Howdy, folks!
As the next post on this blog will mark 100 posts since I started the website in mid-February, I thought I’d pull back a little and ask: How am I doing? It seems a good time to do this as tomorrow I see my neurologist (I see her four times a year). She’ll examine me and let me know how I’m doing medically in my dance-a-thon with Parkinson’s disease. But right now I’m jonesing for some self evaluation vis-à-vis my effort with things that are in my control.
I’ll do this by grading myself in the five areas I identified in an early post titled “Enriched Environment.” I’ll be hard on myself, but fair.
1. physical activity: “…any activity that gets blood circulating to the brain is neuroprotective.”
Grade: B+. If you look at the calendar where I record my workouts, you’ll see I typically average four workouts a week, 60 minutes per workout. I need to up this to at least five, and the workouts should average 90 minutes. I also need to do something about those stretches of time where, say, four or five days pass by with no workout at all. This usually happens when we have out-of-town guests or when I have something major at work.
How to improve: Increase frequency and duration of workouts.
2. good nutrition: for example, “… foods with omega-3 fatty acids—such as tuna, salmon, herring and walnuts—seem to have a neuroprotective effect. Vitamins E and C, which are powerful antioxidants, also have shown benefit to the brain.”
Grade: A–. I eat lots of salmon (canned, wild-caught), walnuts, Vitamins E and C. During the workweek, for breakfast and lunch I typically prepare a whole wheat wrap with hummus, sprouts, a slice of cheese, and either kale or spinach. I supplement these wraps with fresh fruit or vegetables: apples, strawberries, snow peas, peaches, cheery tomatoes (intentional typo). I snack on raw almonds and prunes, and I drink coffee and/or tea throughout the day. For dinner I often eat salmon, legumes, more fruits and vegetables. I enjoy red wine and the occasional chunk of dark chocolate. Why am I giving myself an A– and not an A+? When I prepare pasta dishes, I don’t use whole grain pasta, and at home I eat white rice, not brown. I do this because my husband prefers it that way. I’m not independent enough or energetic enough to prepare two pots of pasta. And I must say, his white rice is delicious.
How to improve: Choose whole wheat pasta and brown rice. Put my dietary needs first.
3. staying social: “…individuals who isolate or segregate themselves have higher rates of dementia than those who stay well-socialized.”
Grade: B. I think I socialize a lot at school, and I chitchat with supermarket cashiers and restaurant wait staff. I’m busy on Facebook, connecting with friends from high school and all the places I lived overseas. I write lots of reader comments on the Michael J. Fox Foundation Facebook page. But since moving to the suburbs, I haven’t seen my friends in the city. I have friends from high school, college, graduate school, previous jobs, and many of the countries I lived in. All right there in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens. I need to hang out with them to reignite those neuronal connections.
How to improve: Make time to see folks. Then see them!
4. mental stimulation: play complex board games; learn a new language; design your own website and start blogging…
Grade: A. This blog is a major intellectual operation for me; it beckons daily. I regret I don’t edit and proofread it professionally, hence no A+. I don’t have a printer at home. I should really print out each post and examine it in hard copy before I publish online. As it is, for days after I post something, I keep returning to it to correct errors and tweak wording. The downside of this blog is that it sucks up my time and my intellectual life. I’ve become monomaniacal. I used to peruse other websites daily (The New York Times; Joe.My.God; Lady Bunny; Towleroad) but now I don’t.
I must admit, I have a swell job that keeps me intellectually stimulated. Where else can you be paid for writing sonnets and plays, training new teachers in two languages, and teaching staff and students to write poetry, fiction and non-fiction?
How to improve: Increase non-computer reading. I’ve been on page 600 of Moby Dick for months!
5. meditation and spirituality: among other reasons, these two options reduce your stress.
Grade: F. When I try to meditate I fall asleep, and I have as much interest in religion as my cats have in distant solar systems.
How to improve: Make more effort to fit meditation in right after I wake up and am refreshed.
Final Grade: Pass. (I grade on a Pass/Fail system.)
