Eating with picky kids and gout-man

Before kids, Monkeyrotica and I did go to more exotic restaurants and consume with more abandon than we do now, but with young ones in tow, we started limiting our outings to eateries with childrens' menus. Dash is willing to try several more sophisticated meals that require multiple utensils and have spices added, but Rosie is still very flavor- and texture-averse when it comes to dining. Now that Monk is living with gout, even he has been forced to limit his palette. Since his first attack around the summer of 2011, we've learned quite a lot about what foods trigger his gout.

Gout is similar to arthritis and attacks joints, most often at the base of the big toe. It causes intense pain and swelling; when Monk's first attack happened, he thought he'd broken his foot.

What Causes Gout? From NIH.gov:

"Gout is caused by the buildup of too much uric acid in the body. Uric acid comes from the breakdown of substances called purines. Purines are found in all of your body’s tissues. They are also in many foods, such as liver, dried beans and peas, and anchovies. Normally, uric acid dissolves in the blood. It passes through the kidneys and out of the body in urine. But uric acid can build up in the blood when:

• The body increases the amount of uric acid it makes.
• The kidneys do not get rid of enough uric acid.
• A person eats too many foods high in purines."

 

For Monk, the gout-friendly foods he's learned to eat more of are:

• fresh, unrefined, and unprocessed foods. Include fruits, vegetables, whole grains, soy, beans, seeds, nuts, olive oil, and cold-water fish (salmon, tuna, and halibut)
• unsweetened cherries (canned, fresh, or frozen); cherries lower uric acid levels and can prevent gout attack
• blueberries, blackberries, and other deeply pigmented berries are also helpful as is pineapple
• lemon water, apple cider vinegar

Gout-aggravating, high-purine trigger foods that he needs to avoid:

• organ meats like kidneys, liver, and sweetbreads
• red meat
• oily fish like sardines, anchovies, and herring
• certain vegetables, including asparagus, artichokes, spinach, and cauliflower
• lentils
• mushrooms

Some foods have medium-to-low levels of purines in them, but because they are foods that we tend to eat in larger quantities, Monk needs to severely curb his intake when he eats shrimp (only 2-3 shrimp, then full stop) or chicken breast meat (only 1 small breast, no more). I'm sure there's more that I've forgotten, but that's quite a bit for us to handle! Good thing there are cherries and medication that he can take.

He's been managing his symptoms very well, despite a few occasions where he knew he wanted to eat trigger foods despite the consequences and he planned ahead by taking preventative measures for it. Life's no fun if you can't break the rules once in a while.

"Why Do Paired-Off Women Get Fat?" Australia asks

This question seemed ridiculous to me after getting a few paragraphs into the article I read today on NYTimes.com, and I thought that maybe, somehow, my crystal-clear vision wasn't obvious to these researchers. Here's what the scientists from University of Queensland, Australia discovered:

"After adjusting for other variables, the 10-year weight gain for an average 140-pound woman was 20 pounds if she had a baby and a partner, 15 if she had a partner but no baby, and only 11 pounds if she was childless with no partner...There is no reason to believe that having a partner causes metabolic changes, so the weight gain among childless women with partners was almost surely caused by altered behavior. Moreover, there was a steady weight gain among all women over the 10 years of the study."

One of their suppositions was that with a partner comes a circle of friends; socializing leads to eating out at restaurants with fatty foods and large portions. Hm, possibly contributing. I have a different take on it.

Factor 1: Other people in your life demand your time. This is a good thing, and goes both ways. When I was single and on into early stages of dating, I had a membership at an awesome gym. I went to the gym for hours, several times a week; I love studio classes. When I wasn't at the gym, I was going on long, challenging bike rides, training for biking events, or going for local/regional hikes. One of my partner's biggest complaints, early on, was that I was spending too much time at the gym and not enough with him. In the interest of compromise and making the relationship work, I significantly cut back on my workouts for my spouse. When children are added to the family, your personal time is even more popular with them.

Factor 2: Caring for children and eating their food doesn't burn calories. After having kids, sure you gain lots of weight during pregnancy and trying to get rid of it seems simple: go to the gym! But, wait. Who will watch the child while you go to the gym? Will you entrust your newborn to the gym nursery that never gets cleaned? Do you even have the cash for the gym membership, or has your diaper budget taken all of your thin margin? Also, with small children, you're basically doing a lot of cooking, cleaning, and sitting around entertaining them. Not much cardio. AND, once kids start eating solid food, they refuse to eat healthy things! You wind up stocking more and more junk food in the house to keep them fed, and start eating it yourself. I was reading somewhere that a major cause of weight gain in moms was during meal clean-up, eating the food your picky kids leave on their plates, rather than toss or save as leftovers. Don't get in that habit.

Factor 3: There is no more spare time. Available time is an issue. I work full-time, I am married, I have two kids, hobbies, friends, and responsibilities. Finding hours or minutes to fit in cardiovascular activities, indoors or out is tough.

All said, it's tough to avoid weight gain with major lifestyle changes. When you're single, you can be as active as you want; you're not accountable to anyone but yourself. Is weight-gain when partnered metabolic? Probably not. I think that when you make compromises in your lifestyle to accommodate other people, you might gain weight without realizing it. If you want to take the weight off, it takes awareness of the changes that occurred and an effort to be as active as you were before, or to eat less of the kid-friendly foods and find healthier options for you. Fitting cardio activities back in wherever possible (I changed my schedule to work out on the lunch hour) can really help, too. Best case: find an activity that your collective family enjoys and can do together!

On the down-low with H1N1

Unless you all want to hear about how I didn't get the H1N1 vaccine at the MRC volunteer clinic because of pre-existing asthma (and no shots were available, only flumist), and how our family aged out of the clinic that was offered (only ages 18 months to 3 years were eligible), and then how Dash came down with strep and H1N1 last Tuesday, and then passed it on to me, I don't have much to say.

I haven't been in the office since last Wednesday, because first I was caring for Dash, then I became contagious. I'm still not out of the woods, with a dramatic relapse today, most likely due to me getting cocky with how much better I was feeling this morning. I started off with my teleworking routine of getting a coffee and a bagel, which was delightful. Bagels usually fill me up, so I wasn't hungry for an especially long time. During that time, I got a bunch of work done, saw a doctor for the first time, who prescribed me an expectorant/cough suppressant with codeine. The bottle didn't say "don't take on an empty stomach" or any such thing, so I just dosed up and continued working. It did warn that it could make me dizzy and to not drive while on the meds.

So, around 2:30 p.m., I felt a bit light headed, and thought, gee, I ought to eat some lunch or drink something. I got up, walked a few feet, said "oh boy," to myself and then passed out on the couch. My improved health was wrecked with a relapse. But, I'm probably oversharing. I'll be teleworking and taking better care of myself for the rest of the week, I think. Missing meals when sick = bad.

I'm a volunteer in the Medical Reserve Corps

I first learned about the medical reserve corps a few years ago when I was having waves of panic about Avian Influenza (H5N1). I'd heard on the news that one metropolitan region was more prepared for a pandemic than others and I thought, what about my county? How are my local government and districts were planning to handle a disaster? I also wondered how individual communities would organize if the infrastructure broke down.

During an internet search, I found the Medical Reserve Corps. They were traveling to communities and giving presentations on preparedness and I thought this would be great for my neighborhood association! Or at the very least, maybe somebody else would listen to their messag and share my urgency. They gave a very polished presentation, complete with a well-produced video, which stuck with me. The presenter suggested that I volunteer for the MRC, but I demurred. I had two young, very demanding children at home, and didn't think I could easily pull away.

Fast forward to two months ago, the swine flu has been identified as a pandemic and they were anticipating that a vaccine would be ready later in the season, and I remembered the MRC. They needed volunteers! I signed up online and received an activation notice just last week. I attended an orientation a few days ago and am currently sitting in the preparation session to help with distributing vaccines next weekend on October 24th.

They notified me that my role on the 24th is "administrative assistant" since I have no medical training. I'll be helping with whatever non-medical tasks that need doing, like traffic flow, checking people in, helping with forms, or helping people find the exit when they're done. Of the 1.2 MILLION residents, they're hoping to treat 50,000 of the 220,000 school-aged residents this coming weekend. With this goal, MRC is about 4,000 volunteers short.

The distribution centers are going to be at middle schools with school-age children as the target population. Do go and get your vaccination! Volunteer if you can. It's going to be tough, crazy, and lots of work. Wish me luck!