Warts, Eczema, Food, Sleep and Screens
Warts (from my dermatologist)
Wearing water shoes around the pool can prevent warts.
Saturated salt water, half an hour a day, can cure a wart in 8 weeks.
Eczema
Wearing bike shorts in summer makes it hard for my skin to breathe, and that activates my eczema.
Eating
I enjoy eating my food very much, even when it is only healthy choices. Especially Japanese sweat potatos.
Because I only eat 2 meals a day, I feel like I am ok to eat more per meal. But my weight has been slowly creeping up over the years. So no, I don’t have to worry about malnutrition.
If I don’t eat any sweet food at all, there is no craving for it. But as soon as I start, it is addictive, and I always want more.
Shopping
I buy lentils from Amazon. Costco’s unbeatable fruit quality, unbeatable nuts price, oats and olive oils. I could also get lots of frozen fruits and vegetables there, but our freezer is too full already without any of my stuff, so I eat fresh for now. I can only get Japanese sweet potatos from Trader Joe’s. That’s where I also get whole broccolis. HSB has fresh corns, whole broccolies, good portions of fish and meat.
cooking
I bake Japanese sweat potatos in the oven with 275°F - 300°F for about 2.5 - 3 hours.
Sleep
I enjoy sleeping very much, and I look forward to bedtime every day.
When I lie there in bed, I assure myself that my two alarm clocks are set. Nothing to worry about. It is time to relax and let the mind wander. I find that constantly re-examining my mind — which is what I should do if I were meditating — does not help me fall asleep.
Dreaming, waking and walking
But my sleep quality has been getting worse over the years. Occasionally it takes me longer to fall asleep. I occasionally wake up in the middle of the night. Sometimes I am awake before morning. At those times, as soon as I realize my two clocks will go off on time, I can safely fall back asleep, no problem.
My dream state is also not as securely sealed off from my conscious mind as it was in my youth. Often I remember my dreams well, especially the ones close to dawn. Sometimes I “sleepwalk”, mostly just sitting up. Very rarely I get off the bed. A few times in my life I have even managed to walk to the door, or along the wall searching for the door, before I come out of the dream state and am awake enough to realize it is the middle of the night, and I need to get back to bed to continue my precious sleep.
Melatonin
3 mg of melatonin takes maybe 10 to 20 minutes to take effect. The best time to take it is right before sleep. By the time it works, I am either already asleep or close enough, and the melatonin syncs well.
If I take it 10 minutes before sleeping, I feel the kick too early, while I am not yet sleepy enough. I feel the effect, but I miss the kick and stay wide awake. That gives me too much mental pressure.
Digital content addiction
I need to do more hard things. Everyone knows how to watch TV and movies and play games, and there is hardly any information or knowledge in them. There are some good YouTube videos, but I spend too much time on them.
So I set my phone to limit YouTube to 30 minutes a day, and I must only watch YouTube from my phone.
This way I gain a little boredom back. I can fill it with reading books (I’m reading Children of Time), stretching and meditation.
How to fall in asleep fast?
Sit on the couch, read a German book.