Vivid dreams remain intact. Sleep........ Not so much!

I have been having trouble staying asleep again. Not a good thing in general, before a big race, REALLY not a good thing. Maybe it is the excitment (or did I mean terror?) of it all? Maybe not.

The last time I went to my doctor, (For non-regular readers, that was some time ago) it was because I was not sleeping. No! I don't have sleep apnea according to the sleep specialist. No! I don't nap during the day. (Are you kidding me?) Yes! I have established a regular bedtime routine. (Heck, it is my favorite time of the day. I want to enjoy the entire process.) Yes! I go to sleep at pretty much the same time every night, and wake up at five am whether I need to get up or not. No alarm clock needed. Yes! I have tried earplugs/dark room/sleeping mask/white noise/moving to a room far away from the other sleepers. (And husband who does have sleep apnea and the noise from his machine rivals the noise he used to make snoring. As least with the snoring I could reach out and slug him and he would change position and there would be quiet for a minute or two.) I have tried presciption sleepers/over the counter sleepers/herbal sleepers. (All with and without a glass of wine.)

In case you also suffer from sleep issues, let me tell you what finally worked,. For me anyway.

One day, I stopped into the health food store across town from where I live and they were having a live/raw foods tasting party. (No! There were no pigs, chickens, or cows in attendance.) I did think that the food was pretty tasty, and the concept of eating the way cave men used to before someone stumbled into the (concept of) fire "inflamed" my interest. I did some reading, bought a dehydrator, (the timing worked out that I had some gift money just waiting to be spent. Note: There are lots of things one can eat straight from the store, but a blender or food processor is a must by the way.) and ate only raw foods for two months. After the first couple of weeks, I discovered that I had more energy, a better attitude, (Boy! did my family appreciate this fact!) and I WAS SLEEPING THE ENTIRE NIGHT THROUGH! Another thing that totally disappeared was my restless/jumpy leg thing. I had had that problem for years.

My take on this entire experience, was that I am extreamly sensitive to sugar and highly processed foods. I have discovered that when I have the jumpy legs now, I can ALWAYS trace it back to having had sugar earlier in the day. I know, I know....... why do I continue to eat something that I know is a problem? Either (and I like this one the best) I am a classic addict with sugar being my weapon of choice, or mouth is totally running the ship no matter what brain wants to think.

If raw foods is such a wonder diet......why am I still not eating that way. For me, it turned out to be too time comsuming in addition to planning, cooking, and serving three regular meals a day. More importantly, I was wasting too much food to justify it. Most of the recipes made servings for more than one. I truly enjoy leftovers, but more than three or four days in a row is too much even for me. (And remember the whole make-up of raw foods makes it much more perishable than cooked and/or proccessed foods.) When I didn't feel like "cooking" a meal after just finishing cooking a meal, it was easier to grab an apple and some carrot sticks, and I found myself throwing out many unidentifiable mushy green things at the end of each week. Not a good use of my money in my opinion. So...... I find that for the most part I eat about seventy-five percent raw foods. For the past couple of years that has been enough to keep the symptoms away. (My family may not agree so much that the attitude thing is under control ALL of the time, but hey!) It is a lot more convenient to cook gains, or open a can of beans instead of soaking and sprouting for days before hand. To be truly successful, you have to be an organized pre-planner, with dedicated time to meal prep every day. If you can't devote the needed time and energy, I suggest you try fruit and salad for a couple of weeks and see how your body feels. Then you can decide if the commitment is worth is to you. Note: For those of you that eat out a lot, never fear. I ate out several times during my full raw diet days. This is when I discovered that cooks like to create special dishes. Chiness buffets are the easiest. They have all those veggies un-cooked in the back, and will just bring you a heaping plate of them right to your table. Since most people don't know the value of veggies, you will be surprised how much cheaper it will be eating out raw. Most places will bring you whatever they have that is raw, and then just charge you for a dinner salad. Maybe I should have put this on my ways to save money list?

Fact is, except for the hot chocolate the other night, I have not had sugar from any source except raw honey or fresh fruit since Lent began. Last night about seven o'clock I had a protein shake with fresh orange juice. I went to sleep fine, and woke up wide awake four hours later. As I lay thinking about why I was awake, I wandered by the juice, and decided maybe, so we will try no fuit after six and see if that helps.

One thing about not sleeping, waking up from a dream you have lots of time to go over it in your head, so you remember more details of it. Last night I had two dreams about our up-comming race. In the first dream, the race took place IN my home, (?) and I was having a hard time getting my shoes on. (Remember high quality footwear is extreamly important when running.) It always seemed there was something else that needed my attention more than taking the two minutes it takes to get the shoes on my feet. We all did a two mile warm up, (still in my house, me in bare feet apparently) and I was still trying to find the time to put my shoes on. I finally was sitting down, shoes and socks in front of me, when I heard someone saying "Help! I can't breath." As I was trying to decide if I should be selfish and put my shoes on, or go help her out, I woke up. In the second dream when we stopped for a water break, I got seperated from my daughter and kept waiting for her to show back up. I didn't want to leave without her, but I also didn't want to be waiting if she had gone on ahead. WHAT TO DO? As it turns out, I waited and she went ahead, finished, and came back and found me. (Dream time remember...... She is fast, but not that fast!) We were both sad that we had not finished together, so we ask for a "Do Over" and they gave us one. That time we not only finished together, WE WON! (Don't ya just love dreams?) BTW daughter, I know the plan is to run the race together, but if we do get seperated, keep going and we will meet up at the finish line. Okay? (I find that when I plan for things, it helps them to NOT come true. That is why I ALWAYS take an umbrella on vacation.)

In conclusion...... If there are any readers out there that also dabble in dream interpretation...... Feel free to have at it....... I would LOVE to hear any and all opinions. (About my dreams, and/or anything else for that matter.)