Hi Or.
There is a lot to take in, but I find the process similar to seeing a panoramic vista. It all just sort of starts to click together if you don't try too hard, and just enjoy the view.
I'm very happy that you found some value and motivation from sharing my experiences with nutrition. If you want any specific information, just let me know.
I've also found meditation to be helpful, but am still inconsistent in doing it regularly. Usually when I need to be doing it the most, is when I don’t. Yoga, i’ve very little experience with. Limited to the shoulder stand in the tutorials, and the corpse pose I’ve got mastered. Just don’t ask me to stretch too much.
It can be difficult, when you see loved ones struggling and not being able to help. There is a woman very dear to me, with early onset dementia. She trusts and respects me a great deal, and I’ve shared some ideas slowly and gently with her that she may find of some benefit and she has incorporated some of these ideas. However early on, I tried to share too much too quickly and this was worse than doing nothing, as it did raise her anxiety to a high degree despite my intent. Looking back now, I see that in her mind I was telling her just how much she was doing ‘wrong’ and had been doing wrong her whole life, and even how she had raised her kids wrong. I of course never intentionally implied any of this, but that is likely how she unconsciously felt.
So now, while she still has several servings of ‘healthy’ cereal products, she has cut out the milk, added coconut oil, Uridine and other supplements, and more importantly, she enjoys interacting with me again. I think it’s important to remember that no matter how much we believe we know, or how much we believe we are right, we must always accept that we can be wrong. It is always up to the individual.
RE: “ and approach the person with calm, presenting truthful and logical facts. “ this is the very behaviour that will expose an agent. (Nothing confuses a politician faster than truth, but don’t try to use logic as they seem to have an impenetrable shield against it.)
RE:“my mind is dim and incapable during the early day” this describes me perfectly.
Generally I like to wake up around 9 or 10 , and stay up late, and it’s not as bad when I get up late. Giving up coffee certainly helped,
But, one hack that really worked incredibly well for me was giving up light late at night. Your circadian rhythm set by light hitting special receptors in your eye, and your night time hormonal cascade is initiated by going for about 4-6 hours without light of a particular frequency. If you use no light at dusk, no tv, no computer, no phone/tablet/ etc. for a few nights, you will become very tired earlier, and sleep very soundly. I now wake up naturally at 6-7am with my mind quite refreshed. If you can’t give up light entirely, you can use dim incandescent light to read by. Or, what I did was get some amber glasses to wear that block out that particular light frequency.
If you are interested in the biology, some key words are
melanopsin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melanopsin ,
SCN https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suprachiasmatic_nucleus,
melatonin and cAMP http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14985420
in all, Welcome aboard the bridge of your Starship!
Robert