Wednesday, February 24, 2010

The ABCs of a Good Night’s Sleep

Journal Entry February 23, 2010: Weight = 172.4 lbs.; Coinage = $1.70, 35 pennies, 3 nickels, 2 dimes, 4 quarters (one super find of 2 quarters in a phone return, also one quarter in a newspaper vendor, and one under a retrieved beer bottle near a bus stop); Glass bottles retrieved = 14; Ground scores = 5 including two articles of clothing worthy of recycling.

Jounral Entry February 24, 2010: Weight = 174.0 lbs (multiple food slippages including a big piece of cake with yummy sugar and butter icing at a night civic meeting); Coinage = $1.36, 41 pennies, 3 nickels, 3 dimes, 2 quarters (on both days, very little money was found at the car wash, competition at these sights are increasing); Glass bottles retrieved = 13; Ground scores = 6 (getting ready for my “ground score charity yard sale.)

Feature Entry: The ABCs of a Good Night’s Sleep

For people seeking to maintain good health, much is written about proper exercise and nutrition, but less about the importance of a good night’s sleep—the body’s time to slow down and unwind. Dr. Rubin Naiman, clinical psychologist is convinced that healthy sleep is critical for physical, emotional, and spiritual well being. Several researchers have demonstrated that proper sleep is essential for daily personal effectiveness and even leads to a longer life. A good sleep helps the body repair tissues and renew itself by a process whereby internal chemicals trigger slow-wave sleep and rouse the immune system into action so as to help the body protect itself against viral and bacterial infections.

This blog will explain how the MoneyWalker “reclaims the night” by using exercise, good diet and nutrition, and stress management to keep stress and anxiety under control; and his technique for getting back to sleep when he awakes during the night. Also the following blog provides seven great tips for getting a good night’s sleep from Helpguide.org:

http://www.helpguide.org/life/sleep_tips.htm

First, I walk for 60 to 90 minutes every day. My friend the Numismatist

http://numismaticallyspeaking.blogspot.com/

often takes longer walks and calls the time her “2 hours of bliss out on the streets.” For me, long walks give shape to emotional energy and helps for gaining resolution and shaping reality. Thus, I rarely take serious problems to bed with me. Caution, long walks or any serious exercise should not be taken 2 hours before bedtime.

The MoneyWalker practices good nutritional habits in order to facilitate a good night’s sleep. We avoid late night snacks and evening beverages are consumed before 8 p.m. if possible. We eat three meals each day that feature ample fruits and vegetables. Bed time snacks are forbidden and we avoid sleep inducing medications. We do not have a television in the bedroom. We often prepare for sleep with a few minutes of friendly reading or Sudoku. Coffee is always decaffeinated and the last cup is consumed prior to 10 a.m.

As for what to do if I wake during the night, the MoneyWalker practices a relaxation technique that I call the ABCs of pleasure. Starting with A and working through Z, I systematically think of some activity, place, or thing that provides pleasure. A few examples follow:

A = Astros Baseball and my week-end trip with to Houston with Mark
B = Blogging and the pleasure derived from the MoneyWalker blog
C = Coinage and how much fun it is to find change on the street
D = Dental Appointment (no, no, block that)
D = Semiannual trip to Destin, FL with friends and the beach
E = Entertaining friends
F = Folsom, LA and our retreat house
G = Gardening
H = Herrenzimmer, the name of my study where these blogs are created
.
.
.
Z = ZZZZZZZZs for a good night's rest

And so the exercise goes. Usually I am back to sleep before I reach W which would be represented by my daily walk.

Opps, it is nearly 2 p.m. in New Orleans, time for my afternoon nap, another good thing to do.

MoneyWalker

5 comments:

  1. For the last week we have been staying up way past our normal bedtimes to watch the Olympics. Luckily, tomorrow I can sleep as late as I want, which will probably be 7 or 7:30. Crosswords and a little reading are my sleep aids.

    I think you are reading my mind because I was preparing a post about waking up at 2:30 am every night. I'll give that one some more thought.

    Popcorn or a frozen fruit/yogurt smoothies are nightly snacks at our house. I've hit a plateau with my weight loss and might have to give those up.

    Had a great ralk this morning.. more running than walking for a change. Quarters and dimes were everywhere! Beat the snowfall by 15 minutes and it's been coming down all day.

    One last thing. I totally LOVED the last post and photo! Mardi Gras looks a lot more exciting that Pioneer Days. Ugh. Although I am generally a solitary ralker it is fun to go out with my daughter and get pushed a little. She has four inches on me so it's a little unfair. But we always have a good time. Last Saturday we ran over four miles then went to her son's soccer game. Hmmm. No one wanted to sit by us. Wonder why?

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  2. Hey Mr. B, I'm excited cause I found a big 69 coins on my walks in January and now topped that with 88 in Feb. I'm amazed, but I got a lot of ideas by reading your exploits. I have walked 3 miles a day for years but hadn't combined it with money hunting until recently. I think like most folks that I did not believe anyone could find handfuls of lost coins consistently. Now I believe and it's an exciting quest. I recently linked to the Moneywalker in an article on treasure hunting at http://www.xomba.com/how_find_treasure_consistently_psst_its_all_around_you
    Thanks again, my only regret is that bottles are not redeemable in my state.

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  3. Twincapes, thanks for the plug and I appreciate that you have included money walking in your quest for "passive income." I really like your expression.

    Numi, sorry about the padlocks. As I recently reported, I am worried about my hot spot, the MidCity car wash, doing the very same thing. Remember though, people leave a lot of change on the asphalt around car washes, not just in the canisters.

    MoneyWalker

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  4. It's really okay about the padlocks. I don't know about your area but here they were often muddy and just plain gross. I rarely dipped into them but was still surprised to find them locked up. My best finds at carwashes aside from the asphalt around the vacuums seems to be in the vending machines.

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