I love being on geriatrics for 2 main reasons: 1) it’s a fascinating area that I want to be better at, 2) I have regular hours. It’s amazing what some time (and fiber) can do… here are some recent happiness highlights:

• Joined a gym! It’s right by the hospital and has climbing, yoga, & treadmills
• Dined out at SF favorites: Gracias Madre and Cafe Gratitude

Love this menu

CG kale salad

• Ate more kale:

with fried plantains

• Did some Ray Kurzweil reading:

• Baked extra-fibrous banana bread (my inpatient diet had been lacking in fiber so I made up for it here):

Ingredients: oats, flour (almond and coconut), 3 ripe bananas, ground flaxseeds (lots), milk/milk substitute (I used soy), 2 eggs, vanilla, honey

Baked at ~300 degres for 45-ish minutes, ate warm and smeared with butter

• And finally… spent an amazing weekend in Tahoe:

Goal for the coming week: do more yoga.

Two weeks of night shifts = not good for my body. Life has been pretty narrow: hospital/eat/sleep… not much space for anything else. I do not feel healthy!

But there is some good news in all this — we’re learning a ton and get more and more of those “moments” (that deeply fulfilling and yet fleeting feeling of competency). Plus, intern year is more than halfway over (!).

Here are some things that have been keeping me sane the past few weeks:

Pre-shift heartiness:

Upping my vitamin C intake overnight:

Nighttime orange supply in my cubby

Sipping green juice over coffee:

Working on my 2012 love list:

Getting to see the call room (it happened once!)

Middle of the night podcast meditation to destress:

Favorite midnight snack discovered so far:

6:30am! The cafeteria opens and the hospital starts to wake up… time for warm oatmeal:

Finally, my latest supplement investment/experiment – anyone have thoughts on these?

And of course, trying to do more yoga. Off to practice now.

“If you keep your armpits open, you won’t get depressed.” ~B.K.S. Iyengar

After a magical 2-week vacation at home with my family, I’m feeling rejuvenated and ready to get back into it… here I come, night shifts!

My younger sister, Jen, and I flew home together. She’s my food guru these days, so my plan was to get healthy again by following her around and eat whatever she did – which basically meant eating GREEN.

We got to know our parents' Vitamix well

Breakfast

The one place I didn’t follow her to was New York City. Thankfully she wrote up this New York City “Eating Green” review…  ENJOY!!!

—

Eating Green in NYC

By Jenny Palmer

Last week, I spent a few days in NYC with my good friend (slash high school sweetheart) Scott.  My main goal in this trip was to drink as much green juice as possible and eat as much amazing plant-based food as possible. I was so serious in this goal that I put together this map.

Vegan restaurants to try - NYC December 2011

Luckily Scott — now a tough and strong Marine Corps officer — was as excited as I was to eat this way. (Side note: Real men eat plants!)  We avoided the typical tourist spots and instead enjoyed ourselves walking from restaurant to restaurant.

Candle Café

The first stop was Candle Café in the Upper East Side for dinner on our first night. We arrived pretty tired, hungry and cold after arriving in NYC during a cold rain storm. We were extremely impressed with everything we ordered:

• Candle Cocktail (not pictured): Carrot, celery, beet, mixed greens and ginger. Perfect!  And, the large size was actually quite large, unlike almost everywhere else that sells juice.
• Spring Rolls: Pickled cabbage, avocado, carrots, cucumber, apple, cilantro and tempeh bacon wrapped in rice paper and served with spicy peanut dipping sauce.  The peanut sauce was incredible. Scott was talking about it for quite a while.
• Daily Special: Millet salad with lentils, sundried tomatoes, artichoke. I really enjoyed this.
• Beet Salad: Arugula, apples, shaved fennel, almond cheese and toasted cashews.  Served with creamy cranberry dressing with added avocado. This was light and healthy – hit the spot.
• Daily Special: BBQ Tofu wrap. YUMMMM!  I need to make more BBQ tofu dishes. And wraps.

We also picked up a date bar and oatmeal chocolate cookie to bring home. We snacked on these for the next couple days. The date bar was especially delicious. I can’t figure out how they made it exactly, but it tasted like a cookie sandwich without the ice-cream: an amazingly soft cookie sweetened perfectly with dates, with some other layers of deliciousness.

Dinner at Candle Café. Forgot to take a picture of the wonderful green (actually beet red) juice

Terri

Terri is an awesome breakfast/lunch/snack place. My green juice with pear was sweeter than I’d usually get, but so delicious, as were our breakfast burritos.

• The Perfect Pear: pear, cucumber, spinach, celery. Delish.
• Hummus & Avocado wrap: hummus, avocado, smoked tofu, pepperoncinis, lettuce, tomato. The pepperoncinis were a nice touch. I think I’ll buy some at the grocery store.
• Breakfast Scramble wrap:  scrambled tofu, Italian “sausage”, spinach, Daiya cheddar, hot sauce. It’s hard to go wrong with those ingredients, and this was especially well-done.

Breakfast at Terri, including pear-sweetened green juice

Liquiteria

We only stumbled in here to kill time and get hungry between breakfast at Terri’s and lunch at Angelica’s Kitchen. I couldn’t believe it when I looked at the menu and found it jam packed with superfoods, green juices, and green teas. The cashiers even encouraged me to get pressed juice instead of centrifugal juice because it’s healthier (they have both!) Despite getting yelled at for taking pictures in the store, I was blown away by this place.

More green juice and tea at Liquiteria, while waiting to get hungry for lunch.

Angelica’s Kitchen

I’ve wanted to go to Angelica’s Kitchen for years.  It did not disappoint: cozy atmosphere, lots of greens, and a darn good dessert.

• Daily Special: Crepe with tofu and some other good things – I can’t remember exactly, but it was pretty good.
• Steamed Kale: I can never have too much steamed kale…
• Thai Mee Up: An All Raw Entree – delicate strands of daikon radish, butternut squash & carrot, on a bed of garlic-lemon marinated kale, dressed with Thai tahini sauce.  The kale was especially delicious. I love eating raw.
• Angelica Kitchen Organic Brittle: pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, pecans, rice syrup, maple sugar, vanilla, sea salt.  Delicious. I’m going to try to make something similar at home.

Very green and mostly raw lunch at Angelica’s Kitchen. Not photographed: the incredible “Angelica’s Kitchen Organic Brittle”

Caravan of Dreams

I hadn’t heard of Caravan of Dreams until one of my Facebook friends suggested it. I am so happy she did (Thanks, Elizabeth!) because it is now probably my new favorite NYC restaurant. Like Angelica’s Kitchen, it is very cozy. Everything we ordered was our new favorite dish of the trip, culminating in the warm orange gingerbread which is still officially my favorite dish of the trip! Also, they have an incredible drink menu. I got lemon-cayenne-ginger tea: so cleansing.

• Seitan Nachos: Black beans, guacamole and salsa. I don’t normally eat seitan, but this was gooooood.
• Grilled Seitan and veggies and pesto: Something like that, anyway. I can’t find it on the menu anymore. This was excellent, too.
• Zucchini and Yellow Squash Spaghetti (LIVE): Brazil nut & sesame meatballs, sun-dried tomato marinara, kalamata olives and basil. I loved this. I’m inspired to make something similar at home.
• The warm orange ginger bread isn’t on the menu online either, but this was so soft, warm and delicious. When I took my first bite, I loudly expressed my pleasure…

Dinner at Caravan of Dreams – new favorite!

Le Pain Quotidian

Le Pain Quotidian was relatively close to our hotel and offered plenty of good vegan and healthy breakfast options. I love this place.  I hope they open up in Northern California soon. I got a bowl of berries and steal cut oats with banana and pecans. I also indulged in a decaf cappuccino with almond milk.

Breakfast at Le Pain Quotidian. Definitely hit the spot, and so convenient.

Blossom Café

For lunch, we met my wonderful friends from Princeton at Blossom Café in the Upper West Side. Scott had a yummy fruit smoothie and I had yet another (my 4^th?) green juice. For lunch I got the mushroom soup and raw zucchini spaghetti. It wasn’t as good as the one at Caravan of Dreams, but not bad. Scott got the very meaty-looking “bacon” “cheese” “burger.” My friend Logan got the grilled tofu sandwich, and I ordered one to go for the bus ride home.

Lunch at Blossom Café.

Well, that covers 2+ days of eating in NYC.  It’s amazing how many restaurants there are in NYC that satisfy my unusually demanding eating needs. And there are so many others that we didn’t make it to: Candle 79, Blossom, V-Note, ‘Snice, Pump, Dirt Candy, Peacefood Café.  Already planning a trip back…

I love this so much: Dr. Lissa Rankin on Crazy Sexy Life blog giving the 10 Lessons she learned from cancer survivors. (Below is just a preview – check out the blog for the full post!)

1. Be unapologetically YOU. “People who survive cancer get feisty… They say what they think. They laugh often. They don’t make excuses.”

2. Don’t take shit from people. “People who survive cancer stop trying to please everybody. They give up caring what everybody else thinks.”

3. Learn to say no. “People with cancer say no when they don’t feel like going to the gala. They avoid gatherings when they’d prefer to be alone.”

4. Get angry. “Then get over it. People who survive cancer get in your face… They demand respect. They feel it. Then they forgive. They let go.”

5. Don’t obsess about beauty. “People who survive cancer no longer worry about whether they have perfect hair, whether their makeup looks spotless, or whether their boobs are perky enough.”

6. Do it now. “Stop deferring happiness… Quit that soul-sucking job now. Leave that deadbeat husband. Prioritize joy.”

7. Say “I love you” often. “You never know when your time is up. Don’t risk having someone you love not know it.”

8. Take care of your body. “People who survive cancer have a whole new appreciation for health… Avoid putting toxic poisons in your God pod. Get enough sleep.”

9. Prioritize freedom. “People who survive cancer know that being a workaholic isn’t the answer… As Tim Ferriss writes in “The 4-Hour Workweek,” “Gold is getting old. The New Rich are those who abandon the deferred-life plan and create luxury lifestyles in the present using the currency of the New Rich: time and mobility.”’

10. Take risks. “People who survive cancer have faced their fear and told it to go to hell… And joy lies in taking risks. So go skydiving if you want. Bungee jump. Hang glide. Spend your savings.”

In case you find yourself craving some holiday-time TedTalks, here’s a fascinating one by Dr. Terry Wahls.

After being diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis (MS), Dr. Wahls was not satisfied with the answers and treatments she was given. So, she took control of her own health and changed the course of her illness: she designed a diet specifically to help her brain and mitochondria (which are damaged in MS).

She describes herself as following a modern “hunter-gatherer” diet, and emphasizes the following as a way to “eat for your mitochondria”:

• Greens (3 cups daily): includes kale, parsley, cooked greens, green smoothies (interestingly, kale has the most nutrition per calorie of any plant)

• Sulfur-rich vegetables (3 cups daily): includes cabbage family, onion family, mushrooms, asparagus.

• Colors (3 cups daily): Rich in flavenoids and polyphenols – includes beets, carrots, vegetables, berries, colored fruits.

She also has a great answer for the common complaint that eating this way it too expensive:

“You will pay the price now for food that restores your health and vitality, or you pay the price for doctors’ visits, prescription drugs, surgeries, missed time from work, early retirement, and nursing home care. The choice is yours.”

Thankfully more and more people are starting to talk about and do research around this… things will be changing!

This is awfully disturbing! Should I be rethinking my morning neti-pot routine?

Excellent video by Dr. Mike Evans about one of the best (and free) medicines we can take… exercise!

Unfortunately exercise is often not included in big trials funded by pharma — there is no $$ to be made when exercise is found to be as or more effective than a pill.

This video is great because it highlights the studies that have been done, and the huge benefits of exercise for common health problems. Some highlights:

• Knee arthritis: reduces rates of pain and disability by 47%
• Dementia and alzheimer’s: reduces progression by 50%
• Diabetes: reduces progression by 58%
• Hip fractures: 41% reduction in hip fracture risk in postmenopausal women
• Anxiety: reduces by 48%
• Depression: 30% relieved with low-dose exercise, up to 47% with higher dose

When it comes to fatigue, quality of life, and general wellbeing, exercise is one of the best things we can prescribe. And it turns out, we don’t even need a huge dose of it: 30 minutes of walking a day provides most of the benefits.

I got double sister time this weekend!

Yay for Kim being in San Francisco!

We made a new favorite San Francisco food discovery - Paxti’s vegan stuffed crust pizza:

Mmm non-hospital food tastes so good!

A recent study brings the importance of food to a new level (in my mind). The scientists (Zhang et al) asked this question:

“What if material from our food actually made its way into the innermost control centers of our cells, taking charge of fundamental gene expression?”

This excellent article in Scientific American explains the results:

“They showed that the subjects’ bloodstream contained approximately 30 different microRNAs from commonly eaten plants. It appears that they can also alter cell function: a specific rice microRNA was shown to bind to and inhibit the activity of receptors controlling the removal of LDL—“bad” cholesterol—from the bloodstream. Like vitamins and minerals, microRNA may represent a previously unrecognized type of functional molecule obtained from food.”

“Zhang [study author] says the findings may also illuminate our understanding of co-evolution, a process in which genetic changes in one species trigger changes in another. For example, our ability to digest the lactose in milk after infancy arose after we domesticated cattle. Could the plants we cultivated have altered us as well?”

So we actually ARE what we eat… and I have been eating way too much food that should not ever be allowed access to my genes!

All I can say is thank goodness for my sisters who feed and detox me. Who else would make me this “detox salad”?!

Thank you, Jen!

Sadly so true!

Some recent food news:

1) Hospital food is not the healthiest:

A study found that food served at California children’s hospitals is not very healthy. Not too much of a shocker, but nice to now have data so maybe we can do more about it. Here are some of the findings:

• 81% of the hospital food vendors offered unhealthful “impulse items” near the cash register
• 25% sold whole-wheat bread
• Half the hospital cafeterias offered no “healthful” entrees: defined as having no more than 800 calories (650 for sandwiches) and no more than 30% of calories from fat and 10% from saturated fat.
• Of the 384 entrees or sandwiches served by the hospitals, only 7% were categorized as “healthful”

2) Pizza is still a vegetable:

A win for makers of tomato paste: it still counts as a vegetable in our kids’ school lunches.

3) No more free toys in SF McDonald’s Happy Meals:

As of yesterday, there will be no more free toys in San Francisco McDonald’s Happy Meals - “San Francisco’s ordinance prohibits fast-food restaurants from including free toys in children’s meals that do not meet specific nutritional standards.”

And here are some fascinating McDonald’s facts…

“The only place in the lower 48 that is more than 100 miles from a McDonald’s is a barren plain in South Dakota.”

I’m back on night shifts and busy being nocturnal, but thankfully my sister 1) made an incredible vegetarian thanksgiving dinner, and 2) was willing to write it all up for us. As you may know if you’ve read this blog before, my sister Jen knows much more about nutrition than I ever learned in medical school.

We searched our favorite food blogs far and wide to come up with a vegetarian and mostly gluten-free menu, and one that our parents would happily eat. (I’m especially grateful for the leftovers which I now get to munch on for my midnight snacks!)

—-

Traditional Nutritional Thanksgiving Feast

By Jenny Palmer

“Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants. In fact, you need to know nothing else to be vibrantly healthy. That’s it. Eat real, whole food as it comes from the earth.” ~Dr. Mark Hyman

Parent's first thanksgiving in SF and our pre-feast trip up to Twin Peaks to build up our appetites.

One thing I am particularly grateful for is my family’s appreciation for plant-based, healthy food. We’ve had vegetarian Thanksgivings for the past few years, and this year we stepped it up some more with this nutrient-dense, whole foods, but otherwise traditional Thanksgiving feast. Here was our menu:

• Mom’s taco dip: refried beans, sour cream, salsa, avocado, scallions, tomatoes, cheddar cheese.

(Palmer family essential appetizer for all occasions...)

• Spinach salad with pomegranates, raw milk gorgonzola, pine nuts, apples & balsamic vinaigrette:

• Celebration Roast: Quite salty, but otherwise excellent. It’s definitely my favorite turkey substitute, but if I had more time, I’d like to make my own, like this walnut-lentil loaf.

• Sweet Potatoes: This recipe was awesome! Love love love the Oh She Glows blog.

• Vegan creamed kale: This recipe turned out pretty well, too (and I also love this blog)!

• Cranberry sauce: It was very exciting to make cranberry sauce from scratch for the first time! I basically followed the instructions in the link, except I used apples instead of pears, and I used some stevia and agave for sweetener instead of coconut sugar.  I really liked this, especially compared to the stuff that comes out of a can.

• Gluten-free stuffing: My mom made this using a gluten-free stuffing mix from Whole Foods. She added in fresh thyme and celery, which made it totally awesome.

And of course, dessert:

• Paleo Walnut Crust Pumpkin Pie: I loved making and sampling the crust, which is basically just walnut butter made from raw walnuts in my Vitamix. There’s also some baking soda and salt. And for a little extra sweetness, I added a couple Medjool dates. Yum!  The filling was pretty good, too. I made it using pumpkin puree from a sugar pumpkin I had cooked a week or so ago. The only problem was that the crust got burned. Next time, I won’t cook the crust so much before adding the filling.

What new recipes did you try this year?! We’re starting to collect ideas for Christmas…