Tune in at 3pm eastern time to hear my interview with Joni Cox of Homegrown Health on Natural News Radio. If you don’t tune in on time, you can find it in the Homegrown Health archives and listen to it later. On the show we talk about some of the basic ideas in Eat for Heat
, and discuss Joni’s 2-day elimination of migraines that had plagued her for 2 years – all by stopping her ridiculous habit of forcing down water beyond physiological thirst in an attempt to be healthy. You know, that Water Cure crap by Dr. Batmandumphuck.?Enjoy. And I?apologize in advance for not rapping at the end, and?beat-boxing per Joni’s request. I’m a wuss. It’s true.
Thanks, Matt! I forgive you but just this once…it’s so on next time you are on the show. We will open with beat-box mania…be ready!!
Hi Matt, I am so hoping you can shed some light on why I can’t seem to get any sleep at night. It all started this past September after if’ing for 2 months. I found your site and have been following your re c
IF can definitely make the sleep go. I see that problem all the time. There are many other ways to achieve it, not to just pick on IF. Eating a salty carby snack immediately before bed, doing the same immediately upon waking, and dissolving a sugar/salt mixture under your tongue during 2-4am wakeups is a good place to start. That and making sure every time you urinate it has some yellow color to it.
Hi Matt, the sugar/salt combo (~ 1 tsp) does seem to put me back to sleep if I wake up around 3 am. The problem is that when I do eventually wake up later then I have this heavy/groggy feeling throughout the first half of the day. Is this the overcompensation effect and way to avoid this ?
Sorry…. My last comment sent before I was finished! Been ETF for about six weeks, gained 14 lbs. My urine is medium to dark yellow but I still have to go sometimes often ( every 2 or 3 hours) but it’s still dark. I’ve tried all your suggestions about eating/drinking this or that before bed or when I wake up during the night but nothing helps! I feel like I’m going crazy with no sleep and I have a large family to take care of and cannot do that properly when I’m exhausted. Starting to get panic attacks in middle of night when I can’t go back to sleep which is very scary!! If you could respond or someone out there who can offer any help I would be very grateful. BTW, my first month of RRARF my temps went up to above 98.6 oral average each day, sometimes even 99.2!! Also had first normal period in 12 YEARS that month. Temps so far in December are not as good. Help!!!!
Hopeful,
I hope others chime in with their advice too. I don’t consider myself to
have all the answers.
I would say it is time to invest in a refractometer.
As Matt points out, when we are the end of each extreme the symptoms
can be the same. The refractometer lets you know right up what is
happening. Then you can make adjustments.
Too, how is your Vitamin D level? Mine was low. I started taking a
large dose before bed. I sleep and, dream like a baby. (a healthy baby!)
If you try vit D, it is recommended to test your levels first. Too, vit D
works best when k2, and magnesium are added.
Don’t forget adequate amounts of Vitamin A when taking Vitamin D!!!
Vitamin A is a Vitamin D antagonist. Do not take too much A if you are taking D. The Vitamin D Council has lots of articles and advice on taking D.
First of all realize that the holidays are very stressful and can bring on a lot of weird symptoms. For example, as soon as my mom told me she was coming to visit for Christmas I started getting weird chest pains. But I am not going to worry about it because I know what it is. You might find you feel a lot better in January.
I do have chronic insomnia though and the two things I have found that help are: Glenn Harrold’s hypnosis CDs (there are phone apps too, a few are free so you can try them first) it takes some practice to make these work so don’t expect miracles the first time.
and Xanax. It’s addictive, so a lot of people don’t want to go that route, but for me it’s better than not sleeping and then getting up and having to take care of the kids (living hell!)
Tierney, do you have onset insomnia or do you fall asleep ok and then wake up in the middle of the night?
Both, but mostly onset. My brain just doesn’t want to shut down on it’s own. Sometimes I go through periods where I sleep fine though. My energy cycles are a mystery to me. My Dr thinks I am a “little” bipolar because my energy goes up and down like that. Sometime I cannot get a real night’s sleep for a week, and then other times I am so fatigued I lie on the couch all day and sleep like the dead at night.
The only sleep aid that has ever worked is Xanax, even Trazadone just gave me a headache. :(
A nice bowl of vanilla Haagen-Dazs ice cream before bed made me sleep the best in years. I have never slept as soundly. I used to wake between 2-4 and just couldn’t get back to sleep; this continued for many years. Ice cream at night was so wonderful and freeing — and it made me really calm. I only had to eat it for a few months and my sleep pattern is back to normal now. If I’m sick or particularly stressed, I’ll have a bowl just to feel better and get a good night’s sleep.
My temps initially went down after ramping them up. I added more sugar in the morning and through the mid-afternoon. Then I switched to mostly salt w/a little sugar in the afternoon. And then my evening ice cream. I also started taking B vitamins, selenium, magnesium, and apple cider vinegar tablets with each meal. I also do interval workouts every day for an hour. Temps went back up; with each dip in temps, I just ate more sugar in the early part of the day.
Weird, eh?!
Thanks so much everyone for the suggestions! I have been toying with the idea of getting a refractometer, so I will check into that. I have been thinking urine was too dark, and have read about the extremes having similar bad side affects. I think I’ll try to go out and get some sun today to see if that helps with vitamin D for now until I can check into supplements.
Matt, I have done all you have suggested! :) I scour your site for any and all tidbits of knowledge, so I have tried it all! BTW thanks so much for all of your wisdom…you’re really a blessing. I cannot believe after one month of RRARF’ing I’ve had an absolutely perfect cycle after 12 years. It blows my mind!
I don’t do Christmas (Hanukkah…Messianic family here.) so I don’t have an ounce of stress from the holidays. :) But I can see how that definitely could be a problem for some people. I think the continued lack of sleep has become a viscous cycle now, and gets me stressed out every time I don’t get sleep (“Will I ever get to sleep again?!”) Night before last I actually slept through the night and then tried to recreate every exact thing I did the next night, but it didn’t work! lol
I think I’ll try the ice cream strategy…but my husband thinks I could be waking up in the night because of all the extra sugar I’ve been eating lately or maybe lack of exercise, but hey, I’ll ETIC (eat the ice cream) if I have to. :)
Hopeful: I totally understand about the vicious cycle of stress. My suggestion is when this starts happening to get up and meditate. It’s hard to do at first (“I don’t have time to meditate, I need to sleep!”) but once I started meditating regularly I started sleeping through the night most nights. I listen to a mindfulness meditation tape by Jon Kabat-Zinn; it’s very simple and soothing. I guess it’s just another tool for suppressing those stress hormones. I wish I could eat ice cream before bed but my gut can’t handle it, at least not now, maybe someday. (Thanks to Matt I have hope!) However, a pinch of sugar and salt under the tongue really does work when I wake up at 4 am, which is now only about once a week!
I’ve got to say that insomnia is my achille’s heel. Other than that, my health is stellar compared to that of a lot of people my age (53). I fall asleep (almost always) pretty fast, but then I wake up in the middle of the night and that’s it. I could be up for the rest of the night. This has been going on for years and years. I can honestly say that it’s taken a seriously blocked me from carrying out a number of projects in my life. I just don’t have the energy or clarity that I once had. Hell, if I had the clarity and energy, I would have gone back to university to research this problem myself. Once in a while I have a great night’s sleep and, like you, I try to figure out why that is. There is no clear pattern. Eating sugar and salt in the middle of the night doesn’t help either, IN MY CASE (not stating that as an absolute). In fact, for me, it might be a way of re-enforcing the insomnia behavior. It does not appear to be related to direct stress. I am willing to entertain the idea that it stems from some stress that my body endured as a child…but that’s just speculation. Even if that’s the case, the way out is not clear.
I can sympathize with Tierney taking Xanas…but damn that stuff is addictive as hell and you wonder what it’s doing to your brain. Mind you, I am not anti-drug. About once a year I take LSD, but that’s ONCE A YEAR. What happens if you are taking a strong psychoactive substance every day? On the other hand, you are only going to live so long anyway, so maybe it’s worth the risk.
Totally understand the part about clarity and energy. I remember you mentioning that you had tried the Peat approach as well. Its surprising that did not help. I assume you have tried various diets over many years. Which diet worsened your condition the most and which helped ? Finally, I am wondering if it is even diet related ? Have you had a sleep test done – tricky if your insurance doesnt cover it.
Thanks for asking Narain. No, the Peat approach did not work. Honestly, no diet has helped. I have been playing with diets over the last 30 years. So, I don’t think it’s diet related. I’ve had a sleep test done, but that doesn’t help much. I don’t have restless leg syndrome and I don’t stop breathing during sleep. Doctors have thrown sleep medications at me, but they usually either don’t work or work for a while then diminish in effect. I was even given Xyrem (GHB). Not good for sleep, but magnificent for my love life :)
I would try the salt/sugar under the tongue technique with that adrenaline peak wakeup. It may not fix the sleep, but it may…
1) Allow you to fall back to sleep after that, which is something
2) Allow you to feel better in general having mitigated some of that acute stress at that hour
I’ve tried it. Even when I was doing the Peat protocol, he recommended having something salty and sweet for sleep. Didn’t work. I’ve tried doing what you suggest, sugar and salt under the tongue when I awaken. Doesn’t work for me. Some other mysterious mechanism is at play in my case.
Have you tried scaling up the amount of sugar:salt? (Just curious)
Cameron, I eat as much as I like, but I am not force-feeding myself the stuff.
I meant having more of the salt:sugar mix at the 4am wake up. Some nights, it takes me a couple teaspoons of it to get back to sleep quickly.
Hmm hopefully chief or matt will do a post on this nighttime waking. Sounds like a common problem and rrarfing doesn’t seem to help some people. In the meantime, I’ll try 2 teaspoons next time i wake up.
have you tried magnesium? do you drink coffee?
Magnesium, if I take it right before bed, has a paradoxical effect. It keeps me awake. Like I said, I tend to wake up in the middle of the night, but am able to fall asleep when I girst go to bed. If I take magnesium, I will get onset insomnia. Not good. When I was doing the Peat protocol I drank coffee. Removing coffee did not improve my sleep.
Thomas Seay,
Since you seem to have exhausted your options when it
comes to insomnia. I will share my daughters story.
Her first born had autism. She put her daughter on a gluten
free, casein free, soy free, diet. Slowly her daughter became
100% cured. Since my daughter was preparing gluten free
meals, she decided to try gluten free herself as she was
suffering insomnia and, had read that gluten could cause
such in people. It worked for her. She now sleeps soundly.
She had tested this out a few times. The insomnia does return
when she eats gluten.
I now eat gluten, but I went years with little or no gluten in my diet. Thanks for the suggestion, but it doesn’t apply to me.
My husband was like that. Getting to sleep quite easy and starting to wake
after 4 hours sleep. Every single nigh. He was coming out from long addictions to various stuff..
He was eating a lots of chocolate before bed, a year latter he is sleeping well
and his desire for sweets is still there , but a way less strong. He never tried to control it, it seem to have work well.
I know it’s so addictive, but I just got so fed up. I couldn’t care for my kids properly and I was a total wreck at work. I don’t take very much. My tolerance quickly went from 0.5 mg to 1.5mg and has stayed there for over a year, so I don’t feel like I need “more and more.” And I really have no side effect from it, except that if I stay up for a while after I take it, I cannot remember what happened. Like if I watch TV or read a book I have no memory of it. Kinda scary…. so I make it a point to take it right before bed!
I am an ex-alcoholic though and I do feel the Xanax kind of “tickle” that addictive part of my brain. Not enough to cause me alarm and I’ve been sober almost 9 years now. But for someone who had bigger or more recent addiction problems than I did it probably wouldn’t be such a good choice.
Like I said, the ice cream before bed was truly a breakthrough in my sleeping pattern. I’m over 40, a stressed out working mom, and I had been trying to be everything for everyone. Except myself. My ice cream at night was so therapeutic in many ways. It really lowered my stress levels and I felt like I could just let it all go and give in to the richness of the ice cream. When my temps dropped after raising them, I shifted most of my sugar and food intake to before 1 in the afternoon, with maybe just one PopTart about 3 and then some pretzels (without much water) around 4, with a light dinner around 6. Ice cream around 10. Bed at 11. Sleep soundly until 7. Migraines and headaches gone. Energy levels sky high!
For me insomnia is also the last piece of the puzzle. There was someone who commented a few postings ago who was talking about the sodium/potassium balance that is needed in the blood. I know Matt points this out in his book too. I have been playing around with that the past few days and it seems to be working. I have been having a bit more sodium in the morning and leaning more toward eating more potassium in the evening. The more balanced I can keep my urine throughout the day, the better my sleep and the better my temperature. I have noticed that if I have lots of salt in the evening, my temperature drops, sleep is a write off after the first few hours and I feel awful the next day. Now maybe if I just add a serving of the Hagen-Daaz that I have in the freezer tonight before I go to bed I will be all set…
I like this idea. I do not consistently get a good nights sleep so I’m going to try the ice cream thing and see if it helps.
I found another Matt touting sugar + salt :) Well, its a ‘healthier’ version and its taken before bed:
http://www.rejuvinstitute.com/why-do-i-always-wake-up-at-3am#.UMqc42levfg
Unfortunately my stomach doesn’t yet like milk so I cant use ice cream. hopefully the above link will help some people.
You may be waking in the night due to dehydration stress. If you are hot when you go to bed, with super hot hands and feet, dark urine, really strong pulse – and feeling like you aren’t sleeping well you’re probably overdoing it. This is even more likely if your nighttime wakeups don’t involve a need to pee. You may try playing around with eating your heavy foods all day long and then eat much lighter, high-water foods in the evening. You can go too far on either end of the spectrum. Eating heavy before bed may make things worse not better. Try both approaches. It’s likely that one or the other will have a significant impact. If not, there are other things you can do.
Like what?
Thanks for you thoughts. I appreciate your taking time to reply. This is what where my thoughts have been going recently as well.
Josh Rubin just called you out, Matt:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBSwhfhPp1k&feature=g-subs-u
I sense an epic rap battle forming…
Do you think that Josh Rubin thinks we should measure our pulse? It’s not clear :)
I think more investigation is needed to figure this out… ;)
So….if you take your pulse and, it is high or low….hmmmm?
I don’t know that Josh actually gave any significant implementation
in the “needed” pulse theory. Sounds like regardless of the
pulse, you still need to ETF!
Hyponatremia and hypernatremia can often cause varying degrees of bradycardia (low heart rate) and tachycardia (elevated heart rate). And since incorporating some of Matt’s dietary suggestions in “Eat For Heat” would probably help to prevent hyponatremia and hypernatremia I would tend to think that Matt’s dietary suggestion should help to keep a person’s pulse rate within the normal range.
I also wanted to add that water intoxication and dehydration are known to cause bradycardia ( a low heart rate) and tachycardia (an elevated heart rate). So again, I think that Matt’s dietary suggestions could help to keep a person’s pulse rate within the normal range.
Seems very true, in my diluted days my heart rate was sooo slow.
I sympathize with you Thomas Seay, not getting a good night’s sleep is really a bugger when it comes to having a quality day. Luckily, for me it went away with propor eating and getting rid of some stress, though when I’m not feeling well emotionally, there goes the good night’s sleep – maybe something bothering you that doesn’t appear on the surface?
And yup – I like this Eat for Eat stuff. Every day it seems I get less crashes and I have been adding salt liberally since I read the book. Salt must have been the missing link in my gaining 50 extra pounds trying to raise my metabolism :(. Feeling warm and well is so much easier now that I’m making sure to add some salt. As much as I don’t want to be superficial, the weight is bringing me down… Anyone here have stories of gaining eating the food and losing the extra without doing anything crazy or drastic (I include eating once a day in the crazy section – don’t think that’s for me).
I suspect that the obesity epidemic is not helped by the obsession with lowering sodium. Other health issues, too. Food is SO much more satisfying with lots of salt, and I feel so much better after meals with adequate salt. Not to mention feeling more full/satiated.
I’ve noticed that I tend to feel more full for longer if I have adequate salt intake. It’s nice feeling actually full after breakfast sometimes.
I lost the 10 pounds that I gained last year from ETF and RRARFing without doing anything drastic or doing anything I didn’t really want to do — I have always craved sugar, and so, I just gave into it. I gave up all forms of sugar about 5 years ago, and lost a ton of weight. But then, after a stressful financial period in my life, the weight crept back on. The past two years have been an attempt to lose what crept back on — even though I was eating “healthy” with no sugar and all the whole grains/whole foods BS and exercising, the weight just wouldn’t budge.
So, I tried the Peat approach last year and gained 10 pounds in a month. Nothing would budge that. I was miserable.
This year, I caught a case of the “f*ck its” and just ate what sounded good, which was a ton of sugar and carbs and a low of amount of protein. I started adding good old white sugar into my coffee and in my oatmeal and even put maple syrup on my bacon in the morning. I also started taking apple cider vinegar tablets, selenium, magnesium, and B vitamins with every meal. Snack of a cookie and sugared coffee at 10. Lunch of toasted white bread, mayo, and piece of cheese, with pretzels for lunch, followed by some form of sugar for dessert (brownie, cookie, etc.). Around 2, one or two PopTarts (utterly delish!) with some lemonade. Around 4, some pretzels and maybe a few bites of Easy Mac n Cheese (stolen from my son’s after school snack). Dinner btwn 6 and 7 is usually a small plate of mostly carbs with a little protein.
I also do interval workouts or strength-based circuits with quick cardio thrown in. I do some sort of weight workout at least every other day for an hour, sometimes a little more.
This is the way I like to eat naturally, and I am finding that if I change that, I feel crappy and am generally crappy to everyone. The same with working out — if I don’t or can’t workout, I feel really cruddo. I try to avoid steady-state cardio at all costs.
Also, in the TMI area, I used to only have a BM once a day, and that was only if I was eating a ton of “healthy” fiber. Now, with all the sugar, I go all the time and am no longer constipated (could also the magnesium, but some days I forget to take it and all is well, so don’t really know).
just want to say that Matt’s “Eat for Heat” book has made a big difference in my life in the past few weeks. I’ve been eating the food (etc) since last June, and some of this newer advice in the book is just what I needed to raise my temps once and for all. I had been following 180 degree health since last June but with mixed results. I gained 15 lbs right away, was still losing hair and not sleeping very well. My waking temps were all over the place. I have to say my hands and feet have always been warm, but I think that was due to chronic inflammation/autoimmune problems. I’m sleeping somewhat better now and my hair is growing back! I would love to lose the weight though, and would also love to hear any success stories in that area.
Hey Susie,
So by Eating for Heat, you stopped your hair loss?
Interesting.
Greg
I have a large family and after my last child I was suffering from high blood pressure. This was in Sept. 2011. I started the dash diet. I started losing weight but felt horrible. By the spring I was having a lot of heart palpitations, my hair began falling out horribly, yes, my feet and hands were very cold. That was very bad but then summer came and things got worse. All of a sudden I couldn’t tolerate heat or exercise. I was experiencing a lot of anxiety. This past fall, I got even more symptoms with not even being able to do much without being dizzy. I couldn’t stand up for long periods of time either. My husband has had to do most of the shopping for our large family. I crave ice and do pee clear most of the time. I had some blood work done and they said basically everything was normal except I had low progesterone and an elevated blood count. I saw a cardio doc a few times and he put me on a low dose beta blocker feeling as if my blood pressure was just out of control. I eat very well and have left off refined and processed foods almost completely over the years. I seem to have a lot of the symptoms of “POTS syndrome” in which the cure they say is to just drink a ton of water and eat a lot salt. They say it is probably a low blood volume issue with Pots syndrome. Oh and by the way, my temp can be as low as 95.5 at times. I haven’t taken it recently, but I intend to start again. I really don’t have much to lose in following your advice at this point. I just really know I want to be better able to care for my 9 children. I just want to be healthy again. I am not too concerned about my looks but I notice that I am sooo pale and I look a lot older after just a year of going through this. I’m a little scared at the weight gain since I’ve been eating really healthy and have lost 10 lbs. I’m not thinking this will be my cure all, but it sure does make sense for me to watch my water intake. If I see drastic changes, I’ll let you know. God Bless.
Southern Mom,
I’m glad you found this site. I can empathize with your situation somewhat as you’ll see. I have a much smaller family than yours (4 kids) but it’s still very demanding and we’ve chosen a lifestyle that is even more so (homeschooling, running a small business, homesteading, etc). And I think you’re right, that you have nothing to lose from trying Matt’s approach. I was a bit scared at the weight gain too, still am a bit, but frankly, when I lost some weight this past spring (pre-180 degree health), I looked and felt a lot as you described yourself this summer. NO energy. Anxiety and borderline depression. Hair loss. Sure, I looked thinner and my tummy was flatter, but I felt yucky. Eating the food, yes, all the good and “healthy” whole foods, but no guilt over eating the highly dense “yummy” things like white flour pancakes, homemade cookies, icecream, seltzer with fruit syrup…it all has led to a small amount of weight gain for me (I’ve only been at this for 6 weeks or so, and I had a fairly healthy metabolism to begin with), but a huge gain in my feelings of physical strength, mental stamina (the food guilt is gone and is not cluttering my mind anymore), and overall wellbeing. I love eating the things I’ve always loved and not feeling guilty about it!!
The point of Eat for Heat is that the sodium balance in your blood, evidenced by the color of your urine, and the warmth of your extremities, regulates your metabolic functions, so keeping your salt/water balance just right over the course of each day can eliminate some of the need for over-feeding and, consequently, some of the weight gain.
I’m still working towards getting balanced as I seem to swing from really warm after a really good breakfast, to almost instantly cold after sitting down and typing like I’m doing now. I think I’ve struggled with Reynaud’s syndrome for a while now, so it might be a longer process for me to really warm up my hands.
So it might take some times, but hang in there.
The DASH diet is low-sodium, right? I would up the salt a lot and see what happens. Maybe try that first without changing the diet. It might fix it.
Yep, asked for the salt for my grits this morning, and my kids knew something was different.
Anyone have a pic showing the optimal urine color/concentration?
Thanks
I’ve got a refractometer. Maybe I will wait until it shows an optimal level sometime, then piss in a glass cup and post it online for everybody to see. Happy Holidays! LOL.
Please do.
Lol. Happy holidays!
Hi, I also have a refractometre but I’m not sure what the readings mean? Could you please enlighten me as to what the optimal level is. I got a reading of 9.9 . Is that too high ? Thanks
Attention: Rowan Atkinson to retire Mr. Bean!
http://www.ibtimes.com/rowan-atkinson-retire-mr-bean-890452
I’m sorry… what were we talking about?
Since there are so many helpful people giving suggestions….anyone else wake up HUNGRY at night? Not anxious, not nervous, just hungry. I practically have to eat a small meal in the middle of the night-one bite of food doesn’t cut it. It seems worse when I eat a lot of starch at night. Any suggestions? It started when I was pregnant with my 19 month old. I ate a bowl of ice cream every night before bed at that time and would wake up starving at about 3 or 4am. It still happens-should I just give up the sugar and starch at night? Kinda sucks because I do tend to feel a little chilly in the evenings. Sound like a blood sugar thing? Lack of cortisol? Can your body just get used to having food in the middle of the night? Very grateful for this blog!
This used to happen to me too. Especially with a starch-heavy dinner. Not only would I feel hungry but kind of floaty and weird too. I try to make sure I emphasize protein at dinner now. I still eat some starch but if I don’t have alot of meat or eggs in there, I usually make a protein powder shake. Whey and Casein powder can keep you full for a long time, I discovered. I mix them into raw milk with some cane sugar- yum!
So the sugar at night doesn’t bother you? I may look into the protein powder then. I do love a little milk with honey or sugar.
So then, what does one do to get the urine from not being dark yellow? I posted yesterday here, about my inability to sleep and am thinking part of the problem is I’m slightly dehydrated. I can’t seem to get the color from being so dark. Last night, I thought I’d drink water to try and help the situation (and also did the ice cream before bed….thanks for that suggestion!) and I slept pretty good, but had to get up to go 3 x during the night and it was still dark yellow. I was able to go back to sleep after each time which was a miracle in itself, so I think the extra water did help somehow and the ice cream too. But again, how do I turn this situation around? Do I do the old, “drink half my body weight in water” and start over getting some color? :)
O.K. I’m trying to figure this out…I’m re-reading Eat For Heat, and I see that if you are hot, your urine is dark, and you haven’t pee’d in a while, you need to eat less and drink more. But what happens if your urine is dark, you are pee’ing every hour, have cold hands and feet, have a headache, thirsty, and it’s almost time for bed and you want to sleep through the night? Help…
Hopeful- I’m wondering if you’re taking any supplemental vitamins, some of which can impact the color of your urine.
If that’s the case, you may be ‘peeing clear,’ even if it doesn’t look like it, and the same peeing clear guidelines would apply.
Hi Rob, Thanks so much for responding. I don’t take any vitamins except for occasionally magnesium (Natural Calm) so I don’t think that is it. I started adjusting my water intake according to Matt’s guidelines about 3 weeks ago. This past week has been the worst in the sleep department. I eat to appetite for breakfast and lunch (drinking very little milk or juice with those meals). In the afternoon I’m really thirsty so I drink some water, juice or milk. Then have a light to medium dinner with milk. Urine is medium to dark yellow during the day (although today I tried drinking more water in the first half of the day today to try and lighten up the color. It actually did work earlier in the day, but now it’s getting dark again and it’s almost bedtime (and I’m thirsty!!!) so I’m concerned about drinking more and being up all night going to the bathroom!). I wake up in the night several times for a bathroom trip and then between 3-4 I wake up feeling really hot, panicky like an attack, hungry and wide awake. I’ve even taken the sugar salt suggestion and tried that a few times and no matter how much I take, I can’t fall back asleep. I started wondering if maybe I’m at the opposite end of the spectrum now (dehydrated). I just can’t seem to find that “sweet” spot that I read so much about and I’m so tired!!! I don’t know how to balance it all out. I did order a refractometer today. Do you think that will help me figure it out? Thanks so much for your time!!! :)
Oh, and through all this I still have to go to the bathroom every 1 1/2 to 2 hours during the day. Go figure!
Yeah, read about the overcompensation idea in the book. You probably pee your brains out, get dehydrated, and then suffer dehydration problems. Then you drink too much and become overhydrated only to overcompensate on that side – effectively being in a state of chaos crossing back and forth over the ideal hydration zone 24-hours a day.
I am new to this site, but am intrigued. Which of the books should I read first?
Thanks.
Hey Barb- because Matt is ever-evolving, the most recent books tend to be most inclusive of all the insights he’s gained. ‘Eat for Heat,’ the most recent, is a good one for a first-timer, as is ‘Diet Recovery.’
Thanks for dropping by- feel fee to kick up your feet and enjoy the stay here at Chalet 180!
Update: I got 11 hours of sleep last night!!! Yahoo!! Fell asleep at 10:00 after eating 4 small chocolate covered salty pretzels and a couple of sips of water, woke up at 6:00 to use the bathroom and then fell back asleep until 9:00 when a phone call woke me up!! Sleep is so awesome. Yes, I know you’re right Matt with the overcompensation (of course you are!), and I think my drinking a small glass of milk with my morning meal and drinking at my lunch time meal really made a difference for me. I was thirsty last night, but felt that if I drank a ton, I’d be in the bathroom again all night. Amazingly, the couple of sips did the trick. Thanks for helping people learn to listen to their bodies!
Update: I got 11 hours of sleep last night!!! Yahoo!! Fell asleep at 10:00 after eating 4 small chocolate covered salty pretzels and a couple of sips of water, woke up at 6:00 to use the bathroom and then fell back asleep until 9:00 when a phone call woke me up!! Sleep is so awesome. Yes, I know you’re right Matt with the overcompensation (of course you are! I think I was dehydrated and needed balance), and I think my drinking a small glass of milk with my morning meal and drinking at my lunch time meal really made a difference for me. I was thirsty last night, but felt that if I drank a ton, I’d be in the bathroom again all night. Amazingly, the couple of sips did the trick. Thanks for helping people learn to listen to their bodies!
In addition to all of Matt’s protocols, I swear by sleeping on an Earthing sheet. I may sound like a raving hippie but don’t knock it ’til you’ve tried it! Getting to sleep is way easier, i wake up more refreshed and it’s a much deeper sleep. Insomnia no longer an issue (only troubles me if I overdo coffee or late night food/liquids).
I’m a believer KJ! haha. Read my Health Reasons to Spend Time Outdoors post.
Hello Matt, I have read your Eat for Heat ebook and I agree 100% with your suggestions. Not overdrinking any fluids really does boost metabolism. However, I am breastfeeding my baby at the moment and I’m constantly thristy! Do you have any suggestions for this? I find that I have to eat pretty much every hour to feel well and drink water in between. Should I be doing something else differently? Thanks!
Maybe drink more fruit juice and milk instead of water. It’s probably good to keep eating frequently, so I wouldn’t change that.
Thanks for the quick response, Matt! Another quick question… I’ve noticed that on the days I “overdrink” plain water and undereat… my skin gets dry and flaky. Is this possible? Everyone and their mother says to drink more water, of course! Can overhydration cause dry flaky skin? Thanks again!
Yes, in fact I always ask people that I consult with if they have dry skin, especially around the lower legs and hands. This helps me figure out if they are overdrinking or not.