on your exercise levels.  Americans eat way too much food for how much exercise they get.  I have been guilty of this plenty of times.  People in general need to eat according to how many calories they burn.  If you are sitting on the couch doing nothing, eating a 5000 calorie diet is not going to do you any good.  However, if you are running a marathon every day; eating a 5000 calorie may not be enough.  Look at how much physical activity you get and figure out how much food you should be eating.  This isn't hard to figure out, especially with technology today; but it is a little time consuming and takes some patience.
4. Figure out what works for you.  Since there is no diet fits all, you must spend the time figuring out how your body reacts to certain types of foods.  Unfortunately, there is no easy system for this.  It is a matter of paying attention to how much of what you eat and when and then seeing how your body reacts to it.  If you are not sure where to start, here is a suggestion of what to eat over a 1 week period:
   - 60% green leafy vegetables
   - 20% meats
   - 10% fruits
   - 10% nuts and oils (Olive oil or Avocado oil)
   From this you should be able to figure out what your body likes and dislikes.

3 Secrets of Hiking

 There are 3 secrets to hiking.  These secrets pertain to while you are on the hike and not preparing to go on a hike.  There can be a lot more to hiking depending on the distance and elevation gain. So, keep in mind these 3 secrets are to allow you to finish a hike.

Secret #1: Put one foot in front of the other

This seems like a not so secret aspect of hiking. I mean, in order to hike you have to put one foot in front of the other, right.  However, this secret is about the times when your brain is screaming at you to stop, or it is coming up with excuses to stop.  The human brain tries to keep us safe by not allowing us to do something more physically demanding than what we have trained it to think.  You train your brain to say when to stop.  This means you can train your brain to allow you to do more than what you think you can do.  This is what elite athletes do.  This is what special forces in the military does.

At some point on a long hike your brain will start to throw thoughts at you to get you to stop.  Thoughts like, "Hiking sucks!" or "Hiking is boring, I don't want to do it" or "My legs hurt and I need to stop".  This is all a defense mechanism our brains have to keep us from going too far. If you want to understand what too far looks like, watch Chris Legh collapse at the 1997 Hawaii Ironman ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TyYkKkLRAec ).  This could have killed Chris, not metaphorically but physically. He could have died.  99.9999% of the people in this world will never get to this point.  HOWEVER, our brains will tell us that we are near that point even though we are only part of the way there.  So, the secret is to keep putting one foot in front of the other and ignore what our brain is telling us.  

Secret #2: Every climb will end

There is no mountain on this planet (or any other planet) that will go on forever.  Whenever doing long hikes with a lot of elevation gain, the climbs always feel like they will go on forever and will never end.  Even Mount Everest (the highest point above sea level) ends.  This means that no matter how long a climb feels; if you keep putting one foot in front of the other, you will reach the top and the climb will end. These are the parts of the trail where our brains will start to sabotage our hike and try to get us to stop.  If you keep in mind that the climb will end at some point, you can continue to the top.  One little trick that every hiker (and cyclist) experiences is "false tops".  "false tops" are areas that look like the climb is finishing, but it is not. These sections of the hike will play with your mental state and give your brain more ammunition to get you to stop.  Don't fall for "false tops". Keep the thought "where is the top?" out of your head.  Keep moving until you get to the actual top which you will always know when you are at the top.

Secret #3: Embrace the suck

This is my interpretation of this phrase, and other people will probably describe it in a slightly different manner. 

Embrace the suck comes from the military (though I think the concept probably goes back 1000s of years).  The meaning of this phrase is to recognize the bad in the situation you are in and embrace it.  Do not whine, moan, or complain about the situation; but accept the situation. The negative thoughts will happen, but do not pay attention to them.  The negative attitude needs to be changed.  Having a negative attitude will make the situation worse than it needs to be.  The whining, moaning, and complaining will make the situation worse than it needs to be. Instead, accept the situation you are experiencing and continue to work through "the suck". Keep pushing forward and get it done.  There are a lot of motivational speeches about embracing the suck.  There is even a book with this title. If you want more information about this concept, I recommend finding speeches or articles about it. 

But we are talking about hiking.  So, when it comes to hiking: embrace the suck....understand the hill climbs will end....and keep putting one foot in front of the other.  You will get through the hike.

Hmmm...this kind of sounds like good advice for getting through tough times.