A short one on two new things I'm doing for sleep...

I have a full-blown on-going blog about sleep on the sidebar if you'd like more on sleep hacks, tips, things to try. These are my two latest additions and thus far both seem to be helping. 

Addition #1 - Ashwagandha 

I make a cup of herbal tea at night. I do it about 3 hours or so before I go to sleep to mitigate the mid-night or 2a.m. bathroom trip. Kinda silly to go through all these hoops for good quality sleep and have it interrupted by a full bladder, right? :-)

I mix my own teas and the one I drink at night is one blended for my specific needs so I won't bore you with the ingredients. However, one thing I do that you may want to try is adding turmeric and ginger. I use ginger and turmeric root, readily available at most grocery stores, and pop thin slices in the tea. I'm working on a turmeric blog will try to remember to pop back on here and link when I get finished. I also add my nightly Calm (magnesium) to the cup (leg cramps, brain, pooping...it's not the only magnesium I take, each type has different benefits...guess I need to do a magnesium blog?). 

The NEW addition is ashwaghanda root. 

I was out and about on-line doing some research and came across the tidbit that it helped with sleep. I use the powder in my smoothies and it is also in a few of the brain supplements I take but it's probably all out of my system by the time I go to bed. Guessing on that one. Could be that just giving it a boost at night is what does the trick.

I started experimenting with it, adding it for a few nights running to my tea bag, missed it off and on. I noticed that my deep sleep improved when I added it to my night tea. I'm still tracking to see if it holds true but so far it's a winner. I work more on my deep sleep than I do on length of sleep. Dave Asprey has a lot on deep sleep, need to get back over and read some more of his "stuff". 

Addition #2 - Quinine (in Tonic Water) 

I recently had my veins done (hereditary issue, thanks mom :-)). I asked the vascular surgeon about the leg cramps I suffer through fairly often. He said that while he couldn't, as a doctor, tell me to do it many of his patients swore by tonic water. 

The magnesium I take doesn't seem to do much for my particular type of leg cramps...then again, maybe they'd be horrific if I didn't take it every night! I don't plan to find out.

So...I went out and did some reading and then went on a hunt for some tonic water that I'd drink at the local grocery stores. Bleh. They all had sugars, sucrolose, a variety of additions that I would never put in my body.

I finally found one at my local Kroger. Their Diet Tonic Water doesn't have a sweetener in it. I bought a 99 cent bottle to see if it helped. 

Wow. I haven't had leg cramps since I started drinking it. I have no idea if it's a placebo effect -- don't believe it is as I've "believed" in other things that supposedly worked on leg cramps that didn't for yours truly. I do think that everyone's body is different and maybe this is the thing that works on my particular type of leg cramp but maybe not yours. It's a cheap thing to try and if it works I will expect a hug if we ever meet. 

I use it in the tea mix I mentioned in Addition #1 to cool my tea. I leave space in the top of the tea cup and add it. I'll also put a little in my daily drink mix off and on but not consistently. 

Note: I gather that quinine is also known as cinchoa or Countess powder. Guess who's off to do some research? Could be that I can just buy some of the powder and use it, or maybe the root for my tea. It's very bitter so maybe I'll just stick to the tonic water.

Have you tried either of these? Doing something I've missed? Experimenting? Figured out ways to improve your deep sleep? Check out my blog on the sidebar and let me know if I should add anything to my list. Thanks! 

Hope you have a healthy, restful, 2021.

Side tip re: Calm --- I buy it on Amazon, have it on their Subscribe and Save program. I was at Costco recently and they had a much larger container (20 oz vs 16 oz) for a dollar more than Amazon's smaller container. I grabbed one. I just popped over to Amazon and noticed they've dropped the price for the 16 oz container by $2. Ha. Keep an eye on it if it's something you use as there may be more price changes!

Chance Encounters...

While out shopping yesterday I had two great chance encounters. One was helpful to me, in the other I helped someone.

First -- the one that was helpful to me. I was in Costco and as any shopper there knows they are great about having people around handing out samples. The only one of interest to me was some guacamole in a bag. It was frozen. Surprisingly (to me), it tasted good. I happen to like chunky though and it was blended smooth.

I told the guy who was handing out samples and we got into a conversation. He took me to the area with all the guacs, showed me the chunky and then...told me I could freeze ANY of them! He then told me I could freeze avocados.

WHAT?!? No way. But yep, he said he'd been doing it for 20 years. He buys a bag of them and when they hit the ripening place he likes he tosses all but the one he wants to eat that day and the next into the freezer.

He said he thaws them overnight if they will be eaten "as is" but just peels the skin off if he's going to use them in guacamole or a smoothie. I'll put some links below for various ways to freeze.

Most said the texture when freezing the whole avocado was mushy, best to use in guacamole, not cut up to eat on a salad.

Oh, and you can also buy them frozen now at most grocery stores. I can't remember the brand but I bought a bag. I wasn't thrilled with them as they have a tangy taste due to the preservative they use.

Then, my next stop was at Walmart for a couple of last-minute stocking stuffers. I was looking at soaps (Dr. Bonner's) when I happened to overhear two girls talking about how expensive one of the soaps was. (Oh how I had a hard time ending that sentence with "was"...shades of my English teachers yelling in my head :-)).

Turned out one of them was getting their boyfriend the soap he liked and it was one of the "good' ones...clean. I interjected myself in their conversation and explained why it was so high, and then told them about an app I use called Think Dirty. You can scan the bar codes on products and it ranks them from 0 to 10 with 0 being super good. Most of the things I scan on the shelves these days are 8 or above.

I showed them a similar product that was twice the size, was the same price range, but had the same rating. They were so excited. They both popped the app onto their phones...and bought the cheaper version for the boyfriend. It was so cool knowing that they were interested in learning and wanted to start scanning products.

I got started on my health journey when I was a bit younger than they are but something similar sparked my interest and I've been happily getting healthier all my life. Or that's the hope! So many things that were "gospel" have been tossed out as actually being bad over the years so it's a continual learning experience.


https://springsbargains.com/2012/10/can-you-freeze-avocados/

https://wholenewmom.com/kitchen-tips/freezing-avocados/

https://www.hgtv.com/outdoors/gardens/garden-to-table/can-you-freeze-avocados