To continue the saga of life changes and chia seed. (Kim read my comment on Tuesday's post for Chia info.) (And this is a really bad picture of my Wii Mii stretching while those around her sleep. Hee Hee.)
I mentioned that I was asked to help our physician's assistant with a healthy lifestyle "curriculum." And I was chosen because I have Word on my work station and happen to be there more often than the other gal who has it.
The PA brought loads of material, some books, magazines, doctor recommendations and website addresses to my desk and we condensed the information into the whats and whys of healthy choices.
Most of them are common sense no-brainers. I.E. most fast food = bad choice. Exercise, even simple walking, is good. The more good choices that are made the better for your overall health. Simple enough. Our average patient age is probably fifty. We have loads of Medicare and a nice mix of twenty-somethings. But since we are internal medicine we tend to attract those with more than one chronic condition and more adult type issues like Type 2 Diabetes and Hypertension. Some of our patients carry both of these conditions and high cholesterol. And since all three are managed by medication, many are looking at five and six meds. It makes sense then to do what we can to encourage patients to drop ten or twenty pounds and make better choices. Many of the health woes can be treated with diet and exercise and people can then weed some meds out of their life. Win. Win.
So as the PA and I are digging, we get caught up in the whole nutrition and Mediterranean diet and low glycemic index foods lists and the fact that many conditions benefit from eating healthy fats, whole grains, rainbow colored veggies and fruit.
Having been aware of food and the bazillion diet options I had heard of both of these types of eating plans. But the problem for me was the switch over to healthy from junk. How does one completely change the way they shop, think and eat? And what will the rest of the family do when confronted with a lack of Ho-Ho's, soda, white bread and greasy pizza?
More later.
