“The LILI Letter” — February 2025

The Ogden Regional Medical Center / Heart Center, weight loss/wellness class & support group newsletter

February,

A month of the heart, along with our African-American friends, a rodent and presidents. The heart is the seat of emotions in numerous cultures. Having a healthy heart physiologically and emotionally is a good foundation for a happier and more meaningful life. Who do we need to forgive? Cut some slack? Support?  This includes ourselves. Think about it. Doing these things helps us and those around us. We observe Ground Hog Day, Presidents’ Day, Heart Month, Black History Month and Valentine’s Day. And Superbowl commercials 😊.

In good health,
Jennifer James

Success story

This Success Story has nothing to do with weight loss, but it is a lovely Success Story. We have a coffee kiosk in the hospital near the main entrance. The young woman who runs the kiosk is friendly, creative, disciplined, community-minded and a budding entrepreneur. She and I have regular conversations about how her business is progressing, and will soon expand and be housed in the old gift shop space. She is very excited about it all, since it is a new venture for her. Things have fallen into place bit by bit for this young woman.

What makes me so glad for her is because of who she is. She is a kind and positive influence in our hospital. She remembers people’s usual drink orders. She chats with customers, and her regulars are more than acquaintances, really closer to her friends. Several times her customers have “paid it forward”. One customer gave her $100 to buy coffee and other drinks her customers would eventually order from his “gift”. It is all so heart-warming and a good testament to the power of kindness, creativity and karma at its best. And her coffee is delicious!

I wish her nothing but happiness and success as her business venture takes shape. If you have never visited the kiosk, please stop by. Her hours are 7:00am-1:00pm during the week. If you are not a coffee drinker, she has other beverages “on tap” and other items for sale.

Have you ever tried…sunflower seed butter?

Sunflower seed butter is made from roasted sunflower seeds and salt. Use it in place of peanut butter for a change. Sunflowers are native to North America, and first cultivated by indigenous tribes 4500 years ago. The plant was used for food, cooking oil, dyes, and construction using the fibrous stems. European settlers took the seeds to Europe in the 1500’s, but the plant was only used medicinally and ornamentally for the first few centuries. Ukraine produces the most sunflowers globally. High in vitamin E, copper, manganese and polyunsaturated oil. Try the recipe below for a new treat.

nuseed.com/eu/history-of-the-sunflower

To makeup or not to makeup

I have been thinking a lot about makeup lately. I had eye surgery and could not wear any makeup for two months. I don’t wear that much to begin with, but I noticed it was easier to get ready for work in the morning without fussing with it. I don’t have to pay for it anymore and I don’t have to worry about staining clothing or a light-colored washcloth when removing it. I normally don’t wear it when I ski, play pickleball, golf or hike. I don’t wear it when I travel. I can cry if I feel like it, without worrying about mascara smudging or running down my face. A former boyfriend once told me I looked just fine without it. It enhanced my features, but that was it. Life is simpler without it, quite frankly.

Men generally don’t wear makeup and it’s not an issue. Women generally do wear it, and it can be an issue. The actress Pamela Anderson went makeup-free on the red carpet this past year, and created quite a stir. Other women in Hollywood have followed suit. At a recent doctor’s appointment, I noticed most of the women in the office weren’t wearing it, which I found interesting.

Why do we wear it? For ourselves? Others? For a special occasion? Perhaps, we don’t have a choice…does our job require it? If we wear makeup, (or don’t wear it), think about our “why”. Whichever side of the fence we land on with this topic, it is important we do what works for us, and not judge anyone else for their choice. Deal?

Snackathon

During the cold winter months, we may find ourselves sitting in front of the television, subjected to nonstop commercials for tasty food. Or maybe we are bored, tired, stressed and feel in need of some nurturing. Reaching for food without hunger during the evening will set us up for things we may not want. I bet none of us are gorging on carrots and apples. I sat with a craving for a treat the other night. I allow myself a small treat of chocolate or a cookie, but then cut it off. I wanted more. So, I sat with that craving. I kept it logical and did not give into it, but it was not easy. The craving was quite insistent.

If we pack in the snacks and treats in the evening, our gut doesn’t get as much of a rest while we sleep, it is working overtime. Eating at night sets us up for GERD, or reflux, which can leave a nasty taste in our mouth the next morning along with heartburn. And yes, we may gain weight from eating this way. If we save all of our food for the day until the evening, even if we don’t snack on treats, that isn’t a good strategy either.

So how do we manage this inclination many of us have to eat at night? Getting away from the television will help. Doing something more active, such as household chores, can busy our hands and prevent putting food in our mouths. Do we all have a disaster/emergency bag put together? Work on that instead. Can we read, knit, work on a puzzle or other activity in place of watching television?

If we do eat something after dinner, set a boundary around the treats in the form of portions or calories. Put a sign on the refrigerator or pantry. “Step away from the food!”, or another reminder. To lessen the chance of heartburn, leave three hours between the last bite of food and bedtime. Allow 12-14 hours without food, so eat an earlier dinner and no evening treats! We will feel better and possibly lose some weight.

We can be driven by our biology, but as my mother always said, “The good Lord gave you a brain”. Indeed. Let’s be logical and mindful and use that brain! Put our arm around that craving and ask it what it really needs. And lastly, and very logically, let’s not bring loads of treats into the house in the first place. We are all capable of doing this. Right?

The heart of the matter

Heart Month rolls around every February, but our hearts are doing their job continuously. We don’t think about our dear hearts much, until we have a health scare. Cardiovascular disease is responsible for over 700,000 deaths per year in this country. Globally, heart disease is responsible for around double the deaths from cancer, (17.7 million versus 8.8 million). Sobering statistics, for sure.

The American Heart Association developed a tool to assess overall heart health, called “Life’s Essential 8”. It includes diet, exercise, tobacco use, sleep, and controlling blood pressure, blood sugar and cholesterol levels, and managing weight. How is America’s overall heart health doing? Not so great, unfortunately. The American Heart Association, (AHA), applied their assessment tool to over 23,400 people from national health surveys conducted in the US between 2013-2018. It assessed heart and brain health of adults and children based on the above lifestyle factors. Their findings were disappointing. Out of a possible score of 100, the average score was 64.7 for adults, and 65.5 for children. For Americans, 80% of us have suboptimal cardiovascular health.

We can assess how heart-healthy we are with “My Life Check” tool at Life’s Essential 8 website (link is below*). It asks very specific questions about diet, exercise and tobacco use, but also about the neighborhoods we live in, access to healthy food, stress levels, etc. It tallies up the responses for a score. It also divides the results into “celebrate” and “focus”. We can use the tool more than once to track our progress. I encourage anyone reading this to answer the questions with this tool to see how their heart health is faring. Let’s take those recommendations “to heart” to take better care of our hearts (and bodies).

The first Friday of February is “Wear Red Day” which spotlights cardiovascular disease and women. This year it is February 7^th. To learn more about women’s unique needs and heart disease , please visit GoRedForWomen.org.

• Centers for Disease Control (CDC). (2024, October 24). Heart disease facts. CDC. https://www.cdc.gov/heart-disease/data-research/facts-stats/index.html
• Lloyd-Jones, D. et. al. (2022, June 29). Status of US adults and children using the American Heart Association’s new “Life’s Essential 8” metrics: prevalence estimated from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), 2013-2018. Circulation. 146:11. https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/full/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.122.060911
• Kitsis, RN. Et al. (2018, August 14). Heart disease and cancer – are the two killers colliding? Circulation, 138(7):692-695. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6277211/
• *https://www.heart.org/en/healthy-living/healthy-lifestyle/lifes-essential-8

Sunflower butter cookies

Nearly every month I offer a healthy recipe, this month I am offering a treat for Valentine’s Day. I found an oatmeal cookie recipe with peanut butter, and made some adjustments using sunflower seed butter, decreasing the butter and adding oil. I also used less sugar. They are not overly sweet. My friends gobbled them up. Stick them in the freezer, and eat only one or two for the evening treat. 😊

• 1 stick butter, softened, or ½ stick with ¼ cup applesauce (softer cookies)
• ¼ cup canola or other neutral oil
• ½ cup sunflower seed butter, no sugar added (instead of peanut butter)
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar (down from 1 cup)
• ½ cup brown sugar, loosely packed
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• ½ tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 2 eggs
• 1-1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour or enriched flour
• 2-1/4 cups rolled oats
• 1 cup Sunbursts (candied chocolate sunflower seeds), instead of chocolate chips

1. Heat oven to 375 degrees
2. Cream together the softened butter, oil and sunflower seed butter until combined.
3. Mix in the granulated and brown sugars, baking powder and baking soda and salt. Beat until well combined.
4. Add the vanilla extract and eggs (and applesauce if using), beating until incorporated.
5. Add the flour and stir to combine if unable to continue using the mixer. Stir in the oats and Sunbursts until combined.
6. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 10-13 minutes, or until brown around the edges. Cool on a wire rack.

Entire recipe: 5125 calories

• 6 dozen cookies ~ 71 calories per cookie
• 5 dozen cookies ~ 85 calories per cookie
• 4 dozen cookies ~ 107 calories per cookie

February support groups

• Free to graduates of ORMC weight loss/wellness classes
• Mondays, 2:00-3:00pm
• Heart Center Conference Room, ORMC Medical Plaza

All you need is love. But a little chocolate now and then doesn’t hurt.

Charles Schultz