Healthy choices
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FUN!
Part of the process of developing your list of fun things to do is thinking through the things that bring you fulfillment and joy. Fun could be a pretty shallow concept: think of all that alcohol related fun so many brag about on Monday morning at work or the worlds conquered on the new Xbox game. What would…
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High fructose corn syrup
If you could un-invent something, what would it be? As a health care provider, my first item to delete from the arsenal of recent invention is high fructose corn syrup. Invented in the 60’s and then mass marketed into the US food chain in the mid-70’s and especialliy the 80’s, high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) has…
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I don’t care about your weight…
Life sucks. I’m overweight. I’m going to go binge watch Netflix… I have heard a phrase much like this many times over the last decade. I don’t mean to pick on Netflix: there are multiple issues at stake in our overall health and some down time with the TV is not a bad thing. Same thing with multiple…
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New Year issues…
What are your biggest challenges? Jan 1 – It’s the first morning of the new year. It’s a cold morning and the clouds are low. They have an almost fog like presence that pushes the coldness right to your core. I feel motivated to start the year right, make some goals, and do some writing. Winter is…
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Snacks… a dilemma
I find this question so frustrating most of the time. Just thinking about it makes me crave a donut. An apple fritter in particular. When I have to drive, this is a literal cage fight of wants and desires. It plays out like a movie in my mind… The actor playing me is Jack Black, with some bad tight…
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Living a long life
As a nurse practitioner, I’ve had many conversations with people about how long they want to live. In fact, part of my routine as a primary care provider has been to have a conversation about end of life issues, fill out a POLST form (portable/physician orders for life sustaining treatment), and talk about advanced directives and…
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Curiosity
What does it mean to be a kid at heart? One of the most unhealthy sayings of all time is “curiosity killed the cat”. I remember as a child hearing this in various contexts, usually when I was asking questions about something that an adult wanted to squash and leave behind. The meaning left behind was…
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2023 A retrospective
This time of year always brings me to review the past twelve months and try to put things in perspective, and then look to the future. All in all, the last year has been a shocking change for me in multiple aspects of my life. Travel restart: after three years of COVID and avoiding air travel, I…
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American’s are dying younger…
The average age of an American at death has been going down since 2014, and just recently took a steep dive in 2021, seven years later. I was trained and grew up in an era that believed in “American exceptionalism”. I took it for granted that we had the best medical system in the world, and…
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Connection
It is two days until Christmas and Thanksgiving seems like a distant memory. This time of year is busy for most. The thing that makes it busy is our plans to connect with relatives and friends to spend time, celebrate the holidays, and enjoy. So, why do we do this? That can be a long answer, and there are…
Myhealthadventure 