Sleep, Energy and Probiotics.....

One of the things that I have noticed in the last few years, is that at my age I am having more instances of crappy sleep.
Have to wake up and take one of our elder doggies out for a potty break about two hours after finally falling asleep, or if not needing to go outside, he will want to go and slurp up some water to quench his mid night sleep time thurst.

He is pretty old, and I figure that I can sacrifice some sleep knowing that he will not be around with us much longer....that's the least that I can do, or perhaps if it gets too bad, train him to sleep besides the bed on the floor.
I have noticed that once I get up I have a difficult time falling asleep again. Couple of buddies have various fixes ,  one friend says that chocolate before bedtime helps him snooze all night....Another uses warm milk.

The best thing I have found which seems to work about 50% of the time is a nite time tea.

I  few months ago I noticed that a new health food store has opened in Patzcuaro  and I have gone there a few times to buy some tea, some agave syrup ( makes the best Margaritas) and some other odds and ends.

 In a country like Mexico health food stores are not as popular as NOB, simply because a lot of the stuff that health food stores NOB sell, are available at various stands in the mercados or  tanguis. The obsession of cramming down tons of "healthy stuff and concoctions" is not as epidemic in Mexico as it is NOB either.

Perhaps that is because life is  more casual and people don't go nuts in trying to diet, eat 100% organic, bio this, anti oxidant that, so you don't see GNC nutrition stores popping up in every town and pueblo in the country. 

So when a store opens up that sells natural stuff you kinda notice it.

I went ahead and purchased a bag of this tranquilizing tea to give it a try. Now I am not sure if it works or just the suggestion that it is suppose to work had any effect, but I have tried it a half dozen times and was not disappointed.

A good friend of mine who is quite a bit younger than I, was having the same difficulty getting to sleep, so I stopped by and bought him a bag of the fixins.

He has used it a few times and says it helped him relax to fall asleep.

I do have to agree to the notion that we do eat too much processed foods nowadays, living in Mexico has certainly changed a lot of how and what we eat, as what we use to do living in California. Here the food is cooked fresh or you eat your left overs miraculously transformed into something else a few days later, as apposed to popping something into the microwave to reheat it because it was either cheaper to buy something frozen or too much of hassle to get the stuff to make a decent meal.

I also am finding myself eating less of the elaborate dishes and just tossing some vegetables or chicken parts on the grill more than working for half the day to make something special.

It seems that I no longer enjoy spending hours on end in the kitchen to make a meal for just the two of us. I do still enjoy making dinner for friends now and then but that energy level has clicked down a notch from 10 years ago also.

Maybe I can find an energy tea.....and figure out the right proportion so it stops working around 10 at night.....