Adventures in Hedonism

The results are in! Last month I decided to do a little weight loss experiment of my own.  I decided to take Advil PM every night for a month and find out if better sleep actually promoted weight loss.

I did all other things the same and I ended up losing right at 6 pounds!  Success!

What I learned:

I had in no way been getting enough sleep before.

The sleep I was getting was disturbed and broken.

I feel SO much better after a good night’s sleep.

I am more motivated to get up and going in the morning after sleeping well at night.

I’m going to continue to take the Advil PM.  I was already taking advil for my arthritis, so instead of taking it during the day, I’ll just take it at night with the PM formula.

I’ll keep you guys posted on the weight loss thing, but honestly that’s secondary to how good I feel after a full night’s sleep!

With all the rush and traveling of the holidays, it’s nice this morning to have a little quiet time to myself.  I got a text this morning saying that I have no appointments at work, so I’m on call.

The house is quiet, the only sound is the traffic going by outside.  I had forgotten how good it is for the soul to experience a little quiet time now and then.

As a lover of music, I always have some hot, rockin tune playing in the car.  Usually some obscure band that I like and no one else does…But lately I’ve been riding in the car with the music turned off.

Does that make me old?

I don’t know.  I truly appreciate music.  Maybe I’m just now beginning to appreciate the quiet a little more.

My friend was home for Christmas this week and we took a long bike ride yesterday.  All around the downtown area…looking at the old hang outs and even going inside one or two that were broken down.   It did wonders for my soul.  I simply needed to look and listen. That’s what new beginnings are all about.

I’ve been working really hard lately on creating a passive income stream.  A couple of weeks ago, I decided that I would write an eBook to publish on Lulu.

I am happy to say that I finished uploading the eBook last night!  Now, on to marketing!

As a thank you to my readers at the green ninja , I have decided to give away two of my eBooks to readers who participate in my contest.

But what is the eBook about, you ask? Well, a few of your know that my day job is massage therapy.  I decided to write an instructional eBook called How to Give a Relaxation Massage.    The book includes basic massage techniques as well as stress relief tips and even detailed instructions on how to give a one hour full body massage!

If you want to participate in the contest, you can head on over to The Green Ninja and read all about it!   I encourage all of my today. com readers to browse around that blog, because I have posted a lot of ways to make money online by freelance writing.

Every hedonist loves a good massage and I am certainly no different!  I’ve been making some extra money lately with my freelance writing and one of my main goals is to be able to have enough money to have a full body massage once a month.  (Plus paying off debt..but that is secondary.)

I am doing it this weekend and I can’t wait.  A nice big bonfire tomorrow night to celebrate the fall weather with all my heathen friends and then a spa-tastic massage on Sunday.

Beautiful!

I have been one sick hedonist!  After being sick all weekend, I decided that I would make myself a hot toddy after I got home from work today.  Yummm…..followed by….whhooooooo! Damn.

Here’s my own special recipe:

Kava Tea (made by yogi tea ) - makes you go to sleep

2 shots whiskey

1/2 shot lemon juice

1/2 shot honey

Brew the tea and then mix in the other ingredients.  Drink it down fast.

It works!  I promise!

By the way, the Kave tea, in itself, is an excellent stress reliever.

Yesterday I wrote that I was going to try the Natural Calm magnesium drink and see if it helped me sleep. 

I drank it around 8:00pm last night and was completely prepared to pass out.  It didn’t happen.

 I stayed up and watched the Daily Show and Colbert and once that was over I was still wide awake, but went to bed anyway.  It didn’t take me too terribly long to go to sleep.

I am happy to report, though, that I didn’t wake up even once last night and I woke up feeling pretty good.  It seems that while the drink did not actually make me sleepy, it did provide me with some good quality sleep, which is wonderful in my book! 

I have no problem using this product again!

  As a massage therapist in the day time and a freelance writer at night, you can imagine what kind of trouble I get into with my muscles.  Especially my shoulder and neck muscles.

Today my muscle and neck pain prompted me to take a trip to the local health food store.  I take anti-depressants and they are VERY important to me.  I have found that my sanity relies on them.  However, I am reluctant to take other prescription drugs…I figure, the fewer the better.  So, I went the natural route.  I asked the nice lady who works there if she had any sort of natural muscle relaxer and she pointed me towards this drink mix.

It’s called Natural Calm and a bought a few packets in the Raspberry-Lemon flavor.  She told me to mix the powder with water and drink it before bed.  It mainly contains magnesium and I’m going to give it a shot.

It can’t hurt.

I’ll follow up tomorrow, when hopefully I’ll be telling you about the best night’s sleep I’ve ever had.