I have been thinking about working out my arms, therefore this seemed to be appropriate. This post is actually from Buzzfeed @Buzzfeed. It is my hope this quick exercise is as helpful to you as it has been to me. What workouts would you recommend to others?
Have a great weekend.
Lisa 🙂
As someone who craves salads in their sleep, I know that is weird and not everyone has such wonderful interactions with salads. The biggest complaint is that salads are not very filling. The other thing that I notice is that people have either an old or narrow definition of salad. When I say old, it means that it that horrible iceberg lettuce, carrots, and tomatoes. Salads are usually put into the box of always having to include lettuce. Today, I will be shattering all your preconceived notions about salads, while outlining how to make a salad that is filling. Here go the steps to creating a filling salad.
Salads don’t necessarily need to include lettuce. A salad may include whole wheat couscous, quinoa, or even brown rice as base. All of those salad bases would fill you up along with having a slow metabolic burn.
Yes, I know, but you say lettuce based salads don’t fill you up. My suggestion is not to use iceberg lettuce. Kale, Spinach, baby Spinach, and dark green leafy red romaine are very filling lettuce. These lettuces will assist you in filling full.
These types of veggies will assist you creating a filling salad such as: avocados, cucumbers, cheese, eggs, tomatoes, broccoli, carrots, and cauliflower.
This is critical choice when eating a salad. The creamy salad dressings tend to put on the extra pounds, so select carefully. Oil and vinegar with spices are an easy low-calorie salad dressing. Generally, a salad dressing that is oil based will be fewer calories.
Many people are either omnivores or carnivores, thereby desiring some protein on their salad. One has many options if they are vegetarian seeking protein substitute, you can do soy artificial chicken strips, beans, crumpled soy, and tempeh. If you are more of a pescatarian, then a piece of baked fish such as snapper, salmon, or tuna might be your preference.
I love cheese and adding it to a salad. I find that it makes the salad tastier.
It is my hope that this information makes you rethink salads. They can be filling and tasty. Also my personal favorite is to make a salad with either couscous or quinoa as the base. When I use either of those, the salad really seems to fill me up. Enjoy eating your salad. Happy Fruits and Veggies Month to you!
Lisa
Dear Readers,
I usually don’t share this type of stuff with you; however this has been weighing on my heart for few weeks. This post is really to support any patient suffering with a health related challenge. Actually, I am penning it for a real person who will remain nameless. The reason I try to keep this blog going is to support and encourage those struggling with health problems. Here is letter to friend which is part personal and supportive to all those struggling with a health problem with a focus on cancer.
Dear Friend,
I hope you are well and battling back against the cancer. As I said to you many times in my zealous support and love for you that this disease will not beat you. You will come back stronger better than ever, since you have always taken such excellent care of yourself. The image that I will always have of you is being big, strong, and healthy. You are and will continue to be a force to be reckoned with. As friends, we have been through many up and downs, so this disease will not come between us. Sadly, I cannot begin to understand everything that you are going through. My solution is to love and support you the best way that I know how, which is a lot of calls, moments of silence wishing you well, and being there for you when you are ready. The question plaguing me is what I can do to support you and others. My thought is list some resources that may be helpful to people with cancer and those supporting cancer patients. Here goes.
I just want to say in closing, friend I don’t know what you are going through. All I can say is that I love and care about you. My friendship is forever and a day, so I am here whenever you are ready.
Readers, I hope this information is helpful. Also please provide any information or websites that you found helpful in the comments section. I tried my best but there are probably better or other resources that one should contact.
Thank you for reading.
Hello All,
I know many of you have set New Year’s resolutions related to health. This is the time of year when people hit some obstacles. I wanted to let you know that I am rooting for you. My mother would say a try beats a fail all the time. Please just take it one day at time.
More inspiration and posts coming.
Have an awesome week. Keep warm if you are on the east coast.
UrbanHealthyChick
Hello All,
Usually, I am watching and listening a great deal of the time on social media. However, since it is the end of the year, I wanted to reflect, applaud, and say thank you to some great people working online. Some of my favorite thought leaders in healthcare, social media/digital, and general news will be highlighted. All of these individuals have taught me a great day as well as made me think.
NPR Pop Culture Happy Hour is a great weekly podcast headed by Linda Holmes. They talk about all things pop culture books, television, movies, podcasts, music, and more. This podcast has something for everyone and every type of nerd. The podcast allows me to keep up with everything that is happening in pop culture along with providing stimulating intelligent analysis of it. You can find them on Twitter @nprmonkeysee. I hope to see you guys live sometime.
This Week In Blackness is a reasonable political minded podcast that covers the topics of the day. I enjoy hearing the crew discuss the topics of the day with a funny spin to it. Regardless of Imani’s and Aaron’s love/hate for salads, I still enjoy the podcast. LOL. Imani and Aaron, you have inspired an upcoming blog post from me about how to build a salad that is filling. (Imani and Aaron, I hope to encourage you two to show a little more love to salads. Giggle.)  Elon and crew please keep up the good work! TWIB’s social justice work and focus on issues related to African American culture is needed. Additionally, please support independent media via a subscription to their podcast or use the amazon.twib.me link when shopping on Amazon. Please catch them on social media @ANSFreeman @TWiBnation @ElonJames @AngryBlackLady.
Citizens Radio is another wonderful podcast that is funny and informative. They have cats, which are cute and the hosts are vegans. Â I am striving to be a committed vegan just like the hosts of the show. Also they love coffee along with keeping the public informed about issues not covered by the mainstream media. Allison and Jaime play off each other really well. Please support their podcast and new book called #NewsFail. You can catch them at @CitizenRadio @JamieKilstein
The Bugle has two well known and funny guys hosting the podcast. John Oliver and Andy Zaltzman really bring the funny to the weekly news. Give these guys some credit for making the torture reports sound funny, while being informative. I enjoy their podcast. Also buy some of their funny merchandise to support them. You can follow them on twitter @hellobuglers
RadioTimes from Whyy and Washington Week Podcast are two great news podcasts that bring well-researched news and interesting stories to the public each week. Gwen Ifill is the moderator of Washington Week and Co-Anchor of the PBS Newshour as well as an award winning author. You can follow her at @gwenifill. RadioTimes covers regional, national, and international issues in a thought provoking way. Marty the show’s host is always willing to discuss the tough topics of the day. You can follow Marty Moss Coane at @martymosscoane.
Part 2: Social Media Thought Leaders
Jeff Bullas has taught me so much about social media marketing from his posts. His content is informative and spot on. Also I have learned a great deal by just observing his interactions along with the way he markets his content. Thank you Jeff for all that you do! Please check him out on twitter along with his blog. Jeff Bullas can be found @JeffBullas.
Pam Moore is fun, informative, and provides helpful insights into marketing and social media. Additionally, she provides inspirational quotes and actionable information. I loved the Christmas hat by the way, Pam, it looks great on you. Smile. You can follow her @PamMktNut
SocialPros is a podcast created by Jay Baer a very successful professional in social media and marketing. The podcast is very informative providing lots of tips, tricks, and insight, while being fun. Also I enjoy his emails from Convince and Convert which give timely and forward thinking insight for professionals working in the trenches doing social media. I think you may notice that I only read information that improves my ability to add value to my clients or my own work. Time is important and a limited resource. SocialPros and Convince and Convert are worth your time to exploring because of quality content created by Jay. Please check out his podcast SocialPros and Jay Baer on Twitter @JayBaer
Alex Harris was one of the first podcasts that I found when I was trying to learn about social media/digital marketing. His podcast Marketing Optimization covers emerging trends in digital/online marketing. He is very well read, highly experienced digital/online marketer, and seems like a good dude. His podcast is about results, covering all the current topics, forward thinking, while interviewing top professionals in online marketing. His CROMastermind seems like an opportunity worth exploring for any marketing professional. Please download his podcast Marketing Optimization and find him on Twitter @AlexDesigns
Part 3: Health and Wellness
Mynameisjessamyn is creating an amazing movement related to yoga on social media. She is bringing yoga to the masses in a teachable and approachable way for all body types. The Mynameisjessamyn social media platform is a great resource for where ever one may be on their yoga journey. Please check her out on tumblr and twitter @JessNotJazz. Keep creating great content to make yoga accessible to everyone!
On Tumblr there is a great blog that is called Vegan-Yums. The food on this blog looks awesome and many of the recipes are ones that the average person can reproduce at home. I don’t know if anyone can create the beautiful food captured in the blog, but I try. Smile. The tumblr blog really interacts well with its readers and provides great support to them on their healthy eating journey. It inspires me to create my own platform to support those seeking a better way to eat. Kudos to Vegan-Yums. Keep up the great work!!
Dr. Nina Cherie is an awesome healthcare professional who provides informative implementable advice to improve one’s health. She looks awesome which is equally as inspiring as the advice provided. Her advice will help you make your new year’s resolution for health a reality. Please check her out on Twitter @NinaCheriePhD and on her Google+ website. Thanks for the tips, Dr. Cherie. You look awesome!
NutritionFacts.org has a vibrant, informative, and helpful website along with social media presence. The nutritional information provided is well researched science backed insight coming from trained medical professionals. Please support this informative website that is providing scientific information about nutrition that appears to be unbiased to the public. NutritionFacts.org produces tons of easy to view educational videos in easy to understand terms about nutrition. You can check Dr. Greger out on Twitter at @nutrition_facts.
One last thank you to everyone mentioned above as well as to the many others that are providing great content. There may be a part two to this post. Â Smile.
That is who inspired and informed me in 2014. Who inspired and informed you in 2014? Who do you recommend for keeping an eye on in 2015? Let me know. Happy New Year to Everyone!
Hello All,
Happy Holidays to All! This time of the year can be very chaotic leaving no time to workout.
This is a no equipment needed workout that anyone can do possibly anywhere. It is my hope that this work out is helpful.  Later this week, I will have another post covering my digital thank yous to my colleagues in both health and digital/social media in 2014.
Hope this workout is helpful.
Have a great week.
Happy Monday!
In some sense, I see digital health when communicated via online or real time television as a version of marketing. Healthcare systems have a message to communicate to the masses in an efficient and understandable way. Additionally, the goal is to inform, which is the goal of marketing. Both marketing and healthcare are regulated, but ultimately have the same goal of getting consumers to act. Healthcare the goal is action related to person or public health outcomes. Marketing the focus being consumption of a product or service. So it is through the lense of marketing aka mass communication, that I looked at the best and worse of the Ebola crisis from a digital perspective.
Best Part
NIH and CDC both have been very active on social media engaging with the public regarding Ebola. This really assists the public in being able to get quality scientific based information about the disease. Additionally, they didn’t delay in discussing on social media what was happening even before the disease was brought to the US. Dr. Friedman from NIH has been very active on Twitter. His Twitter account is @DrFriedenCDC.
mHero is a mobile healthcare technology platform that assists healthcare workers in communicating across West Africa’s fragmented healthcare system. The mHero system can capture critical data and permits for better patient care coordination. The best part is that all this is happening in real time which is critical in the ever changing Ebola pandemic.
Cell phone digital data could stem the tide of Ebola. The digital health information gathered from the cell phones can assist health officials in understanding about the density of the area and the potential number infected. The digital health data captured from cell phones can assist with predicting where a virus outbreak might occur next. Cell phone digital health data provides an excellent source of information about transportation patterns of populations when used in aggregate. This digital data when applied to historical data can give scientists’ a sense of where people may travel next, therefore permits them to proactively manage site of new Ebola outbreaks.
What’s App the social media app is forging into mhealth terrain via assisting with educating the public about Ebola along with ways to protect themselves. The information is distributed three times a day via the app. The information is presented in both French and English. Most importantly the information is accessible to those with or without a smartphone. One can just listen to the small downloadable digital data packets. The convergence of social media, digital, and public health being used to connect the community with timely life changing information is exciting. Kudo’s to Whats App!
Worst Part
American arrogance related to the US health system compared to other countries’ healthcare. America is a great place however we are human, so there are some short comings as can be expected with all healthcare systems. The US healthcare system market itself as providing world class healthcare superior to other countries. This is sadly another time that reveals not just the short comings in African countries healthcare system but ours as well. Many scientists have made comments about the nature of fragmentation and subpar system in Africa. However, we have had a few snafus in our management of patients and healthcare workers that treated the patient in Dallas that died.
I am a news junkie, but sadly, the news is one entity along with politicians contributing to most misinformation and bad approaches to managing the Ebola pandemic. The US news cycle is 24 hours/7 days a week, so there has been a great deal of stroking of the fears of the public regarding Ebola. The entire news media is the blame CNN, FoxNews, MSNBC, etc. Politicians used the 24/7 news cycle to scare and inflame fears of the public via various tweets seen below. The flu and the growing obesity epidemic cause greater harm to Americans each year but are not very sexy to discuss.
The last part that has me concerned is the American public’s approach to dealing with this disease. I understand that parents and adults are very concerned, which the American public should be, since Eboloa is a very serious disease. However, we have to be reasonable about how we treat others and potential patients. A woman from Africa in the Philadelphia Metro area was treated horribly because a health professional thought she might be an Ebola patient because of her ethnicity. We have to improve our health literacy and cultural sensitivity as a country.
Honorable mention to Facebook and Google, they are both focusing on assisting in providing the much needed funds to West African countries for Ebola. If you have the financial resources available, please contribute to either Facebook’s or Google’s initiative to support West Africa.
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/fightebola
Google https://onetoday.google.com/fightebola
What good or bad have you seen come out of the Ebola epidemic from a digital perspective?
It just recently occurred to me (via WordPress) that this blog is 2 years old. If you know me in my non-digital  life, I don’t celebrate much in life. I am usually pushing to the next goal. The only reason this celebration is happening is because it is for YOU. Thank YOU for taking the time to join my journey. It is incredible to think this started from a recommendation of a friend.
PS I want to apologize because previously there has not consistently been a comment section. My apologies, this blog’s goal is to be helpful and supportive along with encouraging your feedback. Please provide your feedback and questions below. Â In a few days, I will be submitting a poll to better understand, how to support and assist you. Â When posts are created moving forward a comment section will be added consistently.
Thanks again for taking the journey with me over the last 2 years!
Recently a PSA video on childhood obesity on YouTube became very popular and received over a millions views. The video was very powerful and provided slightly scary imagery. After seeing the video two times, a few things immediately came to mind regarding this issue. Social media has the ability to communicate and elevate an issue in the public discourse. All forms of communication really come down to the conversation, which should be the goal of any PSA video. Images in the video were more than just that of the patient/child, but others in “ the village” surrounding the child.
Organizations and individuals have used social media to as a vehicle to get support for various causes. This PSA being posted on YouTube along with the views it has received have raised the visibility of this tremendously important issue. The conversation has been vigorous and lively in the comment section where this video has been posted. It has created a ripple effect as so many times happens with social media. Countless “social media campaigns” have been successful such as #BringBackOurGirls, ALS ice bucket challenge, and the Arab Springs uprising. As a manager who leverages technology and consults regarding it the platform when used strategically can be a game changer.   Social media is a powerful tool, but it must be use precisely, thoughtful, and align with a strategy for improving healthcare outcomes in this instance.
This YouTube video may assist increasing awareness among the public and support to eradicate this epidemic. Childhood obesity will require a whole village to create improvements in the lives of obese children. My thoughts gravitated in that direction during the video because of everyone in the village shown such as teachers, other kids, clinicians, etc had a part to play in the child’s health. Studies have shown that who one hangs out with can determine their health and obesity profile. Additionally, where one livesPSA on Obesity has a big impact on someone’s health. That last point really reflects the village concept. Though the video shows a parent at the end discussing parenting related to food, I came away asking what I can do to assist parents and other care givers of children. As a result, I am formulating some ideas that I will blog on later.
Blogging such as everything else is about the conversation including that PSA related to child obesity posted online. It is my hope that genuine conversation manifests as a result of this PSA. PSAs are needed, since many times society doesn’t want to have the hard conversations about sex, drinking, etc. Even worse than not having the conversation, are situations when parents and others “in the village” are ill informed about a topic such as childhood obesity. Also the discussion should not about shaming or blaming busy mothers. They are not the only source of this problem. Parents do play a critical role in a child’s nurturing process, but we as a society need to provide resources as well as create work/life balance culture to support busy parents. That teacher in the video who game him candy for getting an A shares some responsibility for his obesity along with his parents and others “in the village”. Also we must look in the mirror as well as individuals. I am ashamed to admit it, but I have given people cookies for gifts yet don’t consume them. My take away for immediate change is not to give out sweets and other fatty foods as gifts to others. We have to work together with parents to stem the tide of childhood obesity in society.
Hello All,
Happy Tuesday! It is my hope that everyone is having a fun, productive, and restful summer. Since August is the Sunday of summer, I thought that I would share some books that I consider to be interesting  to read on a  Sunday afternoon.
Business  Management Books
The Second Machine Age: Work, Progress, and Prosperity in a Time of Brilliant Technologies –Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee
Likeable Social Media: How to Delight Your Customers, Create an Irresistible Brand, and Be Generally Amazing on Facebook (And Other Social Networks) –Dave Kerpen
Epic Content Marketing: How to Tell a Different Story, Break through the Clutter, and Win More Customers by Marketing Less –Joe Pulizzi
Google Analytics Integrations: Centralizing Digital Marketing  –Daniel Waisberg
Science and Medicine Books
The Hot Zone: The Terrifying True Story of the Origins of the Ebola Virus –Richard Preston
Missing Microbes: How the Overuse of Antibiotics Is Fueling Our Modern Plagues –Martin J. Blaser
Interesting Personal Narratives Books
The Harlem Hellfighters Paperback –-Max Brooks
My Beloved World Paperback –-Sonia Sotomayor
High Price: A Neuroscientist’s Journey of Self-Discovery That Challenges Everything You Know About Drugs and Society –Carl Hart
What are your book recommendations? Are there some old books that you would recommend? Is there a new book or movie that you can not wait to see? Please share.
Please share  your book recommendations.  Learning takes place through conversation, so speak up! 🙂
Have a Happy Tuesday!
UrbanHealthyChick
Digitally Savvy Vegetarian 