A Conversation with Elizabeth
1998
Holiday ????

From:          Elizabeth  
To:            LMixson@PEC.com
Sent:          Monday, May 25, 1998 2:57 PM
Subject:       Holiday ????
 
Memorial Day is an unrecognized holiday by the hospital, so here I am at work.  In some ways I like having the choice of when to take certain holidays, which the "paid time off" allows, rather than having to take a day off I'm not particularly interested in.  I hold no particular attachment to Memorial Day. On holidays when every one else is off, it is generally quiet and it is only a 10 minute (as opposed to about 20-25 minute) drive to work, and usually the movies are packed, and places I'd like to go like the university are closed, so in essence, I don't mind working and having a day off some other time, when I choose.
 
The BP thing has me perplexed.  I am wondering if part of it is measurement error.  It was the same nurse in Nov. and last week.  I checked my BP this weekend at Winn Dixie, our local grocery store, and while it was a little bit higher than it has been for years, it was not elevated.  I checked it twice.  There is not a great deal "wrong" with my diet, except for occasional sort of pig-outs on something unhealthy, and even then I'm just talking of an Arby's or some fried chicken once a month, or pepperoni on my Boboli. Also, I don't have overt stress in my life.  There can be lots of reasons for elevated BP though, so I need to check it out, especially since I DON'T have any of the typical reasons for it being elevated--smoking, excessive overweight, poor diet, major stress, and particularly family history, etc. 
 
At any rate, have you heard of the DASH diet--it stands for Dietary Approaches to Control Hypertension--or something like that.  It was the result of a recent study done by Harvard on control of BP without medications, primarily by diet.  I printed out all the information from the internet.  Basically, it's what I eat now, except perhaps more fruit and more vegetables, and few snacks of any typical kind and very little meat.  I tried to be honest with myself about what I eat and my exercise level, giving the benefit of the doubt to the BP reading. I think one thing is that while I eat very little meat, the meat I do eat is probably the worst kind, lunch meat, although I do get the turkey variety.  So, I started "following" the DASH diet on Saturday, which didn't actually require too many changes in what I eat already.  Mostly I'll try to get more fruit and more veges.  I'm better about the latter, but when I'm honest about it, my fruit consumption is poor--but ironically I do eat a banana almost everyday, the potassium of which is supposed to be beneficial for blood pressure.  However, now I'm trying to add an orange a day as well, and some dried fruit.  Strict sodium/salt restriction per se has been shown to NOT influence blood pressure as much as formerly believed, so sodium restricted diets are not advocated for regulating BP anymore.  Nevertheless, I decided to be more sodium conscious.  The DASH diet advocates eating a small quantity of raw, unsalted nuts per week, as a snack, or in foods, so I went to the health food store and bought small quantities of a variety of nuts.  Then I went home and mixed small one ounce packages for snacks--instead of salty pretzels.  Even if the BP thing is a false alarm, it won't hurt me to make some corrections in my diet--at least what I can identify when I'm honest.  The thing that bothers me is there isn't really too much room to correct.  It could be more exercise that I really need.  That seems to be a recurring dilemma.  Sunday I walked, a mild 30 minute walk by anyone's standards, and my entire T-shirt was soaked from the heat, and it was like breathing in an oven.  My options seem limited:  buy some form of home equipment, join a club, or I could start walking in the mall with the groups that do that--that is a big thing in Montgomery--the malls open at 6:00 a.m. and everyone walks there--perhaps a lot of people have come to the realization ahead of me that walking in doors is the only way to walk in the summer in Montgomery.
 
I didn't do much "school" this weekend.  I spent a long time at the grocery store, trying to navigate my way through all the unhealthy food and develop some more options for what to eat. It gets more difficult with each additional factor. I've been monitoring calcium and fat for ages, but when I add sodium that's another layer to plow through.  For example, there were NO unsalted nuts available in the grocery store--not a single choice. 
 
Also this weekend I read James Lee Burke's latest book, Cimarron Rose.  It was a break away from a series of books he has which are set in Louisiana, involving a detective named Dave Robicheaux, In the Mist with Confederate Dead, etc.), all of which I have immensely enjoyed.  Cimarron Rose is about a lawyer in Texas, and I think it will be the first of a new series.  What I enjoy about his books are his sensory descriptions.  Burke will write of a scene and include the colors and smells in such a way that as a reader I feel I am in the setting. Also, he has a way of creating levels of reality within levels of reality that often leave me wondering where reality really "lies."  Frequently he alludes to prison brutality, often in a language that some would find shocking (the black boys coming in from the road crew always like to find a fresh piece of white meat chicken in the cage, etc.)  Anyway, his writing is just incredible.  When I finish a book sometimes, I don't quite know what to do, because I've been spun off in Burke's "reality," which I almost don't want to end because it seems so "real," but yet it doesn't mesh with my everyday life and hence where I've been with his writing feels "unreal."
 
Well, it's almost 2 o'clock.  I had a major research project first thing this morning, then nothing since.  I hope you're enjoying your time off and bicycle rides, etc.  Parts of Utah don't get as cold.  It has something to do,I think, with being in a basin between two mountain ranges.  I think I was there in March, just after a snow, but it really was not that cold, and as I said, all the students at Weber State were wearing shorts. 
 
Bye for now.  Elizabeth

Feels like a vacation