Eating healthy when away from home is very challenging

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Every now and then, I am reminded that most people do not eat like me. Not only do I enjoy eating local, organic and unprocessed foods, my body misses it when it’s not available. Therefore, we choose to live in communities that support this lifestyle. It has to be easy to find these foods in the local markets as well as restaurants. When we are looking to move to a new community, we look at the cost of living, availability of affordable local, organic and unprocessed foods, and of course natural beauty. Sometimes we even go into stores and compare prices. It is that important to us. Therefore, we end up living in a bubble, surrounded by our favorite things, where it is easy to forget that our lifestyle is not the norm – though I believe it should be. Recently, I was reminded how hard it is to get unprocessed food let alone healthy local produce in other communities.

Last month, my mom broke her hip and went into the hospital. Of course, I flew down to Florida to assist my mom before and after surgery as well as take care of my dad. It was a very stressful time as I was spending 8-10 hours a day in the hospital advocating for and supporting my mom. Some days, I was lucky enough to get a break to pick my dad up and bring him to the hospital so he could see my mom. After I left the hospital for the night, I would shop, clean and do laundry. The emotional stress far outweighed the physical stress and I knew it was important to take care of myself so I could be available for everyone and not crash.

The first line of defense against stress is a good night’s sleep. Well, that was simply not going to happen, as I am generally not a good sleeper and had far too many thoughts running through my head to shut them down for the night. Therefore, my next line of defense was to eat nourishing food. Of course, exercise and a break here and there would be great but my time was limited and I needed to spend as much time with my mom as possible and get things done.  Since I had to scratch sleep and exercise off my list, nourishing food needed to get the job done and keep me healthy.

Please keep in mind I spent most of my time in the hospital. They had a fairly extensive cafeteria but I can bet nothing from local farmers. Unfortunately, I have seen and read too much about factory farms to know there wouldn’t be much nourishment in the meat selections, so meat was not an option. I believed my best bet was the salad bar, which had a good assortment of fresh vegetables. Funny, they had a nice fresh spring mix, spinach and iceberg option; most of the customers went for the iceberg. Personally, I do not see any nutritionally redeeming qualities to iceberg lettuce. Nevertheless, I was there to feed my empty tank with high-octane fuel. Therefore, I ate as many different vegetables as I could get my hands on.

salad bar

One evening, I picked up dinner at Aruba Beach Café, a local restaurant; I thought I was ordering a plain grilled portabella sandwich until the waiter asked me how I would like it done. I was confused and asked him how he normally grills mushrooms. He explained that he was referring to the burger not the mushroom. I was awestruck, because normally I can barely finish a grilled portabella sandwich, let alone on top of a burger. He was nice enough to offer me a simple grilled portabella sandwich (which wasn’t on the menu) sans burger. It was HUGE and I ended up only eating half anyway. It was delicious and I was happy to eat the second half the following night. For the rest of my stay, I simply ate salads or went to salad bars. During shopping trips, I picked up lots of fresh fruit and Greek yogurt for my dad and myself. I even brought my mom’s favorite Greek yogurt along with fresh fruit to hospital for her. She was not eating very much and also needed to keep up her strength by fueling her engine. After all, she had to learn to walk and move her new hip around which takes a lot of energy.

It is so amazing to me, that you would think Florida with such a long growing season, there would be an abundance of fresh local produce, but that is simply not the case. Times like these make me appreciate that I live in a community with choices, by design of course. I am not sure I could maintain my health in a community that has such limited options. Perhaps this speaks to why there is such an increasing number of people suffering from obesity, heart disease and diabetes. It must be so difficult to thrive in a world of stress and limited nutritional choices.

What are your thoughts? Please share and I will continue to share.

Thankful

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mom home

Mom home from Rehab

Every year around Thanksgiving, I start to inventory all the blessings in my life. This year I feel more moved by them all. Perhaps it is because my family has faced our share of challenges recently, and coming through it still standing feels fantastic.

My folks are experiencing the challenges of living a long life. Time and gravity are starting to wear them out. Over the last year, they have gotten rather sedentary.  Depending on the day and how he feels, my Dad uses a walker or wheelchair (and does very little for himself around the house). In August, my Dad finally got a home health aide to help him a couple of times a week. Because my mom continued to take care of most of the chores still, she didn’t like to leave my Dad home alone very often. As a result, my Mom had also gotten sedentary. Due to lack of exercise and movement, they both have lost a great deal of muscle mass and weight. It’s true – if you don’t use it, you lose it.

Then on November 1st, my Mom fell and broke her hip sending her straight to the hospital and leaving my Dad all alone. I know this must sound crazy but I am actually grateful for this event. It created a set of situations that forced both my parents to put their best foot forward and re-evaluate how they wanted to live the last years of their lives.

The first miracle was that though, my Dad could call his aide, he actually started to do things for himself again. This was the first time in years my Dad has been alone and needed to feed and care for himself.  This was very difficult since he barely knew where anything was in the kitchen. Nevertheless, I am happy to say, he rose to the occasion. One day, he even drove himself to the hospital. That meant he left the house all by himself, took the walker to the car, folded it, put it in the car, and then made his way to the driver’s seat and drove. At the hospital, he was able to request a wheelchair and an aide to help him get to my Mom’s floor. This was quite impressive and no small feat for my Dad. It truly moved my Mom. Without a doubt, he really missed her. (By the way, he made it home safely in the dark no less).

The second miracle was after the surgery it was very apparent how physically feeble my Mom had become the last couple of years. She could barely hold her body up as her arm and stomach muscles were so weak. Nevertheless, after Physical Therapy 3 to 4 times a day for three weeks she can move as she did years ago. This past month she has done more exercise than she’d done in probably ten years. At the beginning, she didn’t think she could do it, and it looked like she was giving up. Thank goodness she didn’t.

Yes, as my Mom has said over and over again, breaking a hip is very inconvenient (she also said stupid, but it was simply an accident). However, I think it was the kick pants they both needed to regain some control over their lives and I believe it will bring more quality to their lives. It has definitely given them the confidence they needed to live life again instead of watch it go by.

I am overjoyed that my Mom has been discharged from Rehab just in time for Thanksgiving. I can’t imagine anything better than to share this holiday with my folks, Mike and Mathew (well, of course more family members would be wonderful too). I am so thankful and feel so blessed for everyone and everything in my life.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!