Wiser With Age

Tag: health

  • 13 ways to add fruits and vegetables to your diet

    13 ways to add fruits and vegetables to your diet

    Photo/Kristina Puga
    Photo/Kristina Puga

    Eating plenty of fruits and vegetables is a cornerstone of good health. It helps control blood pressure and cholesterol, keeps arteries flexible, protects bones, and is good for the eyes, brain, digestive system, and just about every other part of the body. But many of us have trouble putting that knowledge into practice and getting five or more servings a day.

    One big barrier to tapping into the power of produce is the perception that fruits and vegetables are expensive. That’s not necessarily so. You can buy three servings of fruits and four servings of vegetables for well under $2 a day, according to a survey by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

    Preparation time, unfamiliarity, and old habits are other barriers to eating more fruits and vegetables. But the effort is well worth it, as you get plenty of heart-healthy antioxidants, fiber, and a host of vitamins, minerals, and other phytonutrients from fruits and vegetables.

    Here are some suggestions for tipping aside these barriers:

    1. Know your needs. For the mythical 2,000-calorie-a-day diet, the latest guidelines recommend a minimum of 2 cups of fruit and 2½ cups of vegetables a day. More is better.
    2. Set a goal. If fruits and vegetables are minor items on your menu, start by eating one extra fruit or vegetable a day. When you’re used to that, add another and keep going.
    3. Be sneaky. Adding finely grated carrots or zucchini to pasta sauce, meat loaf, chili, or a stew, is one way to get an extra serving of vegetables.
    4. Try something new. It’s easy to get tired of apples, bananas, and grapes. Try a kiwi, mango, fresh pineapple, or another of the more exotic choices available at your grocery store.
    5. Blend it. A fruit smoothie is a delicious way to start the day or tide you over until dinner.
    6. Be a big dipper. If the natural flavor of carrots, celery, broccoli, or other veggies isn’t enough, try dipping them into hummus or another bean spread, some spiced yogurt, or even a bit of ranch dressing. Or slather peanut butter on a banana or slices of apple.
    7. Spread it on. Try mashed avocado as a dip with diced tomatoes and onions, or as a sandwich spread, topped with spinach leaves, tomatoes, and a slice of cheese.
    8. Start off right. Ditch your morning donut for an omelet with onions, peppers, and mushrooms. Or boost your morning cereal or oatmeal with a handful of strawberries, blueberries, or dried fruit.
    9. Drink up. Having a 6-ounce glass of low-sodium vegetable juice instead of a soda gives you a full serving of vegetables and spares you 10 teaspoons or more of sugar.
    10. Give them the heat treatment. Roasting vegetables is easy and brings out new flavors. Cut up onions, carrots, zucchini, asparagus, turnips and coat with olive oil, add a dash of balsamic vinegar, and roast at 350° until done. Use roasted or grilled veggies as a side dish, put them on sandwiches, or add them to salads.
    11. Let someone else do the work. If peeling, cutting, and chopping aren’t your thing, food companies and grocers offer an ever-expanding selection of prepared produce.
    12. Improve on nature. Don’t hesitate to jazz up vegetables with spices, chopped nuts, balsamic vinegar, olive oil, or a specialty oil like walnut or sesame oil.
    13. Sweeten it. Try dipping your fruit in chocolate or honey. For example, I just mashed a pear, added honey and cinnamon – yummy!

    DrJosefinaBioDr. Josefina Monasterio is a certified life coach, fitness expert, and nutritional counselor based in Vero Beach, Florida. She holds a PhD in Adult Personal Development from Nova University and a Master’s Degree in Education from Boston University. Dr. Josefina is also a certified Yoga Therapist from the World Yoga Society of Calcutta, India, and host of Healthy Power TV’s “The Dr. Josefina Way.”

  • Want to eat healthy? Eat together as a family, daily

    Want to eat healthy? Eat together as a family, daily

    Photo/Dreamstime
    Photo/Dreamstime

    Traditionally, family meals have represented much more than just communal eating—they’re a time for good conversation and genuine family bonding.

    Unfortunately, today, many meals are consumed at stoplights or in front of the computer—alone. Solitary dining has become more and more common as busy families are finding it challenging to carve out time for family meals, particularly when all adult family members work outside of the home.  

    A 2014 study found that the majority of American households eat meals together less than five days a week. A 2013 Harris Poll found that among Americans who live with at least one family member, only 58 percent report eating with others at least four times a week, but 86 percent report sitting down to a dinner together at least once a week. The poll also found that the frequency of family dinners is declining with each generation.

    Although solitary meals are occurring on a regular basis now, recent research suggests they are not contributing to you or your children’s well-being. Families that make an effort to eat meals together, at least three or four times a week, enjoy significant benefits for their health, happiness, and relationships.

    For example, kids who eat meals with their families enjoy healthier eating patterns and less obesity. Research shows that children who share family meals, three or more times a week, are more likely to be in a healthy weight range and make better food choices. They’re more likely to eat healthy foods and less likely to eat unhealthy ones. They are also less likely to develop eating disorders.

    Interestingly, a Cornell University study found that families (both adults and children) who eat dinner in their kitchen, or dining rooms, have significantly lower BMIs (body mass index) than families who eat elsewhere. For boys, remaining at the table until everyone is finished eating was also associated with a lower BMI.

    There is also something to be said about the importance of family rituals, and routines, for children’s emotional health. 

    For example, teens who eat with their families at least five times a week are 40 percent more likely to get A’s and B’s in school than their peers who don’t share family meals. They’re also 42 percent less likely to drink alcohol, 59 percent less likely to smoke cigarettes, 66 percent less likely to try marijuana, and tend to be less depressed.

    Other research shows that with each additional family dinner, adolescents have: higher self-esteem and life satisfaction, more trusting and helpful behaviors toward others and better relationships with their parents, better vocabulary and academic performance, lower teen pregnancy rates and truancy, and increased resilience to stress.

    In order for family meals to occur, you must make them a priority.

    If you’re looking for ideas on how to corral your family into eating more meals together, The Family Dinner Project provides some helpful and creative tips.

    One of my favorite sayings is: “If you fail to plan, then you are planning to fail,” and this certainly applies here.

    Making it possible for your family to eat together means not only shopping ahead of time so you have the food to prepare, but also selecting a time that works for everyone—whenever that may be. Just be creative and make your mealtimes as regular, stress-free and as enjoyable as possible!

    DrJosefinaBioDr. Josefina Monasterio is a certified life coach, fitness expert, and nutritional counselor based in Vero Beach, Florida. She holds a PhD in Adult Personal Development from Nova University and a Master’s Degree in Education from Boston University. Dr. Josefina is also a certified Yoga Therapist from the World Yoga Society of Calcutta, India, and host of Healthy Power TV’s “The Dr. Josefina Way.”

  • 70-year-old nurse practitioner, and teacher, remembers her most humbling moment

    70-year-old nurse practitioner, and teacher, remembers her most humbling moment

    Beth Farren (Photo/Richard Posey)
    Beth Farren (Photo/Richard Posey)

    Beth Farren, 70, continues living her life doing what she loves most – nursing, teaching, and fitting in the time to play tennis.

    Originally from Chicago, she has lived in Dallas for the past 33 years, where she volunteers as a nurse practitioner at a nearby clinic, teaches nursing online at Texas Tech, and sits on the board of the North Texas Nurse Practitioners – where she helps raise money for social causes.

    “I have lovely days,” says Farren, in her kind, soft voice. “Some days, I diagnose and treat women’s health – pelvic exams, breast exams, pulmonary exams…I also work in the neurology clinic and dermatology clinic. Both have specialty doctors, and I’m their nurse.”

    Farren says she started teaching way before she became a nurse practitioner – a career which requires advanced coursework and clinical education beyond that required of a registered nurse.

    After getting her bachelor’s degree in nursing from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, Farren says she started to think about getting a masters.

    “The new dean of the nursing program called me and asked me if I wanted to come teach,” she remembers. “I told her I only had a bachelor’s degree, but she told me they didn’t have enough people with master’s degree, so she was asking those with bachelor’s degrees to do clinical teaching.”

    So Farren made an arrangement with her then husband where he helped with their little boys in the morning.

    “I started, and I loved it,” says Farren about her first teaching experience. “I taught for them for 10 years.”

    During her time in Tennessee, she also worked with women who didn’t have access to prenatal care.

    “They were just learning about premature births at that time,” says Farren who took a course in working with premature babies. “I learned that some babies would not have been premature if the mom had just had good prenatal care. I began to be passionate about it.”

    So while working on her master’s, she decided she was more interested in prevention and taking care of patients that would benefit from education.

    “I mentally left the hospital and pursued courses,” says Farren. “Nowadays, practitioners have a great variety of roles, but when I became a nurse practitioner, we worked outside of the hospitals trying to prevent people from going to the hospital.”

    After earning her master’s degree, she moved to Texas for a job opportunity, and there she also earned her doctorate degree.

    “I always volunteered one night a week, when my boys were older, at the free clinic,” says Farren. “I’m nothing special. They were just opportunities I had.”

    Some of those opportunities included going to Poland and Romania, who were moving away from communism, to teach standards of practice; as well as working at a Cuban refugee camp in Wisconsin one summer.

    “In the early ‘80s, Fidel Castro let a bunch of people from psychiatric facilities in Cuba come to America, and all these people showed up in Miami on boats and rafts, and the Army started taking them to different bases to try and take care of them,” says Farren. “The fort I was in was considered a family camp with a lot of pregnant women and children…a number of my patients told me they had been in prison, and I strongly believe a lot of them were political prisoners.”

    Perhaps the most impactful moment of her long career, she says, was the moment she thought she might lose her son.

    “About 15 years ago, my son had a very serious emergency, and I wound up taking him down to the county hospital here in Dallas,” recounts Farren about her son’s gastric bleed. “One of my students was in the emergency room. She looked up and saw me, and said, ‘Dr. Farren, I’m going to take care of this.’ I realized in that moment that I was able to tell her how much blood he’d lost, and she was able to believe me, because she knew who I was.”

    The next day, she says another one of her students took care of him.

    “It’s just one of the most humbling things,” says Farren about the whole experience. “I had just done my job to teach these girls, and there they were when I needed them. It wasn’t anything special I did – just the rhythms of life.”

    She says her piece of advice to the younger generation is:

    “Remember to do what you love, and trust that it will all be ok,” says Farren. “We all worry so much, thinking, ‘Can I make a living doing this?’ ‘Is it even doable?’ I got my doctorate as a single mom, while I worked full-time and did part-time jobs on the side, and nobody in their right mind told me it was a doable thing, but it was.”

  • The key to the “law of increase” – everything you do counts

    One of the greatest success principles of life is called, “the law of increase.” According to this law, everything accumulates over time.

    This law says that everything great, and worthwhile, in human life is an accumulation of hundreds, and sometimes thousands, of tiny efforts and sacrifices that nobody ever sees or appreciates. Sometimes, you have to put in many tiny efforts that nobody sees, or appreciates, before you achieve anything worthwhile.

    There are three areas where the “law of increase” is important:

    1. The area of knowledge.

    Any person with a large knowledge base has spent thousands of hours building that knowledge base one piece at a time. What you see when you meet the individual is an expert in his or her field. That makes him/her very valuable in the marketplace.

    Begin today to build your knowledge base in the subject that can be most helpful to you in achieving your goals in your health, your finances, and your relationships. Whether it takes a week, a month, or a year, to become thoroughly knowledgeable, it doesn’t matter.

    2. The area of health.

    Every healthy person has made his, or her, health a priority. Their wellness has nothing to do with their genetics, but everything to do with their commitment to live their lives to the fullest and healthiest way.

    When you set your goals, and you begin to move in that direction, it sets up a force, or a  field of energy, that triggers the law of attraction. As a result, you begin to attract health into your life.

    You can start at any stage of your journey by taking small steps. Start by walking 20 minutes a day, for example. Slowly increase the time and intensity of your workouts with time.

    3. The area of experience.

    You’ll find that successful people, in any field, are those who have far more experience in that field than the average person; and there is no other trait that can replace experience.

    Whether it’s in business or entrepreneurship, management or parenting, many people do not take the risks that are necessary to move out of their comfort zone, because they’re afraid it won’t work out. But the fact is, until you move out of your comfort zone, and get more experience from making mistakes, it’s not possible for you to grow and become capable of earning the kind of money that you desire.

    Get as much experience as you can in your chosen field. Start a little earlier, work a little harder and stay a little later. Take risks, and try every different way you can think of to achieve your goal.

    The key to the “law of increase” is: everything you do counts.

    The biggest mistake people make is they think only what they want to count counts. For example, when you read a book, listen to an audio program, go to a class, go to bed early and get up early and work, it all counts and has a positive effect. However, when you watch television, waste time, hang out, fool around, and so on, all of that counts as well – but it’s going to have a negative impact.

    A person, who has a great life, by the “law of increase,” is a person who’s accumulated far more credits on the credit side than debits on the debit side.

    If what you are doing is not moving you towards your goals, then it’s moving you away from your goals. Nothing is neutral. Everything that you’re doing is either moving you toward the things that you want to accomplish in life, the person you want to be, the health and wealth you want to accumulate, or it’s moving you away.

    Make sure you are loving every moment in this wonderful journey called life. That only happens when we take responsibility of choosing growth, and change, and refuse to be boxed-in by age, money or any self-imposed limitation by ourselves, or others.

    DrJosefinaBioDr. Josefina Monasterio is a certified life coach,  fitness expert, and nutritional counselor based in Vero Beach, Florida. She holds a PhD in Adult Personal Development from Nova University and a Master’s Degree in Education from Boston University. Dr. Josefina is also a certified Yoga Therapist from the World Yoga Society of Calcutta, India, and host of Healthy Power TV’s “The Dr. Josefina Way.”

  • Life plan for achieving wisdom and agelessness

    The question that people ask me the most is, “Where do you get your energy?”

    Well, you too can have access to ageless energy if you are willing to cultivate your physical, mental and spiritual energy so that you can be action-oriented, dynamic and prolific.

    How do you do that?

    Be humble and acknowledge when you are wrong.

    Many people are so concerned with being right that they waste their mental energy by criticizing, blaming, complaining, condemning and denying. If you’re wrong, acknowledge it, and get on with the solution or the next step. Many people think that it is a sign of weakness to say, “I made a mistake.” However, it is the opposite; it is actually a sign of mental maturity, personal strength and individual character.

    Be flexible with new information.

    Once you get new information, or new knowledge, don’t be afraid to say “I changed my mind.”

    It is amazing how many uncomfortable situations people get into and stay in, because they are unwilling, or afraid, to acknowledge that they’ve changed their minds.

    Purify your environment.

    You have to sort out and eliminate all the negative influences in your life such as, toxic people, places and things. This will allow you to feel happier, healthier and terrific about yourself.

    Eat the right foods 99 percent of the time.

    To perform at your best, you must eat the right foods in the right balance, and portion. Proper weight is essential for health, happiness, and long life.

    Exercise and train every day.

    The best activity for high energy, and physical fitness, is aerobic exercise and conditioning exercises like boot camps and weight training.

    Get a lot of rest.

    You need an average of seven to eight hours of sleep each night to be fully rested.

    Start a positive mental fitness program.

    Your ability to keep your mind on what you want, and off of what you don’t want, will determine your levels of health and happiness more than any other decision you make.

    Make a lifetime commitment to think and talk positively, and optimistically, about your goals, other people, and everything that is going on in your life. The more you keep your conversation focused on your goals, and on the things you want, the greater the amount of ageless energy, strength, and power you will feel.

    Investing your time in developing these core values will allow you to be able to take advantage of the endless possibilities around you. You will have the constant enthusiasm, and ageless energy, that keeps you motivated and moving ahead.

    DrJosefinaBio Dr. Josefina Monasterio is a certified life coach,  fitness expert, and nutritional counselor based in Vero Beach, Florida. She holds a PhD in Adult Personal Development from Nova University and a Master’s Degree in Education from Boston University. Dr. Josefina is also a certified Yoga Therapist from the World Yoga Society of Calcutta, India, and host of Healthy Power TV’s “The Dr. Josefina Way.”