Subconscious surfacing

This past month has been very difficult on my sleeping habits. Working very long days and sleeping few hours has really heightened my awareness of this topic of sleep hygiene. As health professionals, we emphasize how important sleep is to one's well-being. Low energy? Get more sleep. Problems going to sleep? Don't watch TV before going to bed, turn off all lights and don't do anything one hour before going to bed that will stimulate your mind. Trouble staying asleep? Don't drink water before going to bed. If you don't have to get up, try not to open your eyes and look at the clock. Simply go back to bed.

But how do you control your dreams? This is my personal dilemma. For years now, I have noticed themes in my dreams that seem to re-surface. I don't know what exactly they mean, but I often wake up with a feeling of negativity and uncertainty. It usually means a sombre start to my day. My personal nightmares usually involve having to run to catch someone or run away from someone and I can't move my legs. I am known for my speed, so it's actually very distressing in a dream to not be able to run. The other involves going up a very high and long escalator, always with a feeling that I am going to fall down. The strange thing is that I am not afraid of heights!

Anyway, I've been having really bizarre dreams lately. Ones that don't leave you with a fuzzy feeling. And I'm thinking, if only there were a way to have more proportionately happy dreams. How can I achieve that? Interestingly, I feel more positive about my life in general, but why can't I shake these scary dreams? Should I look deeper into these dreams, to analyze them for a significant meaning? Perhaps, it's just the scary ones that leave the lasting impression on me...not that I only have bad dreams. I'm wondering if there's someone out there who offers dream re-shaping...if there is, I'd like to have a talk with them.

Budget Diet

I am always so perplexed at how people with little money can eat so unhealthy. There are a number of confounding factors, yes, but on the whole, it should not be that difficult to eat natural, unprocessed foods. A bag of green beans from the grocery store recently cost me 93 cents! And if you use reusable bags, you save 5 cents on plastic bags.

Simply put, junk food just tastes damn good. Gourmet food also tastes damn good, but uses a lot of butter and sometimes makes use of the deep fryer. In today's day and age, we seem to struggle with eating healthy, appetizing food and maintaining a healthy body image and size.

Since I haven't been exercising very much in the last few weeks, I devised a new diet. It's what I call the "budget diet". If only to prove that you can diet by watching your pocket book, I hope to prove the point that you can eat healthy, even if you don't have a lot of money. This ultimately means, spending less money on crappy food, eating out less, and portion control...all can be achieved by reducing the amount of money spent on food per week. And at the end of the day, there's more money to be spent on other things. Like bills.