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Posts Tagged sleep

Trouble Sleeping? Try This

Jun 28

Posted by Shari B. in FitFeature, Keeping Fit | 5 Comments

Hi friends!

Do you happen to have an overactive mind that you have trouble turning off when it comes time to sleep?   Or do you get to sleep just fine but then wake up in the middle of the night and then your mind kicks in?

I used to suffer from some pretty chronic insomnia a few years back that went on for 2 years.  And apparently I was in good company – I’ve spoken with a lot of people who struggle to get a good night of sleep as well, especially the ladies!  So much seems to factor into it:  hormones/adrenals, nutrition, stimulant consumption, stress… the list goes on.

Fortunately after some acupuncture treatments and changes to my nutrition back in 2009, I only have a sleepless night every once in a while now.

More often than not these days if I do have trouble sleeping, it is usually because I can’t turn off my brain.  It’s like the minute my head hits the pillow, someone flips the switch and my brain goes into overdrive when it should be winding down.

A few months ago I came across something that has been a lifesaver in fixing this – naturally.  Without any sleeping pills, valerian root tea or other tricks.

Enter Yoga Nidra – Rotation of Consciousness

I stumbled upon it when I was looking on iTunes for a guided mediation.  The one I use is free in the “iTunes U” store.  It is a relaxing voice that has you direct your attention from one body part to another in a fairly quick succession:  right thumb, index finger, middle finger, ring finger, pinkie, palm of the hand, back of the hand, wrist and so forth.

Interestingly, it’s actually not meant to be for sleep per se – it’s meant to be for meditation to bring you between a state of wake and sleep.  In fact, when I listened to it once during the daytime there was a part toward the end of the recording that said “no sleeping” — but I never make it that far when I listen to it at bedtime!  When I listen to the recording and visualize each part of the body, it quiets all the other “noise” that goes on in my mind and allows me to drift off. 

There’s a lot more to yoga nidra so I certainly don’t want to diminish it as an entire practice – the rotation of consciousness is just a part of it.  Here are a few articles that describe it more in depth if you are curious.

What Is Yoga Nidra?

Yoga Nidra and Cancer (Courtesy: Dr. Rita Khanna’s Yogashaastra Studio)

If you try it out, let me know how it works for you! Happy sleeping!

– Shari B. =)

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Link to the version I use at bedtime:  http://itunes.apple.com/us/itunes-u/deep-relaxation-guided-meditation/id434139276 and download Yoga Nidra o1.

 

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My Own Bed Never Looked So Good

Jun 5

Posted by Shari B. in Keeping Fit | 6 Comments

Hi FitFeat friends!

Quick post to first say THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH for the very thoughtful comments and get-well wishes.  I love you guys. It was so nice to read each of your comments while I was in the hospital.  You guys made me smile.

Latest news is that I am home from the hospital (hallelujah!).  At last check my CK numbers were still at 9,000.  I will have to keep having blood drawn regularly until the number is about zero, according to the hospital doc.  No exercise at all until that benchmark is reached.  Supposedly I will experience some overall fatigue for maybe a few weeks or more, and I’ll definitely have diminished strength in the affected muscles so when I do have the OK to work them again, I will have to start them like they’ve never touched a weight before.  After getting somewhere around 7 or 8 bags of saline pumped into me, I totally feel like a water balloon!

I will say that my heart goes out to people who have to spend a lot of time in hospitals. I don’t know how they ever get any rest or solid sleep. I found it the least restful place I’ve ever been.  Sleep is SO important for the body, and especially important if it is trying to heal.  I couldn’t get more than 20-30 minutes of sleep at a time.  The IV’s have automated pumps that make constant sounds, people have to come in throughout the night to keep checking your blood pressure, temperature and heart rate.  The tech who draws blood came in at 4:00 AM the first morning and 5:15 AM the second morning.  And the staff was pretty rambunctious at the nurses’ station (but I don’t blame them – if I had to work the night shift, I’d be doing whatever I could to stay awake too!).  I think the whole time I was there, I got 2 hours of sleep total.  If I had to be there for long periods of time, I think I’d be begging for some sort of sleep meds to be put into my IV.

Needless to say, by the time I left I had dark bags under my eyes that looked like someone clocked me good and my mood was in the tank.  I kind of think they finally released me simply because I was getting on their nerves!

I slept like a baby in my own bed last night and feel like a new woman today!  On doc’s orders I still have to flood my kidneys with water.  I’m at three and a half liters so far today and counting.  My eyeballs feel like they are floating!  ;)

Well my friends, I am going to sign off and hopefully my next post will be much more uplifting!  No more downer hospital talk!  I hope you’ve all had a fabulous weekend and thank you again for all the good thoughts you sent my way!

– Shari B. =)

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Nifty Ninety

Nov 18

Posted by Shari B. in Uncategorized | 6 Comments

Well what do you know??  I didn’t crash my blog while doing the WordPress upgrade!  I saw a tweet from a blogger yesterday that mentioned someone had tried to hack into her site and had failed, luckily!  Which lit a bit of a fire under my you-know-what to get cracking on getting my upgrade completed.  Reading through the 14 step process had kept me a bit intimidated, because I was petrified something would end up ‘breaking’ on the blog.  And my IT department for the blog is … ME!  (OK, and sometimes MSP – but I try not to bother him with blog stuff since this is MY baby.)

And so here I am with the 90th FitFeat blog post!  This feels important to me because a few years back, I started a personal blog and just didn’t follow through.  Truly I think I made it to about the third blog post (if that) and fell off the wagon. 

When I first started the FitFeat blog, I did so on the free platform of WordPress.com.  I wanted to see how dedicated I’d be before moving to the self-hosted platform.  One, because self-hosting costs MONEY and two, because self-hosting requires a lot more administrative work.  You are in charge of your own backups, spam blocking, upgrades, etc.  The effort I put into blogging during my RV trip with mom and g-ma was what allowed me to realize that I would be blogging long-term.  Not only was I thoroughly enjoying it, but I was actually a bit obsessed.  (Who?  ME?  Obsessed?  … never!)  ;)

Thank you to everyone who has been following along, and a special thanks to those who have been here from the beginning!  I appreciate you all so much!  It would be very discouraging to put “pen to paper” (so to speak) if it seemed like no one was reading.  

Today’s question:  Since this blog is FOR YOU, are there any topics you would you like to see covered in a future blog post?  I’d love your input!  Drop me a comment!

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On to the Tuesday recap… Tuesday was a ‘feat-less’ day (meaning no exercise) unless you count the effort expended in keeping my eyelids open.  I’m not sure what’s going on with our dogs lately, but they have been really active at night which has been interrupting MSP’s and my sleep.   We were out cold Monday night by 9:30 and at 9:50 Rascal was standing in the upstairs hallway barking his head off like he was facing off with the BoogeyMan.  We went from dead sleep to being doused in adrenaline in about 5 milliseconds.

After finally getting back to sleep again, Riley was up around 2:00 trotting laps on the hardwood floor downstairs, clickety-click-click-clickety.  She’s put on a bit of weight recently, and as a result is now eating ’lean’ food.  So she scavenges in the middle of the night around and around and around the kitchen island hoping we forgot to put away our dinner, I guess.  (You’d think she’d figure out in one lap that there is NO food to be found.  Why she keeps going around is beyond me.  Unless maybe she’s trying to work off some of that flab so that she can get back to eating real food again!)

I think she covets my gigantic salads.

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If you look closely you will see my homegrown sprouts in the salad!  They were interesting because they were all different seeds and some still had the seed attached, so they had a great crunch!  SO FUN! 

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The other items in my salad were:

  • HB egg
  • spinach
  • nutritional yeast
  • sundried tomatoes
  • spiralized zucchini
  • sunflower seeds
  • 1/4 avocado
  • 1/2 tbsp Annie’s Goddess dressing
  • dulse

And I ate it at 10:30 am.  That was lunch.  I was hungry!!  :)  

We had a wonderful time at our friends’ house last night!  (Thank you Lynn and Jim!  Sorry we caused you to miss DWTS!)  I ate steamed veggies with garlic sauce and some perfect edamame.  With a little white wine tasting.  It was a GREAT time! 

Well friends, off get busy with the Wednesday list.  AND get in some exercise.  Have a WONDERFUL Wednesday!  And don’t forget to leave a comment about topics you’d like to see on FitFeat! 

– Shari B.  =)

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