What is Well Care?

In 1994, I entered the field of health care.  My young heart's desire was to enter a vocation in which I could also earn a living. For the past 20+ years, I have devoted much time to the practice and promotion of health and wellness.  I do this in my personal life, as well as for my family and everyone I encounter.  After all this time, it is still my heart's desire, my passion to move lives in the direction of health and wellness and away from self-harming thoughts, emotions, and behaviors.  They say a good salesman believes in his product.  I believe in being healthy.

I am currently a board-certified family nurse practitioner with a master's degree in nursing.  I am an avid runner, nutrition enthusiast, mother, health coach and still work full time practicing primary care in an outpatient medical group.

What I have learned over the past 20+ years teaching and helping patients, is that most of us could live pill-free and stay out of the doctor's office if we took better care of ourselves.  I have also learned that while most of us deep down truly know the basics of what to do, we have difficulty making healthy changes, staying on track, persevering despite failures and setbacks.  We are also constantly bombarded with the latest fad diets, self-help books, and magic pills that promise to change everything.

Through this blog, my hope is that readers will find ideas, tools, and motivation for well care.  Wellness is the foundation of disease prevention.  It is the path to feeling good, living well.

oatmeal energy balls

Oatmeal Energy Balls

adapted from sweetpeachef.com 5 day anti-inflammatory meal prep

I love granola bars!  I eat cliff bars and apples for breakfast on my way to work most days.  Over Christmas, I tried my first batch of healthy snack balls and gave them to running friends as gifts.  Our first batch used protein powder and got thrown right in the trash.  The second batch was decent using a basic mix of dry oats, nut butter, cinnamon.  Upgrade that idea with anti-inflammatory add-ins:

1 cup dried old fashioned oatmeal
1 cup nuts (I used peanuts) almonds
6 dried plums (dates)