This public service announcement featuring Elizabeth Banks for “Go Red for Women” is quite comical, however, teaches a serious lesson on being prepared. It’s National Emergency Preparedness week in Canada. Be prepared and know the signs of a heart attack. Doing so could save your life or the life of someone you love.
Eat For Healthy Bones
It has long been understood that bone health becomes increasingly important as you age – especially for women. It is also known that the functional impacts of a broken bone (reduced self-care, productivity and leisure) can be massive. The role of calcium is well known, but what other factors contribute to bone health? Health magazine has created a list of eleven foods that maximize the strength of your bones. Check this out and see if you can up your consumption of bone health promoting nutrients…
What Behaviors Do You Want to Modify?
Julie Entwistle, MBA, BHSc (OT), BSc (Health / Gerontology)
One of the best courses I took in university was Behavior Modification. Our main project was to modify one of our own behaviors over a four month period. Personally, I had a dog and wanted to develop a better walking routine. So, over the four months I mapped out several walking routes that increased my time spent walking on a weekly basis. By the end of the four months, I was walking my dog two hours and twelve kilometers a day. Research indicates that it takes four months to develop a new habit, so by the end of the course my new walking routine became standard practice and something I did religiously with my dog (and then dogs) until I had my family and needed to develop a new routine.
Often, when our regular routines are interrupted by disability bad habits develop. While not immediate, over time days can become more and more unproductive until soon very little is getting accomplished. This has a drastic impact on mental health and impacts all areas of physical, cognitive and emotional functioning, let alone the impact on those that we live with.
The best way I have been able to help clients to break such routines is to simply have them track how they spend their time. Once this is documented, people can quickly identify the problems areas and then together we discuss how to fix them. For example, through tracking for a week, one client discovered that she does not shower, one found that he watches ten hours of TV per day, and another learned that she does not eat during the day, but consumes junk food all evening. In every case, people discovered something about their routine that drove them into action for change.
So, if you are concerned that your routine is lacking in productivity, self-care or leisure, or there are activities you would like to resume or goals to achieve, just keep a log of how you spend your time. After a week, reflect on your log and make a list of the problem areas. Commit to making small changes (start with the easiest changes first) and over time, you will see huge improvements in how you feel about yourself and your routines. Or, for a more structured approach, consider hiring a professional to assess your suitability for the Progressive Goal Attainment Program. This program involves using time tracking over 10 weeks to completely revamp routines to reduce psychosocial barriers to recovery, improve mental health and reduce disability caused by chronic pain.
How Is Your Mood?
Mental illness is the most common cause of lost work and debilitates thousands of Canadians. Yet, it continues to be a problem not openly discussed. So, what do you really know about your mental health and the things that can affect it? Recent studies suggest that eating fast food regularly can increase your chances of developing depression and that stress may be genetic. Find out more about these and other surprising ways our mental health can be affected in this article from Best Health Magazine. See how your diet and lifestyle choices may be affecting your mood.
Will You Choose Wood or Water?
Julie Entwistle, MBA, BHSc (OT), BSc (Health / Gerontology)
Often people talk about “fighting fires” in trying to manage the day to day events of life. If this is your life most of the time, how stressful! But, as with all situations, we have a choice.
In a fire, do we want to be Wood or Water? Wood, of course, will burn and burn quickly. Do we want to grow this fire by providing it with the fuel it needs to be bigger and stronger? Or, do we want to be water? Water that can reduce the effects of the fire and bring this under control? The ultimate choice is ours.
If we are wood we react, blame, accuse, yell, and jump to conclusions. If we are water we seek to understand, ask questions, and remain calm. It is not always easy to make a choice, especially when a situation is fraught with urgency and we have other people adding to the fire by being wood themselves. Perhaps the simple solution is to quickly ask the question: is my reaction here helping or hindering? Do I understand? I have been guilty of sending emails, or making phone calls that were accusing in nature, to only realize I don’t have the entire story. Whoops, my bad and I have learned my lesson. Seek to understand so you can later be understood. I think someone famous said that.
Socializing can help you live longer
“Social contact is a fundamental aspect of human existence.” In this article, published by Health Magazine, the scientific connection between loneliness and social isolation and poor health are explained.
Weight Management and Disability – You can’t eat what you don’t buy…
Julie Entwistle, MBA, BHSc (OT), BSc (Health / Gerontology)
I find that while many of my clients initially lose weight following trauma (hospital food diet); eventually the net impact of a disability is often weight gain. This is often the result of many factors – most interacting to make the solution difficult to isolate. Medication side-effects, altered routines, reactive eating, friends and family that provide unhealthy sympathy foods, increased use of fast food because preparing meals is difficult, inactivity, depression, and even hormonal and physiological changes to the body as a result of the trauma.
But we do know that 70% of weight management is diet and assuming this is true, then the solution to weight management should be simple – you can’t eat it if you don’t buy it. Purchasing unhealthy food is the first step to a weight problem. And weight problems in disabled people are exponential. Everything becomes harder – transfers, walking, completion of daily tasks, care giving, and many pieces of equipment have weight limits that when exceeded result in equipment failure.
What is even more problematic is the role of the care giver in the maintenance of weight in the person they are caring for. When people cannot shop for food and cannot cook, then helping them to maintain weight becomes the job of the caregiver. Just buy and prepare healthy foods – perhaps food prescribed by a nutritionist or dietician. However, often caregivers rely on the disabled person to dictate the food choices but if people are emotionally eating, or eating out of boredom, then the caregiver cannot always rely on the individual to make the best decisions. Often raising awareness about healthy eating starts with asking people to track what and when they are eating and drinking. Then, problems can be identified and a list of doable solutions can be developed.
In one instance, in helping a client with weight loss as a functional goal, we discovered through tracking that she was barely eating breakfast and lunch but was consuming all of her calories from 5-10pm. We made the goal that, over time, she would consume breakfast, lunch, two snacks and dinner, and would stop eating after 7pm. Within a few short months she lost 30 pounds and this greatly improved her mobility and tolerances for activity. Another client discovered through tracking that he was consuming far too many large bottles of pop a day. By changing his large bottle to a smaller one, and eventually to only one pop per day and the rest water, he was able to drop 20 pounds. In both cases, the problems, solutions, and commitment to change were made by my clients (with my guidance and support), making the results far more meaningful and lasting. Further, the client was shown a framework for how to check and modify eating habits should they deteriorate again in the future.
The Air We Breathe
Did you realize indoor and outdoor air pollution now causes more deaths worldwide than AIDS and Malaria? Check out this article from treehugger.com on the severity of air pollution. Ensuring the air is clean is becoming increasingly important for the health of the Earth and yourself. How can you prevent further air pollution?
Here are some easy ways:
- car pool or take public transit
- buy local products
- don’t idle your vehicle
- plant, plant, plant: trees and plants, both indoor and outdoor, can help remove the harmful toxins from the air we breathe
treehugger.com: What Kills More People Than AIDS and Malaria Combined? Air Pollution
This Earth Day Help the Earth and Yourself
There is a direct connection between the health of our planet and our own personal health. Many changes that benefit the earth, also benefit you and your pocket book. Today is Earth Day and to celebrate here are some easy tips to “GO GREEN”:
Lights Out — Be sure to turn out lights when you are not in the room. Rely on natural light during the day. The use of lamps instead of overhead lighting can also reduce energy consumption.
Power Off — Have you ever heard about “phantom power?” The electronics you have plugged in, such as your television, phone chargers, and appliances, utilize energy even when off. Unplug devices and appliances while not in use to reduce this “phantom” energy consumption.
Full Loads — When washing laundry or dishes, in most cases the same amount of power is used if the load is small or large. Ensure you are running a full load to maximize the energy efficiency.
Wash Smarter — When doing laundry ensure you use cold water and hang to dry whenever possible.
Green your Commute — Help to reduce air pollution by carpooling, taking public transportation, or walk or bike when possible. Or, if permitted, see if you can work from home.
Buy Local — Support the local economy while reducing pollution caused by large factory production and transport.
Say Goodbye to Harmful Chemicals — A simple mix of vinegar and water can clean almost anything! Try using 50/50 mix to reduce the chemicals you release into the air and water supply.
Meatless Mondays — Try going meatless at least once a week. The production of meat is one of the top emitters of greenhouse gasses. You’ll notice a benefit for your health, the health of the earth and your bottom (and bottom line)!
Plant Something… Anything — By planting trees, flowers, plants or vegetables inside or out, you can help to purify the air you breathe.
BYOB… bag that is — Ensure you always have a reusable shopping bag in your car or purse so you are always prepared. Reducing unnecessary plastic waste can go a long way to greening the earth!
Why Buy Bottles When you Have a Tap — Consider filling a reusable water bottle to save money and garbage.
Spring Cleaning and Your Weight Loss Goals
Spring has arrived! Are you feeling the itch to clean and refresh your home? Are you also frantically starting to diet and exercise to be ready for summer? Did you know that cleaning burns calories? By simply rearranging your closets you can burn up to 85 calories—not to mention the calories burned by mopping, vacuuming, and just spending a few hours on your feet moving about the house. Check out this article featured in the Huffington Post to find out other ways to burn calories while cleaning.
The Huffington Post: Spring Cleaning: How Many Calories Do You Burn Doing Chores?