Seasonal Health Adjustments

Longer days and shorter nights can disrupt routines. Have you noticed any changes in your sleep or energy levels and how do you cope with that? My energy levels have improved a lot after my sepsis experience last year. it just wiped me out. But in the last couple months, that has improved significantly. So my energy level is much better than it was. And getting better back on track with my sleep habits, getting to bed at a good time and getting up at a good time, because I kind of got like, got my days and nights mixed up a little bit. You know, I was having trouble getting to sleep and I'd be awake at three or four o'clock in the morning still. So I'm probably the only person who can work from home and still be late for work. But I'm getting back on track with with better sleep habits now and getting to bed at a normal hour so that I get up at a normal hour and ready to start my day. And what changes do you notice in your food choices and physical activity in summer? Are there particular things that you do differently to stay well? Again starting in the spring and into the summer it's a lot lighter eating, a lot more fruits and vegetables, a lot of going to farm markets. I have a friend in Carroll County that has a has a on-farm market that has all kinds of local meats and produce and eggs and dairy and everything. So I take a ride out there and stock up and you know on whatever the seasonal stuff is, which you You know, I'm 65 years old, so like growing up in the 60s and the 70s, everything you ate was seasonal, because we didn't have frozen foods in the grocery store. You know, you had canned vegetables, but there was no big frozen food section, you know, so we had gardens and we grew our own fruits and vegetables, and we ate very seasonally. And now that there's more farm markets available to go to, I don't have to just go to the grocery store and get whatever they shipped in from Florida or California or whatever. I go out to the farm and I get the fresh stuff and then I can can it or freeze it myself. eating a lot more seasonally and eating more fruits and vegetables and salads and lighter fare. Summer can be a social season with events, food, and more spontaneity. Do these situations bring challenges for you? And if so, how do you navigate them? The only challenge I have is that when I have a cookout over the summer, like I said, my neighbors and good friends, we've been friends for 30 years, they're Jewish, they keep kosher, so they don't mix meat and dairy, they don't eat pork. And then I have my other friend who's vegan, I have a couple friends who are also bariatric patients or who are diabetic. When I have a gathering like that, the challenge is accommodating everyone else's dietary needs. You know, having something, you know, having all beef hot dogs, not pork hot dogs and, you know, having something on vegan for the vegan folks and low carb, low sugar for the diabetic folks. You know because I have it being a bariatric patient myself I'm very cognizant of what I have to eat and I always hate it when I'm like in a pot luck at work or in a restaurant or something and and somebody's like trying to get me to eat something that I can't or don't want to eat and like oh just a a little bit won't hurt you. Well, yeah, if I eat that piece of chocolate cake and chocolate frosting, I'm going to feel sick. I don't want to eat it. Don't try to force it on me. So I try to make something for everybody so everybody gets fed. I like to cook and entertain. But I don't try to force what I'm eating on somebody else. They're adults. They can choose what they want to eat. So that's the biggest challenge is making sure everybody gets something that they can and want to eat.