Things I have learned so far in nursing school are:
Nursing basically is functional medicine at its roots!
The historical theories of nursing are meant to educate individuals on how to heal holistically and craft their environment to promote healing.
The 21st century direction of nursing is to moving more towards prevention, community intervention and EDUCATION!
The technology available to us all in health care is mind-blowing and I am both encouraged by it and scared of it!
I am honored to be receiving this education AFTER having a background in fitness, wellness, coaching and functional medicine. The blend of all models will be AWESOME!!!!
Although all of these things are SUPER exciting and despite the physical frustration of adding 5 hours of sitting in 3 days per week (15 hours total of sedentary time) , I LOVE going to school...I still doubt my ability to graduate. Our first test comes up next week (Friday Feb 2nd in case you would like to pray for me) and I am VERY anxious about it!
This week on Instagram I talked about some of the things I am doing to support my body during this season of life at age 44 with two kids in travel soccer, one active in ninja and one active in scouts, science projects, their homework, cooking, cleaning, etc. This is a very busy season of life that feels very similar to the level of busy when I brought the girls home from the hospital and was nursing every 3 hours morning and night. That was HARD with two infants and two four year olds. AND...I did it. So, that is my mantra! If I can do that and make it through, I can do this!
Here are some of the things I am sharing on Instagram:
Micro-dosing Movement!
This concept is not new but it is a rapidly growing practice and highly useful to those of us who are next level busy and do not want to sacrifice fitness! This activity can be high intensity very short bouts of movement along with a small amount of mobility for circulation, lymphatic work and metabolic stimulation. Or, it can be mobility followed by some stability work.
Micro-dosing can also be used to support our body at home while we are taking care of the kids and we don't have time for a single-bout of exercise session. Consider this scenario...
Wake up: 10 minutes of activity (bike, jumprope, rebounder, rower, treadmill walk on an incline)
During the day: Three 10 minute bouts where you do 5 exercises for one minute each, 2 rounds:
Dumbbell squat
Dumbbell shoulder press
Lateral lunges
Push up
Side plank
*mix up the order, change the exercises or swap in another bit of cardio
Evening: 10 minute activity which can be a walk, continuous household chores or mobility/mini yoga session.
HECK yeah!! This is 50 minutes of exercise you may not have thought could be done. Technically, this is not really the same thing as the studied VILPA. BUT...it all counts towards creating a more physically active lifestyle that we all crave but become conditioned to the sedentary nature that our world becomes as middle aged moms.
Ditching Food Perfection!
Oh man, now this one I have so much passion about because of an exciting opportunity coming up very soon that I cannot talk much about! BUT, here is what I am learning, shifting towards and integrating right now!!
When I first started my blog, I was learning ALL the things about ancestral nutrition, non-celiac gluten sensitivity, functional nutrition, gut health, etc. My studies were guided out of an intense desire to no longer feel like garbage. I had been on Ritalin for a solid decade, a history of being over prescribed Accutane, hypothalamic amenorrhea and a host of nagging physical pain issues. I was a competitive athlete for years and now had twin boys I had to show up for. I found my solve in learning all about nourishing my body and identifying imbalances. With a history of mental illness in the family and my own obvious issues with gluten (Brain-ADD, Skin-Acne, Gut-bloating, Musculoskeletal-stiffness and joint pain)...I went ALL in!
IT WORKED, big time and I was able to support my sons' health and eventually, my second set of twins, my daughters' health. As a practitioner you are always (or should be) learning and evolving. I am learning so much about nutrition intervention and applying food functionally to unique types of lab testing that can absolutely change the course of our health. Ditching food perfection does not mean that we adopt a fully intuitive eating strategy but instead we embrace more of a "crowding out" type of approach to nutrition and embrace more than eliminate. Combined with HTMA, you cannot go wrong! I cannot wait to share templates and education on how to make these sustainable nutrition interventions work for you and your family!!
A HUGE driver for this knowledge is of course a NEED to shift as I return to school and do not have as much time to cook everything from scratch for the kids and myself. While I do not want to sacrifice quality I realize that the stress of all the extra work and time in the kitchen is offsetting the benefit of the actual food.
I have shared many posts in collaboration with US Wellness Meats and Dr. Sarah Ballantyne's Nutrivore on instagram! Last week I shared the start of a series using ONE cut of meat to prepare three different dishes for the adult lunchbox. You can find all of the recipes on US Wellness Meats. The purpose behind all of these posts is to show how we can strategically nourish our body as 40+ moms and leave the restriction mindset behind. This way of eating allows us more wiggle room and flexibility to ditch food perfection, enjoy the experience and still build health!
Eat Breakfast!
Holy toledo! Let's just nail this one to the wall! I see this so much among nurses and even students and then all of a sudden it is 2pm and the day has consisted of a grab and go protein shake, protein bar, bag of chips or some little pieces of candy. It is extremely important to nourish your body in the morning! Coming up next month I will have some breakfast strategies for you that the kids will love too!
As grown women, we NEED to nourish our body in the morning to stabilize blood glucose throughout the day. A coffee with protein powder is not going to cut it! Most women are looking to PERFORM every day, especially students and nurses. We need nutrients to fuel that brain activity and recovery!
Here is my go-to fuel strategy that I am loving before class that currently runs 8 am-12 pm. I leave home a 6:30 am, so this is an on-the-go strategy!
4AM: 1/2 can light coconut milk in the can from Trader Joe's (no BPA and no gums). I leave the cream on top because I do not want the fat before my workout and I add 1 scoop whey protein isolate and 1/2 banana.
HYDRATION: 1/2 gallon filtered water with 1 pack of LMNT (use this link for a free sample pack of LMNT with your purchase).
4:30-5:45 AM: Workout which is programmed for hypertrophy and power.
6:30AM: leave the house with my smoothie I made the night before:
1/2 Vitamix canister of greens (Brussel's sprouts leaves, kale, dandelion, carrot tops, cilantro, etc. Whatever I get out of the garden.
~1/2 cup frozen organic berries (blueberries/strawberries)
2 T ground flax seeds
1T apple cider vinegar
1 scoop whey protein powder
2 scoops collagen peptides
1/2 avocado
12:15 pm: after class I have my raw carrots (because I love them and they are good for estrogen detox), and either beef liverwurst or a couple hard-boiled eggs. I prefer not be starving when I arrive home.
Next week I will share some more about recipes and other options.
So, that is the journey thus far into nursing school as a mom of two sets of twins! Next post I will have more to share on my test and how that went! Back to studying nursing theory!
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