My family and I recently went on a week-long vacation to the North Carolina mountains. We had such a fantastic time it was difficult to come home!
When you are sharing a house with 9 other adults and are not in charge of meal planning, grocery shopping, or the schedule, it can be really difficult to stick to your normal eating, drinking, sleeping, and exercise routines. Over the course of the week, I consumed a LOT of foods and beverages that normally do not make it into my grocery cart at home. My half plate of vegetables at dinner was nowhere to be found. I engaged in plenty of mindless snacking and consumed a lot of high calorie drinks over the course of the week.
Instead of being hard on myself, I opted to focus on the people around me and the experiences we shared. By the time we returned home, I was craving vegetables and found it very easy to settle back into my normal habits and routines. It can be really tough for me, but sometimes I just need to give myself a little bit of grace and simply enjoy being in the moment!
The hot days of summer continue and if you are like me, salads are on the menu. Here are some simple ideas to make dinner delicious and cool. These salads are a great way to use leftover grilled fish or meat or other vegetables you have from other meals. Think of the below as not recipes but suggestions. Use your imagination to use what you have on hand.
Southwest Salad
This is a great way to use leftover corn on the cob and grilled chicken. Start with romaine lettuce and add tomatoes, jalapenos, avocado, and corn cut off of the cob. Toss all with chili lime vinaigrette. Top with cilantro and broken tortilla chips. For a plant-based protein option, add canned black beans that have been well-rinsed. Or, you can add grilled chicken.
Asian Salad
Start with chopped red or green cabbage and chopped romaine and bok choy. You can also make this salad with just cabbage if this is what you have on hand. Add chopped snow peas, chopped cucumber, and chopped oranges. Combine with sesame dressing then top with chopped peanuts and cilantro. Serve topped with grilled salmon, chicken, or pork.
Tropical Salad
Grilled pineapple is the star of this salad. Grill sliced pineapple and chill for us in this salad or tacos later in the week. Any lettuce will work, a good one for this, however, is spring mix. Add sliced almonds, chopped green pepper, and chopped grilled pineapple. Dress with citrus vinaigrette. Top with grilled shrimp or chicken. You can also add chopped mango to this salad.
Southern Salad
Start with butter lettuce. Add chopped cucumbers and tomatoes. Dress with balsamic vinaigrette. Add sliced peaches raw or grilled. Top with grilled salmon or grilled chicken.
Med Salad
All along the Mediterranean Sea, this combination is eaten with most meals. Combine chopped cucumber, chopped tomato, chopped black olives, and chopped feta. Add this mixture to the lettuce of your choice. Dress with balsamic vinaigrette. To add protein to this salad, add garbanzo beans that have been well drained and rinsed. It is also delicious with grilled fish.
Batch prepping and batch cooking can save you time and money as well as help you eliminate some areas of food waste. I don’t always have time to do this on the weekend but when I do it makes the work week so much less stressful. Batch cooking and prepping on the weekend allow me to quickly build meals throughout the week with little effort on a weeknight.
The key is to prep and cook versatile ingredients and then store the prepped items separately. This allows you flexibility in your game plan and helps you create meals with a variety of flavors in little to no time. Frequently used ingredients often include grains, proteins, and vegetables.
For example, I recently batched cooked quinoa, roasted broccoli, and roasted chicken. I also prepped the Med Instead of Meds, peanut sauce, and a peanut garnish (chopped roasted peanuts, chopped cilantro, and crushed red pepper). When I batched prepped, I did have a specific meal in mind but I also knew I would have leftover ingredients that would allow me the option of making other dishes throughout the week. The recipe turned out really good! It can be made vegetarian by omitting the chicken and selecting a vegetarian-friendly protein source.
I love dessert! Once my husband and I became empty nesters, dessert became a real dilemma for me since my husband doesn’t eat sweets. I would bake a dessert and have a serving each day. As the days went on, the dessert would become stale or soggy, and I would end up tossing the rest of it in the garbage. I didn’t want to give up dessert, but I sure didn’t want to continue wasting food.
At some point, I had a “light bulb” moment and thought about freezing whatever I baked. My goal was to be able to pull an individual serving of dessert out of the freezer and unthaw it in the microwave for instant dessert. As it turns out, this has worked very well for me! I have frozen cookies, brownies, and frosted cakes with great success. Once I bake something, I divide it into single-serving portions and freeze it. When I crave dessert I take a portion out of the freezer instead of feeling obligated to eat a serving each day and ultimately wasting food. I microwave a frozen treat on low power for 15 to 30 seconds, and the dessert is ready!
Over the July 4th holiday weekend, residents across North Carolina and the country experienced record-breaking heat. I spent the weekend slathered in sunscreen, playing pickleball, and then cooling down in my community pool. When the summer temperatures reach the 90s, I like to keep some frozen bandanas in my freezer to put on when I walk my dog or am going to be active outside. I can put these on myself and my dog. The bandana will quickly thaw but it has a nice cooling effect for your neck.
As a younger adult, I often don’t think about how serious the heat can be, but with record-breaking temperatures for multiple days, it is becoming increasingly important to be smart about the heat no matter your age.
In the US, extreme heat kills more people than any other weather hazard. Anyone can develop a heat-related illness but older adults and young children are typically the most vulnerable. Heat illness ranges in severity from mild heat exhaustion to life-threatening heatstroke. Heatstroke has a high mortality rate; even if you recover, there can be lingering effects. It is now believed that heatstroke is similar to a concussion–it creates susceptibility to future heat and immune diseases. 1
There are two types of heatstroke, classic and exertional. Classic heatstroke is caused by passive heating from your environment (think overheating during a heat wave). This type of heatstroke is more common in older adults and younger children. Exertional heatstroke is more common in younger adults–particularly athletes and military–and happens when we physically exert ourselves with strenuous activity in hot weather.
Heat Exhaustion
Dizziness
Fatigue
Nausea
Headache
No dramatic increase in core body temperature
Heatstroke
Core body temperature above 104 Fahrenheit
Severe dysfunction of the central nervous system
Confusion
Dizziness
Unconsciousness
Multi-organ injury
Tips for Staying Cool2
Drink plenty of water even if you don’t feel thirsty.
Schedule outdoor time earlier or later in the day when the temperature is cooler.
Get out of the heat, even for a few hours (preferably in air conditioning).
Don’t exercise strenuously outdoors alone and know the signs of heat illness.
Pace your activity. Start slow and pick up the pace gradually.
Take cool showers or baths to cool down.
Apply ice-wrapped towels to the neck and extremities.
If you suspect heat illness seek medical attention right away.
There are days or seasons of life when we feel like we have too much on our plate to remotely consider ourselves and our health. I would like to challenge this mindset and instead view taking care of your health as a spectrum and it is important to acknowledge where you are on that spectrum will change throughout your life. However much or little you do to take care of yourself today does not reflect what you may have done in the past or what you will do tomorrow or even the next day.
Adapting to a new season in life is hard. This may involve a physical injury, parenthood, or caring for an elderly or disabled family member. Your previous health habits may not fit neatly in this new season of life. It is important to figure out how to be an adaptable caretaker of yourself because this will help you be a better caretaker for others.
You cannot pour from an empty cup.
Self-care means prioritizing yourself and making your well-being a priority–this looks different for everyone. Don’t get me wrong bubble baths and reading are great and can be briefly rejuvenating. However, for sustainable well-being, we recommend rooting self-care habits in nutrition and exercise choices.
First and foremost, give yourself grace and time to embrace new healthy habits that work better for your current stage of life. When making changes to nutrition make sure you are eating breakfast and not skipping meals. Don’t forget that sleep, physical activity, and hydration status play a significant role in appetite regulation. Having the goal of moving more than you do right now is a great place to start. Circumstances change (e.g., becoming a parent) and it may not be realistic to think your old exercise routine will fit into your new reality. For example, if your current self-care routine is tied to reading books consider downloading audiobooks to your phone or another easily portable device and taking a walk while listening.
Don’t aim for perfection when changing habits because making changes is hard. View every day and every meal as an opportunity. It you have setbacks don’t beat yourself up or throw in the towel completely. You will improve over time!
Busy lifestyles compete with time spent in the home kitchen. On a weeknight, ordering takeout can seem like the easiest, most convenient option. Eating out provides convenient nourishment as well as opportunities for socializing, celebrating, and experiencing new flavors. There is nothing wrong with eating out because it is one of life’s pleasures. However, it is good to make mindful decisions and if you look closely, you can find dishes that aren’t full of cheese, red meat, sugar, or half a day’s calories. Changing the way we order meals can improve nutritional quality without sacrificing convenience or taste.
Tips to rethink takeout:
Stick to one starch. The default is often double refined carbs like a hamburger and fries. Go with your favorite starch and try to make it a whole grain.
Replace red meat. Get poultry, seafood, or beans. Also, look for the words grilled, steamed, lightly sautéed, baked and roasted on the menu.
Load up on vegetables. Choose vegetable-based side dishes, pile vegetables onto your burrito bowl and don’t be afraid to try a vegetarian meal!
Mind the sodium. Nearly all food served in restaurants is too salty. More vegetables can help counter the sodium in other items.
Dressing on the side. Ask for any dressings, oil, butter or sauces on the side so that you can choose how much you add to your dish.
Be mindful of portion sizes. Portion sizes are scaling up. Today’s “medium” is often yesterday’s “extra-large.” Share your meal with a friend or family member. Set aside half of your entree to save for another meal before you begin eating.
Make water your beverage of choice. It is easy to forget about the sneaky calories in sugar-sweetened or alcoholic beverages.
My ability to get a good night’s sleep has definitely declined over the years. First, there were years of raising young children followed by years of worrying about their well-being and safety as teens/young adults. Add in hot flashes and aging joints, and I found myself waking up every few hours during the night. I have never had trouble falling asleep, but I definitely have had trouble staying asleep. As the years wore on, I found myself cranky, less resilient, and lacking motivation to do just about anything. I got to the point where I felt I needed to address my sleep quality or adverse health effects would soon follow. Here is what I found works for me.
Letting go:
I stopped focusing on how many times I woke up each night and instead pay attention to how my body felt the next day. I realized that I don’t need 7 to 9 hours of uninterrupted sleep each night to feel really great the next day.
I realized it was important for me to perform a “brain dump” every evening by writing thoughts, tasks, and emotions in a notebook. Now when I wake up in the middle of the night, I am able to fall back to sleep rather quickly since my brain doesn’t start “working overtime”.
I stopped worrying about getting through the night without the need to use the bathroom. If I need to use the bathroom, I simply get up, use the bathroom, then go back to sleep.
Necessary environmental changes:
I found a dark room really essential to me staying asleep for longer periods of time. Hello to lined curtains and goodbye to all those bright LED accessory lights which were everywhere.
Percale sheets, a very lightweight quilt, and the ceiling fan on low speed really do help keep me cooler and mitigate the side effects of hot flashes.
I had to say goodbye to my beloved firm mattress and opt for a slightly softer mattress that “cushions and supports” my aging joints.
It was a process of trial and error for me to get to where I am now, but I feel so much better about my sleep quality. Do I still wake up in the middle of the night? Absolutely! However, I am able to fall back to sleep relatively quickly and my mood, resiliency, and motivation are all drastically improved. I rarely feel the need for a nap, and I rarely need to rely on caffeine.
Do you wake up alert and energized the next day? Are there steps you can take to improve your sleep quality? Consider sharing what works for you as could benefit someone else who is not happy with their sleep quality.
Cortisol is known as the stress hormone. It is made in the adrenal gland and is elevated when we experience heightened anxiety or stress. When we are relaxed, it is decreased. Chronic stress means chronically high cortisol. While cortisol is needed for the fight or flight response when we experience acute stress, chronically high cortisol levels are not healthy and can lead to increase adipose tissue, especially in the midsection, and decreased immune response. You can keep your cortisol levels in check by trying these tips to reduce stress.
Meditation. A few minutes can reduce stress. New to meditation, try guided meditation where a narrator guides you through a few minutes of relaxation. There are literally hundreds for free online.
Deep breathing. Take just a few minutes each day to take several deep breaths. This will help you center and be in the moment.
Exercise. Walking is one of the best ways to reduce stress and cortisol levels.
Sleep. Getting 7-9 hours a night helps keep cortisol levels in check.
Loneliness has become a significant public health issue, prompting the Surgeon General to issue a warning about its impact on individual well-being and society as a whole. The increasing prevalence of social isolation and loneliness can lead to various adverse health effects, including increased risk of mental health disorders, cardiovascular disease, and premature mortality to a magnitude on par with that associated with habitual daily smoking. 1
A fascinating study by Hanne Collins discussed on NPR sheds light on an unexpected discovery: casual social ties can be just as important as strong ones in contributing to greater life satisfaction.2 This idea challenges our conventional understanding of social connections and highlights the value of expanding our social networks.
Conventional wisdom suggests that strong social connections, such as close friends and family, are the key to happiness and life satisfaction. While these relationships undoubtedly play a crucial role, the study emphasizes the often-overlooked significance of casual social ties, which encompass acquaintances, colleagues, and familiar strangers (this could be the people you see around your neighborhood or another frequently visited locationbut don’t necessarily know).
Why we Should Expand our Social Networks
One of the aspects highlighted in the study is that casual social ties tend to introduce us to new social circles and communities. Actively engaging with casual ties, such as participating in community events, joining clubs or organizations, and fostering connections in the workplace, can help individuals combat the negative effects of loneliness and improve their overall well-being. By engaging with people who are different from us, we expose ourselves to a wide range of experiences, beliefs, and perspectives. This exposure not only enhances our understanding of the world but also helps us develop empathy and tolerance, leading to personal growth and a more fulfilling life.
The Power of Serendipity
Casual social ties often act as conduits for serendipitous encounters and unexpected opportunities. Think about the times you met someone new at a social gathering or struck up a conversation with a stranger on a plane. These chance encounters can lead to unforeseen connections, professional opportunities, and even lifelong friendships. By actively cultivating casual ties and engaging with diverse social groups, we increase the likelihood of encountering serendipitous moments that can positively impact our lives.
Social media platforms, online communities, and professional networks have made it easier to maintain casual ties and cultivate new connections. Embracing these technologies can help us leverage the power of casual ties, as they provide opportunities to engage with individuals from various backgrounds, interests, and locations.
While strong social ties remain vital to our well-being, don’t forget about the role of casual social ties and their ability to contribute to greater life satisfaction!
