All About Chocolate Cravings

Goodness, I'm such a chatty Cathy lately! Just posted last night and here I am again!

Well, I have a lot to say. I realized I need to update you on week 2 of the 21 Day Sugar Detox. Happily, it went much better than week one. That was *such* a crappy week. But week 2 has gone much better. I'm not even missing sugar.

Of course, then Halloween comes along. I'm looking at the kids' stash last night and really, most of it isn't even looking that good to me. Except the Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. Normally, I Mommy-tax the living daylights out of those. Darling Son #1 tasted his very first PB cup last night because typically, I eat them before he's even had a chance to try them. (I know. That's bad.)

Even so.... I, ah, might have fallen off the wagon and had one... or... maybe two.

Honestly, they weren't even that good. I don't know why I had the second one in light of this fact, but there you go. The funny thing about stuff like this is the memory of it is better than the actual item. When I was pregnant with Darling Son #2, sweets made me sick the whole 37 weeks 5 days. I'd look at sweets and think, I bet that's tasty. Then I'd eat it and realize it still wasn't. Funny how the mind works.

This brings me to Almond Butter Cups!

This is one of the not-sweet treats in the 21 Day Sugar Detox. You can find the recipe here.

The first time I bit in to one of these bad boys (good boys?) my taste buds freaked a little bit. I *thought* it was going to be sweet, but it wasn't. It was still strangely satisfying, though. I've made this recipe a few times over the past however-many-days (15? maybe?) The fats are mostly good saturated fats from coconut oil and butter from grass-fed cows. The amount of almond butter is fairly small, so  you're not getting a crazy-lot of polyunsaturated fats, which we talked about in week 1.

And yes, I called saturated fat 'good.' I'll write more about saturated fat another time, but for now I really want to talk about the cacao powder.

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We've talked about chocolate before, and all the health benefits contained in good quality, dark chocolate. One I didn't mention is magnesium.

Magnesium is a mineral, and it's very important. Some 300 functions in the body are dependent on magnesium, and it turns out, many of us aren't getting enough of it. Poor mineral content in soil is part of the problem, but the main one is absorption--I read that we absorb only about 40-50% of the magnesium we consume.

According to Dr. Elson Haas, author of the book Staying Healthy with Nutrition, "To function optimally, magnesium must be balanced in the body with calcium, phosphorus, potassium, and sodium chloride." Vitamin D levels also affect magnesium, and since many people supplement with vitamin D and calcium, in particular, this can throw off the balance of these other minerals. This is a big part of the reason I try to get my nutrients from food, rather than isolated supplements.

There are other reasons we don't absorb magnesium--drinking soft water, alcohol, caffeine and general sugar consumption can affect how well we assimilate magnesium. Phosphoric acid found in diet sodas also hinders magnesium absorption. (Diet Coke is a 'sometimes' food!)

The recommended daily allowance for magnesium is between 300-400 milligrams, but many people who know more than I do suggest it should be much higher--closer to 700 milligrams per day. Happily, if you consume more than your body needs, it seems you just pee it out, so there's little worry about overdoing it.

I really became interested in magnesium a couple of weeks ago. I was wicked sore after my barre3 class, so I took an Epsom Salt bath. Epsom Salts are magnesium sulfate, and taking baths is one way to up magnesium intake through your skin. I noticed I slept really well that night, so I tried it again the following night and wow! Another great night. I don't know that a couple of Epsom Salt baths really did that much for my mag. levels, but it turns out insomnia can be related to magnesium deficiency. So I was taking hot Epsom Salt baths every night until my skin kind of revolted, so I'm looking into other things.

Anyhoo, what does this have to do with almond butter cups? Cocoa is rich in magnesium, which is why chocolate cravings might be an indication of magnesium deficiency. Of course, oatmeal is also rich in magnesium and I think I can safely say I've never craved oatmeal. The first time someone told me about the chocolate/magnesium craving thing, I figured she was just trying to make me feel better. "You're not a glutton! You're just need magnesium!" (Maybe it's a bit of both?)

Other good sources of magnesium include Brazil nuts (along with several other nuts and seeds), avocado and bananas. So I made a magnesium smoothie! Here's the recipe:

1 cup almond milk
1 tablespoon flaxseed meal
1/4 avocado
1 small banana, preferably frozen
1 tablespoon raw cacao powder*

*I've found raw cacao powder for the best price at TJMaxx, of all places. Locals: please don't go clean out the shelves on me, k?

Toss all ingredients in a blender and mix. You may want to thin it a bit or add ice cubes. Mine came out quite thick:

It was almost like ice cream! ('Almost' being the operative word.)

I have a few other tricks up my sleeve, so expect to hear more about magnesium. In the meantime, if you find yourself tempted to dip into the cheap Hershey-type chocolate in your kids' Halloween baskets, try the smoothie or some almond butter cups. Maybe you're deficient in magnesium! I can promise, the cheap chocolate isn't going to help you on that one.

Eating to Combat Insomnia

As a person who struggles with insomnia, I generally avoid articles about insomnia. The main reason is that they all typically start with several brutal paragraphs detailing the importance of sleep and all the terrible things that will happen to you if you don't get enough sleep.

Every insomniac knows (better than anyone) how important sleep is, and all those terrible things? We live with them everyday. So yes, sleep is very important, and yes, the lack of it will wreck havoc on your life and cause you to sprout horns and a tail. We know this (and dress to conceal horns and tails.) Reading about it only compounds the anxiety we have about sleep. And usually the recommendations fall into the 'don't drink caffeine after 2pm' category. Duh.

Still, I struggle, and so I periodically brave the insomnia articles in the spirit of surely-there-must-be-something-that-can-help-me?? Hope springs eternal.

My recent focus has been diet. As I mentioned a couple of months ago, I gave up sugar hoping that it might help my sleep. I figured sugar is a stimulant, and less stimulant might translate into more sleep? Initially, my findings were very encouraging. For about two or three weeks after I gave up sugar, I was sleeping quite remarkably well. I tend to fall asleep fine, then wake up 4-5 hours later and am unable to fall back to sleep, but during those few weeks, I was falling right back to sleep! Wow!

Then the other shoe dropped--for some reason, my sleep got worse--way worse. In fact, the past month has been pretty abysmal. So I've been doing some exhaustive internet research. Here are a few things I found:

Eat more protein in the morning, and healthy carbs at night. This runs pretty contrary to what many people do--a bagel, cereal or oatmeal for breakfast and a big piece of meat for dinner. But digesting protein takes a lot of energy and can act as a stimulant, so it makes sense to have a protein-rich meal earlier in the day. There is evidence to suggest that carbohydrate intake can actually reduce the stress hormone cortisol, which is helpful for sleeping. Certainly you want to eat a healthy carb like a sweet (or even a white) potato vs. spongy white bread or sugar. But don't be afraid of high GI foods. Actually, carbs high on the glycemic index were found to shorten the length of time it took people to fall asleep.

I could see how not enough carbohydrate could have contributed to my recent sleep woes. Since I've reduced sugar, I've inadvertently reduced my carb intake, simply because a lot of carbs also contain sugar. In fact, if you're on a very low-carb diet and sleep is a struggle, it might be a good idea to increase carb intake throughout the day, not just at dinner. Yes, you can technically survive without carbohydrates, but if you're not sleeping, why would you want to?

Don't eat right before bedtime. I read that several studies have shown eating in general suppresses the production of melatonin, which is the body's primary sleep hormone. So avoid eating anything for at least two hours before bedtime.

If you're taking vitamin D supplements, do so in the morning rather than evening. In the past I've been vitamin D deficient, so particularly in the winter months, I take vitamin D. I didn't find any hard evidence suggesting that taking it in the evening is problematic, but it makes sense that it might be. Since vitamin D production is stimulated by sun exposure, it doesn't seem far-fetched that it could be sleep-disruptive, right? I'll talk more about vitamin D another time, but for now I'm switching my D to the morning.

Consume bone broth or gelatin powder in the evening to increase glycine, an amino acid found in animal skins or meat from the bone.

I wonder how Fred and Wilma slept??

This is new one for me, but apparently many people are glycine deficient... I'm not sure what I think of this because from what I read elsewhere, glycine is considered a 'non-essential amino acid,' so why is it problematic to be glycine-deficient if it's 'non-essential'? I need to do some more research on this. Am I just not getting it because I'm sleep deprived??

Anyway, I thought I'd just share what I read, in case another insomniac is out there debating whether or not to eat the chicken skin tonight. Go ahead and eat the skin... and let me know how you slept. 

Of course, I also read about eating turkey and drinking tart cherry juice and warm milk. Those all fit in the 'been there/done that/did nothing for me' category, but the above were a few new ones I thought I'd pass along. If you try them and they work, let me know. 

Now I'm going to turn off the blue light of my computer and say night-night. Hopefully this long day will end and tomorrow will not start at 3am. If it does, I'll be doing some gelatin powder shots. Stay tuned...

I am Gumby... Hear Me Pranayama

Before we go any further in our relationship, there is something you should know about me: I hate yoga. Really, I hate it. I've tried it many times. I have taken classes and tried different videos. I've given yoga a fair shot, and I hate it. The only thing I like about it is that nice Gumby feeling I get from it. I really do feel like Gumby, and it's nice.

 I bet Gumby does a lot of yoga. Here he is in warrior 2.

I know yoga is very popular and has many physical benefits, but there are myriad reasons to dislike it. It's boring, and I don't click with some of the woo-woo-ness of it. I don't need to 'salute my inner goddess' because I don't have one. I'm not a goddess and there is no such being within. Sometimes I like to think I'm God, but I'm not, and neither, by the way, are you.

Also, I find the whole yogi-world too pretentious for words. I find it odd that yoga workouts are called 'practices.' Really?? I just can't bring myself to talk about my workout as a 'practice.' When I hear someone talk about her 'practice,' I assume she's a dentist. I don't think she's a fellow stay-at-home mom doing a yoga video in her living room.

I know a lot of people love yoga, and I don't mean to diss it. Some people I really love also love yoga, like my Darling Cousin, who has threatened, I mean, offered, to take me to her fave yoga studio next time I'm in New York. And I will go. With joy in my heart. Because I love DC, and it's the least I can do since I dragged her to Physique 57.

But there is something else I need to tell you: I struggle with insomnia. I have for years, and it's a horrible affliction. If you are good sleeper, please take a moment to thank the merciful Lord that you can sleep, because really, if there were one thing I wish I could do well, it's sleep. My Darling Husband is a champion sleeper. He could sleep on a bed of nails. He falls asleep all over the place. I had to tell our minister not to be offended if he looked out into the congregation and found DH asleep. He needed to know it wasn't him. It's just DH. He's amazing. I try to elbow him when he nods off in church, but sometimes I miss it.... usually because the sermon is so riveting. That's what I told the minister.

Anyway, recently I've been reading testimonials about power yoga and how it can really help with sleep, specifically a program called Ultimate Yogi. I read about all these people who are sleeping like rocks since they've been doing UY (and no, I did not read these testimonials on UY's website.)

Well, I'll do just about anything for sleep. I mean, I'm not Faust, but short of selling my soul to the devil, I'll try almost anything. So when I read recently that UY's price came down on Amazon, I took the plunge.

I know, seriously, when I am going to find time to do yoga on top of everything else? Because I'm certainly not giving up barre and all my other fun workouts that I actually enjoy. But I have to try it. This shows you how desperate I am. I doing YOGA. I'm rolling my eyes as I type this.

I already had misgivings about UY, mainly because the workouts (or should I say, 'practices'?) are LONG. I mean, some of them are over an hour. I'm rolling my eyes again. I know, I have a bad attitude and it's going to poison my non-existent inner goddess, but really, I'm already squeezing this in between barre, heavy lifting, laundry, housekeeping, cooking and taking care of my family, so an hour is tough.

Also, the instructor is a guy called Travis Elliot and Travis doesn't just say, 'downward dog,' he says, 'downward dooooooooooooooooog.' Seriously. He says that.

But whatever, the set arrived yesterday and I tried the Flexibility disc last night after I put the kids to bed. My night before had been pretty awful, so I was planning to take Nyquil to knock myself out, but after I finished Flexibility I decided against the Nyquil to see if UY would work it's sleepytime magic.

I fell asleep right away (as is my custom) and woke up at 2. This is when I usually get tripped up--I wake up four hours after I've gone to sleep and can't go back to sleep unless I take something. But last night I DID! I fell back to sleep quite quickly. I woke up again at 4.45 and I was so excited when I realized I had fallen right back to sleep at 2, that I couldn't sleep anymore at 4.45. But that's ok. Honestly, for me, 10-4.45 with a brief waking at 2 is a stellar night.

Today I did the UY Cross Train 'practice' (lalala, I'm such a yogi now) and I was kind of grooving with it until Travis told me I could manifest my own destiny through positive thinking or some other such BS and I said (alone, out loud in my living room), "please, Travis, what a crock of BS."

So clearly I have a little work to do on my attitude, but I see it as a positive thing that I can recognize when Travis spouts BS and I can call him on it. It proves I'm not Faust and I'm just honoring my feelings, and Travis tells me that's very important and key to my 'practice.'