What I've learned since moving to D.C. (some of which should be obvious): 0091

4501.  When power napping, don’t sleep for more than 20 minutes.  You don’t want to enter R.E.M. sleep;

4502.  The 20-minute power nap (sometimes called the stage 2 nap) is good for alertness and motor learning skills like typing and playing the piano;

4503.  Try drinking a cup of coffee before a 20-minute power nap.  The caffeine should hit you about the time you wake up;

4504.  Don’t wear boxer shorts when doing yoga.  They can ride up and be (very) uncomfortable;

4505.  I (actually) sleep better using a sleep mask.  Who knew?

4506.  Declutter you counters: A messy counter can actually compel you to eat more, according to a study released last year that Dr. Brian Wansink, author of Slim by Design, co-authored.  The researchers found that women with messy kitchens – think: newspapers, dishes, bills and more – ate twice as many cookies and snacks as women in a kitchen with clear counters who had access to the same snacks.  Further study showed the difference seemed to be tied to how stressed the women felt – a disorganized kitchen led to out-of-control eating;

4507.  Store special kitchen tools or appliances: You may love your vintage Kitchen Aid mixer or custom Bundt pan collection, but these items can draw you to special occasion foods more than everyday healthy choices.  Hide them, store them or move them to the basement.  As you declutter your countertop, only keep appliances on hand that will make healthy eating easier, such as the blender for smoothies.  And ditch the easily accessible toaster: Wansink’s studies found that men in households with a toaster on the counter weigh an average of four pounds more than their neighbors who hide this common appliance;

4508.  You can display a fruit bowl: In Wansink’s research, people with cereal, soda and other snacks displayed on their counters weighed, on average, 20 pounds more than those who kept no food out.  On the other hand, he found that putting fruit in a nice bowl, conveniently located, increased how much kids take by as much as 104 percent;

4509.  Eat dinner off your salad plates: Wansink’s studies show that the bigger the plate, the more we fill it and the more we eat – up to 22 percent more.  Aim to use salad plates in the 9- to 10-inch range, which you can fill with a more reasonable portion.  But you shouldn’t go below 9 inches, either: “At that point you know you are fooling yourself and you go back for seconds or thirds or fourths,” Wansink says.  The same rule applies for serving spoons (a bigger scoop can add up to 14 percent more food) and bowls too;

4510.  Swap your rocks glasses for highballs: The same logic for plates applies to your glasses too.  Wansink found that people perceive tall, thin glasses as holding more than short, wide glasses even when they actually hold the same volume.  As a result, people poured (and then consumed) almost 30 percent more when using the short glasses. “Opt for the illusion of the tall glass and don’t pour all the way to the top,” he suggests.  Make your taller, thinner glasses your everyday drinkware;

4511.  Retire your serving bowls for everyday dinners: Big serving bowls on the dinner table for family-style eating only invite us to consume more, Wansink says.  “On average, people eat 20 percent more of any food served off of the table than served off of [the] counter or stove,” he says.  Serve any higher calorie food in the kitchen onto individual plates.  That doesn’t mean you need to toss out all of your beautiful serving pieces – use them for special occasions when you expect to indulge or for everyday meals, where you can serve salads or light vegetable sides family-style.  Even better?  Repurpose those dinner plates as vegetable platters;

4512.  Pull your grandmother’s cookbooks out of storage: It’s no surprise that portion sizes have gotten larger over the years; in fact, Wansink discovered that calorie counts in the Joy of Cooking increased by 44 percent per serving over the past 70 years and seven editions.  “If you need to use a modern cookbook, think half,” he says.  “Make it and put half in the freezer before dinner starts;”

4513.  Haul your Costco busy to the basement: Studies show that we eat half of what we purchase within the first week of buying it, and if we buy bulk, well . . . you do the math.  So if you buy large quantities for the cash savings (or the hungry teenagers in your house), put what you need right away in the pantry and then move the extras deep in storage.  Consider a “kids only” snack drawer out of reach of your regular path through the kitchen.  Another idea is to take bulk and items and break them into small, single serving packages;

4514.  Play hide and seek with your food: Wansink says we eat what we see.  Reorganize so your dishes are stored in any glass cupboards and then move food and snacks behind closed doors.  He also recommends hiding any unhealthy foods in foil or in opaque containers, since leftovers wrapped in plastic or in clear containers get eaten faster.  Place healthier choices, like crudités, in glass containers, since you’ll be more likely to reach for those first.  And if you find yourself digging into your pantry multiple times a day, consider moving it to another spot altogether (if it’s practical), such as an old coat closet, basement or anywhere that requires you to walk a little further to get to food.  “We keep all of our snacks in the laundry room,” Wansink says.  “If we want a snack, we know where to find them, but it’s not as easy as trolling through the cupboards;”

4515.  Of all of the packaged food in the grocery store, 74% are spiked with sugar;

4516.  There are 56 names for sugar;

4517.  (American) teenagers consume on average 30-41 teaspoons of (total) sugar per day;

4518.  Palates that are conditioned for higher levels of sweetness, crave more of them;

4519.  I (quite) like the fruit & nut bread at Society Fair (SocietyFair.net) in (Old Town Alexandria).  It’s like raisin bread on crack;

4520.  The day after a (Washington) Nationals win and save, you can bring in your ticket stub to (a) Chick-fil-A for a free chicken sandwich;

4521.  You can make Skittles-infused vodka by (simply) putting your favorite Skittles flavor in a jar with vodka and letting them dissolve.  (Who knew?)  Blend the mixture with ice and Sprite/club soda. . . . Enjoy;

4522.  Thoughts that generate bad feelings are resistant thoughts.  Any thought that puts a barrier between what you would like to have and your ability to attract it into your life is resistance;

4523.  Stress doesn’t exist in the world.  There are only people thinking stressful thoughts;

4524.  Stressful thoughts all by themselves are a form of resistance.  You don’t want stressful, resistant thoughts to be your habitual way of reacting to your world.  By practicing thoughts of minimal resistance, you’ll train yourself to make this your natural way of reacting and eventually you’ll become the tranquil person you desire to be, a stress-free person free of the “dis-ease” that stress brings to the body;

4525.  You always have options.  In every situation, you can choose how you are going to deal with it and how you are going to feel about it;

4526.  Wherever you find yourself in your life, whatever the circumstances, you can make the situation into a learning or growing experience and you can choose not to be emotionally immobilized;

4527.  You may find it much easier, albeit far more self-destructive, to give in to adversity and become a victim of your sour feelings.  But if you are effective enough at not having victim expectations, you can also work at turning misfortune around and even making it work in your favor.  The cornerstone of your attitude must be alertness for taking advantage of your situations, making your expectations revolve around wanting to emerge as a non-victim and looking hard for the right kind of opportunity.  Even if the opportunity does not surface, you can keep your attitude positive so that your glumness does not blind you to potential advantage;

4528.  You are the product of what you choose for yourself in every life situation.  You do have the capacity to make healthy choices for yourself by changing your attitude to one of creative aliveness.  By being ever alert for turning adversity around, by improving your attitudes and expectations for yourself and by fearlessly implementing risk-taking alternatives, you’ll soon be gratified by the way your life can take a turn for the better.  Be fully alive while you’re here on this planet; you’ll have an eternity to experience the opposite after you leave;

4529.  You only live once, so you should live this life to the fullest.  Be the best you can possibly be.  And don’t let anyone or anything stand in your way;

4530.  And there’s one other incredibly important (yet often forgotten) element: Planning for the future.  If I’ve only got one life to live, I’m going to think about the future.  To put it bluntly, planning for the future is the difference between success and failure in life.  And it’s not that planning instantly makes you successful.  It doesn’t.  It’s that not planning means you have no goal in mind; no target to aim for; no bar to hold yourself to;

4531.  If you could succeed without risking failure, it wouldn’t be meaningful;

4532.  If you’d rather stay in your comfort zone than have a shot at living your dream life, there’s nothing anyone can do to help you;

4533.  Life, and not just any life, your life, is moving forward whether you’re ready or not;

4534.  You need to decide what you want out of life; not the specifics; the big picture.  Planning ahead is about the intangible side of things.  It’s about thinking and knowing what really matters to you.  What does matter to you?  If you can’t instantly answer that, you’ve got a lot to think about;

4535.  When you’d rather fail than not try at all, you know you’re on the right track;

4536.  Almost half of borrowers with F.I.C.O. (credit) scores below 550 became 90 days delinquent at least once during a mortgage;

4537.  The lowest F.I.C.O. (credit) scores you can get a loan with is between 560 and 580;

4538.  For a person with a F.I.C.O. (credit) score of 800 or better, only 2 out of 10,000 became delinquent on their mortgage;

4539.  Lenders began to take a closer look at F.I.C.O. (credit) scores and this is what they found: 1.  F.I.C.O. score: 595 – Odds of a 90-day delinquent account: 2.25 to 1; 2.  F.I.C.O. score: 615 – Odds of a 90-day delinquent account: 9 to 1; 3.  F.I.C.O. score: 630 – Odds of a 90-day delinquent account: 18 to 1; 4.  F.I.C.O. score: 645 – Odds of a 90-day delinquent account: 36 to 1; 5.  F.I.C.O. score: 660 – Odds of a 90-day delinquent account: 72 to 1;  6.  F.I.C.O. score: 680 – Odds of a 90-day delinquent account: 144 to 1; 7.  F.I.C.O. score: 700 – Odds of a 90-day delinquent account: 288 to 1; and 8.  F.I.C.O. score: 780 – Odds of a 90-day delinquent account: 576 to 1;

4540.  Every 20 points of a F.I.C.O. (credit) score affects your interest rate about 1/8^th of a point;

4541.  Some of the things that affect your F.I.C.O. (credit) score: 1.  Delinquencies; 2.  Too many accounts opened within the last 12 months; 3.  Short credit history; 4.  Balances on revolving credit are near the maximum limits; 5.  Public records, such as tax liens, judgments or bankruptcies; 6.  No recent credit card balances; 7.  Too many recent credit inquiries; 8.  Too few revolving accounts; and 9.  Too many revolving accounts;

4542.  Borrowers with credit scores over 740 get the best interest rates.  For each reduction of 20 points, the interest rate increases by approximately 0.125%;

4543.  What your F.I.C.O. (credit) score takes into consideration: 1.  Payment history – 35%; 2.  Amounts owed – 30%; 3.  Length of credit history – 15%; 4.  New credit – 10%; and 5.  Types of credit used – 10%;

4544.  A mortgage issuer would ideally like to see: A)  1 mortgage; B)  1 line of credit (if you own a house); C)  1-2 car loans; D)  1 MasterCard or Visa (card); and E)  1 American Express card;

4545.  One credit inquiry will usually take less than 5 points off a credit score;

4546.  3 steps to credit improvement: 1.  Pay all your bills on time (i.e., payment history makes up 35% of your F.I.C.O. (credit) score); 2.  Keep revolving balances low – ideally to 30% or less of your available credit; and 3.  Only open new credit when you need it;

4547.  Higher starting credit scores and first-time negative actions have significant credit score impact;

4548.  The greatest credit score impact occurs in the first month following the action;

4549.  Scoring impact from negative actions diminishes over time and with improved, sustained behavior;

4550.  Late payments on larger, secured debt (i.e., mortgage) are generally more consequential to a credit score than late payments on smaller, unsecured debt (i.e., credit card);