In this issue: July 4th foods, steps to avoid diabetes, Alzheimer's and diet, water needs and more.
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How To Nail An Orthopedic Physical Therapy Job Interview
You might want to become a therapist. If you do, then you better apply to a clinic that will have a use for your specialty. If you are good at orthopedic physical therapy Portland, then you have to send in your application for that job. You need to prepare your requirements such as your resume, clearances, permits, and other credentials.
If the potential employers find the resume you submitted appealing, then it will be possible for a job interview to be scheduled. Be prepared to speak your pitch just to get this job. The interview will allow employers to do their observations. When you really want this job, then you better do things that can help you nail the interview.
One of the things you can do for that is to arrive at the venue 15 minutes earlier. Doing so will give you some time to check your appearance, visit the restroom, or compose yourself. You can also review your notes as preparation. If not that, you can use the said time to fill out the required paperwork for the said interview.
During the interview, you should have the presence of mind for it. You must carefully listen to the question asked of you and answer them as thoroughly as you can. You should avoid stumbling words and even conversational slang since these are forbidden from business conversations. Sound confident and do not wander off track.
The question where the interviewer asks you more about yourself really means you should tell the interviewer what personality traits and background information you have that can establish you in this field. This is the question where you can build up your qualifications for the position you are applying for.
Another question asked from you would be regarding your strengths as well as weaknesses. When it comes to strengths, there should be no problems in answering at least three. If it is the other one, then avoid doing a character assassination. Instead, you should prepare a few quasi-strength you can disguise as your weakness.
When the question the interviewer asks you is about what you will be doing in five years, then that just means that he or she is probing you about how long you might want to stick around. If you are thinking of resigning in three years or you might have other plans in the future, you better keep that to yourself. State a future that is in line with the PT job you are aiming for.
You must prepare a few examples for your work successes. You will be retelling these stories to the interviewer, after all. With these stories, the said employer can determine how you deal with particular challenges. Your experiences for the work can be measured when you can provide the examples for these.
Confrontational interviews can also happen at times. However, you should not be shocked at such interviews. After all, the said interviews are meant to weed out the candidates who are not capable of reacting well to confrontation or pressure. You must maintain a professional demeanor, as if nothing unusual is happening. You must be cool and confident in front of the interviewer.
If the potential employers find the resume you submitted appealing, then it will be possible for a job interview to be scheduled. Be prepared to speak your pitch just to get this job. The interview will allow employers to do their observations. When you really want this job, then you better do things that can help you nail the interview.
One of the things you can do for that is to arrive at the venue 15 minutes earlier. Doing so will give you some time to check your appearance, visit the restroom, or compose yourself. You can also review your notes as preparation. If not that, you can use the said time to fill out the required paperwork for the said interview.
During the interview, you should have the presence of mind for it. You must carefully listen to the question asked of you and answer them as thoroughly as you can. You should avoid stumbling words and even conversational slang since these are forbidden from business conversations. Sound confident and do not wander off track.
The question where the interviewer asks you more about yourself really means you should tell the interviewer what personality traits and background information you have that can establish you in this field. This is the question where you can build up your qualifications for the position you are applying for.
Another question asked from you would be regarding your strengths as well as weaknesses. When it comes to strengths, there should be no problems in answering at least three. If it is the other one, then avoid doing a character assassination. Instead, you should prepare a few quasi-strength you can disguise as your weakness.
When the question the interviewer asks you is about what you will be doing in five years, then that just means that he or she is probing you about how long you might want to stick around. If you are thinking of resigning in three years or you might have other plans in the future, you better keep that to yourself. State a future that is in line with the PT job you are aiming for.
You must prepare a few examples for your work successes. You will be retelling these stories to the interviewer, after all. With these stories, the said employer can determine how you deal with particular challenges. Your experiences for the work can be measured when you can provide the examples for these.
Confrontational interviews can also happen at times. However, you should not be shocked at such interviews. After all, the said interviews are meant to weed out the candidates who are not capable of reacting well to confrontation or pressure. You must maintain a professional demeanor, as if nothing unusual is happening. You must be cool and confident in front of the interviewer.
Food Bites with Dr. Hyman – Summertime Success
Dakota C asks: Do you have any tips for staying successful on Dr. Hyman’s programs during the summertime? Please help me navigate the best ways to stay on track!
Dear Dakota,
No matter where you live, summer can be a bittersweet time of year. For most, summertime means a relaxed lifestyle filled with longer days, warmer weather, and time off from school and work to enjoy the outdoors and hopefully some vacation time.
Along with the warmer weather and outdoor activities comes the pressure (both internal and external) to get your body “beach ready.” This leads us to worry about sticking to our diets despite the abundance of treats – ice cream, burgers on the grill, and s’mores. This is a great question to kick off the summer season; read on for tips to eating a healthy diet, exercising, and enjoying an UltraHealthy summer.
- Eat smaller, nutrient-dense meals every 3-4 hours and make sure to include the right mix of carbohydrates. Eating small meals more frequently and including protein with each meal helps to control blood sugars more easily. A typical meal featured in my programs includes calories that come from 15 to 30% carbs, 30 to 40% healthy fat, and 30 to 40% protein.Clearly, keeping insulin down and controlling blood sugars are keys to a healthy diet and lifestyle. But how do you figure out your ideal range of calories from carbs? As I always say, there is no one-size fits all approach in Functional Medicine, which is why I always invite readers to experiment with the ideal combination of fat, protein, and carbs that works best for their individual biological needs.If all this talk about blood sugar, insulin, and carbs leaves you curious about what your ideal intake is, follow this general two-step rule:
STEP 1: Get to know YOU! Learn what is going on beneath the surface in your body and you will be better able to feed yourself properly and achieve your ideal weight, ward off cravings, and cool off the inflammation that is making you sick, tired, and fat. You need to think about your entire body as an ecosystem – each part dependent upon the whole to thrive. While conventional medicine typically breaks the body into separate parts (such as skin vs. gut vs. thyroid), Functional Medicine looks at how each of these systems impacts the other to determine our final health outcomes.
I suggest you take the self-assessment quiz that I use with my own patients to learn how your specific symptoms impact your total health and understand how to properly nourish yourself. Remember, there are several triggers for a single condition which means that the reason you may require a certain diet might be completely different from the reason why someone else needs that same exact diet!
STEP 2: Determine your ideal carbohydrate intake. Click here to view a chart that will help you determine your carb intake needs based on your personal health status.
Remember: food is information that communicates messages of health or sickness with each bite. So make each meal a conscious choice to best nourish your body!
- Fast track your exercise routine with interval training. If exercise were a pill, it would be the biggest blockbuster drug of all time. Not only is exercise beneficial for your bones but studies show it enhances mood, increases energy levels, helps combat chronic disease by raising HDL, manages weight, and leads to healthier sleep patterns. Knowing this is one thing; acting on it is another.I always say make exercise fun by weaving it into your summer plans. Play Frisbee at the beach, ride bikes at the park, walk to the farmer’s market, hike to a beautiful destination before napping under a shady tree, or rent a kayak for date night instead of heading to your favorite restaurant. As important as it is to have fun, ensuring you exercise smarter, not harder, is critical to making the most of your exercise routine. Use interval training to help maximize your time while relaxing with friends, not logging hours at the gym! Interval training relies on bursts of activity that elevate your heart rate to its max, followed by a brief cooling down activity before you begin the next interval cycle of high intensity aerobic activity. Whether you swim, walk, run, dance, hike, or bike, switch up the intensity and it will help to achieve better results.
- Make this summer one where you smile a lot! Experiment with the following to invite more relaxation, well being, and joy:
- Get more rest – take a 20 minute nap, read a book, watch a funny movie, get a massage, or sit quietly journaling
- Stay hydrated – drink lots of water; switch it up by adding fresh lemon or lime or blending in fresh watermelon with mint – not only does this make a delicious, refreshing thirst quencher, it also adds important electrolytes back into your diet
- Make meditation a priority – find an app like Headspace or Insight Timer to help incorporate meditation every day – even if only for 5 minutes
- Eat your sunscreen – antioxidants naturally project your body’s skin cells from the inside out; eat more brightly colored vegetables and fruits like blueberries, watermelon and cherries
- Shop locally and eat fresh – check out local harvest for your nearest farmer’s market
- Connect – hang out with your friends and family more and definitely stay connected to our community and of course, me.
Wishing you health and happiness,
Mark Hyman, MD.
10 Strategies to Eat Healthy While You Travel
The other day I was chatting with my friend Ann Louise Gittleman. She is a rock star in the nutrition world, and if you don’t know Ann Louise, please take some time to visit her page.
We both agreed that one frequently asked question our patients ask involves how they can eat healthy while on the road. “I wish I could say it is easy, but we both know better,” I told Ann Louise, who wholeheartedly agreed.
Especially with summer here, you’ve probably got a fun vacation on the calendar. Ann Louise and I travel frequently, mostly for business, and we see what airport queues and roadside diners serve up. It isn’t pretty.
She has her own fabulous travel tips. I’ve shared some below, and you can find all of them here. Reading this helpful blog inspired me to create my own strategies to stay healthy, happy, and stress-free on your next vacation.
As you know, I recommend preparing your own meals whenever possible. Making your own meals saves you time and money, plus you know exactly what goes into everything you prepare. Below, I have some easy-to-prepare on-the-go breakfasts and lunches that will keep you healthy whether you’re on the road or stuck with a layover at the airport.
Let’s be honest. When you travel today, you have to take real food with you. It’s not your fault that you can’t find real food in the average American town. The food industry conspires to keep real food off the shelves. Why? It’s simply not as profitable to sell real foods like vegetables, fruits, and nuts as it is to sell snack cakes, candy bars, and chips.
As a result, we have a diabesity epidemic, and numerous culprits play a role. The introduction of high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) into the food supply certainly is a mainliner in this drama, but so too are ridiculously large portion sizes and eating more than half our meals in restaurants, on the go, and at fast-food restaurants. I have a simple solution for that:
BYOF (Bring Your Own Food)
Even if you choose farm-to-table restaurants or fine dining, you can never know exactly what goes into your food. Gluten and other food sensitivities as well as inflammatory vegetable oils are among the many problem ingredients you’ll face at restaurants.
That doesn’t mean eating while you travel should feel impossible. What follows is a number of menus that you can easily take with you. You can either prepare these while traveling or prepare them in advance and bring them with you in a cooler.
They will help you stay out of trouble in the vast minefield of convenience stores and junk food that awaits you when you leave home. You can find many ingredients, including nuts butters, at Thrive Market, which offers healthy, delicious foods for 25 to 50 percent off retail, delivered right to your door.
BREAKFAST CHOICES
Grab-and-Go Breakfast 1: Breakfast Shake
You can get recipes here.
Grab-and-Go Breakfast 2: Eggs Dijon
- Omega-3 eggs, hard-boiled the night before
- Whole-grain rye bread slices
- Dijon Yogurt (two parts plain organic soy yogurt mixed with one part Dijon mustard)
- Fresh fruit in season
Grab-and-Go Breakfast 3: Nutty Banana
- Banana
- Natural nut or seed butter (almond, macadamia, cashew, sunflower)
- Raw wheat germ (Bob’s Red Mill or Arrowhead Mills)
- Chopped nuts such as Brazil nuts or walnuts
Grab-and-Go Breakfast 4: Omega Morning
- Sardines or wild salmon (Vital Choice)
- Chopped red onion, tomato slices, fresh dill sprigs
- Whole-grain rye bread or crackers (Trader Joe’s, RyVita, or Mestemacher & Seitenbacher)
- Pink grapefruit
LUNCH CHOICES
Grab-and-Go Lunch 1: Soup ’n’ Such
- Lentil or bean soup (Walnut Acres, Westbrae, Shari’s Organics, etc.)
- Baby spinach salad with tahini dressing (look for a low-sugar, gluten-free brand)
- Flax crackers (Matter of Flax or Mary’s Gone Crackers)
- Small apple
Grab-and-Go Lunch 2: White Bean Wrap
- Sprouted grain tortilla (look for a certified gluten-free variety)
- White cannellini beans (Westbrae, Eden)
- Fresh arugula leaves or fresh basil leaves
- Avocado and tomato
- Drizzle of extra virgin olive oil
- Fresh pear
Grab-and-Go Lunch 3: Wild Fish Roll
- Wild salmon or sardine salad: wild salmon or sardines, drained (Vital Choice) Fresh dill sprigs, chopped red onion and watercress
- Soy mayonnaise (Spectrum) with a dab of horseradish (if desired)
- Sprouted grain roll (Alvarado St. Bakery or French Meadow Bakery)
- Blood orange
Grab-and-Go Lunch 4: Mediterranean Salad
- Mesclun greens (Earthbound Farms)
- Sliced fresh mozzarella or Veganrella Mozzarella (nondairy option)
- Roasted red peppers
- Artichoke hearts
- Kalamata olives
- Walnuts
- Fresh lemon juice and extra virgin olive oil
- 15– to 20 red grapes
10 Strategies to Eat Healthy While You Travel
Even with these healthy breakfast and lunch options, I realize that traveling means you sometimes can’t avoid eating out. Dining out can be a pleasurable experience and a welcome deviation from cooking, but you want to be especially prepared during these situations.
What to eat when you travel can become a big stressor. As much as possible, plan ahead by packing the healthy breakfasts and lunches I mentioned above.
When the inevitable happens and you find yourself dining out, you need not abandon all logic when you have a meal at a restaurant or at a friend’s house.
Keeping these 10 principles in mind and remaining flexible will allow you to eat well in any occasion.
- Bring an emergency pack. I can’t emphasize this enough when you travel. You wouldn’t forget your toothbrush or extra walking shoes, so add one more thing to your checklist and be prepared and prioritize your emergency life pack accordingly. Over time you will find your favorite version of the life pack, but here’s an example of what you could include:
- A small bag of raw almonds, walnuts, or pecans
- A small bag of cut carrots or cucumbers
- A small container of hummus (try Wild Garden single-serve packets)
- A can of wild salmon
- A can of sardines
- A container of chickpeas with olive oil, lemon, salt, and pepper
- A healthy whole-food protein bar
You can find many of these foods at my favorite online grocer, Thrive Market.
- Be wary of salad bars. This tip comes from my good friend Ann Louise. “Especially when you’re traveling in a relatively undeveloped country, don’t eat fruit and vegetables that are not extremely well cooked,” she writes. “Don’t touch raw salads, no matter how well washed. Serve-yourself salad and food bars, in any country, are just colorful buffets of bacteria where the food sits out for hours, touched by countless other people.” You’ll find more of Ann Louise’s great travel tips here, and lots of other helpful information in her many books including The Gut Flush Plan.
- Be very clear about your needs. Asking your server questions before you order can save confusion and frustration once your entrée arrives. Most restaurants are set up to accommodate food sensitivities and special requests, so don’t let the menu dictate what you order. Likewise, hosts will usually be very accommodating about special needs for dinner parties. Don’t be afraid to speak up.
- Choose the restaurant when you can. When dining with others, research your options online and suggest a few options to your party. Most people are happy when someone else makes the decision, and choosing puts you in the driver’s seat to find healthy options. Most places have online menus, and even most airports or road stops provide one healthy option. Look for those with high-quality foods like grass-fed beef, wild-caught fish, and organic produce.
- Request a “crudités platter,” fresh fruit, or olives as a starter or appetizer instead of the breadbasket. Bread and alcohol at the beginning of a meal increase your hunger and alcohol decreases your inhibitions, making it more likely that you’ll make a play for the cheesecake. Specify a healthier option. Likewise, opt for berries instead of a high-sugar confection for dessert.
- Be very specific about gluten and dairy. These two slip into even innocuous-sounding dishes like soups. Again, always ask your server. More restaurants now offer gluten-free menus.
- Pack the right supplements. Gut health becomes vitally important when you travel, especially in foreign countries where you are unsure about the food’s origin. Ann Louise recommends digestive enzymes, HCl, probiotics, and activated charcoal. “Open up an activated charcoal capsule and sprinkle on foods that are raw, undercooked or otherwise questionable,” she says. “Charcoal is a wonderful all-around absorber of toxins and contaminants. If you get sick, start with 4 capsules at the first sign of symptoms.”
- Make it simple. Ask for a grilled fish or chicken dish with a large plate of vegetables steamed or sautéed in olive oil. Almost any roadside or airport restaurant can do this. Anything glazed, breaded, or otherwise comes drowning in sugary sauce should be a red flag to stay away. If your entrée arrives with a gluten grain or starchy carbohydrate, simply ask for another green vegetable instead.
- Discover some “slow food” restaurants. These restaurants, where the atmosphere and ambience are soothing to your senses, are popping up more and more in big as well as smaller cities. Many use the highest-quality farm-to-table ingredients they can source. Our eating environment influences how much we end up consuming. Slowing down and savoring your food helps you better enjoy your meals and also helps you eat less. Airports provide a great opportunity for this if you have several hours before your flight. Slow down, breathe deeply, and enjoy the ambiance.
- Drink smartly. I’m talking about water, not alcohol! Ann Louise advises to “fill your bottle with pure, filtered water. Even public water supplies can contain parasites like giardia as well as unwanted toxins.” You’re not necessarily safer with bottled waters. “According to a four-year review by the Natural Resources Defense Council, an estimated 25% or more bottled water brands are merely tap water in a bottle (sometimes with further treatment, sometimes without),” she writes. “And, testing has even found that the popular Fiji Water is loaded with arsenic! My personal go-to bottled water (when I can find it) is Volvic.”
Eating out often leads to eating too much and too much of the wrong things. Eating too much of the wrong things or finding yourself in this situation often leads to stress. Being on vacation and traveling, in general, doesn’t mean you need to fall into this trap.
As awareness grows and the needs of health-conscious diners are met, menu options are changing and nutritionally intelligent choices are now available. And most chain restaurants now offer healthy options.
Every voice counts, so speak up and let your favorite restaurants know you want organic produce, high-quality oils, wild-caught fish, and grass-fed beef.
What fun vacation do you have planned this summer, and what strategies would you add to eat healthy when you’re traveling? Share yours below or on my Facebook page.
Wishing you health and happiness,
Mark Hyman, MD.
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