Healthy and Happy

Day 28 Sleep--Can't we give it a rest??? You just do not know how hard it is to give up on this subject of sleep. I think good sleep is one of the most important habits that we can incorporate in our lives. Sleep deprivation is rampant and is causing so much chaos in our world. I mentioned a case in a previous blog about how SAT scores went up drastically when a school system started school 30 minutes later. A fact that I did not mention is that student car accidents went down 31%. Before I started this health journey I remember reading a statistical report about how many car accidents happen because the driver goes to sleep at the wheel. This was including adults. I have a family member (who I am pretty sure is not reading my blog) who went to sleep in the morning traffic and totaled the car they were driving  when they crashed into a school bus. I taught school, so I saw the effects of sleep deprivation with students. It was so hard to keep some of them awake during class

Day 27--The Dark, Dark Past--Learn from it!! This journey called life has taught me a wonderful concept---DON'T LOOK BACK.  In fact Larry and I remind ourselves often with this phrase, "Yesterday ended last night".  It is one of the healthiest things we have done to heal our relationship and relationships with others. Yes, we have been married for 50 years, but marriage is a journey and we work on it daily. It is that important to us. In Philippians 3:13-14, Paul encourages us to forget those things in the past, and press toward the mark set before us. Forgetting my past has to be an easier task for me than it was for Paul---he persecuted and killed Christians. Surely I can do this. My past (bad sleep habits), and my mark that I am reaching for (good health) seems like a piece of cake. ( I need to forget this bad habit, too). The only reason I bring up the past right now, is because it was a very dark time in my life---literally. And I want your to see this so that

Day 26   It's the Blue Light Special Day!---Not Kmart Style Before I get started today I had to share this little tidbit. Larry and I reading through the Bible each year together--- in the morning while we drink our lemon water. The reading plan contains a little Old Testament, a little New Testament, a little Psalms, and a Proverb or two. Today our part of our passage in the Old Testament came from Deuteronomy 34:7. It was a verse about Moses' death. It said he died at 120 years----and his eyes were not weak and his strength was not gone . He's my man!!, my goal setter!!!---the motivation for setting up my website for my blog.  http://healthyandhappyto120.blogspot.com . Just on a shorter side note, I have been criticized a bit, suggesting that I was trying to control my destiny that may be already in place by God. Now I believe in an all knowing God, who yes, knows the date of my death. I have even been quoted the Scripture that says it is "appointed man once t

Day 25  Get Your Rhythm On---Circadian Style  I want you to know that through this journey of sleep, I am sleeping better than I have in years. I am sleeping through the night, actually waking up to an alarm, and rarely getting up at all to use the bathroom (more later). I occasionally do not sleep my allotted eight hours, but I can immediately figure out why, in fact I can predict almost 100% of the time before I go to bed that my sleep will not be what it needs to be. It usually has to do with what I ate, what time I ate, or how much I ate or it could be what time I went to bed or what I did before bedtime. I know all of that may sound confusing, and it was confusing to me, until I got in tune with how my body works under different circumstances. So I resolve to do better the next night, knowing that it is VERY important that I try with everything in my power not to let it happen again. So I am continuing on this journey, training myself so that it will become natural and I wil

Day 24--Melatonin---The Miracle Hormone While drinking my banana tea each night (Day 23) to increase my magnesium levels, I started researching melatonin.As a side note, someone asked about why boil the whole banana--peel and all--- why not just eat the banana.  Because the peel contains the most magnesium. Just wash it carefully in a vinegar/water solution to remove any pesticides. Now back to melatonin. I actually had a partial bottle in my health cabinet (not medicine cabinet) that I had taken when I was trying to solve my GERD issue. I heard on a Dr. Oz show  that taking melatonin along with a licorice tablet would help with my nighttime episodes of GERD. It may have helped some but it was not the cure, and that is what I wanted--- not a quick fix. The cure did happen  later (see Day 10). This time the melatonin was strictly about the sleep, so I got serious and upped the dosage thinking that would help.  This was before I had the whole story. You know this is a journey to c

Day 23 Be Lazy--Get you ZZZZ's This title is very hard for me to type because it goes against everything that is not ME, at least according to my point of view, and I guess you'd say laziness is my pet peeve. You see, I am a workaholic. I cannot sit still. Larry says that my mind is a project machine in motion. I don't like watching TV because it is boring. Larry likes some TV---mostly sports, and we both like a couple of "cop" shows, so I watch a little for enjoyment, but mostly to be with him. Now if I have a crossword puzzle, a sewing or craft project, or a book to read while I am watching TV, I do fine. I mention all of this because I was too busy to the point that I did not value sleep and rest like I should. I was once captivated by a story that  I heard about a very successful man who said he only needed three hours of sleep at a time. His optimum performance came when he slept three hours worked three hours, slept three hours--you get the point. I