Thursday, May 30, 2013

Omaha is My Homaha...

I’ve lived here close to 14 years. Longer than I’ve lived anywhere – except where I grew up. It doesn’t have much to do with how long I’ve lived here though; it felt like home almost as soon as we got here. It probably  felt like that because we were coming from the panhandle of Florida – as far away from Middle America as one can get. I have nothing against the Deep South and I still love to visit...I just don’t want to live there.

I feel this profound sense of belonging here mostly upon my return from somewhere else. We visited my family at the farm in SD this last week-end. It was the perfect mix of ‘going home’ and ‘coming home.’ The ‘coming home’ was accentuated by the exhaustion of the activity while we were gone and the drive (10 hours each way) that can get to anyone. As we drove into town and took the 680 exit, we saw ‘big city’ off to the left – a term we’ve stolen from the cartoon Oswald. Allison has called downtown Omaha ‘big city’ since she was about three. We call it that now, too.

Then we saw the red light towers – five of them right south of Immanuel Hospital – my guideposts when Rich was in rehab there for 6 weeks after his surgery. From the dining area on his floor, I could see the red light tower by our home and wonder when we’d finally be there.

Our big kids graduated from High School here, learned to drive, learned to live and love here. They all feel more at home here than anywhere they’ve ever lived. It’s a good place to live and raise kids – which is really what it’s all about for me.

Finally, we got to our exit at Gretna where we have an Atlas Van Lines building. Allison says she knows that’s our exit because it has the “At last” building by it. I was thinking the same thing baby girl – “at last!” 


"Big City"

Wednesday, May 29, 2013

The Great Chocolate Detox

It starts with awareness, I suppose. The awareness that I treat chocolate like I imagine an addict treats heroin or any other drug of choice. It’s the craziest thing but I’ve discussed it with others who have the same vice and the same behavior issues with it. I’ve read about the dopamine receptors in our brains that are responsible for this phenomenon. I know I’m not alone.

If awareness is the start, attention and observation are what come next. Because you’ve developed this awareness, you can’t devour chocolate anymore – at least not in the mindless frenzy you’re used to. Attention and observation bring you in for a closer look. They tell you things like – “Your stomach hurts after you eat chocolate” and “Less than an hour after you eat chocolate, you crash.” Exhaustion is no fun. Neither is a bellyache. If both of these things are a direct result of eating chocolate – then it would stand to reason that chocolate is no fun.

Enter abstinence. As a rule, I’m a proponent of sanely governed moderation. I’d say abstinence, when applied to any one type of food, will result in a period of “white-knuckling” it followed by a ridiculous binge. I don’t think I’ve ever tried abstinence before though (you can’t really count gluten as I have gluten-free substitutes for most anything). I’ve abstained from chocolate for three weeks and I feel great! I have no more cravings, no roller coaster ride of manic energy followed by debilitating exhaustion, no countdown until the next time I have chocolate. I feel even, balanced and healthy.

It’s not that I’ll never eat chocolate again. For the love of Pete, I’m not an extremist! I just need to figure out how and when I can be sane with it. What’s your food vice? How do you control it?


Photo courtesy of funscrape.com

Monday, May 20, 2013

All-the-way Worth It!

I attended a Wellness Conference in Nebraska City last weekend. It was so good despite the fact that it was on my 5th and 6th days of work last week! There were many great presenters but the most profound voice for me came from Dr. Edward Phillips from the Harvard Center for Lifestyle Medicine.

He doesn’t have a story like some of the rest of us – an “aha” moment that made him turn his life around and get healthy. He’s just had a passion for overall health and wellness as a public health issue throughout his career.

To keep it simple, he says, there are three main things we need to do to stay healthy throughout our lives:

  1. Eat 35 servings of fruits and vegetables (or legumes) per week
  2. Get 150 minutes of physical activity per week
  3. Don’t smoke

These three simple things, in studies, did as much as a coronary stent to treat heart disease! Yet, I didn’t do 2/3 of them for SO many years. I had alot of company – as the graph below demonstrates; only 5% of the country, according to the CDC, adheres to all three of these basic recommendations. Just five percent makes me wince. What are we doing?

Sadly, what we seem to be doing instead is building into our hospitals bariatric accessible bathrooms, purchasing bariatric scales, carts and beds, teaching bariatric sensitivity classes, selling more hover-rounds, teaching surgeons how to perform bariatric surgery, paying for pharmaceutical companies to develop medications to not only treat obesity but the Type 2 Diabetes that is directly correlated to it. Medical spending associated with obesity-related diseases topped out at $147 BILLION dollars in 2012. The rapidly rising rate of obesity and the sequelae that follow are bankrupting our country. We’re doing it to ourselves.

I’ve had my “aha” moment, so these days, I easily get 210 minutes of physical activity per week. I still don’t smoke. I can sometimes struggle with 5 servings per day of fruits and vegetables. I consistently get 3-4 servings per day so bumping that up to five shouldn’t be hard, especially in the summer and fall.

All of this can increase the amount of money we spend on groceries. Overall, though, it will decrease the amount of money spent in healthcare costs for our families. We will be able to work until we choose not to, and our lives will be more enjoyable, active and rewarding; more the life we’ve always envisioned.

As I’ve learned through the last couple of years, changing your life is all about being a problem-solver – if you see a barrier, find a way to get around it. For instance, are you embarrassed to take a packed lunch onto a plane? It would be more embarrassing to be unable to fit in the seat. Harness the power of your mind like this and put it to work for you!

While you’re working on the harness, pack your brain with as much information as you can. There are people out there doing this right – ask them questions. Find out what they do – how do they find balance and good health? Read everything you can. Start with the great websites below but continue searching on your own – send me websites or books that have moved you. I need all the help I can get!

The bottom line is that it is our responsibility to care for this one body we were gifted. It’s not easy. But it’s all-the-way worth it!











Monday, May 13, 2013

Twice Baked Deliciousness

Twice baked potatoes…is there anyone who doesn’t love them? I enjoy loaded baked potatoes, as I’ve said before. These are basically the same thing, just smushed all together but my family thinks I worked some kind of magic with these. Like some of my best recipes, I made them by accident. I planned a loaded baked potato bar for family dinner last night. As it turned out, everyone but me preferred to have left-overs from the taco bar we had Saturday night…we’re obviously into the “bar” concept around here.

Regardless, I had five baked potatoes left-over and a turkey tenderloin in the fridge. I looked up a recipe for twice baked potatoes, altered it a bit and in 40 minutes, we had a great weekday dinner on the table. We also had a dinner that didn't feel restrictive. I didn't feel deprived or left out. I love that! 

These potatoes could go with just about any kind of meat – even grilled meat. I bet you could roll them in foil and put them on the grill so you don’t heat up the house in the summer months. I’ll be giving that a try sometime soon.

Twice Baked Potatoes

5 Baked Potatoes
½ cup milk
5 tbsp sour cream
5 tbsp canola butter
2.5 oz shredded cheddar cheese
Salt and pepper to taste

Topping
1.5 oz shredded cheddar cheese
70 grams real bacon bits

Use left-over baked potatoes or bake the potatoes in a 375 degree oven for 1 hour. Cut the potatoes in half, lengthwise. Scoop out most of the potato (leaving a little to stabilize the “shell”) and place in a mixing bowl. Place the shells in a shallow baking pan. To the potatoes, add: milk, sour cream, butter, cheese, salt and pepper. Mix with a hand mixer until smooth. Scoop the back into the shells. Top each with cheese and bacon bits and bake at 375 degrees for 20 minutes.

Nutrition Facts for one shell (half of a potato): 
  • Calories: 189
  • Fat: 9.6
  • Carbs: 18.9
  • Fiber: 1.5
  • Protein: 8.9


Sunday, May 12, 2013

Happy Mother's Day!

“There is an instinct in a woman to love most her own child – and an instinct to make any child who needs her love, her own.” ~ Robert Brault

I was a young mother. I was married, attending nursing school and twenty-one years old. I’ve always known I wanted to be a mother. I was in a hurry to get on with it and so was my then-husband who wanted children before the age of thirty. Like most first-time mothers, I had no idea what I was doing. It was on-the-job training.

My immaturity made me pretty uptight with those first two children. We had them 12 months and 7 days apart. Add my age, the last two years of nursing school, and an unstable marriage to the mix and you have a recipe for (if not disaster) chaos. That’s what the first years of their lives felt like to me and I wish, knowing what I know now, I could go back and fix it for them. But, I’m trying to move past regret and living in the past, knowing all I can fix is today and living in the comfort of the words of Maya Angelou: “When you know better, you do better.”

Remember having that first child? That expansive love was a little overwhelming. When the next child is on the way, you wonder, “How can I possibly love another as much as I love this one?” The miracle of that second child is you realize there is immeasurable, expansive love in your heart, undiminished by the number of children and/or people you welcome into your life.

I have explained to my children, when they’ve asked who I love more, that I love them differently. I’m not sure they completely understand yet. It’s not that I love any one of them less than the other. I (and every other mother) have to make adjustments for personality and temperament. While one child will be reduced to tears with a harsh tone, the other may be oblivious to the fact that you’ve even spoken. They require a different approach.

Mothering from different maturity levels has been an eye-opening experience for me. There’s so much I used to be uptight about that doesn’t actually matter at all: messy faces, spilled anything, and opinions that differ from my own. I feel less like an authoritarian and more like a vessel; more like a guide through their lives which, I now realize, are very much their own.

Mothering has expanded in me to many different people – my step-daughter, my children’s friends, and younger friends of my own. It comes so naturally to me to be a caretaker and mother. I’ve come from a long line of incredible mothers. I’ve befriended some great mothers. I’ve learned so much from all of them. I continue to learn how to mother and have found that the best teachers are my children. I listen to their needs and wants; respond by giving all I can, guiding the way, holding them up, providing a foundation and a launching pad. Many times they don’t listen, like I didn’t.

Even if they aren't listening, my hope is that my unconditional love is written on their hearts and souls and that it will be a constant for them throughout their lives. I am so grateful to pass the legacy of unconditional love on to them.


Our perfect patchwork family

Wednesday, May 8, 2013

...a Little Stitious

Are you superstitious? I don’t really think I am, but I have avoided a black cat who was going to cross my path on more than one occasion, I don’t walk under ladders and I will lament the coming 7 years of bad luck if I break a mirror. The reason I ask is I was reticent to write this post because I didn’t want to jinx myself! Okay, so maybe I am superstitious…a little.

Over the last few years my prescription for healing my life has been exercise with daily measurable improvement, eating good food in the right quantities, getting 7-8 hours of sleep every night, and focusing on gratitude for at least 10 minutes every day. The last four days have been a perfect effort. They’re a testament to how quickly I can feel revitalized. Running and walking out in the sunshine have played a big part in how great I feel, too.

Every time this happens – this hitting my stride – I wonder, “How can I hold onto this?” Every time I’ve responded, “This won’t be hard. Just look at how good you feel! You wouldn’t sacrifice this for anything!” But then I do. Which has lead me to believe that I can’t really be trusted. And if I can’t trust myself then who CAN I trust?

The one thing that’s different this time is I’ve cut out chocolate. I don’t typically have problems controlling the portions of any other food. Chocolate has become a slippery slope to MORE chocolate. It’s become an unhealthy coping mechanism. I’ve replace that afternoon sweet treat with strawberries which are fantastic right now. I have to admit, it hasn’t been much of a sacrifice.

Cutting out chocolate may be the long-term answer for me. More possibly, this will be a lifetime effort – tweaking this or that for what works at any given time. I like the first answer better – it’s more definitive, less messy; easier. The great news is we can all try and try again to get it right. We have a choice every day to really live our lives, not just go through the motions. If you’re feeling exhausted from poor food choices and lack of exercise - fix it. It’ll only take a few days and you’ll feel so much better.

Since I’m only a little superstitious, I’m taking the chance that this may jinx me. Instead, I hope it helps motivate me and maybe some of you as well! 


Photo courtesy of: indugly.com

Friday, May 3, 2013

Goodbye: Switzerland & Chocolate

There's been alot of talk about Switzerland lately. About now everyone is thinking, "There has?" and wondering what they missed. Those who work closely with me know. I like to BE Switzerland and I remind them of that often. I like people to do their work with minimal drama, ask for help when they need it and come back the next day and do the same thing. This happens with some - not many and certainly not all. I've told you before, though, that I work in an Emergency Department and I work in this Emergency Department as one of the problem-solvers.

As much as I'd like to deny it, Switzerland's not going to be very effective as a problem-solver and change agent. My boss has been pushing me out of Switzerland for the last few weeks and I've been tip-toeing out a bit on my own. Okay, really I've just been sticking my toe out to test the temperature of the less passive, more diplomatic land across the border. These things make a lifelong peacemaker very uncomfortable. And when I get uncomfortable, I run for my drug of choice: chocolate. As many of you may already know - chocolate helps with NOTHING.

One of my recent "aha moments" came at a Domestic Violence Council breakfast celebration I attended earlier this week. The guest speaker was Chief Judge Shaun R. Floerke from Duluth, MN where they apparently deal with this Domestic Violence stuff right. His speech was great but it really hit me when he started talking about the cooperation it takes to move a program. He talked about how you have to leave your personal feelings out of it and ask those difficult questions to gain a better understanding of the people who are giving you trouble. It was one of those moments where I thought he was talking specifically to me. I had one of those difficult conversations as soon as I got back to work that morning.

That makes three difficult conversations in about ten days. They all went better than I had imagined and/or expected. What I've been reminded of - because I already knew it - is you don't have be Switzerland to be kind - you don't have to be a jerk to get your point across. You don't have to sacrifice any moral, ethical or professional standards in order to come to a compromise. Asking, "What can I do to make this work?" goes a really long way to building valuable bridges of cooperation. And a new level of mutual respect can be reached after open, honest conversations take place.

I'm moving forward in the hope that a more proactive, diplomatic approach in all areas of my life will serve me well. Switzerland will have to be just a beautiful place I'd like to visit one day. As for chocolate - we're 'on a break.' I don't know where our relationship will go from here but if it's not helping me, it's hurting me. So, it's goodbye for now. Maybe I'll have a bit of chocolate on my visit to Switzerland.



Is it a coincidence that the Swiss do chocolate best?
Image Courtesy of: elkella.blogspot.com