WGTS ninety one point nine. We're Jerry and Summer. We love spending time with you, but more than that, we love you and we care about your health, which is why every Wednesday, we bring you the HealthCare minute.
I think this is a trap that most of us fall into, especially if you're a parent. You take care of everyone else, but you don't take care of yourself. So we're talking about self care today. Doctor Lindsay Prescher is joining us. She's a cardiac surgeon with Adventist HealthCare, and she's here to share some very practical tips on how to take care of your health, recognize when self care might be turning into self sabotage, and how to keep a healthy balance in just what you're doing every day. So doctor Prescher, let's start with what qualifies as actual self HealthCare, and what are the benefits to self care?
I think when I, envision self care, it's kind of that put your oxygen mask on before you help others type of mentality. So what do I need in order to be at my best level? Well, I need sleep. I need nutrition.
I need me time. And, to do this, you know, I need to take care of my body. So nutrition is a big one. Sleep is a big one.
So examples of getting enough sleep would be making sure that, you know, you're creating a routine at night and it becomes a priority. So although you may have seventeen different things, the kitchen may not be clean, the dishes may not be loaded, and you may not start the dishwasher in time, you know, you're getting to bed and making that a priority in decompressing, hydrating. Make sure you're carrying around a water bottle with you. You know, it's a simple thing you can sip throughout the day rather than trying to, you know, cram it all in, at certain periods of time.
Eating well. Again, there's lots of examples of eating while making those healthy choices. Packing lunches, packing snacks, being prepared, meal prepping. I'm a huge believer in meal prepping.
I take actually the majority of my Sunday to meal prep for what I do for the week. So that way, I don't have to stress, and I can just focus on my family getting what they need. And I've always got my prepackaged meal, whatever it may be, if I'm running to and from lacrosse or swim or hockey or whatever sport it may be.
Alright. I'm so curious about the self sabotage.
When can that come into play?
Yeah. Well, self sabotage, I I'm an expert at that as well. So, an example of that would be, you know, you wanna stick to, you know, your nutrition or whatever kind of, I don't wanna I hate the word diet, but, you know, whatever meal plan you're on. And you're making dinner for the kids, and you're snacking throughout dinner.
I think that's an example of self sabotage because you've gotten through making a delicious meal for your kids. You've added, you know, maybe three, four hundred calories to your diet, and then you start feeling the guilt. Well, oh, I've kind of gone off the wagon. I've gone off the trail.
So I think that's an example of self sabotage or, you know, not giving yourself the rest that you need. Let's say you were gonna get up and work out in the morning and, you know, you needed that extra hour of sleep, so instead you slept. One may think that self sabotage, but the act of sleeping and resting is actually a good thing. It's your body telling you what you need.
It's the guilt that you feel. Right? So you need to learn how to to refocus that guilt and repurpose it and say, you know what? This is what I need.
I'm not gonna sabotage my mental well-being by being guilty about not doing something. So I think there's a lot of different versions of self sabotage out there.
How can we be sure we stay balanced and taking care of ourselves and and not running into self sabotage?
Yeah. So I think making it, something you do as a family. Right? So bringing your family into the self care moment.
You know, I oftentimes say to my middle son, I think maybe you need some me time right now. If I see that he's overwhelmed or he's got a lot going on, why don't you take some time and and use that for you? And in return, when I need me time, if I'm kind of at my limit, if I'm overwhelmed, you know, I'm I'm able to kinda take a deep breath and and say to my kids, hey. I need some me time, and they know what that means.
And they give me that ten, twenty minutes, whatever it may be. I think it's important to also kinda help everyone in the family recognize, and then they, in turn, understand the importance of, self care. And it becomes a habit for them too. So if if you're incorporating your family, I think that's what makes it stick.
Self sabotage, I think, everybody just has to deal with this one way or the other. And I think the mentality of the sabotage, even the verbiage of it, you know, try not to hold on to that guilt. You know? Every day is a new beginning.
Every day is a new opportunity.
And all we're trying to do is do our best. So, you know, let go of what happened yesterday. Let go of what happened last week. Keep moving forward and stay positive. And I think, that's where the the mentality piece really helps.
Thank you so much, doctor Prescher. If you wanna hear the full conversation with doctor Prescher, then you can find it at our website, wgts91.9.com.
And as always, we say a big thank you to Adventist HealthCare for sponsoring today's Twelve minute.
