Just when I thought I’d reduced my coffee intake enough to forestall an uncomfortable dizziness that had been dogging my morning coffee, I’m getting indications from my body that it is unable to process even the reduced caffeine I’m sucking down.
Recurring dizziness.
I am repelled by the idea of taking this issue to my medical team and spending the time and discomfort on tests that my experience has shown will reveal nothing helpful.
I have diagnosed myself and have prescribed: continue to diminish my caffeine intake.

Otherwise I seem to be okay.

I’ve adjusted my diet to where I’ve balanced my emotional need for the pleasure of eating with what my body can use without adding poundage.
This was not an easy fix, taking weeks and even months of experimentation to achieve.

My sleep had become problematic as, after a year, my body no longer responded to 3mg of melatonin.
I’ve had to go to 6mg to return to blessed nightly sleep: about five hours now, as it has been for the last year and a half.
For now, I’m getting great sleep and can’t worry about how long it will take before my body no longer will respond to 6mg.
I have noticed that my three fifteen-minute naps during the day have become deeper and more necessary.
I like it.
My work is happy and rich.
Drowsy never.

I’ve mentioned that I no longer experience the cramping in my legs and feet that intense exercising brought on.
Good sleep has enabled my body to absorb the exercises without punishing me with cramps.
The result: I’ve now fully reincorporated all the leg exercises that without ever examining me, the orthopedic doctor through a nurse practitioner had told me to drop.
Again, we sometimes wonder about the commitment of the medical profession to extend care to their patients versus to make another check against their chart of patients seen.
With good sleep, all of my muscles are functioning well and I am fresh enough to maintain a good intensity at the fitness club.
Which affects my overall health.

I note how interrelated these important areas of health are.
My pride demands that I work to look like the person I want to be.
To that end, I am constantly working on my diet.
And to that end, I work out and walk.
And to that end I work on my sleep.

The components of good health number at least two: one is that we learn to use the medical profession as advisers only, reading enough and talking to enough people to make our own decisions. And the second is that good health is not a casual event.
It’s work.
Work.
Nothing comes easy.

__________________________
Tagging Today
Friday, January 11, 2019
My 274th consecutive posting, working towards fulfilling a commitment to 5,000.

Time is 12.01am.

On Friday, Boston’s temperature will reach a high of  29* with, however, a wind that will take the effective temperature to 11*.
Cold, that.

Dinner is leftover Bouillabaisse. To make a bit more interesting I’m adding ceci beans and kernel corn.

________________________________
Question of the Day:
How do I construct my day to accommodate the needs of my health, my work, my social relations, and my pleasures?

______________________________
Love your notes.
Contact me @ domcapossela@hotmail.com

Jim Pasto sends along a quick response:

Hi Dom, 
That was an interesting post about New Year’s in Japan. Thank you for it. 
Happy New Year!   

Jim

Web Meister Responds: Thanks, my friend.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
And our friend, Richard Engleson, sends another note referencing the lunches he gets to eat for a $2.00 donation.
We’re talking appetizer, main course, and dessert.
Reading the menu makes me hungry.
Well, good luck to Richard.

____________________________
Question and answer of the day:
January 11
How do I construct my day to accommodate the needs of my health, my work, my social relations, and my pleasures?

I wake to rise at 4.00am.

Not something I plan.
I don’t remember a time when I could sleep later than 6.00am, even when I had my restaurant and didn’t get to bed until after midnight.
Many nights I tossed and turned without ever falling asleep.
Now I’m in bed between 10.30 and 11.00pm and, thanks to melatonin,
I get to sleep pretty effortlessly.

Upon rising, I have a checklist that takes 2 hours to execute.

The list includes:

a typical morning male toilet

a leisurely cup of coffee (my coffee intake in a state of flux; must reduce to only eight ounces, a single cup) and a half muffin/doughnut.I don’t stint the cold butter on the just-toasted muffin.
If I’ve chosen to eat a half-doughnut, I squeeze out and discard about a tablespoon and a half of the jelly.

a detailed organization of my day

occasionally, an entry into my blog 

dressing up 

preparing my backpack for my trip out, a reading book and my Surface laptop. Always.
Sometimes goods to return to Whole Foods, taking advantage of their policy of open returns.
Perhaps an extra layer of clothing as insurance.

kitchen work,

always kitchen cleanup, f only from breakfast and the mid-morning snack

make phone calls.

have a snack, about 9.00am.
An egg on toast.
A cup of soup.
A salad with a bit of protein: sardine; leftover meat.

Then off for a four or five-hour outing on foot.

Sometimes pause at the concierge desk in my building.
Or the mailbox.
And, on the way, the first stop at Santander bank.
Sometimes at Roche Brothers, to special order a goose or a box of quail.
Always at Planet Fitness where I alternate:
Either take a ten-minute hiatus on one of their massage beds or
Lift for forty minutes, tan for 4 minutes from Oct 1 to May 1, and use the massage bed for ten minutes.

From Fitness across the Boston Common, across the Public Garden, to the Thinking Cup café on Newbury Street, before noon time.
I order a cortado and sip it while I read only or read and do work on my laptop.

From the café for a walk to Whole Foods for shopping for tomorrow.
Sometimes straight home from there.
Or sometimes additional errands in the Boston Public Market or in the North End for haircuts, dentist, library, Bricco’s, Monica’s, Umberto’s, Polcari’s, dry cleaning.

Then home.
Sometimes for my main meal, about 3.00pm or to prepare for guests, about 6.00pm.
A nap.
Finish tomorrow’s posting.
Do more work on blog.

After 7.00pm I rarely have the energy to do blog work.
TV a strong option.
Celtics.
TV Series, Downton, Breakin Bad, Mad Men, Victoria, Longmire, Monarch of the Glen, My Brilliant Friend, Sopranos, Ken Burns’ Civil War.
Movies.

Execute checklist for getting to bed, including organization for tomorrow, preparing morning coffee and snack to minimize early morning noise.

All in all, a good mix.
Pretty healthy.

It works.

__________________________________
Good morning on this 11th day of January. Friday.

We looked at some health issues including caffeine, sleep, fitness, and cramps.
We took a look at weather and calendar and brief notes from Jim and Richard.
And then a detail of our day.

Che vuoi? Le pocketbook?

See you soon.

Love

Dom