Fun in Snow

Went to DC last weekend and played in the snow with Niki, Jack and Olivia....not in DC, but at White Wolf Ski Resort in Pennsylvania. We had a great time...Jack and Niki on the slopes and Olivia and me on the 2 - 4 year tubing hill. Lots of exercise and lots of fun.

Evidence based diet

Tonight on the news ABC they revealed THE TRUTH: low carbohydrate diets work the best. Why? They do not stimulate insulin production, and there is minimal hunger. I can attest to both of these...I have been doing Dr. Bernstein's almost-no-CHO diet for 2 weeks now and have said good-bye to at least 7#, and I have rarely felt any hunger. The protein and fat just satisfy me. Yes, I miss CHOs, but too bad, this works, my BG proves it. Oh yes, stress is bad. Whenever I am doing something stressful, even when I am enjoying it, my BG shoots up. The highest it went this week is 114 after teaching a large class a subject I am NOT fond of teaching, but it was my turn to do it. Most physicians may think 114 is not so bad, and after all, in Novant hospitals, we think a range of 70 - 170 is OK...but I know better now. I should be in the 80's, that is, if I were not overweight, I probably would be. So it has got to go, and this diet is working. PS, did you know that green beans, 1 cup cooked, PLAIN, have over 7 carbs? Yikes.

Preventing Diabetes

Having fought weight gain for the past 16 years, I just about despaired at avoiding Type II diabetes. After all, I take after the Thiessen branch, and diabetes killed Grandma. Being a nurse, I have seen close to a thousand patients with complications from diabetes. If Dad had lived longer, by his body shape, he was primed to get it. "If I can avoid a brain tumor, I probably will get diabetes, too", that was my thought...until I read Dr. Bernstein's book "The Diabetes Solution".

Dr. Bernstein was diagnosed with Type I (juvenile) diabetes at age 12, back in 1946. While insulin (pork or beef) was available to keep him alive, no one really knew how to prevent the deadly insidious complications of fluctuating blood sugars. He struggled and developed many complications, until he decided to figure out this disease for himself. By this time he was an engineer, and had accidentally heard of the invention of the first instant blood tester (glucometer). He paid $650 for an early version and began testing his blood, eating his food, documenting his activities, changing timing on his insulin injections, until he became a real expert. What he found out flies in the face of much of the current belief in professional diabetes medicine.

But no one in the medical world would believe him, an engineer. So at age 45 he decided to go to school to become an MD and just treat diabetics. He has made it his life work, and now, well over 70 years of age, he is still very healthy and knows exactly how to treat diabetes. I decided to check my own blood sugars, (glucometers are not very expensive now) and found that indeed I am on the road to diabetes. No wonder the weight just won't go off...I have way too much insulin circulating in my system that my body is resisting...and it is converting every molecule of carbohydrate I eat into FAT.

So, following Dr. Bernstein's schedule, for the past 2 weeks I have been eating less than 30 grams of carbohydrate (CHO) per day, ( 6-12-12), testing my blood glucose (BG) pre and post prandial, and have gone from 100's all the time to 80's most of the time. The only times I go back into the 90's is when I am under stress, like yesterday, teaching a new subject to a room full of nurses for 8 hours. I got up to 100 at the end of the day. Today was an office and meeting day, and I am back to 81 - 84. And I feel great physically and mentally today (not so good yesterday).

Well, a diet with almost no CHOs does cut out a lot of foods! The good news:
1. I really do love the food I am eating: steak, bacon, butter, cream, eggs, sausage, vegetables, Greek yogurt and cheese!
2. I have absolutely NO hunger between meals, and NO urge to snack. Today we had a potluck at work. I ate the chicken (I brought), sauerkraut and sausages, Snow Peas, Celery and ice water. I was nicely full after a moderate amount, and not at all tempted by all the CHOs everyone else was eating. Pot lucks have always been hard for me, but not today. Nothing even appealed to me. I never get an urge to snack.
3. I have lost over 5# already.

The next step is to start Dr. Bernstein's exercise program. Anaerobic! Thank goodness I don't have to walk miles (not good for insulin management or weight loss), but weight lifting (I do like to do that, and have my weight bench right here in the family room)!

I'll keep posting on my successes...and difficulties, if I run into any. So far...none.

What is Non-Violent Intervention?

There are several phases to non-violent intervention. Usually an episode follows a path from the precursor stage, preassaultive state, to an actual physical acting-out which could be destructive or violent. A person starts out being anxious, asking questions or challenging authority, for example "Why do I need this medicine" to "You can't make me take it". The anxiety can show itself as loudness, pressured speech, sudden silence, threatening stance, pacing, swearing, etc, but is still in the verbal phase. The response to anxiety is empathy, answering questions and setting boundaries (what will be the consequences if she does not take the medicine..she will lose her telephone privileges). The staff member stands at right angles to the person, with open arms as opposed to folded arms or clenched fists. This gives the staff person a non-threatening pose, and also a quick escape route if physically threatened.

Most of the non-violent intervention is verbal. But occasionally the person is beyond verbal and starts to act out physically. Say the person suddenly grabs your arm...or grabs a hunk of hair...well, there are ways to disengage that do not leave chunks of your arm or hair behind. Or what if the person bites you or grabs you around the neck and chokes you? In the psych ward or in the emergency department you need to be aware that people sometimes get so out of control that they can do things like that. So the non-violent techniques are ways to escape these grabs and holds without harm to yourself or the acting-out person. Fortunately these things don't happen in ordinary daily life very often, but it is very good to know I could escape a choke hold from a surprised encounter with a robber. And how many abductions could be foiled if people knew some basic techniques!

We do teach a few physical team holds, and these are sometimes needed to control a child or teenager, or a psychotic adult until the person gives up or can be controlled by medication or put into a safe place. The reason we teach these techniques it that otherwise staff have the inclination to "pile on" to subdue a violent person, and this can and has resulted in asphyxiations. This may be rare, but just last year in NC, two patients died from being improperly physical subdued, (not in our hospitals).

A violent intervention would be restraints such as handcuffs, gun drawn, etc., which are the province of the police.

Another stretch of the AT

Yesterday Jerry and I hiked from Clingman's Dome to Indian Gap. We left our camper at the KOA at Cherokee, drove to the Indian Gap parking lot and hitched a ride to Clingman's Dome with a young couple from Ohio. We decided to hike from Clingman's in the northerly direction, since it would be mostly DOWN, not UP. Well, that may be true, but there were Mt. Love and Mt. Collins in between, with lots of UPS! It took us about 5 hours, half of it in a misty drizzle. But the trail is beautiful no matter what! And Jerry had the foresight to include 2 large black garbage bags in our pack, so we poked 3 holes in each one and at least our torsos stayed dry. Plus we were wearing hats with brims, and that kept our heads dry.

We encountered 15 other hikers during the trip at various points, all of who were going the other way. We pitied them for more UPS they certainly suffered. What did we see? Beautiful views of rainy Smoky Mountains, wild blooming rhododendron, ferns in their brilliant early green. We inhaled balsam and thought of Christmas!

Now we are planning our July hike...we hope to do Mt. Katahdin summit in Maine! No, we are not through hiking, just picking the spots closest to where we are, and with only a day's hike. We do not have time or possibly stamina for a 6 month hike. Too bad we started so late in life! But better late than never!

Teaching nonviolence

Today I taught a nonviolent crisis intervention session. The Mennonite in me has come full circle. It is a system of nonviolence that can be applied to any escalating interpersonal situation. The stages are anxiety, defensive, acting out and tension reduction. When a person is anxious, the best way to react to him or her is to be supportive and caring. If she escalates to the defensive state, the best response is to set limits, choices or boundaries. If the situation escalates from these verbal states into physical acting out, the reaction needs to be nonviolent physical intervention. The final state is tension reduction, when all the bad energy has been spent, the person is exhausted, and the crisis is past. At this point the person needs to have contact with staff reestablished, care and rapport reintroduced. We teach and review these steps annually to all our emergency room staff, our behavioral health (psychiatric unit) staff, and to our public safety officers. I enjoyed teaching the session, and from the evaluations, so did the class.

Still a Newby

I am sitting at the back of the room at Novant orientation. I am looking at all 88 new faces joining our company, and they all look eager, and a little anxious. That is how I feel about this new type of communication...blogging.
So why am I at the back? Well, I am one of the educators responsible for the orientation this morning. I have been doing this every month for several years, so no more anxiety for this.
I can only imagine that I will get comfortable writing blogs, too!