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A Health Information Management professional, I survived a life-threatening emergency with information that only a person of my professional experience would know. And I’m sharing it!
B'SD 19 Tevet, 5776 I've been on the road this week, traveling to clients, friends and stores. I'm tired from the high-energy effort, so I made more soup, a comfort food full of excellent nutrition. Kitchen activities soothe me. It's been fun to receive compliments on the pumpkin-leek soup I prepared for friends, and to fill requests for more of it. Israel's blustery winter weather is a shock to our systems. Hot, good soup is a comfort. I ate some while checking the news. I came across an interesting medical news item. It caught my attention because I know several people with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and their children. If you or someone you know has rheumatoid arthritis (a very painful condition that limits movement), you and they need to know that...
B'SD 15 Tevet, 5776 My friend Miriam Green has a noteworthy blog about how she helps her mother, who has Alzheimer's. The blog is entitled The Lost Kitchen. It is heartwarming. and nutritious. I feel like a better person after reading each new blogpost. Miriam asked me to write a blogpost she could share, about my experience in such matters. Here we go:
In the USA I supplemented my income by working as a recreational therapist in a nursing home which had a designated Alzheimer's unit.
I would do warm-up exercises with people struggling to read, to remember names and faces. Once I had the crowd keeping a beat (usually with Madonna music), I would speak in a soft, sometimes funny banter to rev up their motivation to keep moving. Exercise oxygenates the brain and charges up its activity. We did stretches, bends, light aerobics and even a bit of dancing.
Sometimes I'd set up a frame to enable people with impaired balance or movement to use a lightweight bowling ball that knocked down pins within rather easy reach. The group celebrated successes together. Inevitably, someone would choose to keep score and boost morale by announcing them. LOUDLY.
If bowling bored the participants, I'd tease the men to play some poker and to show up a dumb broad. They'd eagerly let me deal the cards, declare the rules (I kept them simple) and then they proceeded to demonstrate their card-playing tricks, techniques they hadn't used or thought of in ages! Many smiles creased tired, careworn faces as a result.
Women sometimes baked with me. I'd use the aromas of our dough and various bottles of vanilla, mint, perfume, etc. to perk up long-ago memories. I learned of Brooklyn's background and the impact of the World War II in ways that no history book can teach. I heard of courtships, anniversaries, favorite recipes, and other celebrations of life. And I dabbed quite a few tears on several faces with handy tissues kept for the occasion.
At other times I placed a person's hands on the handle of a real shopping wagon, and walked through a mock supermarket with my Alzheimer's-afflicted companion. We'd select foods, discuss the freshness of the produce, pay the cashier, and put things away in a mock kitchen. Then we'd either cook or converse about life in an environment designed to resemble a private home.
By allowing these people with Alzheimer's to function independently, albeit with friendly, protective company, I learned of the power of confidence. It can bestowed and it can improve thinking skills. It is a most precious gift, a blessing.
Tears sometimes fell from my eyes after the group either cooked a good soup and shared it with one another, or made cakes and cookies. A hearty soup and hunk of bread make a deeply satisfying meal to gladden the heart and to heal the mind. Any recipe prepared with love and devotion can do the same. The people I worked with opened their hearts and spoke of long-ago memories. It was a remarkable experience.
Perhaps you'd like to prepare this pumpkin leek soup in the large white pot in the photograph. It is quite soothing:
Pumpkin Leek Soup
This soup is a crowd-pleaser on any cold day of the year.
1 LARGE leek or 3 small leeks (white part only or with finely chopped greens, per diner preferences) chopped
a handful of arame or wakame (2 different kinds of seaweed that add iodine to the soup) 1 LARGE onion, chopped 3-4 cloves garlic, finely chopped 2 lbs pumpkin, cubed (use flat slices for easier cubing) 4 medium carrots, julienned in bite-size pieces or thinly sliced 1 tsp cumin ½ tsp ginger (nutmeg if you like stronger flavors) ½ tsp ground coriander Himalayan or ocean salt and freshly-ground pepper to taste 6 cups water (more for a thinner soup)
If someone who will eat the soup needs help with chewing, you can allow the mixture to cool slightly and then blend it with a hand-held blender before ladling it from the pot into soup mugs or bowls. Otherwise, let your diners enjoy the sumptuous texture they'll chew with their teeth. Medical evidence demonstrates that chewing different textures improves brain function.
Include a fresh-made or flavorful store-bought loaf of soft bread on the side and enjoy the hearty, heart-lifting meal.
Have you noticed the jars of home made sauerkraut in the photo?
They were prepared according to macrobiotic recipe.
The contents are delicious.
Friends ask me to prepare it for them.
If you want to learn of other health-promoting ideas, read
Making New Year's resolutions?
Start 2016 with a better approach to your health or a loved one's. Read the book!
Buy the E-book or print edition of EMPOWER Yourself to Cope with a Medical Challenge. Face Your Medical Problems with Dignity.
Face Your Future with Optimism.
Fill your meals with body-building, health-supporting food.
B'SD 12 Tevet, 5776 My kitchen smells wonderful. Friends tasted samples and asked me to take a picture of today's finished products. Have a look at my pumpkin and leek soup, quinoa, millet and carrot side dish plus jars of literally hand-made sauerkraut (shredded cabbage with umeboshi vinegar. They ferment 2 days before they're ready to eat).
When you read
and realize that my vision was restored, my health astonishingly improved by going organic vegetarian (I now dabble in macrobiotic fare), remember that picture. There's no need to go hungry or poorly nourished with wholesome food on your menu. And it can seriously help you to heal. Need a holiday gift for someone sick - maybe yourself? Buy them the E-book or print edition of EMPOWER Yourself to Cope with a Medical Challenge. Face Your Medical Problems with Dignity.
Face Your Future with Optimism.
Fill your meals with whole foods.
Wednesday, December 23, 2015
B'SD 11 Tevet, 5776 I've been quiet on this blog because I've been looking around for some motivational message to share with you.
I bet this will do.
What do you think now of YOUR possibilities???
Buy the E-book or print edition of EMPOWER Yourself to Cope with a Medical Challenge. Face Your Medical Problems with Dignity.
Face Your Future with Optimism.
Fill
your heart with the wonder and power of imagination. Let them clear your mind and focus your priorities.
B'SD 6 Tevet, 5776 I do 1:1 coaching with ill people, sometimes with perfectly healthy people. And they tend to come up with the same questions: "How will I know when I'm making progress?" and "How can I have a relationship with GOD, Who let this happen to me?"
My answer is to trust your heart.
Spirituality, and a relationship, are multifaceted experiences. Both are about transcending your limitations and becoming a better you. You know you're on the right track when you feel joy, a sense of satisfaction and the certainty of emotional growth, all at different times but sometimes all at once. Friends, family and colleagues might even give you some delightful feedback about the positive changes they notice in you.
Keep a journal (as suggested in theEMPOWER Yourself to Cope with a Medical Challengebook). Note the times that you feel pain, agonized, uncertain, and when you feel the positive emotions. Talk to GOD out loud. Even a sigh will do. Life is a matter of balance. Do what you can to keep yours, and cherish the pleasant parts of life. They can keep us going past indescribable pain. Be sure to focus on what's going right, and especially on when it seems that GOD gave you a hug of some sort. Go on. Buy a notebook or use one sitting around somewhere in your home.
Record your accomplishments.
And enjoy them. Buy the E-book or print edition of EMPOWER Yourself to Cope with a Medical Challenge. Face Your Medical Problems with Dignity.
Face Your Future with Optimism.
Fill your mind and heart with optimism. On purpose.
TWITTER #FOOD & #WINE, by Jeff Malakoff, Publisher: EAT --- LOVE --- COOK
PAPER.LI|BY JEFF MALAKOFF, PUBLISHER
I'm heartened by the attention that people pay to empowering themselves and others. Goodness comes back to a person in myriad ways. Go ahead and create some happiness for yourself and someone else.
Enjoy the happiness that you can create.
Buy the E-book or print edition of EMPOWER Yourself to Cope with a Medical Challenge. Buy another copy for someone else! Face Your Medical Problems with Dignity.
Face Your Future with Optimism.
Fill life with happiness. It can be done.
B'SD 2 Tevet, 5776 Today's the last day of Hanuka 5776, and I'm basking in the glow of many wonderful warm memories of the party I threw this week. Over 50 celebrants shared the light of a wonderful holiday with me. Here are a few of the many photos I took, a fond look at life, loved ones, and the future before me.
I am grateful for the blessing of marvelous friends of many nationalities and outlooks, and the ability to be a hostess. It's been a long, hard effort to reach this reality. It came with focused effort, spiritual growth, and a refusal to surrender to pain, dismissive medical mindsets and other setbacks. I hope that I have helped other people to see better realities along the way.
Find out what you can accomplish when you walk the walk and talk the talk advocated in
Learn how to make progress as you read the book. Share it with loved ones and/or your medical team. Buy the E-book or print edition of EMPOWER Yourself to Cope with a Medical Challenge. Face Your Medical Problems with Dignity.
Face Your Future with Optimism.
Fill your life with can-do statements and realities.
B'SD 1 Tevet, 5776 Today's the first of the Jewish month Tevet. It's a time of return to the better self, and for redefining our best interests. I mention this because a heaviness in my heart motivates me to share the following thought with you. I do medical writing for various clients and reasons. I recently interviewed relevant people about the construction of a 4-storey, state-of-the-art, cancer treatment center. I asked why it would be necessary, The quotes I gathered in response include a medical expert's remark that "Present lifestyles are causing increasing amounts of cancer in every age category." I asked if medical practitioners know which activities tend to cause cancer, and was stunned to hear the experts list food additives, hygiene products, specific sexual activities, excessive exposure to tanning beds, insufficient medical care, and other things that are rather easily addressed. Even babies are being born with cancer because their parents indulge in products or lifestyles conducive to causing cancer.
Want to avoid the agony?
Study up on optimal nutrition. Read accounts of how people saved their lives with wholesome food and a disdain for chemically altered products. Here's one, by a happily surprised oncologist! Here's an item that many medical and mental health practitioners recommend:
Yes, drastic improvements in my menu enabled me to save my once-dwindling life, even to restore my sight. Doctors and friends now admire my better-than-average health. Plenty of evidence exists that wholesome diets indeed prevent cancer. Buy the E-book or print edition of EMPOWER Yourself to Cope with a Medical Challenge. Face Your Medical Problems with Dignity.
Face Your Future with Optimism.
Fill your life with sound choices.
I've enjoyed the warmth of friendship plus the glow of Hanuka candles at parties for the past two nights. I'm invited to another party this evening, and making one of my own tomorrow night. I realize that it is Kwanzaa and Christmas season, too, and that many of my readers are wondering about suitable and affordable gifts for friends, family members and work colleagues. I have a list of ideas to offer that could very well meet your needs:
1. Gifts from the heart. Promise to run specific errands or to teach someone a skill you can impart to them. Your investment in time and someone's quality of life is a gift from the heart.
2. Love notes. Leave them around the house or office, praising some behavior, remark or insight in the person you appreciate. A show of appreciation is a gift that lasts forever. All it costs is a bit of time to share your thoughts. 3. Give the person something that they need. If they're ailing or dealing with someone who is sick, they might appreciate a book that they and their loved ones can share to minimize problems and to maximize happiness. Buy a copy of
Click the picture and have it delivered to the recipient when you make your order. I hope that the above ideas took the wrinkles right out of your furrowed brow and gift list. Buy the E-book or print edition of EMPOWER Yourself to Cope with a Medical Challenge. Face Your Medical Problems with Dignity.
Face Your Future with Optimism.
Fill your shopping list with simple, loving solutions.
Jeff Malakoff 
