Tag Archives: caffeine

A good night’s sleep

  By Ann • April 8, 2012 , , , , , ,

From what I have read and what I I just know 7-9 hours of sleep at night is recommended and ideal.

Because I get up at 5:30 four days a week I try to get in bed between 9:30 and 10. I usually have no problem falling asleep. A lot of time I am crashing on the couch while watching TV. (And even on the weekends it is tough for me to stay up past 10.)

Falling asleep is the easy part for me. Staying asleep is another story. I wake up a lot. It seems to go through cycles. A good night of sleep for me is only waking up a few times and falling right back asleep. A bad night is waking up more than five times and and a few of those times being awake for 30 minutes to an hour.

If I am having a lot of trouble falling back asleep I will usually move to the spare room and try to sack out on the futon.

I do have Ambien. But I take it sparingly. If I have two to three nights of bad sleep … Continue reading →

Dry nose remedies

  By Ann • March 21, 2012 ,

(Be warned: Some of the pics associated with the articles I link up not are not exactly appealing. I mean they aren’t grotesque, just remember it is noses.)

It was either last Thursday or Friday while in Las Vegas that I noticed that my nose was really dry. I have never had a bloody nose before but I felt like I was about to get one. I was pretty sure it had to do with the dry environment.

Almost a week later my nose is still feeling dry.

I did a little research to find ways to “cure” my dry nose. Such as keeping hydrated, using a saline solution or even a humidifier.

When I was discussing my dry nose with Jen while still in Vegas she mentioned the saline solution. I just can’t do that. I have this thing with not wanting to put anything up my nose, which includes inhalers, sprays and drugs!

I also thought about using petroleum jelly. This article on Livestrong mentions petroleum jelly is OK in small doses and as long as it is used for a short period of time. Apparently it can be inhaled into the lungs. Yuck. I used … Continue reading →

Springing forward

  By Ann • March 10, 2012 , , ,

Most places in North America will Spring Forward tomorrow at 2 a.m. (The UK and Europe will follow in a couple of weeks.)

Being from Arizona I never had to do this until I moved to Oregon in 1997. And initially I had no issues with the time change.

It’s different now and has been for some time.

I hate changing time. Yes, it is only one hour. But whether we are Springing Forward or Falling Back it completely messes me up.

If I have time tomorrow I would like to take the 6 p.m. Restorative yoga class. I think that will really help me sleep better tomorrow night.

Sometimes the Restorative yoga teacher gives us tips if we are having trouble sleeping. A good stretch while lying on your back: Spread your arms and hands and your feet and yours legs and then let go.

This is my advice on how to deal with the time change:

Still enjoying my coffee

  By Ann • March 8, 2012

When I was sick over Christmas and New Year’s I pretty much quit caffeine for that two weeks.

Once I started to feel better I figured I might as well keep the caffeine to the minimum.

I decided to keep my weekend enjoyment of coffee. During the week I planned to have decaf tea and coffee only when I needed it (such as a bad night of sleep the night before) or really wanted it. I was not going to deny myself.

Just like my deal with booze, weekends and times when desperately needed. Or say I am having dinner on a Wednesday night with friends and a glass of wine or beer sounds good with pasta or pizza or sushi. Again, not going to deny myself.

I got sick again at the end of January beginning of February.

Soon after that second cold I had a few bad nights of sleep and found myself having coffee every morning.

For about the past month or so the addiction has returned. And I have decided that I am OK with it. Really, there are worse things I could be ingesting on a daily basis.

Filling up & emptying out

  By Ann • February 18, 2012

One of my goals every day is to drink enough water. I don’t really have a goal every day. But I need to drink at least 48 ounces a day. I usually have 64 ounces a day. Sometimes more.

My body can definitely tell when I haven’t had enough water. Now that I have as much as I do I can’t go without.

I believe it varies on how much each individual should drink. I have heard that a person should drink at least half their weight in ounces of water. So if you weigh 150, you should drink 75 ounces of water a day.

I also believe the more caffeine and alcohol imbibed means the more water that should be taken in.

A friend of mine recently started drinking more water. He commented that he had to visit the restroom what seemed to be about every 15 minutes. How he resolved it? He stopped drinking so much water. I told him, nooo.

The more you drink water the more you have to pee. It’s a fact. But that means your body is self-cleansing. That’s a good thing.

On Saturday’s I normally exercise for two hours. Between spin class and … Continue reading →

Happy feet … walking

  By Ann • February 17, 2012 , , ,

I decided to take today off and have a four-day weekend.

I accomplished a lot today.

I had a dentist appointment this morning. Then the car had scheduled maintenance. And I started the daunting task of de-cluttering the spare room/office/dumping room.

I took the car in a little after 9. The dealership offers courtesy shuttle service. It was a sunny and cool morning. I decided to walk home. The roughly 1-mile took about 20 minutes to walk and was quite pleasant. I listened to the morning DJs on my Radio.com app.

Once home I had some coffee and breakfast. And then the de-cluttering began.

About 12:15 or so Curt asked me if I wanted to go have lunch. (Curt worked from home today.) After lunch I walked back to the dealership, which was a pleasant and warmer 20-minute walk.

I got in about 2 miles of walking today with a 90-minute Vinyasa yoga class this evening.

Showing the love … to me

  By Ann • February 14, 2012 , , , , ,

Today is Valentine’s Day. I find the holiday silly and pretty much pointless. If you are single, you feel bad that you are. If you are in a relationship, you feel pressure. Curt and I don’t give gifts or cards. If we can, we do go out to dinner and eat delicious sushi.

Last night in Baxter’s Hatha class we focused on our heart and opening it up. (Baxter likes to do themes. Last week we focused on the feet.)

We set an intention at the beginning of class. I set mine for someone else. But during class I really thought about my heart being opened up and taking care of me.

 I, like many women, feel that I must take care of everyone else. Which usually means I sacrifice taking care of myself. (Part of it is also that I am a control freak. But we don’t need to talk about that now.)

But how I take care of myself and love myself is by making sure I regularly exercise, try to eat healthy, cut back my caffeine intake, try to keep my alcohol drinking to weekends and to … Continue reading →

Getting my caffeine fix

  By Ann • February 3, 2012 ,

Sunday, January 22 was the last day I had alcohol or caffeine … Between trying to not rely on caffeine, my cleanse and then getting sick I have been “substance” free.

Until yesterday …

I stayed home from work on Wednesday. After a long day of watching TV, movies, lounging, napping, drinking tea and water I was craving an alcoholic beverage. I decided against it.

Yesterday some point at work I just needed a cup of coffee. So I had one. Wow, it tasted so good.

I worked from home this morning. I was in the kitchen getting my cereal ready and about to make some tea when I decided I really wanted some coffee. So I had some. Oh yummy!

The booze intake will happen again sometime this weekend. Definitely Sunday, but possibly tomorrow. Just trying to keep it all in moderation.

Planning, dedication, hard work pays off

  By Ann • January 17, 2012 , , , , ,

Last week I talked about how planning my meals and my exercise was keeping me on track.

Well, the regular exercise and healthy eating has proven to be worthy. I got on the scale this morning and I lost 2.2 pounds from a week ago.

I haven’t tracked my food or counted Points or calories. I just paid attention to what I was eating and I planned.

I did a lot of cooking two weekends ago and most of my meals were fresh (hardly anything processed) with very little meat. I ate lots of fruits and vegetables. I drank water or tea.

I have been limiting my caffeine intake as well as my alcohol intake and trying to keep the imbibing to the weekends.

I plan to keep this up. We’ll see what happens next week.

Caffeine free?

  By Ann • January 5, 2012 ,

Since I have been sick I haven’t had coffee. It’s been almost two weeks.

My last cup of coffee was Christmas Eve morning. Though it is possible I had some Christmas morning. Because I wasn’t sick quite yet. But I think I had a fuu-fuu white chocoate Ghiradelli drink thing. And it was good! OK, after looking up the link I realize that appears to have coffee in it. But it can’t be that much. I added two tablespoons of the powder to a cup of hot milk.

Now I normally drink coffee every day. On the weekends we make it at home. And we make good coffee at home. We drink Blue Bottle coffee. Yes, we are now coffee snobs.

At work we have Starbucks and Peet’s. They are OK. But they can’t compete with Blue Bottle. I drink coffee at work for a variety of reasons: it’s easy; it’s there; I like caffeine; I think I need caffeine; it’s part of my routine: get to work; crank up computer; fill up water glass and make a cup of coffee; start my work day.

For the past two weeks I have been drinking (what feels like gallons … Continue reading →