Back on the Path

It is a brand new world and things I wrote about in the last two posts have happened or almost happened. By that, I mean that our new President is Joseph Biden and history was made by electing Kamala Harris, the first women of African American and Asian descent, as our Vice President.  Great historic news!  Also, the biggest fear happened, a group of white nationalist, anti-Semitic, racists, literally stormed and almost took over the Capital building in Washington DC, on January 6th, 2021. These people created an insurrection that will be taught in high school and college history classes forever.  It was scary to watch in real time on television and Past President Donald J. Trump verbally led the charge.  He had a rally earlier in the day and suggested that he would be "by their side as they go and take back their country" and the rally attendees did exactly as was asked.  Congress conducted a formal "Second Impeachment Trial", to prevent the former president from ever attempting to run for office again. The vote was cast to acquit Past President Donald Trump after the Second Impeachment Trial. There remains strong supporters of citizens and members of our American Congress support Mr. Trump.  This is a scary moment in our history.  The state of Georgia "turned blue" and after the 2020 national election, the Georgia state legislature voted to meaningfully suppress the rights of voters.  Where in that state more people and people of color voted in two Democratic Senators in Congress. 

If you want more information, I encourage you to do your own research on the subject.  I just couldn't continue without adding a historical update.  What does this have to do with nutrition and spirituality you may ask?  Well, as we still are in the midst of a Covid Pandemic and while in some areas of the country Covid 19 vaccines have become more available, people are still putting on weight.  People are still getting Covid 19 and still dying from it.  Praying might be helpful right now if that is helpful to you.  Meditation is another form of prayer, if you do not affiliate with a particular deity, and taking a few deep breaths when you are feeling out of control may help too. 

My focus today is how to get "Back on the Path" or finding your way back to normal or what will be the new normal once mask restrictions are lifted.  I believe the first thing to focus on is your personal health.  Go to a physician and get a check up to see what is your current health situation for your age group.  Is your blood pressure normal, 120/80 mmHg, how about your HgbA1C, (Hemoglobin A1C) which is the three month check of your blood sugar average. The range for normal is below 5.7%, Prediabetes is 5.7-6.4% and Diabetes is 6.5% and above.  Most people don't know these values but as we get older or maybe because of the Pandemic, these numbers take on a greater importance.  Finally, go step on a scale.  I know I hate it too! But unless you know where your starting point is, you can't make a healthy diet plan to get where you need to be.  Most people have put on at least 10-20 pounds during the Pandemic.  We are all so scared and food has that lovely side effect of making us feel better.

Obviously, this is my blog and my opinion and you as the reader can disagree.  The Covid-19 Pandemic we are still going through has created levels of anxiety that many have not experienced before and those who have some issues with mental stress have seen their levels rise.  We are strong and can benefit from what we learned about ourselves and family and friends. If we try, we can use this new information to change our behavior and perhaps feel even better when we come out on the other side.  Let's hope so anyway.

Living in the Bubble of Covid-19

 Many things have happened this year of the Covid-19 Pandemic 2020.  We are nervously waiting as a country, while our citizens vote early, in the most important Presidential race of my lifetime.  I wish I was exaggerating, but unfortunately I am not.  Our current President, Donald J. Trump was elected in 2016 and won by something we call the Electoral College, which was added to the Constitution in 1804, created by the framers of the Constitution. as the 12th Amendment. This was created as an alternative to Presidents winning by popular vote. The framers created it because they didn't trust the vote of the people and wanted the President elected by "enlightened people".  This is the end of your history lesson, by me, the rest you will have to Google.  President Trump did not win the popular vote in 2016, in fact, former Secretary of State Hilary Clinton won the popular vote, who was running as a Democrat, that year.  In my opinion, our country is openly racist, anti-Semitic and anti-Immigrant among other qualities.  We have slowly, but surely, undermined the Middle Class, torn apart our unions, created a wealth class and have neglected impoverished communities. These measures have destroyed the world I grew up in, and that my grandparents and parents worked hard for, in order to give me opportunities, they never achieved.  I have to admit it felt good to get that out of my system.

The Corona virus is circulating our world and causing sickness and death without our medical scientific world's availability to stop it quickly and we don't understand why.  In fact, our current President has done everything in his power to deflect and disagree with the scientific data that could help reduce or slow down the spread of this epidemic.  Our President Trump, who loves to make deals, may have already made a deal with pharmaceutical companies for a vaccine, when it is ready, because he probably bets both ways.

 The sad part is many people do not believe that Covid exists and refuse to put on the mask, social distance and hand wash frequently as way to, hopefully, keep the virus at bay. You just have to read the Torah to learn about plagues.  We have had them before in Prehistoric villages of China, in Athens in 430 BC, the Black Death traveled from Asia to Europe 1346-1353 and then again in the 1500 and 1700's, in Philadelphia there was the Yellow Fever in 1793, the flu pandemic in 1889 and Polio in 1916, the Spanish Flu in 1918, Asian Flu in 1957-1958, the AIDS epidemic in 1981, H1N1 in 2009, again I turn you over to Google for a full description.  The point is that this is not new and we have been lured into the luxury of thinking this would never happen in out time.

Normally, I use this blog to share some comforting words or information to stay healthy or relate some biblical moment and make it relevant to today. But on this day, experiencing an election so close in vote count, in the midst of contentious "battle for the soul of America" to quote candidate Joe Biden. And the religious fundamentalism on the rise, perhaps due to fear from a generation in transition as we move from a white dominated world to a diverse and multiethnic world, I admit I am worried.  As we wait for final voting results, which may not happen for another week, Joe Biden has the lead and I pray that he becomes President of the United States of America.  And if he does there is no guarantee that anarchy won't rule the day.  Even this morning there are Anti-Semitic and racist protestors in the streets of the cities where we wait for the voting results, who don't believe a fair counting is occurring, and are ready to cause a riot.  Our current President condones this horrible civic behavior which is why he must be voted out.

I write this as a record for my children and grandchildren and their grandchildren to read so they know how I felt during this fretful time in our history.  I hope someday soon this will be just a brief, but horrible, moment in what has otherwise been a fun and fruitful life filled with loving family and friends.

Amen.

Nutrition and Spirituality: Tips for Maintaining a Healthy Diet and Lifestyle ...

Nutrition and Spirituality: Tips for Maintaining a Healthy Diet and Lifestyle ...: Many of us are under some kind of workplace restriction and our local government has asked us to participate in frequent hand washing with...

Tips for Maintaining a Healthy Diet and Lifestyle during this Covid 19 Pandemic

Many of us are under some kind of workplace restriction and our local government has asked us to participate in frequent hand washing with soap and water, as well as, social distancing which means keeping at least six feet away from other people. So, now we are working from home and adjusting to the new normal of conference calls, job stress, and coordinating learning plans from schools or watching younger children. This all leads to hunger as a way to calm down the anxiety of the situation, and often ends with overeating.

In the body, your hormones control your appetite. When high stress situations happen, we ultimately look to food for comfort, although other measures such as smoking, drinking and sex are tried.  Cortisol, the hormone made by the adrenal glands that sit on top of the kidneys, rises with increased stress. Eating foods high in fat and sugar are often the fastest way to calm us down and lowers these cortisol levels.  High insulin levels and ghrelin, a hormone secreted in the stomach, stimulates your appetite which increases food intake and promotes fat storage.  This makes you overeat.  

So what do we do to help ourselves?  Don’t panic! Get back to basics. Make sure you follow a healthy diet by eating plenty of fruits and vegetables. If chicken, beef or other meats are not available at the grocery stores, substitute protein sources with beans or tofu products. Eat whole grains and drink plenty of water to stay hydrated.  Sometimes you eat food when actually what your body is looking for is hydration. Slow down on treats but don’t feel bad if you do eat them.  These are rightfully extraordinary times and your body chemistry is just looking for a way to calm itself down.

Since the family is home, use this opportunity to cook meals together. Bring out the cookbooks and practice. Plenty of restaurant chefs are offering live cooking lessons on YouTube where you can learn tips and secrets.  It is easy to bake sweet treats, but as we follow the home quarantine over the long term, it will be better and healthier to cook or bake lower calorie items that can maintain your weight or help with weight loss.

 Finally, exercise at least 150 minutes per week and use meditation, yoga and strength training to keep your muscles toned. Socialization is equally important during this time so keep up with family and friends with conversations via group chats or by phone.  All these suggestions will help to calm you down and reduce the worry over when this pandemic will end. 

The Wonder of Being a Grandparent

Nobody told me what a wonderful joy it is being a grandparent. I mean, I have been watching my friends become grandparents and heard them talk and brag, but when it happens to you, if you are fortunate enough, well it is different. Even my friends who are Great Aunts and Great Uncles or even Great Friends or Relatives have shared their joy when a new family member enters their realm. It is again something else said by my mother and her relatives and friends that I ignored. I definitely need someone to look me in the eye and say "you won't appreciate this now, but you are going to love this!".  My defense is that I love being a parent and I don't want that world to end. The good news is that if you are paying attention your children really never stop needing you.

 The new joy of my life I call "Mr. Magnificent", because he is, and every time I get to see him or hug him I feel this sense of joy.  My guess is if you took my blood pressure at that time it would be lower than before.  This has been a crazy year which is partly why I noticed I haven't written a blog post in a long time.  The baby came in the spring and it was emotional as the generation shifted for my family.  I have been sick with colds and flu off and on over the change in the seasons.  I blame it on the daycare setting but it could be lots of things.  I haven't been able to exercise as much as I wanted due to being ill and my husband had surgery so I was stressed out with worry.  All of these things are lovely to complain about, but don't compare to other peoples situations, which are more serious, such as coping with cancer or losing a spouse. This also happened to people I know this year.

I am so used to saying goodbye to family and friends who are aging, that I am not doing a proper job of saying hello to the next stage in my life.  Recently, at synagogue, there is a congregant who turned 100 years old. After many speeches by the Rabbi and loved ones who saluted the birthday boy, it was his turn to make a speech.  He said that if you could imagine, turning 100 meant that he lost all of his friends from his past, and that he needed to figure out a way to make new friends. So he found a group at the synagogue that met daily, our morning minyan, a short morning service where people come to pray, remember or mourn a loved one and then eat a nice breakfast together.  The morning minyan is another ritual in Jewish life that many people take advantage of especially when they have lost a loved one or if their spirituality calls them to daily prayer. The breakfast is an added bonus and if you are a regular minyan goer you develop heartfelt relationships with others who attend. For some people it helps them start off their day.  As another friend of mine, who is ten years older told me says, it gives him a reason to get out of bed in the morning.

Routines and traditions are important to create and to share with the next generation.  Eventually, our grandchildren will not be babies anymore, and you have limited time to make your impression on them, good or bad. Passover at Bubbies or going to shul with Grandpa are some ways of instilling memory, as well as, talking about your past. There are apps to record stories such as Storycorp.com that are simple to use and allow families to record family oral histories of grandparents to save or add to genealogical family records. These stories can be shared with their children and grandchildren.  Not everyone is lucky to have happy memories to share, so it is important to recognize the time when it is your turn to start a new tradition, routine or ritual.  You can change the direction of memory from negative to positive by starting a new tradition of your own. Host a holiday dinner, plan a vacation together or even just a regular meal. These events will make a lasting impression for everyone. Better yet, combine the best remembered parts of the past and update them to the future.  Happy New Year and I wish everyone health and happiness!

A Winter's Day, Memories, Mood and Diet

Looking out my window this morning I see a snowfall that poems are written about. Slow fat snowflakes falling onto tree branches which are coated with a fluffy white so beautiful that you see them in  artists paintings.  This puts me in a good mood and I haven't even left the bed yet.  I take a picture of this beautiful scene to look at again in the future and remind me of this quiet, pleasant moment.  Why is taking this moment to observe the scene so important you might wonder?  Well, for me, I have a childhood memory of my mother and I taking a rest on her bed and looking out the window of our home when I was a child.  It was quiet time for both of us from our busy lives.  My mother worked every day, most years, and didn't get the luxury of being a "stay at home" mom.  So usually at the end of a day, before dinner, we would have "quiet time" and cuddle and talk about the past or the future.

 We lived on a busy street corner and watch the cars go by.  Some cars would go really fast and make wild turns.  One time a car lost control and ran up the lawn before stopping suddenly and moving on.  Mostly though, we would notice color or not notice anything at all, and comment on the weather, if it were raining or snowing.  I miss my family time as a child, I can't deny it.

 I am now in what I call the grandparent generation, as it becomes my turn to move into that role in the spring.  I have cleaned out closets and drawers lately, and found old archival oral history recordings of family members, now deceased, that I recorded years ago. I hear them with a new ear for the small details of their family life, that I paid no attention to when I first heard them.  I feel like it is the wisdom from ages past.  Our meals back then were mostly high fat, salt and sugar laden foods and some family members smoked cigarettes and drank wine and liquor with no limits.  Many relatives died young or way before their time.  I think about it all.

Winter is a complicated season for many people.  Holidays become an emotional roller coaster depending upon the family relationships.  When I was actively seeing patients for nutrition counseling about ten years ago, I had patients tell me that their eating changes were often sabotaged by jealous family members who did not want to see my client succeed.  I learned that many family's had members placed in roles.  The successful one, the thin one, the fat one, the jokester, the idiot, etc.  So when my client was successful in dropping weight or bringing healthy changes to the family dinner, they were made fun of, and to fit in, had to cheat on their diet to survive. It occurs with other unhealthy habits like drinking alcohol, smoking and drug use, too. Seeing a physician for help is a must for these situations.

 Today it seems the reverse.  I know my holiday meals look nothing like they did when I was a child or even five years ago and though we are not vegan yet, it is a much different table.  We definitely have many dietary choices such as low sodium, vegetarian and gluten free available at our holiday now. The changes are welcome and now I cannot eat some of the family favorites because my tastes have evolved.  Staying healthy is a full time job as we age.  As a nutritionist, I say this often and will as many times as necessary, along with dietary changes comes exercise at least 30-45 minutes a day, 5-7 days per week.  Meditation or yoga as often as you can and strength training 1-2 times per week.  Putting together a plan for a healthier you for the new year is important!  If you haven't had a physical exam and have your blood pressure taken in a while, now might be a good time to do that.

Well, out my window now the snow has stopped and the sun is starting to come out.  I see a blue sky and the snow is melting off of the tree branches.  I believe it is time to get outside and smell the fresh air.  It is time to exercise and plan for some family fun this weekend. To make new memories for my family to share. I hope you do the same! Happy Holidays and Happy New Year!

Distraction and Noise

I am a people watcher. I always was since I have been a young child.  I learn from watching how others behave and then decide if that behavior would work for me, or not.  It goes along with my love of history.  I believe strongly that you have to learn from the past, so you do not repeat the mistakes.  Being Jewish and hearing the stories of my grandparents and parents, we, along with other immigrant children learned of the treacherous paths our families tread to provide us with a safer life in a new land, America.  We enjoy a quiet peaceful life, for the most part.  I worry that very slow and subtle changes to the world we know, not only here in United States, but overseas, where we traveled as a family for two weeks, throughout Europe, are happening.  I can use my vote as an American to speak for me, but I cannot help but worry for the future, at least at this moment in time. That is how I feel about what is going on in our world today.

What does this have to do with nutrition you ask?  Stress is actually a large factor in your health.  There is a medical relationship between stress and the body's ability to keep blood values at normal levels.  Medical research has identified inflammation as a reaction to elevated stress levels and many conditions are related to this inflammation, such as heart disease, diabetes and high blood pressure, among others.  What does this have to do with distraction and noise?  The distraction is the daily worry every time one reads a paper, turns on the news, or even has a conversation with family or friends.  The noise is the internet constantly intruding in your life with hourly teases of something potentially important, but often, not important at all.  The answer, of course, is to turn off your phone or turn down the sound.  Easy to say but hard to do.

I can tell you I was not raised this way.  I do not have the skill set to take it all in and try to maintain my center.  I love vacations that have no internet access. Even that is changing, as on my last trip. I was the one who arranged international internet availability.  I felt it was necessary for emergency access, and, of course, my internet carrier made it quite convenient to do so.  I used it to keep in touch with the news from home.  I admit, it calmed me down as we enjoyed a nine hour flight to Zurich.  I downloaded podcasts and listened to them as I fell asleep for several hours.  I used to watch movies or, god forbid, read a book, but listening to stories of the news did the trick.  Maybe I have changed. 

 Medical science suggests that to help keep a healthy brain you need to learn new things as you get older.  I recently turned sixty and attend classes at the local college center for seniors.  I have been doing this for years, and I am usually the youngest in my classes.  That means everyone else is in their 70's, 80's and 90's, and all healthy.  These are some of the smartest people I have ever met.  In their working life they were physicians, attorneys, business owners and regular working class people who somehow lucked out on the health game.  I want to be them when I grow up.  Every time I take a class thinking it's going to be boring, I eventually learn something new and then find out that these people already knew it.  

I also hang out with the Millennial's, those in their 20's and 30's.  I can't help it, four of them belong to me, and they have friends.  They are also very brilliant and also physicians, attorneys, future business owners and regular working class people.  I admit it. Our trip to Europe wouldn't have happened or gone along so smoothly if it weren't for them.  I mean, to take a land tour as thoroughly as we did, with all the trains, planes, trams, buses and boats we took.  We flew five separate airlines and stayed in four different hotels.  I believe I finally got to experience the European trip I could never afford when I was in college.  I thank my kids for the experience and I hope we do it again sometime.

The Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah, is a month or so away and I want to make a deal with myself, to take the time, and cut out some of the noise and distraction in my life.  Give myself permission to sit down and take a break.  We had a busy year last year. I recommend to you to do the same, and while you are at it, go get regular check ups. It is necessary, and important, no matter how old you are.  Here is the spirituality part of the story. Distraction and noise equals stress. Elevated levels of stress translates into disease no matter how healthy of a diet you are following. Of course regular exercise is part of the lifestyle, and if you are dragging your feet, you should start today.  But, stuff happens, even to the health gurus, so try to include some quiet time off the grid.  I will keep following my senior friends to figure out their secrets and hopefully the Millennial's will follow me.  Here is to a very long and quiet life!