Hi Byte Wellness Family,

Hope you’re making the most of your summertime. In light of the COVID-19 surges around the country, and the self-care ideas we’ll discuss in a second, let me ask you a very important question: are you doing your best to keep yourself and your community safe from COVID-19. That means getting vaccinated (or staying home if you’re unvaccinated), avoiding large crowds and maintaining a safe distance between you and others who don’t live in your household. I hope we’re all supporting each other as best we can!

This last week of August our Daily Wellness Text thread wrapped up our convo about plant-based fats. You can join the convo for free by sending TEXT to 1(224)302-6224.

Before we tackled plant-based fats in the chat, we had a nice chat about the power of modeling self-care. Our #BYTEWellnessWednesday workshop brought out some great self-care ideas. We are all quick to talk about taking a self-care day or using self-care to free yourself from past traumas, and our minds leap to meditation and other mental health strategies. But, we overlook the fact that eating well feeds our brains and spirits in addition to our bodies. Nutrition is an important form of self-care! When we talk about self-care tips for women, we have to talk about plant-based eating!

But I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s back up. This self-care topic is another one inspired by Beyonce’s September Harper’s Bazaar interview, where she dives into her relatively new focus on self-care and wellness.

Image care of www.instagram.com/Beyonce

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Be intentional about taking your self-care into your own hands by asking yourself these questions:

1. What self-care practices did I see my elders model?

2. What could those practices look like for me in my life?

3. What harmful habits did I see my elders model?

4. How can I break multi-generational patterns of disease and make choices that are different from my elders’ harmful habits?

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In the interview, Beyonce talks about how pandemic forced her to slow down (after about 3 decades of what she describes as non-stop work).  When the world shut down early in 2020, she took advantage of the opportunity to be intentional about taking time out to relax and center herself. Sometime during the pandemic, she discovered that her kids were mimicking her self-care behaviors. She tells the interviewer how she found her daughter (Blu Ivy Carter) taking a sweet-smelling soak in her bathtub- something she hadn’t made a habit of before. 

Beyonce’s attention to her wellness had unintentionally rubbed off on her kids. Odds are, most of us aren’t superstar’s like the Queen Bey…but we’re subject to the same laws of self-care modeling. We learn how to take care of ourselves from watching our elders’ self-care practices. And, we teach the next generation the value of self-care as they watch us practice it.

How many times did you watch your mother/grandmother/auntie take care of their minds and spirits by setting aside time to relax or meditate (reading the Bible and praying count)? In what ways did you see them establish boundaries for how much time and energy others could demand of them. How far did they go to make sure they took care of their bodies by staying active (walking around the block or line dancing with friends)? What were they willing to do to find and prepare high-quality food? We might’ve taken all of these habits as personal quirks or hobbies, but they were really self-care practices that (if we’re honest), we’ve probably adopted. 

We know our ancestors exhibited incredible resilience under the most difficult circumstances…otherwise, we wouldn’t be here to talk about them. So, there must be a ton of positive lessons to gain from their self-care practices- even when they called them something else. But, just like we can adopt helpful self-care practices from our ancestors, we can also inherit their self-harm practices. 

Did your Mother/Grandmother/Auntie avoid physical activity or make eating choices that consistently broke down their bodies. How often did they take on too many of other people’s problems and responsibilities?

As natural as it is to inherit the self-care practices that our ancestors modeled for us, the beautiful things about being human is that we have the agency to make different choices. And, with the help of science, we can be even more clear on what choices are helpful and which are harmful.

Here are you questions again.

Be intentional about taking your self-care into your own hands by asking yourself these questions:

1. What self-care practices did I see my elders model?

2. What could those practices look like for me in my life?

3. What harmful habits did I see my elders model?

4. How can I break multi-generational patterns of disease and make choices that are different from my elders’ harmful habits?

Shifting away from animal fats and toward plant-based fats is one of those helpful choices that constitutes a form of self-care.

Here are 4 quick tips to revive your diet as you shift away from animal-based saturated fat and shift toward heart healthy plant-based unsaturated fats. Remember Whole CPR to keep track of them all.

1) Whole foods over packaged and prepared goods to avoid hidden saturated fat and unnecessary fat overall

1) Buy popcorn kernels to cook at home in heart-healthy canola oil (not packaged microwave popcorn)

2) Buy raw nuts and fruit to make your own trail mix (rather than buying pre-packaged mix from the store)

2) Cut the Fat in meat and dairy products 

1) Choose low-fat or no-fat dairy products

2) Choose lean meat if you eat ground meat (at least 90% lean with less than 10% fat for ground beef/turkey/chicken)

3) Remove the skin from chicken before cooking (or buy skinless)

3) Pour in plant oil when cooking, instead of using butter

1) Lightly coat the bottom of the pan with olive oil for recipes using low-to-medium heat

2) Use avocado oil or canola oil for high-heat frying and pan-searing

4) Replace dairy with nut/seed products

1) Choose sugar-free nut milk instead of dairy milk

2) Make Chia Seed Pudding instead of using dairy yogurt (unless it’s fat free)

That’s all for this week. Next month, we’ll put the lessons of the last 3 months together and make some plant-based eating decisions that look like the choices you face in the real world.

Until next week…

Happy Healthy Living,

Dr. Wuse