This is Part II.  The other parts can be found here:

How to Live Longer Part I

As I described in Part I, these are from the book 50 Simple Ways to Live a Longer Life: Everyday Techniques from the Forefront of Science Here are the next 9 simple ways to live longer (I thought the 10th was kind of stupid).  I’m supplying them right out of the book.  After part V, I’ll give you some of my own ideas.

1. Tea Party

   The polyphenols in tea do all kinds of wonderful things from reducing the risk of heart attack, stroke, and cancer to boosting the immune system’s ability to fight bacteria and viruses. White, green, and black teas are all good but for a certain kind of antioxidant, white and then green are best.  Something you might not know is that your bloodstream will only carry about one cup worth of tea polyphenols and only for about one hour.  So it doesn’t do much good to just drink a cup or two in the morning.  You should drink 5 to 10 cups sipped throughout the day for maximum benefit.  Secondly you need to drink it within an hour or two of brewing or else the polyphenols disappear.

2. Stress Reduction

   That’s a shocker!  Anyway to anyone who hasn’t been living in a cave, you should already know stress kills.  You might not know it actually can kill brain cells.  The best stress reducers are social connections (good ones obviously), exercise, belly breathing, and meditation.

3. Exercise

   Another shocker.  Besides eating well (and less), exercise is the best anti-aging drug you can take.  Walking is great, but you really need to bump it up into more intense aerobic exercising for maximum benefit.  Three to five workouts a week at 30 to 60 minutes are recommended.  Strength conditioning is just as important if not more important so see the next one.

4. Lift Weights

   Actually, as you age, lifting weights may be more important than aerobic exercise.  It delivers the same basic health benefits as aerobic exercise.  But in addition, the loss of function in aging is primarily a result of muscle and bone atrophy.  That can be delayed, reversed, and almost eliminated by strength conditioning.  If you want to be active when you are old, then lift weights.  It also prompts your body to produce growth-hormone and testosterone.  These are powerful anti-aging hormones.  Even nursing home residents can start lifting weights!

5. Unclog Your Pipes

   Your artery health is critical to a long and healthy life.  They need to be elastic and free of plaque.  Best methods for keeping your pipes healthy?  Exercise and a diet high in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and nuts.  Reduce animal protein, especially grain feed beef, take fish oil supplements or eat fish like salmon, and yes consider aspirin.

6. Lower Your Blood Pressure

   Do everything listed under Unclog Your Pipes, but also make sure you stay trim and get plenty of potassium.  Potassium lowers blood pressure so reduce salt and increase potassium.  The ratio is critical – lots more potassium than salt.  Calcium, magnesium, and vitamin D are also important.  Long life is definitely correlated with low blood pressure.

7. Avoid Diabetes

   Type II diabetes will knock 12 years off your life on average and make the years you have a lot more miserable.  The single best way to avoid it?  Get thin and then stay thin.  Any movement towards thin helps.  After that aerobic and anaerobic exercise both reduce the risk.  Eat the diet listed under unclog your pipes and avoid high GI carbohydrates like they are poison – because they are.  A high-fiber diet slows glucose absorption.

8. Prevent Colon Cancer

   Early detection through colonoscopy is critical.  For all you supplement avoiders out there, listen up.  Selenium supplementation is highly correlated with reductions in colon cancer.  Folic acid supplementation may be even more important in avoiding it.  Vitamin D and calcium are also correlated with lower rates of colon cancer.  Selenium is so powerful in so many ways, you have to be crazy to not take it.  That’s my opinion anyway.  Keep your food moving through your system with plenty of fiber.

9. Prevent Prostate Cancer

   If you are a man and you live long enough you’ll get it.  Almost all 80+ men have it, but they may not know it because it grows slow.  Prostate cancer is highly correlated to lifestyle such as excessive consumption of red meat.  So reduce red meat, increase fish and/or take fish oil supplements, drink white or green tea, drink red wine, and eat soy.  Remember I said something about selenium supplements above?  Well guess what?  Selenium supplementation reduces prostate cancer 62%.  That’s selenium supplements.  Take a lycopene supplement or eat a lot of tomato paste products like pizza sauce!  Saw palmetto is a superior prostate health supplement and if you are a man over 30, then take it.  All this supplement advice is backed by a lot of research so ignore it at your own risk.

What do you think? Leave a comment below.

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I’ve got a fabulous little book 50 Simple Ways to Live a Longer Life: Everyday Techniques from the Forefront of Science, and I recommend you get it and read it.  But in the meantime I know most of you won’t, so here are the first 10 simple ways to live longer.  Some of the ways the book listed these don’t make sense to me so I’m making a few modifications.  Other than that, I’m supplying them right out of the book.  After part V, I’ll give you some of my own ideas.

This is Part II.  The other parts can be found here:

How to Live Longer Part II

1. Visualize a long and healthy life

   Your non-conscious mind will then drive you to to do things that you know contribute to a long and healthy life.

2. Calorie Restriction

   This is one thing on which virtually all aging experts agree.  Calorie restriction increases life span.  Basically a 40% reduction in calories below what you need to maintain will increase your lifespan 40%.  Your body adjusts.  Calorie restriction doesn’t just increase lifespan, it gives you a vital and vibrant life.  Most people will not do this and so I suggest a 20% reduction to get some of the benefit without looking somewhat anorexic.  After I get really healthy and fit, I’m going for the 20% reduction.

3. Skip Meals

   This is a hard one for me. I’m a fan of six small meals, but the research is there. In animals, regular fasting has the same effect as calorie restriction. One recommendation is to skip breakfast, eat a light lunch, then eat a normal dinner.  Experts believe the underlying anti-aging mechanism is probably the same as calorie restriction.

4. Walking

   30 to 60 minutes of brisk walking up to 5 times a week, works wonders.  It’s the 80/20 rule of exercise.  You get much of the benefits without the hard work of rigorous exercise.  I happen to believe that intense workouts provide the maximum benefit, but I’m not there yet.  I’m past walking, but I haven’t achieved the intensity level I believe is needed to really get the most benefit.

5. Defy Stereotypes

   I think this one goes right along with visualization in number 1.  Don’t accept or act like you are getting old.  Don’t buy into stereotypes or allow others to talk about what it’s like to get old.  I’m guilty as hell on that one so I need to clean up my own act.

6. Supplement

   Even the conservative establishment has come around to supplementation – slightly.  People simply don’t get the optimal level of nutrients from their diet and the JAMA recommends daily multi-vitamin supplementation.  Most studies on vitamins have either used isolated supplements (they work synergistically) or bad supplements (vitamin E studies don’t use the right kind of vitamin E).  There is conclusive evidence and many good studies (selenium and C taken together for example).  In any case if you don’t overdo it they can’t hurt.

7. Take Aspirin

   Note: This can be dangerous for some so you might want to check with your doctor. In addition to the well known heart and stroke benefits, aspirin is becoming the super cancer prevention supplement.  For no other reason than that, you should consider it.  A 50% reduction in colon, prostate, melanoma, skin, stomach, and esophageal cancers?  A 20+% drop in breast and ovarian cancer?  I’m headed to get my baby aspirin right now!

8. Keep Your Bones Strong

   It turns out Vitamin D and exercise is more important in preventing bone loss than calcium supplementation.  Ladies take note!  Take a D3 supplement and exercise for healthy bones.

9. Social Connections

   This is a big one.  It seems that people who have strong social and family connections live longer and healthier lives.  It has also been linked strongly to having a healthy brain in old age.

10. Volunteer

    I don’t really know why this helps, but I guess it has something to do with feeling good about yourself and having less stress.  Regardless of why, it turns out to be one of the most powerful ways to ward off premature aging and death.  Volunteering is correlated with a 50% reduction in premature death.  That’s hard to believe, but that’s what the book said.  I’m a little skeptical, but I don’t doubt it has some and maybe a lot of benefit.

What do you think? Leave a comment below.

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I was going to put all kinds of science in this article about pH balance, sodium-potassium pumps, and other such fascinating stuff.  As I sat down to write, it dawned on me that most people probably are not as fascinated by that kind of thing as I am, so I decided to write something practical that could be easily understood.

This article is the third in a series that will be dedicated to helping you improve your energy. You will not escape the rat race or enjoy life if you are energy deficient. Energy level is a fundamental key to thriving and not just surviving. Take it from someone who knows. I have been chronically fatigued for much of my adult life. I’m turning it around big time, but I’m not all the way there yet. The first two articles were:

Energize Your Success – Decrease Distress
Energize Your Success – Use The Right Fuel

A Paleolithic diet of natural whole food would contain a potassium-sodium ratio of about 17 to 1.  A modern American diet contains a ratio of about 1 to 1.7. Do I really need to say any more?

I’ve had low blood pressure all my life and so ignored salt and ate processed foods.  Natural foods were unknown to me.  Processed foods have been stripped of potassium and preserved and flavored with salt.  The science concerning what this does to our cells is pretty clear.  The number of health problems that can be attributed to this imbalance may be more than we could have imagined.  Aside from all that, there is a very strong impact on your energy.

Most people are chronically potassium deficient.  It’s as simple as that.  Blood tests do not determine the level of cellular potassium and so they are worthless with one exception.  If they show low blood potassium you are in trouble.  If they show normal they mean nothing.

What Should You Do

Limit sodium intake to 500 mg per day or less.

Eat fresh whole fruits, vegetables, and nuts.  Raw is better than cooked, but cooked is still OK.

Take potassium supplements.  There is a problem here.  Drug manufacturers like to make prescription potassium or create drugs that solve health problems by increasing potassium.  This is very convenient since our diet creates health problems and then we have the FDA and drug companies ready to solve it for us.  A cheap mineral supplement might cut into big pharmaceutical profits.  So in the guise of protecting the public from the dangers of potassium, the FDA limits supplements to 2.5% of the RDA.

Think about the absurdity of that.  If I need potassium supplements why would I need a capsule that gives my a measly 2.5%?  What good would that do?  If I need supplementation, I certainly need more than 2.5%.   I know there are claimed reasons for this, but they are absurd and unsupported.  You might as well ban potassium supplements.  I would have to take 40 capsules per day to get 100% of the RDA.  Or I could just go to a doctor and get a prescription.  Hmm…

To hell with the FDA.  I take 20 or 30 capsules a day.  Make your own choice.

Potassium Rich Foods

One caution.  Don’t eat 10 bananas a day.  Some of the most potassium rich foods play havoc with your blood sugar.   Look for lower GI potassium sources.  I’m going to leave off of my list high GI foods rich in potassium.  For example a baked potato is about the richest source of potassium you can find and it is also very bad for you from a blood glucose perspective.

Also, if you buy a can of green beans loaded with salt you are not helping yourself.  You need to increase potassium and reduce salt.

• banana (eat in moderation)
• tomato
• almonds
• sunflower seeds
• asparagus
• mango (eat in moderation)
• orange
• pear
• peach
• strawberries
• pumpkin
• brussels sprout
• green beans
• carrots
• broccoli
• cauliflower
• pinto beans
• lentils
• salmon
• dark turkey meat
• lean beef
• peanut butter
• egg
• cheese
• milk
• chocolate

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You wouldn’t put diesel fuel in a rocket or rocket fuel in a truck.  They each were made to run on a certain kind of fuel and so are you.  If you put poor quality fuel into your body, you are going to have a poor result.  One result will be a lack of energy, or in any case a less than optimal amount of energy.  Remember, you are essentially drugging your body every time you eat.  Put in good drugs.

This article is second in a series that will be dedicated to helping you improve your energy. You will not escape the rat race or enjoy life if you are energy deficient. Energy level is a fundamental key to thriving and not just surviving. Take it from someone who knows. I have been chronically fatigued for much of my adult life. I’m turning it around big time, but I’m not all the way there yet. The first article was:

Energize Your Success – Decrease Distress

So what kind of fuel do you need to perform at your optimum level?  This is something that tends to get people fired up and controversial.  There are a wide range of schools each with their own gurus.  Each of them can make good arguments that their particular vision of healthy eating is the “right” way.  I’m not really going to wade into that because I think you can make some general conclusions that are widely accepted across most schools of thought.

The human body and its operation is extraordinarily complex.  We know only a tiny fraction of what we need to know to be making categorical pronouncements.  I know people who are very healthy and seem to eat right even though they have very different ideas about what “right” looks like.  You can be a vegan or a meet eater; you can be a raw food enthusiast or a cooking enthusiast and still eat very healthy.

The Diet Your Body Was Made to Eat

If I had nothing else to go on, and I don’t have a lot, I would suggest that we should generally eat the kind of diet that humans and human ancestors ate during our biological development.  It seems uncontroversial to say that the bodies that thrived on those diets were the ones who survived and passed on their genes to us.  Agriculture was only invented 10,000 years ago and our modern dietary habits have only developed in the last couple of hundred years.  Neither of those is nearly long enough to significantly change our biology.

So right off the top we can assume that our bodies are not made to eat processed foods any more than a truck is made to run on rocket fuel.  Furthermore, there is plenty of logic and research that shows that those foods are not good for us.

Individuality

One problem with giving diet advice is that we are all different.  I think I remember my biology studies enough to remember that for some genes they have identified as many as 20 different alleles (genetic variations).  That was way back in the dark ages and probably is far out of date.  These individual variations can make a huge difference in what you can tolerate.  There are a lot of people who do poorly on gluten while it doesn’t seem to bother others.  Same thing for dairy, wine, shellfish, etc.  Some people have poor glucose control and others have excellent glucose control (although if they abuse it they can ruin it).  Some people remove toxins well and others don’t.  There is a metabolic typing system that I don’t know much about but it makes sense to me.

Some of these problems with food tolerance surely developed recently.  The gene pool is going to hell in some ways.  I’m pretty sure that not too many of my ancient ancestors had my poor eyesight.  The spear in their chest would have limited the number of descendants they produced.  The point is that regardless of what someone tells you, and that includes me, you must pay attention to your own body and how you personally react to various foods.  That will tell you more than a lot of the advice you get that is based on a non-existent typical person.  I can’t emphasize that enough.

My Recommendations

I am trying to stay fairly uncontroversial and I welcome your thoughts.  I’m not an expert but I have studied this enough to have some opinion.

General

Eat as much natural and whole food as you can.  Eliminate most or all of the man-made and refined foods you eat.  No matter what anyone claims, there is simple logic to this:  Human bodies did not develop eating the crap most of us eat now.  There is no way the body is going to handle this stuff as well as the whole natural foods that were the basis of our biological development.  I recommend Vin’s Natural Bias website for more information on natural foods.

Toxins

I’m not a organic bigot, because if truth be told the reason I’m able to type on this computer to you and the reason you are able to read it,  is because of mass produced agricultural products.  Agriculture, even if it was bad for our bodies, allowed civilization to develop.  Later, pesticides, herbicides, fertilizer, etc. allowed us to go from an agricultural based economy to one in which agriculture is now almost unnoticeable.  I’m probably pissing a lot of people off with this, but I believe it to be the truth.

However, having said all that, if you can afford it I think organic natural food is far better for you.  Just because we are where we are because of less than wholesome food, does not mean you shouldn’t optimize your own situation.  There are reasons to believe, aside from the toxic effect of eating all that poison, that the natural foods are far better.  Starving people or countries that are not as blessed as mine can eat all the mass produced food they need.  Enough said.

Don’ts

• Refined Carbohydrates – I’m sure there are millions of articles on the net on the dangers of refined carbohydrates so just read them.  If you want to slowly kill yourself, just load up on these.
• Trans-Fat – Zero positives and tons of negatives.  It damages your cell membranes.
• Deep Fried Food – They are cancer producers.
• Man-made sweeteners and other additives – Aspartame for example kills your brain cells, especially sensitive ones in your hippocampus.  That’s very important to memory in case you didn’t know.
• Carbonated Drinks – They rot your teeth and bones.

You Can’t Go Wrong With These

Balance

Eat carbohydrates, protein, fats, and fiber at every meal.  I’m not going to preach about ratios since there is plenty of information on that, but avoid extremes.  I eat mostly carbohydrates, a good amount of protein, and smaller amounts of fats every time I eat.

In my article, How To Take Care of Your Brain, I recommended a colorful rainbow diet and I repeat it here.  Eat colorful foods; orange, red, blue, purple, and green foods.

Cruciferous Vegetables

Cauliflower, broccoli, kale, bok choy, cabbage, brussels sprout, etc.  These are nature’s miracle foods.  Find me somebody who thinks you should not eat these.  They are absolutely loaded with phytonutrients, vitamins, minerals, and soluble fiber.  They are complex carbohydrates that break down very slowly and give your body a constant supply of blood glucose.   In the GI index they are at the top of the list.  They have strong anti-cancer properties.  Men, scientists have discovered they have powerful anti-prostate cancer properties.

Green Leafy Vegetables

Arugula, spinach, collard greens, Romaine lettuce, mustard green, Swiss chard, etc.  The darker the leaves the better. You can almost repeat the cruciferous vegetable paragraph for these.  Dark green leafy vegetables are a super food and you should eat them at every meal if possible.

Vegetables in General

If you look at a GI index you will see the top of the list (low GI foods that are good for you) is dominated by vegetables.  In general you should eat more good vegetables than fruit.  Some fruit can spike your blood sugar.  You can almost not go wrong with vegetables.

Avoid the few hi GI vegetables like white potatoes, parsnip, beets, and be careful with corn and yams.  The latter two you can eat in moderation.  Carrots are high GI but low in carbohydrate content so you can eat them without worrying.

A Note On Blood Sugar Testing

My wife is mild type II diabetic.  She has those finger-prick home testing kits.  I have taken advantage of this to watch my own blood sugar level.  Your level will vary throughout the day, mostly as a result of eating.  With most people it spikes dramatically.  You want to maintain as flat a level as possible and avoid too much spiking.  If you eat the white death foods, you will spike your blood sugar and produce a lot of insulin.  I take my readings at random occasionally and I spent a couple of days taking it all day long.  My blood glucose stays very flat and doesn’t rise much even after eating.  I consider this evidence that eating the way I recommend with low GI vegetables and small frequent meals, is ideal for blood sugar maintenance.  I also eat a lot of protein which helps maintain it between meals and overnight.  Test yourself if you can.

Fruits

Fruits are excellent but they tend to be much higher blood sugar producers than vegetables. So eat more vegetables than fruits.  The berries are fantastic and they are generally low GI and low carbohydrate content so eat away.  They are packed with phytonutrients and antioxidants.  The berries should be a basic part of a healthy diet.  The purple/black berries like blueberries and blackberries are super brain foods.  I eat strawberries and blackberries like candy, because once you stop eating processed sugar, fruits taste so sweet!

With fruits stay away from fruit juice.  It will spike your sugar and most of the fiber has been removed.  Other high GI fruits to be avoid are raisins and pineapples.  Be careful with mangos, bananas, and too much watermelon.  Grapes are excellent sources of nutrients (especially red or black grapes), but don’t eat too many of them at once.  They are moderate on the GI index.  Eat berries, apples, pears, grapefruits, and plums about any time you want.  Just don’t eat too much of them at one sitting.  Don’t eat two or three apples for instance.

Lean Meats

If you get protein from meats, eat mostly lean meats.  You need fat, but too much of the wrong kind is bad for you.  If you review my articles on brain chemistry, you will find a common pattern of good meats with wild game topping the list:

Your Brain on Food and Supplements – Dopamine
Your Brain on Food and Supplements – Acetylcholine
Your Brain on Food and Supplements – GABA
Your Brain on Food and Supplements – Serotonin

In addition to wild game, chicken and turkey are excellent.  Ham is a fairly lean pork if you cut the fat off the outside.  If you eat fatty red meat, at least eat it in moderation.  The grain-fed beef most people eat has the wrong kind of fat content and produces inflammatory arachidonic acid.  Grass fed beef is supposed to be great, but I haven’t started it yet.  Read Vin’s article Why Grass Fed Beef is Better for Your Health for good information.

Eggs

Despite the bad rap they have received in the past, I think eggs are a great food.  They are loaded with high quality protein that is good for your brain and they contain Omega 3 fatty acids.  Eat your eggs without worrying.  I guess I’m getting controversial here but I couldn’t help it.

Vegetable Protein

I’m not too good in this area so I would welcome comments.  Meat protein is more complete than vegetable protein and since I am a meat eater I don’t worry about vegetable protein too much.  From what I know I would recommend seeds (sunflower especially), nuts, beans, peas, soy, rice, and spinach.  I need help on this please!

Supplemental Protein

Why not take a high-quality protein powder just to be sure?  Especially if you don’t eat meat.  I eat meat and I still have one glass of protein powder drink every morning.

Nuts and Seeds

I eat a ton of nuts and seeds.  I know they are very fatty but in general this kind of fat does not make you fat and is very good for you.  Like I said I eat tons of them and I am still losing weight.  My body chemistry is likely different than yours, but everyone should eat some of them.  Walnuts are a supper brain food.  Please eat them.  Almonds, peanuts, hazelnuts, macadamia, cashews, sunflower and pumpkin seeds are my other favorites.  I eat them with every meal and snack.

Summary

I tend to be scientific and over analyze everything.  If you want to be more relaxed about it I would suggest you eat a rainbow diet with a wide variety of natural whole foods.  Eat a lot of vegetables, a moderate amount of fruit, and a moderate amount of lean protein.  You need to eat some seeds and nuts and you should eat a lot of berries.  Eat small frequent low GI meals and snacks.  Mix your meals up with portions from each food group: fiber, vegetables, fruits, protein, and good fats.   Enjoy your super health!

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You need to energy to be successful.  Your brain and the rest of your body run on energy.  What happens in one part of you body impacts the rest of it.  Mental exhaustion is really just physical exhaustion occurring in one part of your body.  It saps the strength and energy from other parts.  You might not think physical energy matters that much, especially if you are more intellectually oriented.  But it matters and I think it matters a great deal.

This article is the first in a series that will be dedicated to helping you improve your energy.  You will not escape the rat race or enjoy life if you are energy deficient.  Energy level is a fundamental key to thriving and not just surviving.  Take it from someone who knows.  I have been chronically fatigued for much of my adult life.  I’m turning it around big time, but I’m not all the way there yet.

You may know what to do to increase your success, but don’t feel you have the “time” or the energy to do it.  This is pervasive in our modern fast-paced culture.  Often people who don’t think they have time, really just don’t have the energy because lack of energy slows down their rate of action.  Energetic people can get more done in a given amount of time.  Increased energy then can in one sense give you more time to do the things you want to do.

I have a friend who we refer to as the Energizer Bunny.  She is full of energy and she moves at least twice the speed of most people.  She actually lives more life in her day than other people.  You can take this too far and I’m a big believer in slowing down and living in the present (see Problems are Memories: How to Become Present, 10 Ways to Slow Down and Still Get Things Done, How To Relax And Why It’s So Important), but the two are not incompatible.  When you want to act and when intense action is called for, having the energy to perform is critical.

While the impact your physical energy has on your overall success might be more obvious to those of us who have had or do have a significant deficits, we shouldn’t ignore the potential impact of increased energy to those who already have normal or even above normal levels of energy.  Unless you are already super-energized, I think you would benefit greatly from increased energy no matter what your current level.

This series will focus on ways to increase your energy levels that I think are fairly universal and non-controversial.  Keep in mind that when you use energy for one thing, such as digesting a big meal, you have less energy left for other activities.

Decrease Distress

This is the bad stress and includes any physical or mental stress that is bad for you.  The best way to decrease distress is to avoid it.  Here are some common sources of distress that you can reduce in order to increase your energy levels:

Fat

This is simple physics.  Carrying around extra fat simply uses up more energy.  If you don’t believe me just pick up a 50 pound weight and carry it around all day and see what happens to your energy levels.  You wouldn’t do that so why do you carry extra body fat?  Fat doesn’t do work.  Lose fat, not muscle, and you will use less energy.  Lose fat and gain energy to do those things that are important to you and your loved ones.

Eating Too Much at Once

Eating a lot of carbohydrates at once will cause blood sugar to spike and that will cause insulin to spike.  Insulin causes a lot of damage to your body if it is chronically raised.  Further the subsequent drop in blood sugar will make you feel tired and sluggish.  Finally digesting a lot of food uses a lot of energy.

Not Eating Often Enough

Eating smaller meals more frequently will give your body a constant supply of nutrients, especially blood sugar, and allow you to maintain a much more constant source of energy.

Eating Refined Carbohydrates

These foods are killing you.  I’m not just talking about refined sugar.  Once your body turns any carbohydrate to glucose, it really doesn’t matter what it’s source.  The important part is how much glucose it contains and how fast it is released into your blood stream.  High GI foods like white flour, white rice, white potatoes, or other refined carbohydrates are just bad for you.  You might as well be eating poison.  When you restrict the candy your child can eat, but then give them a sandwich on white bread you are accomplishing nothing.  In fact white bread may be worse than table sugar.  If you want to know what the white deaths are doing to your and your family, read Vin’s excellent articles: How Sugar Can Ruin Your Life and How to Eliminate Sugar From Your Diet.

Lack of Sleep

When you sleep your body repairs itself and does a lot of other things.  Sleep deprivation creates distress on your body by not allowing time for recovery.  I have recently written a fairly long article on sleep that you can read: Sleep Your Way to Success.  You can also check out Jonathan’s article: What is Your Brain Doing While You Are Sleeping?

Mental Stress

I don’t think I need to spend much time on this one because we all know what stresses us, but I want to mention a couple of things.

• Negativity from others – Eliminate these people from your life or walk away from them when they get negative.
• Negativity from yourself – I’ve written about this in the following article and it is a huge factor:  Positivity Leads to a Flourishing Life.

When you eliminate your own negative reactions you save tons of stress and thus energy.  When I get mad I feel physically sick or drained.  I simply can’t emphasize the importance of this enough.

Relax

The other topics in this article focused on avoiding or eliminating specific sources of stress.  Aside from that, you can reduce overall stress by taking time to relax and practicing specific techniques of relaxation such as meditation or yoga.

I don’t have a source for yoga yet so if you know any good ones please add them in the comments.  For meditation, Roger has a good series going: Meditation for Beginners (Week 1) – Introduction

Other Resources

This article from the Mayo Clinic contains tons of stress management information.  I highly recommend it:  Mayo Clinic Stress Management

Check out these other articles:

10 Ways to Remain Calm in a Stressful Situation

One Dozen Simple Stress Busters

Stress Is A Myth

The Second Step To Happiness

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Ha ha!  This is not going to be what you were thinking.  Jonathan at Advanced Life Skills published an article called What is Your Brain Doing While You Are Sleeping?.  Please check it out.  I would like to expand on the sleep topic with some other interesting and important information.

I used to think sleep was a waste of time and since I could function on a lot less than most people, I did.  Big mistake.  Please don’t make the same mistake.  Over many years of too little sleep, I have paid a big price and maybe even done permanent damage.

How Much Do You Need?

This varies from person to person but most people need between seven and nine hours.  Teenagers need more than any other age group except babies, typically 9 or more.  People who sleep eight hours score better on mental tests than people who sleep six.  I would go for the longer times if I were you.  Active people and especially those who exercise a lot need more deep sleep to repair their bodies.

Stages of Sleep

Sleep is broken up into REM and Non-REM (NREM) sleep.  NREM sleep consists of four stages:

Stage 1: This is the period between wakefulness and sleep.  Eyes are closed but most people think they are still awake and if woken will insist they hadn’t fallen asleep yet.  This stage lasts five to ten minutes.

Stage 2: This is a period of light sleep where heart rate and temperature slows in preparation for for deep sleep.

Stage 3 and Stage 4: These are the deep stages of sleep.  During these stages the body repairs and regenerates tissues, builds bone and muscle, and strengthens the immune system.  It is difficult to wake someone or awaken spontaneously out of these deep sleep stages.

REM: After a complete NREM cycle the body goes in to REM sleep.  The brain is very active in REM sleep and shows patterns similar to an awake brain.  Your major muscle groups are paralyzed during this stage and that is what prevents you from moving and acting out your dreams.  The first REM stage lasts about 10 minutes and each REM cycle through the rest of the night increases in length and the deep sleep stages decrease in length.

Men maintain erections through much of their REM sleep.  It’s not because we are having sex dreams.  Researchers do not fully understand REM sleep and dreaming.  However, they do know it is important to long-term memories and learning.

A complete sleep cycle of stage 1 through REM takes an average of 90 to 110 minutes.   After REM, you start over with stage 1.  This Cycle repeats itself throughout the night.

The decreasing length of deep NREM sleep and the increasing length of REM sleep as the night progresses has very important consequences.  The body emphasizes the most important stages first.  Since the deep stages are when the physical body is repairing itself, you will spend a lot more time in deep sleep early.  That means if you get too little sleep your body will complete the physical repair stages first before it works heavily on the memory and learning aspects of REM sleep.  So when you skimp on your sleep, you are impacting your brain more than your body.  That is why people who sleep longer have better mental performance.

Don’t Set Your Alarm Clock

Forcing yourself awake unnaturally is bad for you.  I know most people are going to say they won’t wake up without an alarm clock but that’s not true.  It is fairly easy to train yourself to wake up about when you want, but there is a very important consideration.  If you are awakened when you are in one of your deeper stages of sleep, you will suffer much of the day as a result.  In fact you will feel better and are better off by getting less sleep and waking up at the appropriate stage.  You want to wake up in the light stages and ideally at the end of a cycle.  This is when you will naturally wake up.

You can determine the length of your natural cycle by noting the time you go to sleep and then waking up naturally several nights.  Do this on the weekend if you must.  Adjust your go to bed and get up times around your cycle and try to get at least seven hours per night.  Eight is better.  I naturally wake up after about 5 hours and 45 minutes or about 7 hours.  I can sometimes sleep over 8 but not often.  I attribute this to a lack of strenuous physical activity.

If you must set an alarm, try to time it according to your natural cycle by using the data you learned during natural awakening experiments.  If you typically wake up after 7 1/2 hours then set your alarm to wake you up after 7 1/2 hours of sleep.  If you have to get up at a certain time, then adjust your going to bed time accordingly.

Waking Up Frequently

Many people who wake up frequently in the night think that they are not sleeping well.  This is not true if you go back to sleep.  During the light stages of sleep there is very little difference between wake and sleep.  There is very little negative impact of waking up during this time and then falling back to sleep.  I sleep very sound the first few hours and then wake up multiple times later in the night.  This is very normal for many people.  Especially middle aged and older men.  LOL!

Light and Dark

Your body’s circadian rhythm is regulated by several factors and one of the most important is light.  Another is activity.   The single best approach for clock setting for your body is to get bright light, preferably sunshine very early in the morning.  You also need to move your body.  If you get very early movement and sunshine you will have a very effectively mechanism to set your clock daily.  Exercise in the early morning sun will give you many other additional health benefits as well.

It is also critical to sleep in total darkness.  Light and darkness trigger the hormone cycle of melatonin which regulates sleep and wakefulness.  Even tiny amounts of light at night, such as nightlight or streetlight will suppress melatonin production and result in a lower quality of sleep.  Seal up the cracks that let light leak into your bedroom.

Body Temperature

As body temperature drops in the late afternoon and evening you will start getting tired.  If you have a problem with wanting to go to bed too early or getting sleepy in the evening, try exercising in the late afternoon or early evening.  This will raise your body temperature and delay the desire to sleep.

Sleep Pressure

The need to sleep is heavily driven by two factors. The amount sleep you got the night before and the length of time since you last slept.   Throughout the day the pressure rises and by late evening it will be high.  If you didn’t get enough sleep the night before, you will get tired earlier than normal.

Power Naps

Power naps work because they reduce sleep pressure.  If you think of sleep pressure as a graph line rising throughout the day, a power nap will create a dip in that in that line.  It buys you more time since it decreases the length of time since you last slept.

You need to wake up after 20 minutes or sleep an entire 90+ minute cycle for your power naps.  If you go past 20 minutes and don’t sleep a full cycle, you will wake up groggy.  You would have been better off to not have taken a nap at all.

The Bedroom and Bed Are For Sleep and Sex Only!

You are a creature of habit.  You need to train your brain that when the light goes out and your head hits the pillow, that it should go to sleep immediately.  This is a wonderful habit that can be learned fairly easily.  I was a terrible insomniac and I had to go through multiple cycles of reading and falling asleep each night.  I created a terrible habit that was very bad for my physical and mental well being.

The absolute worst thing you can do is stimulate your brain with the TV while you are in bed.  You really shouldn’t watch TV for an hour before bedtime (or quite frankly ever).

If you cannot go to sleep then get out of bed and do something to relax like yoga or meditation.  You can even do light reading.  When you feel tired again go back to bed.  Teaching your brain and body that bed is a place to toss and turn in restlessness will only make the problem worse.  If you wake up in the middle of the night and can’t go back to sleep, get up and do something that makes you sleepy.  Stay out of bed when you can’t sleep.

Brainwave Entrainment

Brainwave entrainment means stimulating the brain with some kind of periodic beat which causes your brainwaves to synchronize or fall into step with the frequency of the beats.  Your brainwaves have typical frequency patterns associated with various activities, both when you are awake and when you are asleep.  The highest frequencies are associated intense focus and concentration and the the lowest frequencies with deep sleep.

This stuff really works and can be proven scientifically by measuring brainwaves after an entrainment session.  I use this and I believe it has helped me a great deal.  The great thing about brainwave entrainment is that you actually train your brain to more easily slip into these states.  As a result, you usually don’t have to continue the sessions for a long period of time.

As it regards sleep, the various stages of sleep are associated with different brainwave frequencies.  Thus listening to brainwave entrainment audio as you sleep will result in better sleep.  These audios guide your through the various stages.  I first used entrainment techniques for sleep and I believe it made a huge difference.  If you are interested take this survey Optimal Sleep, and sign up for some free information.  You will have the opportunity to purchase a $58 program that was worth 100 times that to me.

There are two different types of beats I have used: binaural beats and isochronic tones.  I think the science is on the side of isochronic tones being more effective, but I have used both with good success.

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The Problems

• “I Can’t.”
• “I’ll Try.”
• “I wish I could.”
• “I don’t have time.”
• “I’ll Do My Best.”
• “I’ll see if I can work it in.”
• “I’ll be there if I can.”
• “I can’t get my work done.”
• “I don’t have any free time for myself.”
• “It’s my genes.”
• “I can’t help it.”
• “I can’t seem to stop.”
• “I’m Sick.”
• “I don’t feel good.”
• “They make me really mad.”
• “He is driving me crazy.”
• “I am sick and tired of…”
• “I’m losing my mind.”
• “I’m retarded.”

These are examples of the negative and limiting language of self-talk that I used to create in an almost unending stream every day.  Those are only a few of the negative thoughts I flooded myself with daily.  Whether we are conscious of it or not, many of us do this constantly.  Approximately 85% of the thoughts you are processing at any one time are being processed by your non-conscious mind.  If you have any negative thoughts at the conscious level you can be assured you have 5 times as many at the non-conscious level.

For the last several years I put in 80 hours of work almost every single week and often up to 100.  That’s not easy to do and if you don’t believe me just do the math.  I slept 3 to 4 hours a night and sometimes stayed up all night.  I could go 48 hours without sleep with little difficulty.

For 35 years I have eaten a high-starch, high-sugar, high-refined carbohydrate, high-fat diet with almost no fruits and vegetables or fiber.  My genes tend to make me slim but I abused them so much I was 70 pounds overweight.

My exercise routine was to go from my house to my car and then from the car to the office.  After that I rolled around in my chair.  At home I camped out in a recliner.

I suffer cognitive difficulties.  My headaches started every morning and got severe every day by mid-afternoon.  My joints and muscles ached.  I suffered chronic fatigue for about as long as I can remember.  I often felt nauseated and dizzy.  I had asthma and allergies and took allergy shots for many years.  My brain was foggy.

I was irritable and prone to bouts of anger and frustration.  I was moody as hell and people around me knew when to leave me alone.  My neck, shoulders, arms, hands, upper back, butt, and legs tingled with pain and numbness.  It was getting to the point where some days I couldn’t hold my head steady enough to type on my computer.  It was a struggle to think.  My legs were restless and frequently jerked in the evening and at night.  These are just a few of the physical symptoms I had.  The list is long.  Nothing was ever fixed and the list just kept growing.

Over the years I believe I have had every medical test known to modern science.  I have been given every blood test and every MRI, EEG, Cat-scan, x-ray, nerve conduction, cardiac, pulmonary, and even some gene tests.  Most of these multiple times.

A while back I received a diagnosis of Multiple Sclerosis from my neurologist.  A second opinion disagreed with that diagnosis, so the bottom line is that the doctors still don’t know what is causing my symptoms.  I decided not to go for a tie-breaker opinion.  I was taking 12 prescription drugs daily and most of them multiple capsules per day.  In some cases I was taking double the maximum FDA approved dose.  In addition I gobbled Ibuprofen like it was candy.

I am a highly scientific person and I believe in modern western medicine.  Despite years of “I don’t see anything wrong”, I kept going back for more and getting new prescriptions for the newest drug.  It probably won’t surprise you to learn that I was being treated for depression.  A neuropsychiatrist recommended Cognitive Behavioral Therapy.

The Changes

Last year I made a simple decision.  I decided to take my life back.  This simple decision led to a few other simple decisions which I will describe below.  This was not a blinding light of inspiration from above.  It was nothing more than a result of simple reflection.  I could either do something or continue to complain and swallow drugs.  I could either do something or continue in a downward spiral of physical and mental destruction.

I decided I knew more about myself than the doctors knew about me.  I decided that nobody was doing anything to me.  The universe was not doing it, the doctors were not doing it, my employer was not doing it, my friends and family were not doing it.  I was doing it to myself.

Positivity

The first major change I made was to stop the negative self-talk.  I still fall into it once in a while but it is no longer the dominant theme of my self talk.  Now I start my day with the below affirmations in a mind movie.  You should try mind movies because they allow you to mix text, pictures, and music into a great experience.

1. I feel terrific.
2. I’m happy to be alive.
3. I can make my life anything I want it to be.
4. I love my work.
5. I’m getting healthier every day.
6. Yes!
7. Each day I’m getting closer to my goals.
8. I cannot fail – only get results.
9. I am already a success.
10. If I persist, nothing can stop me.
11. I’m willing to do whatever is necessary to succeed.
12. I’m happy this very moment.
13. I completely and totally forgive myself and others for mistakes of the past.
14. I will always keep the child within me alive.
15. I’m unique in all the world.
16. I can do it.
17. I am what I learn.
18. My knowledge will save me and can never be taken away.
19. The world does not reward average people well so I will be extraordinary.
20. I will write with honesty and feeling.

Thanks to Ted Nicholas for giving me that marvelous list.  It’s so good I didn’t even change it.

Check out this article I wrote for a marvelous way to tip into life flourishing: Positivity Leads to a Flourishing Life

Self-Help

I’ve read self-help books for many years, but I almost never did anything with them.  It was more of an intellectual exercise for me.  I love books and I love the personal development topic.  I spent all my time reading about what I should do and never spent any time doing it.  So when I made the decision to do something I had a lot of resources to draw upon.  So I simply decided to start practicing what I had learned and ironically had helped other people to do.

Sleep

I made the choice to get a good night’s sleep.  As luck (more probably my non-conscious mind) would have it almost immediately after changing my attitude and self-talk, I stumbled onto a marvelous sleep program called Sleep Tracks.  For more information on sleep and a link check out my article: Optimal Sleep – How to Get it Every Night.

Blogging

I decided I wanted to write a blog.  I had wanted to do this for quite some time but I always told myself I didn’t have time.  Well, I wanted to do it so I made time and did it.  It’s really a simple choice.  Decide what you want to do and do it.  We all like to make things complex and difficult.  I think we are subconsciously trying to find a way not to do them because we are afraid.

I don’t work more than about 50 hours a week anymore.  That gives me a lot of time to pursue other interests such as blogging.  Blogging takes time if you are serious about it.

Prescription Drugs

I made the simple choice to get off my drugs.  Slowly and surely I experimented with lower doses and weaned myself off of many of them.  I am almost done and I am happy to say that as of yesterday I only took my nighttime restless leg pill.  Even that I intend to drop eventually.  Here in Houston springtime, I didn’t even take my allergy or asthma medications and I was free and clear all day long despite being outside in the pollen saturated air.

I am no longer messing myself up with a cocktail of pharmaceuticals.  It was amazing how much better I felt after I started dropping my prescriptions.  The patient was healing himself.  I have an appointment with my neurologist this month and it will be the first appointment in five months.  I hope to tell him I am no longer taking any prescriptions.  I almost don’t want to go at all.  I remain undecided at this point.

Please note that I would never recommend to anyone that you stop taking a prescription.  That is an intensely personal choice of which you are the owner of the choice and the consequences.

Diet

Every time you put something into your mouth, you are essentially taking a drug. The incredibly complex machine that is your biology runs on what you put into it.  Put in poisonous drugs and you get poisoned.  Put in healthy food and you get healthy.  It is as simple as that.  I no longer eat gluten (wheat, barley, oats), dairy, or sugar.  I’m strict on this now and I remain undecided about whether I will ever loosen up on it.  I am loading up with fruits, vegetables, and lean protein.  I would guess at least 90% of what I used to eat I no longer eat and 90% of what I do eat I never used to eat.  I used to tell people I didn’t eat nuts and berries when they wanted to know what I liked.  Now I eat nuts and berries all day long.

Supplements

I have been balancing my brain and body chemistry with additional supplements and as a result of that and my dietary changes and I am feeling great.  I didn’t think it would ever be possible for me to feel this way.  I had resigned myself to a life a feeling ill and the good days would be when I didn’t feel real bad.  I don’t think I have felt this good my entire adult life and that covers the last 27 years.

I am a firm believer in supplements and I warn you to be careful not to put much stock in some of the recent findings from long-term studies that show them to not be very effective.  Your body chemistry is very complex and often supplements have to be taken together and with food to be properly absorbed and utilized.  By their very nature these studies have to isolate the supplement they are studying and so it has to be taken without being part of a larger program of supplements.  That is not how you should take supplements so it is useless to study them that way.

A few things I would like mention.  Just because you get enough of something to keep from getting a disease caused by its lack, does not mean you are getting the optimal amount.  The daily recommended amounts are based upon how much you need to not get sick, they are not a scientific optimum.

Secondly, everyone is different.  Most of us have genes that do not absorb nutrients in the way that others do.  In that case you need a lot more or a different form than is available in your food.

Finally, in the modern world it is nearly impossible to get what you need in the right way in the food supply.  Trying getting the right Omega 3 balance without poisoning yourself with mercury saturated fish.  A large number of New Yorkers are being poisoned by toxic mercury because they eat sushi.  It’s much better to get molecularly distilled fish oil supplements to round out this critical dietary need.

Exercise

I made the simple decision to start walking and I spend 30 to 60 minutes doing it every day.  I want to start lifting weights and doing more strenuous aerobic exercising but I so enjoy the walks I haven’t made the move yet.  The walks are so good for my mind.  In case you don’t know it, science has discovered that about the best thing you can do for brain health is both aerobic and anaerobic exercise.  It actually triggers the growth of new brain cells.  That’s right, the story you have heard your whole life about the brain not creating new cells is simply false.  The brain can heal and grow.

The Future

The future seems bright and glorious and I now look forward to it.  Recently I have changed my attitude, my sleep, my diet, my work habits, and my exercise habits.  I have only just begun the changes I intend to make.  I have a long list to get through but I’m in no hurry.  I’m enjoying the fruits of the changes I have made so far.  I have made drastic changes, but they have been simple decisions for me.  I simply reflected on what I really wanted.  Focusing on what I really wanted made these decisions easy.  I changed my self-talk from “I can’t.” to “I will.”.

What do I really want?

• I want to live to be 100.
• I want to flourish and thrive all the way to 100.
• I want to talk and play with my grandchildren.
• I want to enjoy every minute of the short time I have been given on this earth.
• I want to leave a little bit of myself in the lives of those I touch.
• I want to live.

And Thus

• I will live to be 100.
• I will flourish and thrive all the way to 100.
• I will talk and play with my grandchildren.
• I will enjoy every minute of the short time I have been given on this earth.
• I will leave a little bit of myself in the lives of those I touch.
• I will live.

What do you think?  Leave a comment below.  Subscribe to The Rat Race Trap by Email here or to a reader in the top left sidebar.  I would love to have you aboard.

If you want to have more energy in the day and sleep better at night, you need to get plenty of sunlight and get it at the right time of the day.  Our biology developed in the absence of indoor lighting.  Our ancestors woke up with and were active in the sunlight.  They slept in the dark.  The cycle of sunlight and darkness regulates hormonal systems in our body and is very important in maintaining a healthy circadian rhythm.  Sunlight + Activity = Awake.  Darkness + Inactivity = sleep.  Our modern technological society and culture have damaged this cycle for most people.  Artificial lighting and indoor living have dimmed the day and brightened the night.  Instead of a sharply rising and falling cycle, it is flattened out to varying degrees for most people.  As a result they are sleepy in the daytime and can’t sleep well at night.

Your internal circadian clock needs to be reset daily and the best way to do that it to get early morning sunlight.  An hour of sunlight and activity before 8:30 AM seems to be the best but any amount at any time in the morning is better than nothing.  Early morning walks are an ideal way to do this.  I can’t get that much activity or sunlight in each day, but I try to get 20-30 minutes of outdoor walking before 10:00 AM and when possible I get it before 8:30 AM.  The more problems you have with sleep the more important this is, but it will benefit almost everyone.

To understand the magnitude of differences between the indoor and outdoor light intensities which are measured in LUX, consider the following:

Typical family living room = 50 LUX

Typical office = 300 LUX

Overcast daylight = 1,000 LUX

Full Sunlight = 10,000 LUX

Looking at the Sun = 100,000 LUX

Going outside in the Sun, which is the environment in which our biology developed is 200 times brighter than being in your living room and even 20 or 30 times brighter than being in your office.  While dim indoor lighting will disturb your sleep cycle it is not bright enough to reset your clock correctly.  Thus being indoors with lights during the day is bad for you and so is being indoors at night with lights.

What Should I do?

1. Get at least 20 minutes of morning sunshine or at least 30 minutes overcast (cloudy) daylight.  If you find yourself getting sleepy in the evening then also get some afternoon sunshine.  Do this by walking and you’ll get some quality exercise at the same time.
2. More light is better.  Brighter indoor lights are better than dim indoor lights and full sun is better than overcast conditions.  Facing towards the sun is better than away, but of course do not look directly at it.  Light boxes are better than indoor lights, but outdoor light is better than light boxes.  Sun coming through a window is better than indoor lighting.  Being in the sunshine coming into a room is better than being in the shade in the same room.
3. The light must enter your eyes.  The circadian rhythm is not impacted by the light hitting your skin.  So do not wear sunglasses or you will be defeating the purpose of the light exposure.
4. Earlier in the day is better than later in the day.  Morning is better than afternoon and afternoon is better than evening.

I personally have found morning walks in the sun have dramatically helped my sleep, improved my mood, and provided some much needed exercise.

In our modern chaotic and rat race world, we are no longer sleeping in a naturally healthy manner.  Sleep deprivation is widespread and the effects of sleep deprivation are alarming.  Read this for some good information on what happens when you don’t get enough sleep.

Why do we need optimal sleep?

What does sleep have to do with escaping the rat race?  Plenty.  It’s not how many hours of the day you are awake to live your life that is important.  It is how much living you are able to do in those hours that really matter.  If you are sleep deprived you are going to be at a severe handicap in your quest to escape the rat race and live the life of your dreams.  Even if you don’t think you are sleep deprived, if you live in the rat race you likely are impaired from sleep deprivation and just don’t know it.

I should know because I have spent many, many years dragging around all day long with low energy and low performance as a result of my own harmful sleep patterns.  I may not need as much sleep as many people, but by trying to get by with three or four hours per night, with an occasional no-sleep night thrown in, I was doing serious damage to my overall health and well being.  I have trouble sleeping even when I clearly need it.  Just to get the little sleep I’ve been getting, I have spent years taking sleeping pills and all forms of herbs and vitamins.  My sleep pattern was not only sub-optimal, it was broken and dangerous.

What did I do?

In the middle of a mental and physical breakdown I stumbled onto something that may be one of the best things I have ever done for my health.  I ran across an advertisement on the Internet for a sleep program.  I made an intuitive judgment and bought it.  That first day, long before I ever laid my head on the pillow for the night, I had a strong feeling that this was going to be the answer for me.  It was an intuitive judgment based upon what I was reading and watching.  The program comes with videos you watch online in order to understand the sleep cycle.  It teaches you a lot of great information that I knew had to be right.  I’ve bought many things and taken many courses and programs on the Internet and most of them aren’t very good.  Some are downright junk.  But what I was watching seemed different.  A man named Yan was explaining the science behind sleep and the circadian rhythm.  He was explaining what happens to mess it up and what you can do about it.  It wasn’t a glossy load of crap; it seemed genuine and logical.  I was very intrigued.

That was only a few weeks ago, and now I am absolutely sold on the program.  I haven’t taken a sleeping pill since that first day and I feel much, much better.  I’m sleeping more and with better quality than I ever was sleeping with the pills.  I paid $69 for the program which has a 60-day money back guarantee.  You can’t lose.  Yan will send you follow up emails and more bonuses along the way.  You get downloads of sleep tracks that put your brain into the correct cycles for quality sleep.  It works miracles.  The sleep tracks are temporary.  Eventually you discard them and sleep naturally with no pills, tapes, or anything else.  You learn the natural things you can do to get your sleep patterns back to the natural and healthy state nature meant them to be in.

I paid $69 for a program worth $690 and I fully expect to come back her in a couple of months and tell you it was worth $6,900.  $69 doesn’t pay for a single nice dinner out for you and your partner so the price is truly peanuts.  I’m not going to try and sell you on it any more.

What can you do?

I will simply say if you have any trouble with sleep, I don’t see how you can pass this up.  If you want out of the rat race and/or need help with sleep then here is the link: Sleep Tracks