by Guest | Jun 15, 2022 | Eat Well
You may have heard that dairy foods like milk, yogurt, and cheese are foundational in a balanced diet, but did you know that there is strong emerging evidence that dairy foods could help you reduce your risk for Type 2 Diabetes (T2DM)? Here are 5 tips to help prevent or manage T2DM, while still enjoying some of your favorite dairy foods:
- Mix up your Movement and Power up with Protein – Incorporating a great mix of both aerobic (walking, running, hiking, etc) and resistance exercise (strength training, body-weight movements, etc.) throughout your week can have tremendous benefits in managing T2DM risk factors. Fueling up with a good protein source after exercise can also help give your body the amino acids needed to gain muscle, which can help improve how your body responds naturally to insulin and blood sugar. Top a cup of low fat Greek yogurt with a handful of fresh berries for a perfect, protein-packed after workout snack!
- Find balance with your Carbohydrates – Keeping track of the amount of carbohydrates you’re consuming in meals and snacks can make a world of difference for managing and preventing T2DM risk factors. Carbs can occur naturally in whole foods, or through processing with added sugars, starches, and syrups. Though the amount of carbs an individual needs vary, a single serving is considered 15 grams. Many dairy foods like milk, plain Greek yogurt, cottage cheese, and string cheese all naturally fall below the 15 gram mark for carbs per serving, and are a great option for those looking for a satisfying, carb-controlled food choice.
- Rethink your Drink – Sugar-sweetened drinks like soda, juice beverages, and energy drinks can sneak hundreds of “empty”calories (no nutritional value) into your diet without satisfying hunger. These drinks are loaded with simple carbohydrates that can wreak havoc on your ability to control blood sugar. If you’re looking for a mood-boosting drink alternative, try enjoying a glass of milk which is packed with natural B vitamins to give you an energizing pick-me-up.
- Consistency is key – Whether you’re trying to manage your weight, blood sugar levels, or both, one of the best strategies to practice is consistency with meals and snacks throughout your day. Sticking to a routine will help keep hunger at bay, prevent overeating, and provide consistent energy to feel your best. Most adults also struggle to get the nutrition needed from the USDA’s recommendations of 3 servings of dairy daily; so practicing consistency with your diet will give you more chances to add in some of your favorite foods from this group.
- Eat the Rainbow – Eating a colorful variety of foods from all food groups is key to living your best life, and can help you prevent and manage your diabetes risks. Here are some tasty and healthy combinations with other food groups from OSU Extension Food Hero you can try with your favorite dairy foods:
- Overnight oats with milk, yogurt, and fruit
- Cucumber yogurt dip with fresh veggies
- Baked tomatoes with cheese
- Tuna veggie melts with whole wheat English muffins and cheese
AUTHOR: Lewis Martin, Nutrition Director at Oregon Dairy and Nutrition Council
Resources:
- https://academic.oup.com/ajcn/article/103/4/1111/4662895?login=false
- https://www.usdairy.com/getmedia/f8f8a4d6-b529-4981-9a86-11e8b62f25d8/science-summary-type-2-diabetes-2021.pdf?ext=.pdf
- https://www.cdc.gov/diabetes/managing/eat-well/diabetes-and-carbohydrates.html
- www.Foodhero.org
by Guest | Jun 8, 2022 | Being Well
Are you making a difference in the world? Does your life matter? Having a sense of purpose is important to our overall well-being. People with purpose are happier, healthier and more productive. As a result, people who live “on purpose” live longer, better lives. We don’t need to visit a remote cave or mystical community to discover our sense of purpose. The clues are already present within us. Each of us has unique gifts and talents we can intentionally use to lead a more meaningful life.
Purpose Workshops help people identify their gifts and how they can apply them to live their best life. This is especially helpful when exploring relationships, jobs, volunteer opportunities, planning for retirement, and responding to major life events like marriage, divorce, birth and death. Our gifts even nudge us toward certain careers, relationships and even hobbies. If we never intentionally explore our gifts, we may never fully live or experience true joy in life.
During a purpose workshop, you are guided through a process to:
- Identify your gifts,
- Recognize how you apply your gifts, and;
- Use your gifts as sails for getting where you want to go and to navigate storms along the way
Have you ever met someone who just seems full of joy, happy to get out of bed each day no matter their job or what is happening in their lives? Often it is the community volunteer or workplace wellness warrior we see living out their purpose in this way. However, it can also be someone undergoing cancer treatment, or a person experiencing a serious life crisis, who seems to maintain a sense of perspective and an eye toward hope, even during dark times. What these people have in common is that they are tapping into intrinsic traits that bring them joy, peace and contentment, regardless of their circumstances.
While everyone has their own unique gifts, they often go undiscovered. Oliver Wendell Holmes said that most people go to their graves with their music still inside them. On a similar note, there is an ancient story about a man who travels the world over for many years seeking treasure, only to return home as an old man to discover the treasure was buried beneath his house all along. This is so common. We look everywhere, outside ourselves, our whole lives, for the very thing we already possess.
As mentioned earlier, there are clues that help us identify our gifts:
- What we do well and truly love doing
- How we most enjoy serving others
- When we lose track of time doing an activity, often referred to as “flow”
We may know someone who loves their job or a particular volunteer activity. For them the work isn’t work at all. It brings them joy and they actually derive energy from doing the work. Moreover, that energy is often contagious. This is a good sign that someone is living on purpose. When we do things we enjoy, that align with our gifts, whether for our job, in service to others, or as a hobby, we experience a deep sense of satisfaction.
Living a life of purpose is connected to better health and well-being. Research shows that knowing our gifts guides better decision-making, builds resilience and helps us feel like we make a difference in the world.
Through the Blue Zones Project, and in partnership with Tillamook County Wellness, Adventist Health Tillamook is offering free Purpose Workshops. During a guided session, participants can discover (or re-discover) their individual gifts and talents and map out a framework for using their gifts to live a more purpose-oriented and satisfying life.
The 90-minute workshops are offered in-person and virtually (via Zoom) on the third Friday of each month, Noon-1:30 pm, beginning June 17th. There is no charge for the workshops. Registration is required to receive workshop materials and event updates. Watch the Community Calendar for event dates and registration information.
While offered in a group setting, participants will work through their own process to identify their unique gifts, using a personal workbook they can keep after the session. As part of the Tillamook County Wellness This Way to Well-Being campaign, prize drawings will be held at each workshop.
AUTHOR: Michelle Jenck, Adventist Health Tillamook Director of Community Well-Being
Other wellness questions? Email us at info@tillamookcountywellness.org. For more local health and wellness information, visit www.tillamookcountywellness.org or follow Tillamook County Wellness on Facebook and Instagram.
by Guest | Jun 8, 2022 | Recipes
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 10 minutes
Ingredients:
- ¼ cup low sodium vegetable broth
- 2 tbsp rice vinegar
- 1 ½ tbsp lower sodium soy sauce
- 1 tbsp cornstarch
- 1 tsp ground ginger
- ½ tsp sriracha
- ½ tsp stevia brown sugar blend
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- 1 clove minced garlic
- 1 ¼ lbs raw medium shrimp (peeled, deveined, tails cut off)
- 3 cups broccoli florets
Directions:
- In a small bowl, whisk together the vegetable broth, rice vinegar, soy sauce, cornstarch, ginger, sriracha, and brown sugar blend.
- Heat 2 tbsp of the olive oil in a large skillet or wok. When the oil is shimmering, add the garlic and cook until fragrant (30 seconds). Add the shrimp and cook until opaque, about 4 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, remove the shrimp and place on a plate.
- Heat the remaining 1 tbsp of olive oil in the same skillet. Add the broccoli florets and cook until tender, about 4 minutes.
- Add the cooked shrimp back into the skillet and toss to combine with the broccoli. Pour the broth mixture over the shrimp and broccoli and toss to coat. Continue cooking until the broth mixture thickens slightly, about 1 minute.
Notes:
This recipe calls for broccoli florets, but you can use 3 cups of any nonstartchy vegetables you have on hand (like cauliflower, zucchini, snow peas, or cabbage). Serve over brown rice or another whole grain for a complete plate.
Recipe Source: Diabetes Food Hub. The Create-Your-Plate Diabetes Cookbook. Recipe Credit: Toby Amidor, MS, RD, CDN, FAND. https://www.diabetesfoodhub.org/recipes/easy-broccoli-and-shrimp-stir-fry.html
Photo Source: Terry Doran / Mittera
by Guest | Jun 1, 2022 | Recipes
Prep Time: 12 minutes
Ingredients:
- 2 (14.5 oz) cans of black beans (rinsed and drained)
- 2 cups frozen corn (thawed)
- 1 finely diced red bell pepper
- ½ cup diced red onion
- ½ cup chopped fresh cilantro
- 2 small limes (juiced)
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- ½ tsp cumin
- ¼ tsp garlic powder
- ¼ tsp black pepper
- ¼ tsp cayenne pepper (optional)
Directions:
- In a medium bowl, combine beans, corn, red pepper, red onion, and cilantro.
- In a small bowl, whisk together remaining ingredients and pour over the bean salad. Toss to coat.
Recipe Source: The Diabetes Cookbook. Recipe Credit: Lara Rondinelli Hamilton, RD, LDN, CDE and Jennifer Bucko Lamplough. https://www.diabetesfoodhub.org/recipes/black-bean-and-corn-salad-quick-recipe.html?home-category_id=27
Photo Credit: Mittera
by Guest | Jun 1, 2022 | Work Well
Don’t know where or how to start with planning your financial future? You are not alone. This is the most common email request I receive so I thought it warranted a blog post. To create a Financial Dream Plan, you need to know what you want. This can be a difficult exercise. We are often challenged with verbalizing our desires or imagining our future self. We have a notion of what we want but when asked we can’t provide specific details. And for dreams to come true, they need to be specific.
Here are two fun ways to start dreaming about your future:
1.Plan a Dream Vacation completely budgeted on paper.
Go all out. Where do you want to go? How long will you be gone? Alone or does someone go with you? Pick a time of year, research flight routes and costs. Plan the itinerary. Where will you stay? Accommodations vary based on your dream (i.e. Backpacking, Airbnb or Luxury Resort). What kind of activities will you do? Are you going for adventure or relaxation? What kind of food will you eat? Who will you meet? What kind of memories will you make?
2. Plan your Perfect Day by the hour starting when you wake to when you fall asleep.
Would you wake automatically or to an alarm? Would you have a morning routine?
How about exercise, meditation or gratitude? What about journaling? Would you eat breakfast? If yes to breakfast, what would you eat? Be specific!
What time would you arrive to work? Do you have a commute or work from home? What kind of meetings do you attend? Or do you volunteer? Plan it all out…snacks, meals, cocktails or not. Do you meet up with friends? Play sports? Watch TV? Take a walk or have sex with your partner? You decide. It’s totally your Perfect Day.
This exercise works best the more specific you can be. You may want to create a Pinterest Board for visual representation of your Dream Vacation or write out your entire Perfect Day in your journal. I encourage doodling in the margins of your journal since doodling activates big picture thinking.
Your Dream Vacation and Perfect Day will be as unique as you are. When you start this process, it engages your planning brain (and you’ll need it firing on all cylinders to create your Financial Dream Plan). Most days we live our day the same way we did the day before, almost in default. This is common as our primitive brain likes consistency.
That consistency can make us feel stuck though, especially around our finances. How are we growing in knowledge and wealth if we are following the same process as the prior day, week after week?
This is where activating your planning brain with a fun exercise like a Dream Vacation or Perfect Day starts to get you to think about the future and what do you really want. Your brain can then move onto your finances.
After the Dream Vacation or Dream Day exercise, now write out three financial goals:
- this month, I will:
- this year, I will:
- within the next five years, I will:
How much money do you want to earn? How are you going to provide value to earn that amount? How will you mindfully spend your money? How much will you intentionally save and invest? What kind of financial life do you want to live? Do you want to leave a legacy or are you all about YOLO (you only live once)?
There is no right answer. There is YOUR answer. Write it out. I read that you are 42% more likely to achieve your goals if you write them down. Just think, you may get that Dream Vacation and Perfect Day after all.
If you need assistance with your Financial Dream Plan, keep an eye out for the Financial Wellness Workshops provided by Tillamook County Wellness coming this fall 2022. A written plan will save you hours of worry and thousands of dollars over your lifetime. Plus, you’ll be 42 percent more likely to achieve it and that is good for your health!
AUTHOR: Liz Carroll, Financial Life Coach
Other wellness questions? Email us at info@tillamookcountywellness.org. For more local health and wellness information, visit www.tillamookcountywellness.org or follow Tillamook County Wellness on Facebook and Instagram.
