Rethinking Your To-Do List

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Back in April, I was doing my morning post for the facebook page and this really intriguing post popped up in my newsfeed.  It was a mom posting her daughter’s to-do list.  As I understand, mom was creating her to-do list so she didn’t forget anything and like most kids tend to do, her daughter wanted to follow suit.  Monkey see, monkey do!  The little girl wrote out her to-do list right alongside her mom, and when mom took a look, I can only imagine she probably giggled.  Then the moment sets in that you realize how far we have been removed from living life.

I didn’t get to see mom’s to-do list, but I can imagine it had the typical items that most would have: laundry, grocery items, send an email, make sure to return a phone call, pay a bill, etc..  The daughter’s to-do list was priceless:

  1. Pet the puppy 1 time
  2. Teach the puppy how to be a ballerina
  3. Kiss daddy
  4. Paint a picture
  5. Learn how to say “Hi, you want some food?” in Spanish

The things this little girl saw to be important enough not to forget were showing affection, giving love, expressing herself, learning new things, and spreading her knowledge by teaching it to others. Her parents are doing an amazing job instilling what’s important in life!

This is a to-do list from someone who is virtually free of responsibility, so it is a stark contrast to the to-do list of someone with major responsibilities, like a parent.  However, it begs the question:  What is important to me?  What things do I and should I spend my time doing?  Is my to-do list so long that I don’t have time to enjoy life?  When’s the last time I created something just for fun?  When’s the last time I learned something new?  Am I in control of my life?

If these questions start to make you feel sad, then it may mean its time to decrease responsibility.  Decreasing responsibility will decrease the to-do list of things you don’t necessarily enjoy.  Does that mean quitting your job?  Not necessarily, but it may mean structuring boundaries, changing jobs, or being more mindful of how it enters your life outside of work.  Does that mean quit being on the PTO? Not necessarily, but that may mean if you enjoy and want to be on the PTO, maybe you AREN’T also team mom.  Does that mean you don’t have to do laundry ever again?!  No, but maybe that means it can wait.  Does that mean no more cleaning?!  No, but that may mean maybe you can decrease the amount of “stuff” you have, so your life is less consumed with clutter, objects, mindless organizing, cleaning, and hauling around.

Your time is valuable.  You should be able to enjoy some of it without that enjoyment being the pencil line through a requirement on the to-do list.  If your life is so full of responsibility that you have to keep extensive lists to keep track of it all, then maybe you can consider ways to simply life.  If you wish your to-do list had a lot more kissing, learning,  creating, and teaching, then make it happen.  One day, you will no longer have time to make those things reality.  That’s just a fact of life.  However, you do have that moment right now to choose what you want to fill your time with, and making that decision is a tough thing in a society that tricks you into believing you have to have it all, do it all, and take care of it all.  Truth bomb: You don’t.  It doesn’t take much to live, you choose the things you want to be involved with, and only you tell yourself your house isn’t clean enough.

If I could share every story of patients that changed their life circumstances around jobs, duties, extra-curriculars, and financial responsibilities in order to decrease stress, increasing living, and rescue their health, I may start to sound like a psychiatrist.  Changing these things IS POSSIBLE.  It matters.  It doesn’t mean you’re lazy or unsuccessful.  It means you’ve redefined what matters to you and dispersed your time accordingly.  End of story.

Thank  you to the mom that let me share such amazing insight from her beautiful little girl.

Your Placenta: To Eat or Not to Eat

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Since I have approximately 100 friends having babies right now…ok, maybe not 100….I have officially turned into a maternity and pediatric doctor without asking for it.  Thanks guys.  One question that has come up that I didn’t necessarily have a good answer for is whether or not I thought it was a good idea to encapsulate your placenta and consume it.

The first question I always ask myself when I am not sure if something is appropriate for health is: “Did/do healthy populations do this?”  I have lived in other countries, done health work in other populations, and read extensively on hunter gather populations, and while some have rituals around what to do with the placenta, NONE OF THEM consume it (that I could find).  Other mammals consume their placenta after birth and there’s a lot of speculation and anecdotal evidence that doing so may help reestablish hormonal balance in women postpartum, but the science isn’t there.  I searched journals, asked some of the best ancestral medical professionals around, and contacted holistic women and children doctors.  No one could find legitimate research on the topic.

So, the science isn’t there, but does that mean you shouldn’t eat your placenta?  Not necessarily.  One good point that was brought up was whether or not you were administered drugs during the birth process.  Since the placenta acts as a nutrient transfer organ, there could be some real contraindications in consuming something that may have lots of residual chemicals present.  However, if you gave a natural birth without medication, you may be ingesting something full of nutrients.  As with any organ, there tends to be more fat soluble vitamins present in addition to mineral content.  Consuming any organ meats after birth could probably be a really good idea to restore some of these essentials, which play a role in energy, mood, thyroid function, adrenal health, and overall good physiology.  However, you may not be sh*t outta luck if you had an epidural or forgot to plan encapsulation.  If most of the benefit is potentially coming from the nutritional qualities of  the placenta as an organ, then it may be just as helpful to consume organs from grassfed cows such as liver.  If you don’t like liver, you can get similar nutrients from Cod Liver Oil.  I like the brand Green Pastures, and there is a link to their product in my amazon store across the task bar above.

Conclusively, things are inconclusive.  Did you like that statement?  I thought I was pretty clever.  But in all seriousness, I searched high and low for the research, I asked prominent professionals, I deferred to the actions of health populations, and there just isn’t a lot out there.  Therefore, I am left to assume that most of the benefits American women speak of is partly due to the nutrients they are gaining from consuming the placenta that could also be found in beef liver or cod liver oil.  Particularly, fat soluble vitamins like A, D, and K.  I’m not often left without an opinion, but my opinion here is very unsubstantiated.  If it’s a natural birth, you’re probably not going to hurt anything, so why not.  If it wasn’t a natural birth, then you may want to think about cod liver supplementation to aid your hormone levels after birth, especially since it’s a healthy practice for anyone to make sure they are getting these nutrients in their diet.

1 Year Down and Counting: What I Realized Since Leaving My Practice

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I didn’t even realize that a year had crept up on me until I started getting messages of congratulations on LinkedIn.  I guess it’s a testament to how time flies when you’re having fun!  I wrote a post before leaving Amberwood to try to help everyone understand that I wasn’t going anywhere, but I would be around in a different capacity for a while.  If you’re interested in reading my thoughts from a year and a half ago, feel free to read this post.

I wanted to force myself to take a moment and reflect on the past year; what things have I learned, what have I loved, what might be improved, what I want the next year to look like.  I learned a couple things:

  1. I’ve always wanted an office dog and now I have the best of both worlds because even though I don’t have an office dog, I have several “office pets!”  Every time I visit patients at their home, I get to enjoy the company of their pets.  I have cats, dogs, and even birds that are now a part of my work day!  I love it!
  2. I love being my own boss.  I’ve never really been one to conform, so the freedom to follow my passion in whatever direction it is taking me at any point in time is priceless.  If I want to offer something new to my patients, I do!  If I want to hold an impromptu class on something that people seem really interested in, I do!  If I want to go to seminars on plant biology, I do!  It’s that simple.
  3. I miss seeing the staff and my patients.  While I’ve received messages, texts, emails, etc from tons of old patients, it’s not the same as seeing them regularly.  Sometimes I miss those familiar faces.  I miss jamming out in the back office to music with Tam, I miss Michelle bringing in healthy treats for staff meetings, and I miss Marla always being there to keep me organized.  I have no doubt that I will be part of a team at some point again.  For now, my team is bigger than ever, but there’s not a core group I see daily.  I miss that.
  4. I hate taxes.  Do I need to elaborate?  I didn’t think so.
  5. This is exactly what I should be doing right now.  There’s no doubt about it.  I think it’s important to allow yourself the freedom to change, to evolve, to expand interests, skills, and passions.  I am lucky enough to have freedom within my current situation to teach, see patients, adjust for other chiros, read research, write a book, attend amazing conferences, develop new recipes, AND have time to play, exercise, sleep, and travel.  I have been touched by so many patients and students within this first year, that I can go to bed at night feeling like although I don’t know what the future holds, I was right where I was supposed to be for the moment.

My passion is more on fire than ever before, and that is a direct result of this past year.  I can’t wait to experience the next year with each of you.  I wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for each of my patients, my family, my friends, all my followers, and the little voice inside me telling me to take the leap of faith.  Not everyone feels so connected to their career choice.  I am truly blessed and forever grateful for the road that has led me here.  If you are still searching for your purpose in life, be present, look for signs, notice the things that light your soul on fire.  Do those things more.  You don’t need to see where the road goes in order to take the trip.  You’ll know when it’s time to take a turn.  That’s the beauty in life.  Get comfortable with the unknown and turn that fear into excitement to learn what may be over that hill.

We should all cheers with a new cocktail recipe.  Stay tuned for a drink recipe that may be your new summer fave!

 

Sleep: How It Impacts Your Life, Your Looks, and Your Health!

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For as long as I can remember, I have been a good sleeper.  I would be that friend at sleepovers that would sleep so long that my friends would go to church and come back and I’d still be in bed!  For a long time, my parents wouldn’t call me before noon because otherwise there was a wrath to follow.  I’m happy to say that I still love sleep, but I am up before noon. ;)  Last weekend, I sat in on a presentation by a former Navy Seal named Dr. Parsley and listened to all the things he was doing in his clinic to keep patients healthy, beautiful, and free from hormone imbalance.  You want to know what his secret is?  SLEEP!

We tend to see sleep as a luxury in the US because you can sleep when you’re dead, right?  However, many cultures value sleep, build naps into their schedule of working, and see it for what it is: a requirement for normal hormone function.  Losing hours of sleep mimics the aging process in so many ways.  Not only does it make you look older, it makes you hang on to excess weight, become cranky, and slows down your nervous system’s ability to adapt.  REM sleep specifically is when your brain converts short term memory into long term memory and without REM, you may feel as though you need to be told the same thing over and over again or read the same page in your book over and over again.  This decrease in memory and cognitive function isn’t just for the elderly, its for anyone at any age that isn’t getting enough zzz’s.

Lack of sleep also decreases your thyroid function by about 30 %.  When you have decreased thyroid function, you also have lowered cognitive capability and tend to lose your ability to react to stressful situations without being overly emotional.  Can we say “middle age sob-fest?!”  If I see anything in practice becoming a huge concern, it’s hypothyroidism.  There are thyroid receptors on every single cell in your body.  If you’re not making enough, you could experience things like anxiety, constipation, cold intolerance, skin issues, and a complete lack of energy.  I won’t go off on a tangent, but the normal ranges for TSH these days are NOT normal.  If this sounds like you, have someone take a closer look with you….please.

For all of you out there trying to fight the aging process, decreased sleep decreases your collagen, elastin, and keratin production in your skin which results in wrinkles, dull skin, and brittle hair.  UGH.  Who knew that you could bypass all those appointments with the dermatologist by just getting more sleep!?  Have you ever wondered what actually makes people look their age?  Think about it.  How do you know someone is 20 vs 28?  20 vs 35?  puppy vs dog?  It’s hard to pinpoint how you KNOW someone is around a certain age when it’s not due to grey hair or wrinkles, but we usually know approximately what age someone is.  It’s actually because of fat pad distribution.  You have fat pads above and below your eyes which open them up and a fat pad behind the eye that pushes your eye forward.  As that fat decreases, your eyes sink in ever so slightly and you continue to age.  Many people get BOTOX to look younger, but according to Dr. Parsley, it makes your muscles atrophy and you ultimately end up looking older because as your fat pads redistribute and muscles harden, you get something he calls “skeleton face.”

As if beauty, cognitive function, and thyroid production wasn’t enough, lack of sleep also decreases your testosterone production and insulin sensitivity by about 30%!  Tons of people are flocking to get testosterone replacement to stay youthful and lean; it is HUGE for what your body looks like.  Lowered testosterone also contributes to sex drive in both men and women!  Decreased sleep results in lack of sex drive, getting pudgy, and developing signs of diabetes!  Man, if only we just valued sleep, we could avoid being dumb, fat, ugly, and slow, and possibly diabetic!  Let me put sprinkles on the cake here and say that if you are an athlete, REM sleep is when your body rebuilds by producing anabolic hormones. So, yes, even the young, lean, athletes require sleep.

EVERYONE NEEDS SLEEP!  Aim for 8 hours a night and anything less is building a sleep debt. If you have trouble sleeping regardless of all your attempts, you may have something bigger going on and should consider testing; your health relies on it. We can’t escape aging but we can age well, age gracefully, and be a badass at any age!

You are Not Eating for 1;You are Eating for 1.5 trillion!

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As most of you are aware, I was in Austin this past weekend to listen to doctors, researchers, and holistic practitioners shed light on their areas of expertise.  This year’s conference focused on the microbiome.  What is the microbiome?  Well, in short, it is all the organisms that live within us and result in our health, or lack there of.  I often say that we are nothing more than walking houses for the bacteria that have taken up residence.  I’ve been saying this since I learned that we have 10 times the amount of bacteria in our body then we do cells!  That means that we are not eating for 1 (or 2 for you preggers out there), we are eating for about 1.5 trillion!  That’s right.  Every time you put something in your mouth or environment, you are either helping beneficial bacteria to survive and thrive or you are opening the door for opportunistic bacteria to wreak havoc.   Based on the abundance of their existence, 99% of the DNA material being expressed is not even yours.  Take a moment and let that sink in.  You are nothing more than a hotel.  How clean your hallways are, how good your vibes are, how efficiently your operation runs is all dependent on your staff: the bacteria.

In cell physiology, I teach students about organelles.  Organelles are all the things living within the cell membrane that help accomplish cellular tasks.  Organelles are things like lysosomes, rough and smooth endoplasmic reticulum, vesicles, and mitochondria.  If I just lost you, hang on for a sec.  Mitochondria are considered the powerhouse of the cell because of their ability to produce ATP, aka the cell’s energy.  What a great member of a cell’s staff, right?!  Well, you may be shocked to know that thanks to a woman scientist by the name of Lynn Margulis, we now know that mitochondria actually used to exist as its own free-floating bacteria.  Yup.  They existed on their own and decided to take up shop inside of us instead! ( Side note: the longer I study science, the more women pop up as huge contributors to our understanding of things.  I hope my teachings inspire more young women to ask questions, seek answers, and make more major contributions to the world.  It will be my most important legacy.)

If we know that bacteria existed on Earth prior to humans, and we serve as their home, and our health is a reflection of their health, what we can do to make sure they are healthy?  Asking this question will only allow us to open doors that will create a better quality of life and a better health status for us as humans.  Metaphorically speaking, making sure our bacteria are happy will majorly improve our hotel vibes.  Just sayin’.  There is NOT a single disease or disorder that doesn’t have some impact from bacterial function.  We all think of digestive disorders when we think about gut bacteria, but we should also start recognizing things like autism, diabetes, anxiety, MS, diabetes, obesity, and depression are also directly related.  Stool tests can be a great tool to see what bacteria you’ve got going on and how they are doing.  1g of poop contains 100 million terabytes of information, and if you know computers, you know that’s a crazy amount of information for such a small quantity of poop.  You clean up baby diapers with more than 10x’s that amount of poop; let’s be honest!

The take home message here is that you are only as healthy as the bacteria living within you.  You create an environment for that bacteria based on your diet, exposure to toxins, medications taken, and lifestyle choices.  This environment that YOU created is either helping you or hindering you.  Working with a doctor that recognizes this significance may be the key to unlocking underlying issues that may be keeping you unhealthy.  If you have frequent infections, take antibiotics or heartburn medications, or suffer from an autoimmune disease, diabetes, or psychological issues, I encourage you to read, become informed, and makes changes to create a healthy internal environment.

Smoked Salmon and Egg on Rye

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Rye?! Did you say bread?  Bread with gluten?!  Yes. Let me fill you in.  I have lived in other countries that eat grains regularly.  I have studied cultures of people that consume bread and are still healthy.  I am not anti-bread.  I am anti-bad preparation of bread.  There are a couple key differences between American food and traditional cultural foods:
1. We cut quality corners to make things quick and cheap, which means we often eat pesticide, GMO versions of grains
2. We don’t prepare many foods in a way that render nutrients available or toxins predigested
We have the luxury of getting our nutrients from any foods we choose; therefore, we do not NEED to consume grain products like bread to survive.  However, let’s say we did…or maybe just wanted to do so in a healthy way.  Grains need to be soaked, sprouted or fermented in order to be safely consumed and have nutrient availability.  Other cultures do this very thing when they prepare their grain products like pasta, bread, or pastries.  These processes can take DAYS for something to be ready to consume.  Americans ain’t got time for that.  We are about instant gratification and if we need to think days ahead of time in order to have food ready, we’d rather just not eat it.  On top of that, women in other cultures cook ALL DANG DAY!  We have many women in our society working all day and having time to prepare grains appropriately usually isn’t on the agenda after a full day at the office.
This brings me to the rye bread that is so graciously acting as the foundation for my grassfed butter, smoked salmon, and fried egg.  I often have patients from other countries that tell me they miss the food from back home.  They will tell you “The bread just isn’t the same.”  Every. Single. Time.  I am working with a woman from Finland who goes out of her way to order this traditional rye bread from the east coast, and she sent me the website and ingredients.  This stuff is legit.  Bread done the right way.  Whole ingredients prepared for human consumption, so we can actually have access to the nutrients grains can provide.  The company makes the bread one time a week because it takes that long to ferment before they can ship it out!  This is what the real deal looks like.  If you want to consume bread products and have them be healthy for you, this is what you are looking for.  Let me tell you: THIS IS HARD TO FIND!
So, she told me exactly how delicious this would be if I ate this combo, and boy was she right.  It was delicious.  I would eat it again on occasion, but I am probably not going to go out of my way to get my nutrients from bread that I have to have shipped from another state!  If this was something I grew up on and missed it that much, then maybe I would reconsider.  However, bread is not typically a healthy food for us because of our lack of quality and knowledge of preparation (not to mention the carbohydrate content is way too high for most).  When you travel to other countries, these things are often prepared just as they should be, so eat up!  When you get back to the states, just remember that not all bread is created equal and if we looked at ingredient lists and nutrient availability only, you wouldn’t even know they were the same product in the comparison.IMG_4553
 http://www.nordicbreads.com/?page_id=819

Macros vs. Micros: Why One Matters More

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I’ve been trying to avoid writing this post because I don’t want anyone to think that I am anti-macros.  I am very rarely anti-anything.  However, I think sometimes it gets confusing to the average public what they should be doing to gain health when most of the people they are following on social media don’t fit their demographic.  I have been seeing tons of buzz lately from the fitness community about tweaking their diets to fit macros.  I have been doing health talks for so many years now, that I almost busted out my very first powerpoint where I talk about macros!  Macros just stands for macronutrients.  When you hear this term, think carbs, protien, and fat.  Athletes of all kinds have been using these macros in certain ratios to reach their goals for so many years that I can’t even count.  This is not new territory.  It’s where the concepts of carb-loading for endurance races, protein shakes after lifting, making weight for a fight, or even leaning down before a figure competition come from.  Athletes are REALLY GOOD at manipulating macros in order to acheive certain performance results or certain aesthetic results.  However, if you only think about macros, you miss an entire piece of the health equation that makes me nervous.
I live in the world of micros.  When you hear the word micros, think nutrients, minerals, and vitamins.  This is where a huge majority of health really lives.  When you are eating for micros, you are creating sufficiency in the building blocks that your body needs to function, express health, and keep bad genes from turning on.  You can still have a few extra pounds and eat beautifully from a micro perspective…just like you can have a six pack and still get cancer. This is where confusion sets in….
Average Joe follows superstar athlete on social media and sees a ripped lean machine and tries to follow the superstar macros.  Problem #1, superstar athlete has a training schedule that demands a lot more carbohydrates than average Joe will ever expend.  So, average Joe could STILL be fat trying to follow someone else’s macros.  Problem #2, lets say average Joe has his macros tailored to his own unique situation, he is led to believe that as long as he is following those set macros, everything that fits that protein/carb/fat ratio is fair game.  All of a sudden, we have average Joe AND superstar athlete putting themselves at risk for nutrient deficiency and therefore diseases like cancer, heart attacks, autoimmune diseases, etc.  (Side note: a very well known TV personality that makes a living off looking the way she does just shared she found out she has an autoimmune disease and the doctors are changing everything about her diet….which was geared toward macros.  Not because the macros weren’t on point with how she wanted to look, but because they were off point in terms of nutrient supply.)  We have all heard of the marathon runner or the health nut that drops dead of a heart attack and everyone thinks “how could that be?!  He/she was so healthy!”  If you look at the diet, it was most likely tailored just for macros and not for micros.
If you see someone on social media with a six pack eating twinkies and ho-hos because they “fit their macros,” turn the other way.  These foods do not fit into micros, and that is where your health lives.  Micros determine your health, not your physique.  So, it becomes ultra tempting to want to follow along with someone eating certain ratios if you can still have fast food, cakes, and the like as long as it fits your macros.  Don’t be fooled.  If you are an athlete that wants to focus on tweaking your diet to the point of weighing your food, measuring everything, timing everything, etc to enhance performance or aesthetics, then please do it with the right foods.  The foods that still cover your micro bases.  If you are an average Joe, worry about eating healthy, nutrient dense foods first, then after a year of that, consider tweaking your macros for performance or looks.  Until you’ve covered your micro bases, your health is still at risk no matter how amazing your butt and abs look or how fast or strong you prove to be.
 

Orange Theory: The Pros and the Cons

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I make it no secret that I love working out at Crossfit, but that doesn’t mean I don’t appreciate and like other workouts, too.  I never recommend anything to anyone without having some personal experience myself.  So, I took the opportunity to go to a free Orange Theory class and let you guys know how it went!
Let’s start with the fact that right now, you can try a class for FREE!  There’s no excuse not to take advantage of that if it’s something you may want to do.
I am looking for a few things from my workout:
1. Sweat- I like to sweat.
2. Programming- I don’t like to wander into a gym and decide what to do on my own.  I’m too lazy.
3. Range of motion- I think full range of motion in movements is important if there is no reason to shorten them.
4. Fun- There’s nothing better than movement being FUN!  When you’re having fun, you always want to come back, it never feels like work, and it soon becomes a healthy habit.
5. Intensity- I like yoga sometimes, but I really like expending energy to make me feel good after a workout.
I went to the Orange Theory in Granger, and the staff was really welcoming, the facility was clean, and the trainer was energetic.  All good to start.  Since I was new, the trainer brought me into the room before everyone else to show me how things work and get me acquainted. Everyone else filed in and our heart rates were all up on a large monitor in the room.  We did a warm up, then a partner workout for rowing distance.  The workout was:
Partner 1: row while
Partner 2: runs .15miles and cycles through stations of lateral step overs, push ups, mountain climbers, squat jumps, ring rows, sit ups….
This back and forth went on for about 45 minutes until the class ended and we did a quick 5 minutes stretch post-workout.
How did the workout stack up:
1. I was SO SWEATY.  It was mostly cardio in an indoor room with lots of people, so that makes sense.
2. The workout changes everyday and they tell you what to do, so I liked that.
3. The movements are not full range of motion.  I’m used to a “chest to the deck” push up, hip crease below parallel squat, etc in Crossfit.  I noticed the majority of people were not doing a full range of motion on anything and I was actually stopped in the middle of my pushups and told not to go all the way down.  No worries.  Instead of doing push ups in sets, a shortened range of motion allowed me to do 20 without stopping every round.  They also have modifications for anyone who needs them, so injuries should not be an option.
4. I had fun!  I noticed lots of people came with friends, so I’m sure it was even more fun for them!  Usually the workouts are not partner workouts, but I love partner workouts.  So, that was right up my alley.
5. The workout is as intense as you make it.  Since you are wearing a heart rate monitor, you can constantly see where you are in terms of work.  I stayed in the orange zone the entire time and never reached the red zone, but the red zone is something the trainers keep an eye on to tell you to back down if you stay there too long.  There is also a green zone that tells everyone (including the trainer) that you are not working that hard and you need to pick up the pace!  I thought this part was interesting because I am not one to push my limits in a workout because I just don’t like to feel like death.  However, when I would hit a moment of “man this is kinda hard,” I could look up and see where I was on the monitor.  It kept me accountable in the sense that if I wanted rest but wasn’t even close to the red zone, I knew I could probably keep pushing and be just fine!
Overall, I had a good experience at Orange Theory and I think it would an ideal workout scenario for those the need trainer motivation, want mostly cardio,and like a group class.  You do have to buy a heart rate monitor which runs 45-90 dollars depending on which one you buy.  The monthly membership fee is also more than a regular gym, so cost comes into play, as well.  Since they are trainer-led classes, you have to call and schedule to be put into a class, which means classes fill up, too.  I wasn’t able to get into a class until 7pm because the other ones were full. No reason not to try it when they are letting you do that for free!!!

My Take on the Aging Process; Wrinkles vs. Passion Lines

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I am big on doing things when you are feeling passionate about them.  That passion and energy comes through, and it definitely makes a difference.  This is a topic that I have had sitting in my back pocket for over a year now.  I have had several moments where I got fired up about it and should’ve written a post then, but decided not to because sometimes strong energy around sensitive topics can cause drama.  This is a drama-free zone.  So, I kept deciding it wasn’t worth it.  Until now….

I was at the salon getting my hair done the other day and my hairstylist and I were talking about my grey hairs.  I have admitted this many times, so that is no surprise.  I definitely noticed them when I colored my hair black…can’t hide anything with black hair!  I told her that they really don’t bother me, and I meant it!  I have been highlighting my hair for years now, and I’m sure someone is thinking “if they don’t bother you, then why do you dye them?”  If you have colored your hair, you know it’s not that easy to just stop.  You have this weird half colored, half natural hair thing going on that is definitely not natural or cute looking. lol.  I started toying with my hair color in high school when it had nothing to do with grey hair; however, I am not in high school anymore!  So, until I figure out how to make that transition to natural in a way that I don’t have to cut off all my length, I will probably continue to highlight.

Having said that, when we were talking about my greys, I also brought up wrinkles.  I was watching some trashy tv show one day with 20 year olds sitting around laughing and one says “We need to stop laughing, we are going to get wrinkles.”  They all went silent and erased their smiles in an attempt to avoid those god awful wrinkles.  What is wrong with this picture?  It is an obvious sign that our culture is obsessed with looking young.  This is where my opinion starts….

There are no procedures that will make you look 20 again.  So, I would never want to chase such an unattainable goal.  Then I start asking myself, what if I could be 20 again, would I want that?  My answer is very strongly “no.”  Don’t get me wrong, college life was an amazing time, I had amazing personal growth during those times, and I had more life adventures than I can count.  However, now that I am well into my 30s, I know who I am, my purpose in life, confidence in my abilities, and what I want.  These things only come with life experience that you just haven’t had time to have when you are 20.

Within those years, I have laughed, I have passionately argued, I have stood up for causes, I have experienced.  Therefore, when you look at me, I have wrinkles that I call “passion lines.”  I eluded to this in an old post.  The lines on my face mean something to me, why would I want to erase them?  They tell me:

  1. I have laughed (with friends, family, at movies, with people)
  2. I have smiled (to greet everyone I see, when thinking about my blessings, for photos of experiences, when I’m happy)
  3. I have concentrated heavily (So much studying, working on patient cases, reading, etc)
  4. I have researched (I can’t count the hours of studying to be where I am)
  5. I have listened (when I do this I often furrow my brow…to patients, to friends, to teachers)
  6. I have practiced empathy (You make a face when hearing someone’s story….I promise)
  7. I have taught (When I teach, I get so fired up that I often have dramatic facial expressions when touching on important points)
  8. I have endured (look at anyone pushing their limits physically and you will see that you make a face when you endure something that makes you want to give up)
  9. I have had years to experience life
  10. I have had years to express my feelings

Why would I want to erase any of that?  Why would I want to portray to anyone that they things have never occurred?  Why would I want to minimize my life for a more naive version?  If I wouldn’t want to be 20, why would I want to look 20?

The lines on your face, scars on your body, and greying of your hair all have stories.  They are your own personal blueprint.  Take care of yourself in order to “look great for your age,” but don’t feel the need to erase your journey in the pursuit of youth.  That may mean erasing all the things so important to you….spouses, kids, careers, travels, etc.  Feel comfortable with aging.  Look forward to what the next 10 years will bring (inevitably it will include more lines, too if you are living).  Love yourself not just for how you look, but where you’ve been.  If not for your own happiness, for your future generation to appreciate what living entails.  I have hope that we will start to cherish age and quit running from it.  I hope my passion lines continue to develop because I fear if they weren’t, that I may have lost my way.

Want it Done Right? Do It Yourself: A Gap in the System

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I have never lived “in the box.”  I have always tried to see things for what they are regardless of the way our culture decided they were supposed to be seen.  I think working extensively in other parts of the world opened my eyes up to the question “What is normal, really?”  Your culture often defines what normal is to you, and that’s normal.  However, if you can recognize that, and look outside the lines, you open your mind to what could be new normals.  Maybe those new normals would make you happier?!

That’s exactly what I did when it comes to healthcare.  My overall mission in life is to use my gifts to leave the world a better place, a place I want future generations to take advantage of, a place where I’m proud to say I left a mark.   My gifts just happen to involve the aptitude for solving puzzles, the yearn to learn, and love of teaching.   When I put on my “Dr. hat,” it is all about figuring out a case, figuring out the root cause of a problem, deciding what tests need done, deciphering what the results mean, determining the best course of action to fix it, etc.  That passion behind solving the puzzle is what will feed my soul for the rest of my career.  This drive also encompasses the need to acquire knowledge, the more knowledge I accumulate, the more “tools in the bag” I have to solve the puzzle.  When you have those two things under your belt, it becomes very natural to want to pass that knowledge along to other people who are interested.  It’s pretty simple really.

In my opinion, the healthcare system doesn’t have enough people solving puzzles, enough doctors seeking knowledge that may not fit within the lines, and definitely not enough doctors teaching patients this knowledge.  You want it done right? Do it yourself.  So, I am taking my career path outside the box and trying to offer the best marriage of all the necessities: GOOD diagnostics which requires the constant accumulation of knowledge, and teaching the practicality.  I can’t teach everyone how to be a doctor, or all the information they would need to diagnose themselves, but I can teach future healthcare providers that knowledge, and I can teach patients how to improve their environment for desired change.  Parts of me wish there were more doctors that taught patients lifestyle management, and parts of me wish health coaches had the knowledge to diagnose, but you can’t have everything you wish for.  So until that happens, THIS DOCTOR IS IN THE KITCHEN….literally.  Taking a case from diagnostics and correction, to HOW TO DO THIS for your lifestyle. There’s no telling where this journey will land, but I can’t wait!