Paul Szmal: Good morning, it's 8.38, it's FLX Morning Tuesday, and it's time to get healthy with UR Medicine, Finger Lakes Health, and after a week off last time, Kimberly DeLacroix is back with us. Good morning. Morning, Ted. So, is there still time, or is it too late to get an ornament on any of the trees or anything? That must be just about wrapping up, huh?
Kimberly Lockwood, Amanda Vidala, Rose Cooper Brown: We're getting close to wrapping up, but you can still purchase an ornament for either the tree at Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hospital, at Huntington Living Center, or at Geneva General Hospital. You can give us a call at 315-787-4050.
Paul Szmal: Okay. And a couple pieces of news, you've been upgrading, we've been talking about this since the partnership with UR Medicine, about the things you're going to be able to do. Now one of them is, patients have what's called MyChart, where you can go online and get information, and now lab results will be part of that. That's great.
Kimberly Lockwood, Amanda Vidala, Rose Cooper Brown: Yes, we're very excited. This actually started yesterday, so now patients who have lab work done at any of our Finger Lakes Health lab draw stations can now see their results available in MyChart. So if you go to our website and go to our patient portal page at FLHealth.org, there's information on how you can sign up for your MyChart account, and you'll be able to see your lab results as well as some clinical documentation. And this is just the beginning as our affiliation, we've talked about before, going to the electronic medical record of Epic and all the benefits that's going to bring to our patients and our community. So we're very excited that now patients will be able to see lab results available in MyChart.
Paul Szmal: That's just going to make things so much easier and simple to have everything in one place.
Kimberly Lockwood, Amanda Vidala, Rose Cooper Brown: Absolutely, and that's the goal, just to make it a seamless patient experience. Now you have an event coming up in January. Tell us about this.
Paul Szmal: Yes, we're very excited. This event is happening on Saturday, January 11th at the Sons of Italy in Geneva. It's called Rock for Kidneys. It's going to start at 4 p.m. It's $10 a person. It's for a ziti dinner, ziti meatball sauce bread. It is a cash bar. There's going to be raffles, food, music, lots of fun. The music is going to be by 10th Avenue and Rockin' Boots, and all the proceeds are going to benefit Geneva General Dialysis. And you can purchase tickets by calling Mike at 315-237-3627, or also you can stop by the Bennett House at Geneva General Hospital, or you can purchase them the day of the event on the 11th at the door. So we really hope the community comes out and helps support this event. It's going to be a fun evening. It's the middle of January, looking for something to do, so we're really hoping we get a great turnout to benefit the dialysis unit.
Paul Szmal: Now I know about these because I just put these up myself on the calendar this morning, and one is on Thursday this week, pre-dialysis education class at Geneva General from noon to one. That's great. That must ease people's minds, because that would be, to me, a pretty scary thing. And then you can get some education and say, okay, this is what it's going to be, and you know what to expect.
Kimberly Lockwood, Amanda Vidala, Rose Cooper Brown: Yeah. We started this program, I want to say maybe a year and a half, two years ago, through the dialysis, and we get a great turnout, and like you said, it just really helps our patients understand about dialysis and what it entails, and it helps with the family members, too.
Paul Szmal: And then the other thing, this is a great program. This is also on Thursday. It's at Geneva General or at Soldiers and Sailors, and that's the community mobility screening for people 65 and older. You just put them through their paces and see if there are any kind of fall risks or balance issues or anything, because in people of that age, falls mean broken bones and it can be trouble.
Kimberly Lockwood, Amanda Vidala, Rose Cooper Brown: Yeah. We want to do everything we can to make sure that our patients can stay at home and that they're safe. So by having people come to these mobility screenings, as you mentioned, we're able to help them with their balance, do some benchmarks on them, recommend things to keep them safe at home, and then provide services if they need it. So we're really grateful for our rehab team for providing these screenings.
Paul Szmal: All right. So here we are. It's the time of year where every place you go, there's food. Somebody has a plate of food or they try to hand you some, so we're going to learn how to navigate our way through that holiday maze. So let's introduce our educators slash providers. I'm very excited today. We have two registered dieticians with us. We have Amanda Vidala and we also have Rose Copper-Brown. They're both with Finger Lakes Health. Amanda has been with us about a year and a half, going on two, and Rose has been with us for 13 years. So welcome, Rose and Amanda. All right. We should move that microphone over there a little bit. Good morning, you both.
Kimberly Lockwood, Amanda Vidala, Rose Cooper Brown: Good morning.
Paul Szmal: So, all right, this is as much for me as it is for the audience because I'm the world's worst person. You put a shrimp cocktail plate out and 27 shrimp later. So how do we put those limits on ourselves at this time of year and what's the plan?
Kimberly Lockwood, Amanda Vidala, Rose Cooper Brown: Okay. Well, I guess that, you know, the holidays can be a very stressful time. There's a lot of things going on. You might have a lot of gatherings, events, family get-togethers, and you're kind of trying to navigate, like you said, through this time. I think one important thing might be is to not skip meals through the days. You know, a lot of times we think, oh, we're going to go to this event, we're going to go to that event, and I've got to save those calories for that. But then we go to the event and we're hungry, more hungry than usual, and then we over-indulge. So, you know, have something for breakfast, have something for lunch, and you'll be less likely to maybe over-indulge. The other thing is allow yourself to have a few shrimp, but then walk away from that table. Have the conversation away from the table because if you sit beside that table, it's so easy to reach down and grab a cookie, reach down and grab a couple more shrimp, reach down and grab something else. So, you know, fill your plate with a little bit of everything and then walk away to mingle with people.
Paul Szmal: Yeah, I think, Rose, one of the key things is, like you were saying, don't try to deny yourself completely because that just doesn't work. I mean, you're not going to be able to go to every party and walk out in your kitchen at work and just go, I'm not going to have anything, right?
Kimberly Lockwood, Amanda Vidala, Rose Cooper Brown: Oh, let me, there we go, didn't have your mic on. Yeah, no, I agree 100 percent, yeah, that's, I think everyone puts a lot of stress on what they can't eat instead of focusing on what they can eat and enjoying food and, you know, making the holiday meals fun and exciting, and I think that's a big, an important part to not stress so much about it and let yourself eat and enjoy the food and taste the variety and variety is key and not skipping meals and making sure we're, you know, taking care of ourselves.
Paul Szmal: And, Rose, you were talking about eating your meals well, and I'm sure eating filling foods, grains and getting your fiber and everything so you feel fuller when you go out and you're not as tempted to just scarf on those cookies.
Kimberly Lockwood, Amanda Vidala, Rose Cooper Brown: Correct, so the one food group, your vegetables, salads, you know, those are fillers, your whole grains, you know, so your cereals, your bran cereals, your oatmeals, whole wheat toast, those kinds of things, you know, so make sure you're having your fruits and your vegetables because fruits have natural sugars, so you'll be less likely to have those cravings later for the added sweets.
Paul Szmal: And then what can we do as hosts to be more nutrition-friendly in terms of what we put out? I mean, you don't have to put out, you know, chocolate brownies and nothing else. I mean, you can put out lettuce sticks or whatever, celery, you know.
Kimberly Lockwood, Amanda Vidala, Rose Cooper Brown: Exactly, so include those vegetable platters, those fruit bowls, and have them available. And smaller plates, you know, the small plates because, you know, if we have the larger plates then people are going to fill more of that on them, so have smaller plates that people can just take a spoonful. You know, I think if we allow ourselves to have maybe a teaspoon of this and a teaspoon of that, and again, just allowing yourself to enjoy the food brings a lot of that guilt down and then you can enjoy it and then be easier to walk away. I think when we build ourself up, then we just kind of get that snowball rolling.
Paul Szmal: And then let's talk about preparation a little bit because that's a big part of it is how you make things or, for example, again using myself as the guilty example here, I'm the kind of person that gets a salad and then puts all kinds of creamy, thick dressing all over it and it kind of does away with the whole idea of having a salad in the first place. So we can put the dressings on the side. I've used this for many years and telling people put the gravies or the salad dressings, put them in a little side dish. If you dip your fork in the salad dressing before each bite, you will get a taste of that salad dressing so you don't have to worry about how much because if you've ever looked at your bowl, if you put it on top of the salad, at the bottom is all that salad dressing that has a lot of calories and fat. But again, if you use the side fork and then you get to enjoy your salad, but you use a lot less.
Kimberly Lockwood, Amanda Vidala, Rose Cooper Brown: And there are more and more creative ways to do things. My wife found a recipe somewhere, I don't know where, for zucchini crisp, which looks like apple crisp, tastes like apple crisp, and it's made with all zucchinis. It's the way you spice it and season it. I had some brownies not too long ago that were made from beets. So there's healthy ways to make the kind of traditional holiday type foods without using the real fatty stuff.
Paul Szmal: Yes, I'm glad you included that because again, those are the vegetables and the things that are healthier for us and still taste good because again, using the seasonings and spices. As with baking, you don't have to use that whole cup of sugar, you can use three quarters of a cup just by shaving some of that off. You still need the sugar in the baked good to do the product and make it work out, but you don't have to fill it to the top.
Kimberly Lockwood, Amanda Vidala, Rose Cooper Brown: So since I have two nutritionists here, I want to get your opinion of the big national discussion over weight loss drugs. What do you think of those? It sounds like maybe they have their place in some places, but it seems to me like there'd be a risk of overdoing those.
Paul Szmal: Yeah, and you know, I'm big on thinking outside the box, so I don't want to say they can't be helpful because I think for some people in situations they can absolutely help. I think a key to that is making sure that we're also providing education. I think it's great to also see a dietician or get some education while taking the medication to make sure we're knowing the habits that we should do or what changes we need to make in our lifestyle, that way when we're not on them anymore, we can change and actually make the difference last. I think that is a key role, but I do think they can be helpful to a lot of people in situations.
Kimberly Lockwood, Amanda Vidala, Rose Cooper Brown: And some of these are fairly new, so there must not be a whole lot of data in terms of long term because we know in the past, you know, binge diets don't often work. If somebody tries to lose 40 pounds in a couple of weeks, it comes back almost all the time. As Amanda was saying, is that a lot of times the medications or the short term are those diets. You go on a diet and off a diet, so it's those behaviors that we need to kind of focus on. And behaviors are hard to change.
Paul Szmal: Yeah. Well, it just sounds like, from what I've heard over the years, is go gradual. You know, set an achievable goal. Don't try to lose it all right away, but slow and steady. You know, eat a little less each day, move a little more, and just keep with it and you'll see the progress.
Kimberly Lockwood, Amanda Vidala, Rose Cooper Brown: Yes, that's exactly the small changes, and then you can build on them, and it makes it easier to maintain those changes.
Paul Szmal: So how do you help somebody come up with their own individual plan, whether it be weight loss or just living a more healthy lifestyle and eating better?
Kimberly Lockwood, Amanda Vidala, Rose Cooper Brown: Well, I myself, I do what we call a diet recall. So I find out what they typically are doing at this point and what foods they really like. And then I will sit down and for a couple days, you know, plan out and help them learn how that they can enjoy the foods they like, and portion control is a key. Because I think a lot of times people think a dietician is going to say, well, you can't have this and you can't have that. So I think if we turn it around and be positive and say, well, you can have the foods that you like, just how much and how often. But including the activity and the water and the fluid intake is important, too.
Paul Szmal: Do you think the food plate is an improvement over the old pyramid?
Kimberly Lockwood, Amanda Vidala, Rose Cooper Brown: I do. You know, people eat off a plate, so I think it's an easy reference, and it helps with the portion control, yeah. And I think also, going back to individualizing a plan, is that sometimes I find people skip breakfast and I find out they don't really like breakfast foods. And I tell people, well, you don't have to eat breakfast foods for breakfast. I've had people eat a sandwich, I've had people eat leftovers. I think the important thing is to try to get something in your system with protein and carb and get the metabolism started and also get your brain working and start your day.
Paul Szmal: All right. Well, thank you both for the information and advice. We appreciate it very much.
Kimberly Lockwood, Amanda Vidala, Rose Cooper Brown: Thank you. Thank you for having us.
Paul Szmal: All right. And Kimberly, just to step up to the mic there for a moment, as people are beginning to know now, I'm getting old and I'm retiring from this program probably at the end of the year. This might be our final visit together, and if that's the case, I just want to thank you and Laura and all the behind-the-scenes people who get us these great guests. I mean, every two weeks, for way before me, it goes back to Mike Rosinko. I think Laura was saying it's like 20 or 22 years or something. Finger Lakes Health and now UR Medicine Finger Lakes Health have just been fantastic in providing great information for our listeners on this program, and we appreciate it so much.
Kimberly Lockwood, Amanda Vidala, Rose Cooper Brown: Well, Ted, we can't thank you enough, and we appreciate everything you do to help us promote our services and our providers and everything that we do to the community. And you have been a great partner, and we look forward to seeing you every other Tuesday. So we will definitely miss seeing you, and we can't thank you enough. And we wish you a wonderful and fun retirement.
Paul Szmal: Well, and the older I get, the more likely you'll see me as a patient, so there's always that.
Kimberly Lockwood, Amanda Vidala, Rose Cooper Brown: Which is the good thing, because I always say if I ever have to go to see somebody, I'm going to probably know them.
Paul Szmal: It's 8.52 FLAX morning.
