Second night in a row I’ve awakened much too early. I think my insomnia is related to nutrition.

Mr. A succumbed to the siren call of store bought chocolate chip cookies on Thursday and I ate a pile of them for dessert. Six. Six is a pile. Eating junk food affects the blood sugar levels, throwing them out of whack. Night waking, I learned years ago, for me at least, is caused because I’m hungry. Only I don’t feel hungry, in fact the thought of eating anything at all does not appeal in the least. I learned when I was in my early thirties that for me, insomnia is caused by hunger. If I eat protein – a hunk of cheese, or a glass of milk – I can lay down again and get back to sleep. Otherwise, I just lay there for the next hour or two, tossing and turning. And finally, after a couple of hours, my stomach decides to let me know I’m hungry, starting to growl ferociously and actually hurting from the cramps of hunger. I finally put two and two together, and decided to force myself to just eat/drink something nutritious and that got rid of my insomnia.

When I talked to a friend of mine who has diabetes, she told me night waking can actually be caused by low blood sugar. If your dinner meal isn’t nutritious, instead throws your blood sugar off, it can cause insomnia.

Last night’s dinner was also low in nutrition. We had what Mr. A jokingly refers to as my “Friday Night Special” which is chili dogs with kraut. We do buy good quality dogs, Hebrew National, but they are still processed food, and I had white hot dog buns.

We’ve been trying to switch our meals in the last couple of months. When we were poor, and indeed while I was growing up poor, a pile of carbs on the plate helped to fill empty bellies at dinner. Trouble for me is they are so addictive, and the fact of the matter, if they are simple carbohydrates they simply lack important nutrients. Some nutrition experts claim our bodies will drive us to eat more in an attempt to get enough nutrients. I just know when a pot of homemade macaroni and cheese is included with dinner I stand there like a goat at a grain bin, shoveling it in like there’s no tomorrow.

I’ve been trying to get Mr. A and our youngest son (they do the majority of the cooking lately) to cook meat and a vegetable and/or salad, instead of meat and carbs. Which is what we did for YEARS and YEARS, trying to stretch the food.

Two to three months ago I really started pushing them to stop with the carbohydrates, and finally it’s kicked in. We make a large amount of vegetables (for example, two pounds of green beans for five servings – four servings at dinner and an extra one for my lunch at work the next day), and we’re trying to cut down the amount of meat, and we’re eliminating the carb component to the meal. I find that not only do I feel better physically when I eat this way, I also don’t find myself overeating mindlessly. When I eat carbs, I just seem to go into a coma and shovel, shovel, shovel. With the hefty serving of vegetables, with plenty of healthy fats (butter is actually considered a good fat!) and a 3-4 ounce serving of meat, I am satisfied but not stuffed. And I naturally stop eating when I’m satisfied, whereas the carbs seem to cause me to keep eating and eating them.

My pants seem looser, but that could just be my imagination. I don’t like stepping on the scale. It’s just as easy to see how my clothes fit.

We’re attempting to stop buying pasta and most carbohydrates altogether; it would be nice to see the grocery bill go down. However, we are buying a lot more vegetables than we used to. I am hoping and praying that I’ll be able to get my garden going this fall. September begins the winter crops which include yummies like Swiss Chard, spinach, leaf lettuce, radishes, onions, carrots, and many more. If you are in a cold climate, you should pop over to Frugal Babe’s and check out what she and her hubby are doing – gardening in their basement with hydroponics!

Oh. The something new I’m trying – a signature. It’s not my actual handwriting, it was produced by MyLiveSignature and I learned about it at a blog I read occasionally.

Yours Truly,

P.S. In case anyone is wondering or even remembers about my mention of PayPerPost or whatever that company is called, I decided to not participate.

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