Inside Marcy's Mind
Having hosted the Aging aint for Sissie's podcast for two years, I wanted to expand what I could discuss. This podcast will touch on the fun of aging and whatever has crossed my mind! Please join me as I walk through life! #retirement #travel #fun #aginggracefully Link in my bio! Listen now!
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Inside Marcy's Mind
Celebrations and Sleep Struggles and what you can do!
Ever missed a week and felt like you had a million stories to share? That's precisely where I found myself this week, eager to unpack a whirlwind of experiences and reflections. From an early Thanksgiving celebration with family before jetting off to Europe, to the emotional rollercoaster surrounding recent election outcomes, there's so much buzzing Inside Marci's Mind. I'll also take you along on my Disneyland escapade for a 60th birthday celebration, where magic met exhaustion, and share the simple joys like soaking up a Chicago sunrise and the hilarity of Patrick's obsession with mouse videos. Join me as I recount these moments of joy, concern, and community interaction that have filled my days.
But as the night falls, so do my sleep struggles. Enter the maze of "shift sleeping" where restful nights seem elusive, and discover the culprits hiding in your kitchen that might be disrupting your slumber. Caffeine, sugar, and even cheese could be the sneaky bandits in your nightly routine. I'll share insights on mindful alternatives like chamomile tea and the powerful role nutrients and vitamins play in promoting better sleep. Plus, I'll sprinkle a little Thanksgiving fun with a peek into the origins of football traditions and an update on my fantasy football team, the Honey Badgers, who are tackling their way to the top. Tune in for tips, tales, and a touch of humor as we navigate these diverse topics together.
Hello and welcome to Inside Marci's Mind. My name is Marci Backus and I am your host. And I am a failure. I did not put up an episode last week and I apologize. A series of events Craig's computer crashed, he needs to use my laptop and I went out of town last week so I had no laptop to take with me and I just didn't put up another episode. So I apologize. I missed you, hope you missed me.
Speaker 1:A lot's gone on, good and bad, since we last talked. So why don't we get comfy, cozy, grab a cup of coffee or a Diet Coke? If you're driving, focus on the road and we're going to get started and talk about what's going on? Wow, wow, so good things, good things. Oldest child very much back into our lives. This child very much back into our lives. Both my kids and Sharon are all coming November 22nd to celebrate an early Thanksgiving, since we are flying out the day after Thanksgiving for Europe. So that is some really exciting stuff for me. What's happened since the last time we talked? Let's see, there was a full moon, a Halloween, an election and a time change. Not much, just a little Throw off our circadian rhythms and all those kinds of things.
Speaker 1:The reason I started this podcast Inside Mar's mind, because it's my mind and I'm sad about the election. I am sad that a I am sad for our country is from the beginning and apparently a large portion of our country thinks that's a good thing. That's what bothers me. It also bothers me that a felon can run for president but yet if you have a felony on your record, you can't rent a house, get a job or you at least have to check a box on an application. Didn't he have to check a box? I find it sad that a message of I want to help you buy your first home, I want to help you start a business was not received well by this country. But people are eating cats and dogs and they are giving your children sex change operations at school resonated. It's sad, but he never hid who he was. It's not like like we haven't heard this dog and pony show before and we're going to do it again. And I have no words. I will try to stay positive because that's my nature. No words, I will try to stay positive because that's my nature. I feel that we need to stay positive. So we're ready to go and we need to prepare during these four years for the next election. We can't let this derail our message, derail what we feel is right. We have a broken health care system. Oh, yes, and we know he has a health care plan coming. Yeah, whatever, you know, worst, best case scenario, all these things. He says gas will be a dollar twenty five, we'll have a great health care system that will be practically free and all the other bull crap that he spun comes true. Yeah, ok, great, I won't be paying $1,300 a month for healthcare, but that's enough about that. That's my feelings. I'm not happy, I'm worried, but again, like I said, I'm more worried for a country that that message resonated more than our message of hope. We're broken, we are a sick country and we need some help in that regard.
Speaker 1:Time change yeah, it's nice having midnight at 5 pm, isn't it? I'm going to have a sip of coffee. I'm up early doing this as usual, early, it just feels earlier. It's a beautiful sunrise here in the city of Chicago. I posted it on my Instagram and, if you want to see it, it's gorgeous. I love the mornings here. I also have a neighbor across the way that has their rainbow light changing Christmas tree up. That's kind of great. So if you go to at M Backus, that's my Instagram. Join my Instagram. I Instagram a lot just about my daily life and things that are going on. Happy to have you there at M Backus. Happy to have you there at M Backus.
Speaker 1:If you want to share this episode or any other episode with your friends, just send them to my website, wwwinsidemarciesmindcom. Pretty simple. You can find all episodes there, but you won't find an episode for last week because I failed to do that. What else has been going on? Ah, where'd I go?
Speaker 1:I went to California. My friend, mary Hi, mary Is was was turning 60. Mary is now 60. And Mary wanted to go to Disneyland. So five of us gals all went to Disneyland for the day. For all of us it's something that we love to do. For several of us we do it a lot, and it was a beautiful California day, not too crowded.
Speaker 1:It was the beginning of their Christmas season, so the tree wasn't up, the big things weren't done, but the castle was decorated. And so the tree wasn't up, the big things weren't done, but the castle was decorated. There were decorations around, holiday treats out and about had a great time, and my best friend Lynn and I decided to spend the night and do it again on Friday. Let me tell you, two days in a row when you're 43 at Disneyland, or a heck of a lot different than when you're 63. So, yeah, yeah, but it was fun, did probably? I think 20, I counted 20 total rides and adventures. We yes, we do go on rides, we love rides, we eat and we go on rides and we walk a lot. It was like 30,000 steps for a couple of days which, like I said, I'm still recovering from my lower back's recovering, I think, from a couple of the rides. Makes me laugh, but you know what, you're not going to stop me.
Speaker 1:Oh, so, patrick, as a matter of fact, as you know, I turn on youtube for patrick. There's a lot of cat videos. Well, patrick has now fallen in love with the mice videos videos of mice's coming in and out of their holes, running around getting food. There he is attacking the poor little mouse going into its hole and he now sits on the coffee table in the morning and demands these videos. So they aren't in the background. If you hear a little smacking, that's Patrick smacking the screen, but he loves them. If you have cats, check it out. There's a lot of bird videos, squirrel videos. They go on. I will turn him on all day in the bedroom because he can't get on the dresser and smack the TV. In the main room he can get up and smack the TV and it's not attached to the wall, so I do have concerns that he could knock it over. But if he does, black Friday is coming up right. Anybody doing any Black Friday shopping, walmart's having their Black Friday shopping. Now I just saw on what did my Amazon, of course I looked on Amazon already this morning for something, because that's who I am. Black Friday week now, so we've gone from a day to a week. Amazon's Black Friday week starts November 21st.
Speaker 1:How are you feeling about this? I don't know. I think because the election was such a bummer that Christmas time coming is exciting. Right now in the city of Chicago we have the million lights down Michigan Avenue and, as you all know, I live right off Michigan Avenue, so those will be lighting up on next Saturday, the 23rd. It's a big parade. Mickey and Minnie come down and Mickey waves his arms in the air at every block and they turn on that block. It's quite fun, quite exciting and it's a lot of light. And I'll tell you, with the depths of winter darkness coming, they leave them on till the end of January. And it's quite delightful here in the city. I really like it. I notice where I walk on the way to the gym, my usual fountain gets covered up with a beautiful green round cover because that means a tree is coming, and I love that. What else? It's been very warm here in the city of Chicago. Yes, it has. We're in the forties and 50s, which we should be in the 40s and 30s, so we'll take that. It's going to start raining and possibly by the end of next week, a little snow. Of course my kids are coming in, so now the weather will get cold, but they knew that when they were coming.
Speaker 1:I'm excited to have my family together. For those of you that know, it's been a while since we've been together, and at least we've been together a couple times, but one hasn't been so happy. So having everybody happy and together is going to be just a mom's dream. You know, for a mom, nothing makes you happier than your children together and everybody being in a good place. So what are we going to talk about today? Today we're going to talk about sleeping. You know you always think about my sleeping really sucks right now, so we're going to talk about that. But we always think about what we drink before we go to bed. Do you really think about what you eat? Because today we're going to talk about some things we eat and there's on the list. There's something that we drink that could be disrupting our sleep. I don't think any of those things are my problem. I think my problem is just aging and I don't know. I don't know, I've changed some habits, so we'll talk about that. Anything else exciting I'm going for my mammogram today.
Speaker 1:I hope you've gone for your mammogram. If you haven't gone for your mammogram, let this be a reminder to make that appointment. Ladies, these are important things. Things change in that year. There could be something very small that they missed last year that they're going to catch this year, so don't think you should go without it.
Speaker 1:I don't care what the government says, I don't care what anybody says. An annual mammogram is a must for women and it's important for young girls to understand that their breast health is their health, for young girls to understand that their breast health is their health. So if you have a teenager, you have a young adult in your life. Make sure they're taking care of themselves too. It starts at the top, moms, and we need to make sure our daughters know that their bodies are important, that no government can tell them what to do. If they want a test, if they want something done, it's their right, and they need to make sure that they are taking care of their breast, health and their body as they grow up, mature and become older. Habits started young are habits that are kept through life. So start those habits early. Everyone All right. Well, I think that's all I got for you. Oh, I hope you had a good Halloween. We did have that too. It seems like a long time ago.
Speaker 1:Halloween here in the city is a little different. Because of a high rise there are no trick-or-treaters. But Craig carved a pumpkin, made a cat. It was pretty cute trick-or-treaters. But Craig carved a pumpkin, made a cat was pretty cute. So he did his pumpkin and we lit that up in the condo. So that was kind of fun. I do kind of miss the neighborhood, the neighborhood aspect. Even in our neighborhood in Coto, because of the gate on our front and all that, we didn't have many trick-or-treaters but we did at the house. When we sold our house, we were living in a rental before we moved here and that was a more trick-or-treating neighborhood. That was fun. Anyways, it's Halloween.
Speaker 1:I think I've caught us up on everything that's going on with me and my life. I hope all is well with you. In these last couple of weeks. I hope you're finding a way. If the election didn't go your way. If it did go your way, yay for you. I'm surprised you're listening to me, but yay, and I guess all we can hope is all those cockamamie promises Trump made. If he makes them all come true, then maybe the world won't be so bad. I doubt it, but you know, trying to look at the positive. Anyways, hang in there. Up up up, fresh, up, fresh your drinks of coffee and tea and whatever you have. I'm going to have a swallow my coffee, and then we're going to move on to sleeping issues and what we eat and why it might cause a problem. All right, the eight worst sleep depriving foods you should never eat at night.
Speaker 1:So getting a restful night's sleep is no small feat in this day and age of high stress, busy schedules and plenty of scream time. In fact, an entire market of supplements and products aimed at helping us in sleeping better has developed as a result, and I was a part of that madness of sleep aids and I stopped that a while ago. But a food first approach can be just as beneficial as encouraging a good and encouraging a good night's sleep in many circumstances, and while those invest in getting an eight hour sleep of shut eye, should I? Sorry, I lost my track. It's just important to sleep people and I've been sleeping in a I call it a shift. I'm sleeping in shifts, so I fall asleep between nine and ten, wake up between one and three and then I'm up till four or five. Then I go back to sleep between nine and 10, wake up between one and three and then I'm up till four or five. Then I go back to sleep between four and five and I get up between seven and eight. So I'm calling it shift sleeping and I'm not enjoying it. It is. That is something rather new for me.
Speaker 1:The problem is is if I wake up and I can't go back to sleep and I try and I do my breathing and I do all the things that I've talked about in other podcasts and I still can't go to sleep, the TV has to come on because, believe it or not, that's how my parents put me to sleep. It's the only thing that would slow me down long enough to get me to focus, to relax enough to go to sleep. So TV is still my thing. The problem is if you get invested in it, so sometimes I try to turn it on, roll over, blah, blah, blah. So I've looked at a lot of things. I have cut out caffeine in the afternoons Doesn't make a difference. Evenings I stopped taking my afternoon nap most of the time because I was taking a nap, but that's because I'm tired, because I sleep in shifts. But I've tried. That's not changed anything. So you know it's a battle.
Speaker 1:But I thought well, the eight worst foods and there are some drinks in here and some things, some things that might surprise you. Well, I had a little visit from Craig coming home from his run, so I stopped for a minute and here we go again. So let's talk about the first thing, and this is caffeinated tea. While this may seem like a no-brainer, you may not realize that the caffeine in our after dinner drink can be what's keeping us awake at night. Although tea can be anywhere from 50 to 70% lower in caffeine than coffee. There still is caffeine and for those that are sensitive, it is still a stimulant.
Speaker 1:Caffeine is a well-known sleep disruptor because it blocks adenosine Doesn't mean anything to me Receptors in the brain. Apparently, we don't want to block those preventing the onset of sleepiness, to block those preventing the onset of sleepiness. So instead, it says to reach for decaf tea or, better yet, a tea aimed at supporting healthy sleep, like chamomile. I think chamomile is safe because you know it's not going to keep you up. It actually helps you sleep, although this may be another one you think of.
Speaker 1:You may not, you may grab for a little bit of this, and even if a little bit of this and it, even if a little dose of chocolate, um, it can disrupt it, it can be the culprit for what you're having trouble falling asleep, you know, um. So think about that little piece of chocolate. You might have that Hershey's kiss, something. This is due to the fact that the sweet treat is rich in both caffeine and sugar. So sugar is another thing that you need to really think about because it negatively affects sleep. Now, sugar is more likely my problem than anything else because I do love sugar as it can cause fluctuations in blood sugar levels, leading to increased arousal and difficulty staying asleep. See, that's my problem I don't stay asleep. So I'm guessing that my problem is probably sugar. Well, this could be it too.
Speaker 1:Carbonated beverages this was a surprise for me. With the information we've learned so far, it's a no-brainer that carbonated drinks like caffeinated sugary sodas are not smart grabs. We know sugar caffeine we already went through that when prioritizing your good night's sleep. But even no sugar added decaffeinated. This is me. I drink decaffeinated Diet Coke at night, but even a no sugar added decaffeinated carbon Coke at night. But even a no sugar added decaffeinated carbonated drinks are best to avoid before bedtime. This is because the air bubbles responsible for the fizziness like sparkling water can lead to gas, bloating and general stomach discomfort, all of which can keep you tossing and turning in bed and you may not even know it. So try to enjoy your last seltzer with dinner and not having it late. Here's an interesting one Cheese. I bet you didn't think about cheese, did you? This is why mice are up all night. Whether it's cheese puffs, a cheese plate or any other cheesy treat. All cheese products should be finished well before bedtime approaches.
Speaker 1:Cheese can interfere with healthy sleep for a handful of reasons. It can cause digestive discomfort in some, acid reflux in others, and certain varieties, particularly aged cheeses, can be high in tyramine. An amino acid found in aged and fermented foods can trigger the release of neoprenephrine, a brain stimulant that can keep you awake. Watch out for cheese, mary Nichols. Anyways, citrus fruits Again speaking of acid reflux, citrus fruits can also contribute to the irritating condition that disrupts healthy sleep patterns thanks to their high acid content. Additionally, fruits like lemon, lime, orange and grapefruit can also act as natural diuretics. Diuretics are substances that encourage the body to pee, resulting in multiple sleep-disrupting bathroom trips, resulting in multiple sleep disrupting bathroom trips. So low acid fruits like bananas and mangoes and pears are delicious swaps and a much better choice than something citrusy. Now, you all know I've been sober for 36 years, almost 37.
Speaker 1:Alcohol, and that is a fact. I remember when I did drink that sleep. You would sleep really soundly and then you'd wake up and I think again, that's that sugar content, but alcohol. While many folks turn to a nightcap to unwind after a long day or an evening to help them drift off to sleep, alcoholic beverages can actually keep us awake at night. While certain types of alcohols contain the tyramine all varieties have found time and time again to interfere with healthy sleep patterns. This is a well-documented in peer-reviewed studies. A delicious evening mocktail would be the perfect alternative, but make sure that mocktail doesn't have any citrus fruit in it. You got to be really careful here, people. One swap could just be as bad as the next. So spicy dishes we all know that having really spicy food before you go to bed can be a disruptor. Heartburn, acid reflux, all those things, all those things. Okay, here's a really sad. This one makes me sad Ice cream.
Speaker 1:I love ice cream and I have I've loved for years. I eat the low carb version of Breyers. I think it is vanilla. It's delicious, it is. You know, the sugars are lower and all those things, but still, ice cream is a classic pre-bedtime snack for many americans. However, its high saturated fat content may be preventing you from getting your beauty rest. A 2015 study found that men who had higher saturated fat intake demonstrated greater symptoms of insomnia compared to those who didn't. Adding in salt to injury, high fat dairy food, like ice cream, can also promote stomach upset and acid reflux. So I don't think there's anything really shocking on this list, but it's something if you are having trouble with sleep to think about. You may still want that bowl of ice cream. You may still want that orange before you go to bed, although that's not my bailiwick Habits that support healthy sleep.
Speaker 1:While we know that avoiding foods rich in caffeine, sugar, acid, saturated fat and hot chilies can promote healthier sleep patterns, there are other steps that you can take to increase the odds of quickly and easily falling asleep and staying asleep. One step is focusing on foods rich in sleep, promoting nutrients like magnesium, melatonin, tryptophan and a range of vitamins. So eat a bunch. Bunch of turkey, I don't know. Magnesium helps regulate neurotransmitters that signal the brain and nervous system, as well as melatonin regulation, the hormone responsible for guiding sleep-wake cycles. Foods rich in magnesium include almonds have a handful of almonds spinach, cashews, peanuts, black beans and avocados, whereas melatonin itself can be found in cherries, grapes, tomatoes and oats.
Speaker 1:Other important nutrients for sleep is tryptophan, an amino acid that the body converts into serotonin, a neurotransmitter Sorry, had a little cough there. Um, let's go back tryptophan, um, neurotransmitter that is then transformed into melatonin. So you get that, and we all know that. The turkey hangover after thanksgiving chicken, milk, cheese, nuts. We're not allowed to have cheese, so I don't know why they put that in here. Nuts, seeds and tofu have that that before you go to bed tofu. Meanwhile, there are at least nine vitamins that also promote healthy sleep, so let's talk about those real quick. We have vitamin A, b1, b6, b9, b12, c, d, e and K.
Speaker 1:Again, I'm not a doctor, I'm just giving you information that I find that I always find interesting. The bottom line is, the best way to improve your sleep health is to take a multi-pronged approach. Through avoiding sleep disrupting nutrients and foods, focusing on sleep promoting ones, and engaging in a range of sleep hygiene practices, you can achieve the sleep you've always dreamed of. So I don't know about you, I go in and out, and in and out of good sleeps. I try different things.
Speaker 1:Cats this morning have a lot to say. Sorry if they're in the background bugging you, but I wish you all. Sweet dreams is what I wish you. Hang in there, and I've got something to add to the. Did you know? All right, I thought it would be fun to have some Thanksgiving. Did you knows so? Did you know Thanksgiving? Football was initially a college tradition. Football and Thanksgiving dates back to 1876, with a game played by Yale and Princeton. It wasn't until 1934 that the Detroit Lions also began hosting a Thanksgiving Day game. A few decades later, in 1966, to be precise, the Dallas Cowboys also joined the party. This year there will be three games, with a special Black Friday game only streaming on Amazon. So there you go. That is football and Thanksgiving. It is a tradition. And just so you know my fantasy football team, the Honey Badgers, are in second place, tied with first place, actually tied for first place. I just have less points than the first place guy. So go, honey Badgers. All right, everybody, hey, go out and do something positive.
