My morning and evening routines – what I will do for my health in 2018
Given that I need to resolve a few health issues, especially related to dizziness, I need to come up with a morning and day routine that is really powerful against disease in general. I will be combining this with a fine-tuned diet, acupuncture and a few other things.
Waking up
Thank God for the day and promise Him and myself I will live to its fullest, as well as be generous, kind and happy.
Use positive affirmations.
Motivate myself, including convincing myself of my natural ability to heal.
Meditate for 5 minutes.
Visualize for 5 minutes.
Stand up and stretch.
Start the day with a vegetable juice (possibly with beets¹) with ionic minerals. Alternatively, I may have these ionic minerals with a citrus (mostly lemon) juice, or I will drink a ginger tea. Every quarter, I will do 1-month cycles of bromelain on empty stomach, to lower inflammation in the body.
Strech my neck (seems to work well against a stiff neck, like mine).
Do lymph drainage massages whenever possible.
Go for a run whenever energy allows and there is sun out there. Do that as close to noon as possible.
As for the lymph massage, I will go with this one:
Now, there are a few things that I will make a priority throughout the year because I am positive they will help me:
Detox at the very least 2 in the year, but probably once (meaning 7 days) every quarter and one day in the week (Sunday).
Drink bone broth² at least once a month. This is hard because we need to prepare it, and it takes a long time to cook. I don’t care, it heals a leaky gut 😉
Eat tons (I mean at least 20% of my food intake) of fermented foods and bring my gut to a whole new level.
Avoid ejaculation as much as possible, and at least for 60 days every quarter.
Massage my own body in a way that I work on the fascia of my stomach, back, and neck.
Put the computer away on Sundays (all of a sudden it feels that I have a lot of time).
Take care of my gut so that my bowels move at least once a day, minimum. Ideally, I will get to 2x/day.
Drink tons of water throughout the year.
Continue to learn about health, detoxing and gut health.
Learn how to do awesome bone broths, and fermented foods such as kombucha, water kefir and fermented vegetables and fruits.
Going to bed (always before 10:30!)
Thank God for the day and the great things that I had.
Thank God for all the good things that I have in my life. Being grateful is praying for real.
Meditate for 5 minutes;
Visualize for 5 minutes;
Use ho’oponoopono for the bad things that happened in the day or things that bother me.
Is there anything else you’d recommend me to do? 🙂 Go ahead and let me know in the comments down below. 😉
² – bone broth is super healthy, especially if you’ve got leaky gut. Check out this presentation by Dr. Kaayla Daniel, who researched bone broth for over 20 years.
Relection on 2017 and a brief look at 2018 in terms of health, work and finances
Happy new year guys!
I am so very excited about the new year. 2017 was probably one of the most special years of my life and I learned a lot. It is scaring that 2017 is already over. Time flies even when you’re not having fun!
There were a few things that happened in 2017 that make me consider it very peculiar:
I moved to Portugal and I started living alone, in one of my beautiful rental properties. Living alone on this property is freaking awesome!
I felt dizzy/nauseous for the most part of the year, and my CFS/adrenal fatigue was exacerbated in specific parts of the year. This was so relevant and debilitating for me, that 2017 was marked by my dizziness.
Although I first considered doing a gap year, being off of work for 12 months, I ended up getting a part-time, reasonably well-paying job, which allowed me to focus on other projects in my life. This enabled me to grow wiser.
My real estate business took off and brought home some decent income. I realized I can retire earlier than I expected at first, especially if my projections for 2018 are met.
I was able to re-structure my real estate portfolio and hit €1,800/mo in rental income (with about €400/mo in liabilities).
Post at least 3 times a week. ALMOST DONE. There was a period where I clearly published less often but I was able to keep 2 posts/week for most of the time. Sadly, anything above this is not realistic (unless I do like 90% of the bloggers – who hire ghostwriters – which I don’t want). In fact, many great blogs, such as Backlinko only have a few articles published and yet they get a ton of traffic.
I hope to complete the task of re-reading 100 books, and provide summaries and reviews for all of them. FAIL. This is more like “I changed the plans for the year. Entirely.” I do hope to read some books this year (and publish reviews and summaries) but it won’t be close to 100 for sure. I have plenty of things that I could do with my time beyond that.
Grow the number of subscribers of the blog to 6000 (I was at 650 last year), and 25.000 likes on Facebook. FAIL. This was also pretty unrealistic without spending more money on Facebook ads and what not. I am not disappointed though. This year, I hope to double the number of Facebook likes. Not sure if this is totally realistic, but I hope it is.
Find a fully flexible (probably freelancing or consultancy) job, which permits me to live in one of my units and make $25k for the year. DONE. I worked part-time at a Portuguese university and got a pretty nice salary for the Portuguese standards. I used most of it to fund the renovation of RP#3 so I definitely feel I put the money to work!
Rent out all my units and make $20k from that. DONE. Fortunately, the demand for apartments in my markets is pretty high, and so I don’t have many troubles in renting them out. I feel this will be the case in the following years, but I plan to rent out many or my properties to companies anyways.
Make $40k on my investments and businesses. ALMOST DONE. I only made 50-60% of that but I am still happy with this.
The ultimate goal was to make $85k, net $50k. DONE. I didn’t net $50k in cash, but I was able to grow my portfolio by LINK LINK.
I wanted to dominate the Portuguese fiscal code. ALMOST DONE. I sure learned a lot but mastering it like an accountant would retire me way more attention than I am willing to put into this.
I wanted to participate a lot on Quora. ALMOST DONE. I missed the stats that I aimed for, but I was able to reach more than 10k followers.
I wanted to publish 3 books. ALMOST DONE. The first one is published, the second one is written and the third one is planned. Good enough?
Not letting other people affect me in a negative way. FAIL. This is also why I wanted to fast from people during Christmas time LINK.
Cultivate all my friendships and create at least 10 new great relationships. ALMOST DONE. I was able to make 3 or 4 new great friends.
Learn a lot about renovating homes (and doing it myself). FAIL. I swear I tried, but feeling exhausted and dizzy all the time was a killer.
I wanted to regain the shape I had in 2011. FAIL. Again, I swear I tried, but feeling exhausted and dizzy all the time was a killer.
Do one or two 7-day juice cleanse with organic juicing. ALMOST DONE. I did at least 3 different detoxes so this is done.
Move to my dream home, and live alone. DONE. Just not the home I initially thought I was going to move to.
Why am I so excited about 2018
2018 will be big for me because I feel that although this may take a while, I am moving towards the right direction with my health, at the same time I am taking my company to a whole new level. The big thing for my company will be hiring 1 or 2 full-time employees and grow the fixed income to €5,000/mo.
In other words, I can now see the dream a few miles away from me. And the dream is to be healthy and set up an efficient real estate company that has a few employees and runs pretty much automatically.
I also feel that 2018 will be big for From Cents To Retirement. I will work badly to grow it to a reference blog in early retirement. I do hope to hit 3x more the traffic I currently have, by the end of the year.
As for my health, I have a few plans as well. And this year I will be sticking to them badly! I will write a complete article on my perfect morning and evening routines and I will cover all the plans for my health in 2018.
Later this week I will be publishing an article on the goals for 2018 and you can scrutinize them thoroughly. 😉
What I am doing to fighting dizziness and my foggy feeling
As a CFS sufferer, there is a number of symptoms that I need to struggle with. Since January, dizziness has been the worst of them all. Between 2014 and 2016 I only remember a quick episode of dizziness. Since January 2017, I have been having recurrent episodes of dizziness/lightheadedness/feeling foggy.
Dizziness can come randomly, although I feel that there is a connection to my stress levels. As for stress, I don’t put myself into much stress anymore, but my “stress handling system” is basically fried out. This means that even a very small stressful event can do a lot of damage to me (check out my post on adrenal fatigue).
When I suffer from stressful events, I can notice the harm any time after that. It could be on the same day, the following day, on the following week. There is no real pattern – neither regarding when I notice the damage nor how long it can last, or how it will affect me. Most of the times, it comes in the form of exhaustion and, more noticeably, pain neck and stiffness.
And I believe that stress and neck pain affects my dizziness – in one way or another.
Let us break it down. I have an illness, called CFS. I am using a specific diet and lifestyle to address it. This condition has a few consequences, one of which is the lack of tolerance to stress. I then have a lot of symptoms because I cannot handle stress, including neck pain. I am not sure whether dizziness is a symptom at the level of neck pain, something caused by CFS directly or by neck pain itself. Pain neck (and stiffness) can cause dizziness too.
How do I handle stress
Handling stress can be quite difficult, especially for people who suffer from anxiety as I do. Although I feel stressed out all the time, there is not much I do that positively impacts the stress levels I have to deal with. There are a few things that I came up with that do improve my stress.
Exercises for stiff neck
The most exuberant symptom that I have, with regards to stress, is aggressive pain neck and pain stiffness. Several sources on the internet suggest that there is a connection between neck stiffness and dizziness. Sadly, there seems to be a number of people suffering from this problem. Here are a few exercises to diminish neck pain and stiffness:
How do I handle dizziness
Because I don’t know exactly at what level dizziness is (meaning whether it is a symptom caused by stiff neck or directly by CFS), I cannot treat it by treating the cause of it. For instance, if it was caused by a stiff neck, I would definitely focus on my neck.
Therefore, I only do things that I’ve used before to make it better and avoid things that make it worse. In fact, I have started a very strict routine since August 1st. Here it is:
Improve blood circulation
Dizziness is often caused by low blood pressure. Blood circulation is highly affected by some substances, such as caffeine, tobacco, alcohol, and specific drugs.
I will try to keep blood circulation by: (1) having cold showers, (2) taking supplements and (3) exercise regularly.
Ginkgo biloba (I take this one) is a known supplement for boosting circulation of blood within the inner ear, thus correcting some problems. Feverfew is also used against dizziness, migraines, and inflammation in the inner ear while improving blood circulation altogether.
A crucial tool to improve blood circulation in the brain is ginger. Since August 1st, I’ve been taking ginger supplements (about 1g a day) and drinking ginger tea every single day, while taking ginkgo bibola (in a liquid form). Next, I will start feverfew supplementation on a daily basis.
Coffee
Although it is not 100% certain, coffee can worsen my dizziness. In fact, I think it depends on how bad I’ve been feeling the previous days. I’ve drunk coffee many times and noticed that my dizziness became worse. On the other hand, I’ve drunk coffee many times without consequence, even in the middle of a dizziness crisis. When it comes, tt can take between 5 minutes and one hour, but once it comes, it won’t go away until the end of the day (i.e. I have 8 hours of sleep).
The biggest problem of this is that I simply love coffee. I cannot even drink decaf as I’ve bad reactions with it too. This is really the only thing that I like that worsens my dizziness.
Either way, I avoid coffee as much as I can, if I am experiencing recurrent dizziness. Between June 1st and June 31st, I did not drink coffee and I only drank 1 decaf expresso per day. Since August, I laid off coffee altogether.
Posture
I found this one recently. I found out that adopting a posture (especially in front of the computer) helps a lot with my dizziness. I guess this is connected with a better blood circulation. This is actually the first thing that I started to do in order to improve blood circulation.
Staring at the monitor
Reading and staring at the monitor for more than 20 minutes in a row can be painful, especially if I look down. Looking up doesn’t result in dizziness as often, but can also make it worse. What I’ve been trying (not exactly doing it yet) is to stop starting at the monitor every 20 minutes.
Going for a walk
This is such a great tool against stress, favoring blood circulation and giving your body a break. I love to go out on a Summer night on a Spring day. Going for a walk for as little as 10 minutes can do wonders. At least it does for me.
Lying down
For some people, sitting down will do the trick, but not for me (sometimes I get dizzy while I am sitting). However, in my case, I have to lie down. This doesn’t always work, but it did before.
Water
Getting dehydrated can lead to dizziness, so drinking water more often can be a great tool against dizziness. I will try to drink about a gallon of water day in June.
Incline my head backward
For some reason, inclining my head backward seems to provide instant relief, as long as I keep it inclined for more than 20 seconds. Probably it helps to oxygenate the brain, but I am not sure.
Improve resilience to stress
CFS suffers tend to suffer a lot from stress. I am no exception. There are a few things that one can do to fight stress, including:
If my condition doesn’t improve until the end of August, I will experiment some over-the-counter motion sickness medication. I don’t recommend people to take any medication without talking to a doctor. I will test the effect of Dimenhydrinate (Dramamine), Meclizine (Bonine) and Diphenhydramine (Benadryl), by this order.
Check for other diseases
Shame on me, I wasn’t tested for other diseases that cause dizziness for more than 2 years. However, 2 years ago, when I had the first burst, I was tested for a variety of things and everything came up negative. If I don’t get better until the end of September, I will get tested for:
Labyrinthitis, BPPV and Meniere’s disease.
Anxiety disorders, such as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.
Just like myself, many people I got in touch with regarding financial freedom suffer from some type of condition that makes them pursue financial freedom. I have CFS as you know, but from my experience, the vast majority of these fellas suffer from adrenal fatigue.
I decided to take a look at this condition and find out how it relates to CFS and treat myself as if I had adrenal fatigue myself.
The first thing is to understand what Adrenal Fatigue is.
Let us first go with big channels and known people. Dr. Axe does a good job at explaining that in this video, while providing some initial tips to fight it:
The takeaway is that if you’re sleeping a lot and still waking up tired, struggling with major fatigue issues and other signs (such as feeling overwhelmed, stressed, you feel poor memory, etc), chances are you’re suffering from Adrenal Fatigue, according to Dr. Axe. Some other signs can be storing extra fat.
I realised that this person he is describing is me.
Plus, he says that if you consume a lot of caffeine (and sugar, for that matter), that will burn out your adrenal glands.
Now, let us talk about what is important to improve adrenal function and overcome adrenal fatigue. Of course that reducing stress (both directly and indirectly – such as by exercising) and get good quality sleep at night, and do stuff you like are key to start the recovery, but it goes way beyond that.
Let us have a look at what other people has reported helping with adrenal fatigue.
Dr. Axe partnered up with Jordan and hashed that out in this video:
In this video, Dr. Axe and Jordan recommend a few things that generally help with Adrenal Fatigue:
Foods: remove sugar, carbs, use bone broth (mostly because of collagen), clean sources of protein (such as salmon), dark colour fruits and vegetables. Also, sour and fermented foods are the best. I LOVE sauerkraut – and I actually do it myself.
Herbs: here’s a major help for supporting adrenal rejuvenation. Adaptogens such as Ashwagandha, Holy Basil, Liquorice root, Ginseng and Rhodiola are the most popular ones.
Spices. Jordan and Dr. Axe recommend stuff like Licorice and Nutmeg.
Essential oils. Holy Basil, Rose Mary, Lavander (for relaxation, anxiety and good sleep) and a few others. Dr. Axe says Rosemary and Lavander work even better together. I’ve used Lavander myself before, but maybe because I used it alone, I didn’t notice good results.
Mushrooms. Reishi and Chaga are popular on various sources talking about recovering from Adrenal Fatigue. Reishi is often said to be the most powerful substance known to men!
Supplements. Probiotics and digestive enzymes top my preferences too!
Thomas DeLauer has also come up with what he calls an “Adrenal Cocktail”:
This cocktail is composed of 4 ounces (10cl) of Orange juice, a 1/4 teaspoon of Cream of Tarter – because is incredibly high in potassium – and pink salt – which according to him relieves stress from the Adrenals and the kidneys.
Thomas also recommends Ashwagandha – as it increases GABA – which in turn reduces the impact of cortisol on nerves. His third recommendation is taking fish oils, which also reduces cortisol.
Finally, Thomas recommends to lay off stimulants, such as caffeine.
If you are unsure how to test yourself for adrenal fatigue, check out this video:
And here is a totally different approach to heal your adrenals, which I found excellent:
Dr. Jacob Teitelbaum’s suggestions are: increase water, increase salt, and take vitamin C, B5 and Licorice. Multiple small meals throughout the day and high protein. This is it!
And finally, three first-person testimonies, which are concise and that go against some of the things listed before:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5NsaWretnhs
I loved them.
Let us then sum all this up:
Cut off every stimulant you’re taking. Coffee, sugar, etc.
Start getting your cortisol levels normalised. The first single most important thing that people referred in this direction is fixing your sleep patterns. Go to bed early! I will try to go to bed before 11 pm every single day, and meditate for at least 10 minutes so that I change my brain to a beta state faster.
Get into a freaking awesome diet and drink lots of clean water. Some of the videos did a great job at explaining what that means. Find what works out for you.
Get plenty of sleep and stop physical stress. One thing is your sleeping patterns. Another one is sleeping more than usual. Your body is recovering, so it makes sense to give it more than it usually needs to function.
Take adaptogens. I’ve done Ginseng cycles before and they were super effective. I am excited to get into others. Many people referred to them as scams, but I believe they will do well because I’ve used Ginseng many times before, as I said.
Stop all harmful/toxic stuff that goes in or on your body.
Address emotional stress. Most of your daily thoughts are recycled from the previous day. Meditate. Enjoy life. Be grateful. Go into nature. Whatever works for you.
Stop activities that produce cortisol, because you’re already having too much of it. Sex and masturbation included, sorry.
Today, I want to bring you something I’ve been working on and I am really excited about! I decided that I will try a certain technique for 30/60/90 days, and I will report the results on the blog. I will cover pretty much everything, from money to personal development. For the most part, I will cover health and personal development techniques, though. This will go hand in hand with my new diet, which I expect to maintain throughout the year.
I will try to report everything in a scientific matter (or at least, as much as possible). I will try to record every single time I apply the technique and on what day. Then, I will report the results. Some techniques may produce results after 30 days. Some may only work after 60 or even 90 days. Either way, I will report after 30 complete days of a given technique. Every time I report the 30-90 day experiment and the results, I explain thoroughly why I decided to do it and the meaning of the technique.
Here’s a few things that I am eager to test:
#1: 30-90 days of Deep meditation
I have been meditating for a while, but it is easy to forget about it. Honestly, on most days, I feel I didn’t have time for anything I wanted to do (and I could only do what I had to do). I want to meditate for at least 15 minutes in the morning and 15 minutes before going to sleep, for 30 days, and assess the results.
#2: 30-90 days of Visualization
Visualization is a very powerful tool that, put roughly, takes advantage of the fact that the brain cannot distinguish between what we are thinking of and what is in fact happening. Logically, if you accept that bad thoughts affect your overall health, then we could use visualization to affect our health in a positive way. That is what I want to do. This is the best video on visualization I ever saw:
the most important part of visualization is focusing on the feeling that you experience when visualizing.
#3: 30-90 days going to bed before 11.30
I will use the time until 00 to meditate and visualize and get to sleep at midnight or even before. The crucial thing is to be on my bed at 11.30, the latest. Ideally, I will try to be there at 11 and use 30 minutes to meditate and visualize.
#4: 30-90 days on Ginseng every single day, twice a day
Ginseng is known to be an excellent adaptogen, which helps with memory and fatigue. I’ve personally used Ginseng with great success, but I will report on it again. I personally like Ginseng from Now Foods as I said many times before.
#5: 30-90 days being grateful for everything I have
In particular, I want to be grateful for what I have every day in the morning, and before bedtime. My research has shown me that our mind is really the catalyzer of life, in the sense that I personally think that a strong mindset it is the most powerful and quick way to change your life for the better. Some scientific evidence has shown that being grateful can translate into things like sleeping better and having stronger immune systems. This source also reports that there is Research by UC Davis psychologist Robert Emmons (the author of Thanks!: How the New Science of Gratitude Can Make You Happier) shows that keeping a gratitude journal can increase well-being and life satisfaction.
Does it look obvious of why I want to do this now?
#6: 30-90 days being super kind to others
…almost to the point where they think it’s fishy, I don’t care. Many people have told me that this works beautifully in making friends and having others being kind to you. You remember the commercial with that guy who waves to those who are pissed and insulting him? That is also part of the experiment. I simply want to check what result this will have on me.
#7: 30-90 days acknowledging and complimenting others
Same thing as #6.
#8: 30-90 days with irreprehensible posture
Living is learning and I am always trying to learn more and more. I recently learned that your posture affects your spine’s health, which in turn affects your well being. I wonder how much this could affect my personal situation. To maintain a really good posture, I will use a posture vest and remember myself every single day to sit straight at the computer – if I dominate that, I will pretty much be on a correct posture 95% of the time.
In this context, this is a pretty good exercise you can do at the gym:
#9: 30-90 days forcing myself to feel
Feel the smells, the air against my skin, the water falling on my body (in the shower), the sensation of success, etc.
In this context, I’ve found 5 things I can do right away to improve and harnessing the power of feeling good now. This challenge is tightly connected with other challenges (#1, #2 and #5) and they all boil down to having the part of our brain that experiences the best pleasures and emotions turned on.
#10: 30-90 days forcing myself to relax
Very connected to #9, and yet a heck of a different one… We live life so up close that it is super hard to appreciate the small moments. When I sit on my couch I do not feel that I am relaxing, yet I am. Feeling the relaxation – noticing it and letting it go through your body – is key! At least I suspect it is. Let me do 30 days of this and report the result back to you!
#11: 30-90 days going for a walk every day, for at least 10 minutes
Just forget about the routine, problems, and simply go for a walk (and enjoy it). I suspect this will free my mind, get my muscles to work and have a positive effect on my day. I am only able to do this during the Summertime (which in Portugal is pretty much 9 months in the year) LINK MISSING, but I am super curious to assess the results.
#12: 30-90 days without Facebook
Being constantly on is clearly preventing my body from relaxing. Facebook is a big part of that – although certainly not the only on. Maybe I will actually cut everything all along, including Whatsapp and other social media I use. As a hard-work blogger, I also check google analytics quite often (and Amazon affiliate/book fees), and I think that I will also refrain myself from checking those.
BTW, you can friend me now, I just created a profile: Facebook.
#13: 30-90 days without coffee
I love coffee. I absolutely love it. A good Italian or Portuguese espresso (which mean great Cameroon’s or Bolivian coffee) is certainly one of the most enjoyable parts of my day.
Coffee has a myriad of health benefits, in case you don’t know. However, coffee worsens my dizziness and therefore I would like to try out a period without any coffee whatsoever and assess the results.
#14: 30-90 days without chocolate
Actually, this is almost part of my new diet, but I want to completely remove chocolate for 30-90 days and assess the results.
Chocolate is another big pleasure that I have, but something I tend to overuse. I typically buy 70-95% cacao chocolate bars (meaning with as little sugar as possible) but this is still something I’d like to use less and less. Usually, raw cacao is preferred over any form of processed cacao for health benefits.
I figured that starting with 30-day chocolate periods is the best start to eventually eat less and less of it.
Lately, I’ve been having some trouble losing weight and I think I am overeating chocolate (really one of my favorite things to eat). Let’s see what comes out.
#15: 30-90 days focusing on others
Someone told me that the best way to feel better – especially if you have a health problem that is tightly connected to your emotions – is to focus on others. This topic has actually gotten quite popular on Quora.
I must admit that I am really going through some of the worse periods of my life. I feel quite sick and dizzy for more of the day, which are two symptoms of CFS. However, I know that this is a tight connection with my emotional status. In fact, I tend to think too much about my problem and I often have thoughts of “this is my worst phase ever” or “I will never be healthy”. Focusing on others (probably together with visualization) may be a good way to flip the switch, and I am willing to give it a shot.
#16: 30-90 days stretching every day after waking up and before going to bed
If one gallon of water is too much or ideal, no one knows. What I know is that, back in the day, I’d drink close to a gallon a day and feel great, so I will give it a shot. If you think about drinking one gallon a day yourself, consider that a few things may happen in the transition.
#18: 30-90 days doing acupressure every single day, especially before going to bed
I am not a big tea lover, I must confess. Coffee turns me on way more. However, I know that tea is a healthier alternative and can be used very effectively to treat anxiety and dizziness. I will pretty much drink chamomile and ginger tea in this experiment.
#20: 30-90 days preparing each day the night before
I think that the main point for me is that I won’t be anxious to make a break or something similar to that. I will be in control and know what I am supposed to do. I am curious to see how well this will work for me.
The goal of this experiment is quite intuitive, right? If something produces results in 30-90 days, then it will have a heck of a result if we apply it throughout my life. And habits compound too! We’re creatures of habit and I honestly feel I work better if I follow a specific routine. I will test out all these and adopt those that work better.
Let me know in the comments down below if you have any suggestions on what to try out!
This is a long post on a topic that is particularly important for me: the chronic fatigue syndrome/fibromyalgia. I am not a physician, and this post is by no means medical advice. If you have any health condition, I strongly suggest you talk to your doctor. Please read the disclaimer at the end of this post.
I have presented the diet I will use from May 1st, to address my Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. However, this post presents a much more holistic set of tools and lifestyle, which I recently tested and adopted, and takes this subject to a whole new level. This includes a complete description of the diet as well as techniques to reduce muscle fatigue and pain. Keep in mind that what works for some doesn’t necessarily work for all. One thing I learned with CFS is that we have to get to know what works with us. I felt that I needed to aggregate all that information in one article and I sincerely hopefully that this helps someone.
Symptoms
The symptoms I will try to counteract with the lifestyle I present in this post are:
Fatigue: this is something that I’ve had for the past 4 years. It does not prevent me from working at the computer, but it surely prevents me from exercising sometimes and increases the chances of low mood. I also wake up tired, which really sucks.
Exhaustion: this is a terrible symptom (essentially a very intense fatigue) which prevents me from doing anything. Fortunately, it happened very seldom in the last 2 years. Typically lasts from 1/2 days to 1 week.
Neck pain and stiffness: this is an acute, strong pain in the neck, which is really painful and annoying but does not prevent me from much. I’d rather have this one for the rest of my life and not have anything else. When I wake up my neck is very tense and if I move my head my neck cracks all over, and hurts. I feel that this is moderately connected to the fatigue.
Dizziness/vertigo: this is by far my worse symptom, but I am lucky that I only have on-and-off crises. Most crises last for 2 weeks, but I’ve been experiencing intense, extremely debilitating dizziness for more than 3 months now (although I had no crises for the previous 18 months). Sometimes dizziness comes with motion sickness, which is really debilitating. Very seldom, I experience nausea as well. I feel that my dizziness is connected to stress and anxiety, which worsen my neck pain and stiffness, which in turn increase the probability of experiencing dizziness.
Depression / low mood: In my case, this is not due to CFS – it is because some symptoms are really debilitating and I can’t do much. Plus, I never know when they ago away, and I feel that they will never go away. It is exactly that that kills me. I get anxious when symptoms don’t go away, which probably makes them worse.
Feeling toxic: Hard to explain, but I feel that my body is very toxic on the inside.
Loss of interest and enjoyment: Having no energy or not feeling well can be truly devastating. The only things that still turn me on are huge projects, like turning From Cents To Retirement into a reference blog in the context of Early Retirement.
Diet – a Paleo diet variant as a fibromyalgia diet and a chronic fatigue syndrome diet
I have previously explained the Paleo diet variant that I have followed in the past, which greatly helped me with many of my symptoms. This section is a much more extensive version of that post.
Some sources report that diet can play an important role in improving my CFS. This section goes over the diet that worked the best for me, up until today.
The Paleo Diet as a diet to beat CFS
My understanding of the Paleo Diet is that you remove all processed foods, refined vegetable oils, cereal grains, dairy, and legumes. In contrast, you can eat grass-fed meat, fish and seafood, fresh fruits and vegetables, eggs, nuts and seeds and healthy oils, such as olive oil. You can check out the entire lists here, the Paleo Diet website. I personally use legumes and cereal grains very occasionally, but stick to the paleo diet for the most part.
Chronic Fatigue / Fibromyalgia and The Paleo Diet
I personally use a variation of the Paleo Diet, simply because I was so used to cereals that I could never get really used to the Paleo Diet. I actually saw this diet for the first time on a fibromyalgia diet book. In particular, the variations include:
Rice (although Quinoa was preferred);
Low GI fruit at the beginning of every meal;
Green, fresh salads at every meal;
All meat cooked at very low temperature – rare or at most medium rare;
Very little white meat – at least 90% beef;
Plenty of Sauerkraut;
Water as the only drink (at least half a gallon), except for 1 espresso (at most one) a day and homemade teas.
This can be a diet that is close to a ketogenic diet because most carbs are removed. Here are some pics of a regular day on this diet:
Breakfast: eggs (only slightly cooked)
Lunch: rice, steak cooked rare and lots of fresh salad.
Steak: when I say rare, it is rare.
Afternoon snack: fresh salad, and smoked salmon.
Dinner: salmon, sweet potatoes and veggies.
Specific foods
The first specific food that plays a crucial role in my diet is sauerkraut. If you don’t know the benefits of sauerkraut, they include 1) the ability to increase your digestive health, stimulate the immune system, and eliminate inflammation, to name a few. It also provides good amounts of iron, which is essential for energy production. As a fermented food, sauerkraut comes with tons of good bacteria, similar to those found in yogurt and kefir. I found from personal experience that sauerkraut enhances my digestive system considerably and reduces the abdominal pain that I occasionally experienced.
Sugar is completely prohibited in the diet I follow. I don’t like sugary foods, so for me, it is not a big problem. The only thing that I love which contains some sugar is dark (high cacao) chocolate. Sadly, I can only eat a very small piece at night, after dinner. That is it.
Coffee is another thing that I must consume with a lot of moderation. Sadly, as a good Portuguese and Italian, I LOVE espresso, and it certainly is one of my biggest pleasures throughout the day. With this diet, I am reduced to one espresso a day (which I usually drink at breakfast or after lunch).
Dairy is completely removed from the diet. I don’t drink milk for about 4 years now, but I occasionally do eat one yogurt or another. With this diet, I will be removing every food that contains milk. I will replace this with almond or rice milk.
Supplements
This section goes over the various supplements I have successfully tried before and I will be integrating into my diet from May 1st on. The supplements include:
Breakfast: L-Tyrozine+Krill Oil+Vitamin D, Digestive Enzymes and Ginseng (I take this one: Ginseng from Now Foods).
Lunch: 5-HTP Plus, Digestive Enzymes, and Ginseng.
Dinner: 5-HTP Plus, Magnesium, Passiflora, and Ginseng.
I have also done cycles of the following supplements:
Antifungal supplements (at breakfast and dinner)
Probiotics (at breakfast – after the antifungal cycle)
Although not exactly a remedy, one thing that has been particularly effective for me, in fighting dizziness/vertigo, are heating pads. I typically apply these on my neck (both on the back of the neck and on the sides). I started to use heating pads because of muscle stiffness in my neck, but it has helped dramatically with dizziness. Whether there is a direct connection between my stiff neck and being dizzy I don’t know (although it could make sense).
Another great tool against dizziness is ginger and mint tea. I usually use a greater to prepare the ginger tea (it has to be really strong to be effective) and I usually drop a few organic mint leaves there. This list of home remedies against dizziness also recommends 1) deep breathing, 2) lemon and 3) Indian Gooseberry, among others. I will try to incorporate these and see whether they work for me.
Pressure Points (Acupressure)
Acupressure (see a definition on Wikipedia) is an alternative medicine technique with the same principles of acupuncture. The underlying idea is that energy flows through “meridians” in the body and it can be affected by specific points in the body. In particular, acupuncture points clearing blockages in these meridians. The pressure can be applied by hand, with your elbow or some specific devices.
My favorite thing about acupressure is that not only it doesn’t cost any money (because you can do it yourself), as it also produces results right away.
I do acupressure on a daily basis, between 1 and 3 times a day. I usually do the following routine: TE3, LI4, P6 (inner gate) and EX (third eye) – each of which for 5 seconds. On top of that, I press and massage the GB20 after my neck massage, every day before doing to bed. If you are not familiar with the points I mentioned, I recommend watching this youtube video by “The Chen Dynasty”:
I typically have no problems falling asleep. For many CFS sufferers, this is not the case. However, even though I get asleep pretty fast, the problem for me is that my sleep is often not refreshing. I remember the good old days when I felt tired, went to sleep and woke up magically refreshed again. It is not like that anymore. I often wake up exhausted and feel that my body slept but didn’t rest.
What works for me
I have found that what works for me is 1) to sleep about 7h30m-8h, 2) go to bed between 11 pm and 11.30 pm and 3) stick to the same sleeping schedule. If bedtime changes a lot, I run into a problem. The same way, if I go to bed after midnight, I feel my body doesn’t seem to rest as much.
On top of that, I think that meditating 5 minutes every day before going to sleep and applying acupressure works well. I also found out that massaging my neck is absolutely crucial for dizziness, so I will to that for 10 minutes before and after mediation. The best massages for me are lying down on my bed, with my head on a thick pillow and use my hands to massage my neck. As my head is on the pillow, there is space between my neck and the mattress, where I put my hands to massage the neck.
A good alternative is to sit on my bed, with my back straight, and apply this message:
At the end of it, I also apply acupressure as I massage the LV3 point. I prefer to apply a massage every day, for 5 minutes, than one every week for 2 hours.
Important disclaimer: The statements in this post have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). This blog and this post are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. Consult your physician before beginning any exercise or diet program.
If you found this post because of music lyrics, an idiom or any other reason, such as a book, this may disappoint you… this post was written because of a much better reason. You see, I want to retire early (in my 30s), and this post is all about early retirement. Get your espresso, chill out and enjoy the post.
Yesterday was Sunday, and Sundays are super special for me. These are the days when I truly experience freedom. I think of Early retirement and financial freedom as a lotta Sundays in a row, actually. 🙂
So here’s what my typical Sunday involves:
A properly cooked breakfast. I typically have a few eggs in the morning, with buttered toast and salad:
(this picture is from a hotel breakfast, but you get the idea).
I meditate for a long while. I typically meditate for about 5 minutes a day, but on Sundays, I extend that to 15-30 minutes, at least.
I try to watch a movie or a TV show episode (I love Shark Tank, for example).
If the weather’s good, I can also hike. 🙂
I go out for lunch (I LOVE Italian):
Meet up with friends for an espresso and some chilling:
Look up investments (I typically browse the internet for Real Estate deals and stocks).
Write blog posts, which takes a lotta time. Sunday is definitely the best day to write!
I have relaxing 30-min showers with essential oils.
I go for a run, at the end of the afternoon (if it is still warm), when the sun starts to set.
Some of these things are things I can only do on Sundays. It is funny that the expression “my Sunday best” which usually pertains to clothing is now becoming obsolete because fewer people go to the church (I am Christian but I usually don’t go to Church).
From April 1st, I will be starting to follow a variant of the Paleo diet, which I already presented before, and a completely new routine. I will post a truly comprehensive post on that soon, and it will be an aggregation of various “my Sunday best” routines, although with extremely fine instructions on what to eat, what to drink, when to sleep and a lot more.
What do you do to enjoy on Sundays? Let me know in the comments down below.
After my reflection on 2016, it is time to clearly and realistically define my goals for 2017.
I am working towards 2017 being one of the most productive years of my life. I want to work mostly on 4 different angles: my finances, my self-development, my health, and of course, my blog. So, without further due, where we go…
Today I will talk about a sensitive topic that some of you brought up either on the comments or by contacting me directly. The question that I get a lot is “what is really what you have, health-wise?”. In this post, I will address this, as this is the reason why I want to retire early.
OK, so before 2012 I was a super healthy dude. I use to feel great, energetic and fully functional. I was a dedicated (yet drug-free or “natural” as we call it) bodybuilder – to be point of considering competition! Use to run for miles day in day out and go to the gym every other day. I also had highly efficient brain activity, good performance at my work, and success with girls if that accounts for health 🙂 I am not a geek BTW. Many of you asked me whether I am a geek as I read a lot and I have a PhD and the answer is absolutely not. 🙂
