Habits



From Facebook

 

 The more you do something, the more it becomes a good or bad habit. I teach about habits when I teach a class for DUI offenders. I often use this anonymous quote.

I am your constant companion. I am your greatest helper or heaviest burden. I will push you onward or drag you down to failure. I am completely at your command. Half the things you do, you might just as well turn over to me and I will be able to do them quickly and correctly.

I am easily managed—you must merely be firm with me. Show me exactly how you want something done, and after a few lessons, I will do it automatically. I am the servant of all great men, and alas, or all failures as well. Those who are great, I have made great. Those who are failures, I have made failures.

I am not a machine, though I work with all the precision of a machine plus the intelligence of a man. You may run me for a profit or run me for ruin—it makes no difference to me.

Take me, train me, be firm with me, and I will place the world at your feet. Be easy with me, and I will destroy you. Who am I?

I am Habit.

So I worked on a new habit today--getting to my substitute job ahead of time. It felt good. But it is not a habit yet. Often times there is a situation at home such as my husband taking his morning pills and I barely make it to school in time or have to call to say I am on my way. They are happy that I call and that I come to cover a class. But how much better to get somewhere on time! I am also realizing when hubby and I go somewhere and have to be there by a certain time, plan to leave in plenty of time. Time means so little to him--I have to be the time keeper.

Today I substituted in a Math in high school. After taking roll in first period I noticed a young lady in the corner of the room and noise was coming from an obvious cell phone. I went over to her, observed that her cell phone was plugged into the wall to charge it and asked her to put it up. She said she couldn't turn it off or she would lose her game. It turns out that she entered my classroom and acted like she was enrolled in that class.  After she was removed the other students said that she must be a new student and one reflected that she only comes there when there is a substitute! Her cell phone is her habit--a bad one. She may skip her first period to go find a substitute, park herself in that class, and charge her cell there. Hopefully her bad habit was busted today.

21 days to change to a new habit I have heard. When someone has Alzheimer's it may be more than 21 days. I put a little love note in my husband's morning pills now to get him motivated to take those pills before I leave the house. I also take my pills at the same time. He does remember that I ended up in the hospital when I took his pills, so I say take you pills so I don't accidentally take yours again. This habit is a constant struggle.

I have also heard to establish routines early in Alzheimer's. I got my husband an electric shaver for Christmas. Now getting him to use it is a real struggle. It would be safer for him to use this instead of shaving with a razor. He doesn't always want to shave every day and it seems to me that he can use his charged shaver while he sits and watches TV. This is not his habit, but my struggle. He may win this one, like he keeps winning not wanting to mow the lawn. My patience is tried again and again.

But then, again, I struggle with some of my own habits, like recording the food that I eat ("tracking") for Weight Watchers and my housekeeping habits.

People in the classes for DUI offenders that I teach get the following quotes about habits on my Power Point presentation:

• “Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence.Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination are alone supreme.”               --Calvin Coolidge

"We must all suffer from one of two pains: the pain of discipline or the pain of regret. The difference is discipline weighs ounces while regret weighs tons."-- Jim Rohn

• "The majority of men meet with failure because of their lack of persistence in creating new plans to take the place of those which fail."--Napoleon Hill

• "This one step—choosing a goal and sticking to it—changes everything."--Scott Reed

• "Things start out as hopes and end up as habits."--Lillian Hellman

Lord, give me patience with my husband
and persistence with my own habits.
I can change more than he can.

Give Us This Day Our Daily Fats



Husband Gets Coconut Oil With His Chocolate, Applesauce and Breakfast to Go

Not to paraphrase The LORD's Prayer, with Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread, but we do need fats along with bread (wheat if possible). When I joined Weight Watchers in the 1970s, you were not allowed fats. Today in Weight Watchers with their "healthy food guidelines" you must have 2 tsp. of fats per day. I often put in on my thin bagel for breakfast. There is even a book called Eat Fat Lose Fat. I have that book, but don't tell because I have enough books loaned out.

But what kind of fats? Lisa, in her post "The Complete Guide to Fats and Oils--What to Cook With (or not), What to Avoid and Why" here at the Read Food Digest spells it all out. Of course coconut oil takes the prize so to speak. Lydia, in her post "The Benefits of Taking Coconut Oil" here at Why I Have a Coconut Oil Fetish lists these benefits from The Coconut Oil Miracle a book I have loaned out now. The book by Dr. Newport Altzheimer's Disease: What If There Were a Cure? where she explained how coconut oil helps dementia is also loaned out. People in my life can't get enough of oil literature.

The easiest way to get coconut oil (about 2 TBSP. per day) in my husband’s diet is for him to have it melted with chocolate chips--dark chocolate when I can get it. I have written about that elsewhere on this blog and he gets two coconut fudge for breakfast as pictured above and two for lunch.

What is the skinny (or the fat) on coconut oil? Here are some ideas from Lydia again on her coconut oil fetish quoting her post:

• "The body can use coconut oil for energy more rapidly and efficiently than any other fat source. Special fats in coconut (called medium-chain fatty acids, MCFA's) are not normally stored in your body as fat. Instead, they're quickly converted to energy."
• "Small amounts of the MCFA's in coconut oil are used in the complex processes that enable cells to communicate with each other."
• "People in countries where coconut is an important part of the diet has lower rates of heart disease and cancer than Americans."
• "The fats in coconut help fight infections of all kinds."

Lydia also notes from The Coconut Oil Miracle that:

• "Improves digestion and absorption of other nutrients including vitamins, minerals, and amino acids."
• "Helps relieve symptoms and reduce health risks associated with diabetes.
• "Helps protect against osteoporosis."
• "Supports tissue healing and repair."
• "Helps prevent periodontal disease and tooth decay."
• "Is utilized by the body to produce energy in preference to being stored as body fat like other dietary fats.
• "Has no harmful or discomforting side effects." You do have to build up to taking it, however, or you will get diarrhea. Plus it is expensive, so you want to treat it like gold.
• "Is completely non-toxic to humans."

Lydia also adds in her fetish post a list of ideas for getting it. I realized from her list that I can put the tsp. that I measure it with in my coffee to help rinse it. She doesn't deal with Alzheimer's as Dr. Newport does, however. I do remember that Dr. Newport in her inspiring book tells of a day when Steve Newport, her husband with Early Onset Diabetes, was agitated, a common problem for dementia patients. She game him coconut oil and he calmed down. My husband doesn't take any drugs to calm him down.

So, folks, this is why Plant City Lady and Friends also has a coconut oil fetish. Will I use other fats? Yes, we use real butter and olive oil all the time. Sometimes I combine coconut oil, butter and olive oil to sauté foods. Great! You can refer to Lisa's post above for good fats and oils and the ones to avoid.


Saute vegetables in good oil



Gentle Intervention

Friday Night

I couldn't have told him and gotten the same response. We went to dinner with our pastor and his wife. Gentle marriage counseling over pizza. Pastor skillfully told my husband that he has a handicap and that maybe no one will hire him at his age in this economy with his handicap of dementia. He would be a liablity to any company. The intervention was not ugly, and my husband seemed to accept what Pastor said to him in the midst of other stories and jokes. Yes, he will need to find things to do with his time--what scares my hubby. He might hang out at our church one day during the week, for example.

The Pastor's wife also said privately to me to not push him. Aha! This is how it works. Let him come up with ideas of what to do with his time, she said.

Sweetheart could take this reality better from our Pastor who married us, than from my suggestions. Of course we will need to trust God for our needs, but He has never let us down in the past.

But will he remember what our pastor said to him?

Monday at the Doctor's

Basically his doctor said he was doing well, all his lab results were good. No medcation was changed. He took an EKG while there and he will have a carotid artery test later this month. Come back in three months. His doctor said he would be a good greeter at Wal-Mart or a supermarket bagger if he choose to work. She had thought he should have retired some time ago with his handicap. Sweetheart seems more able to accept retirement now, but still it will be an adjustment.