10 Best (and worst!) Valentine’s Day Gifts for Nurses
Almost ten years ago now, my honey and I celebrated our first Valentine’s Day together. I, being the consummate romantic and girly girl, scoured the stores for the perfect gift. I settled on a nice shirt and a nice bottle of cologne. Excited for the gift giving, I wrapped the presents in heart themed wrapping paper and awaited the exchange. I learned a very important lesson that day; my honey is NOT a good Valentine’s Day gift giver. He gave me a heart balloon and a little ceramic nurse frog that was donning latex gloves.
Nowadays, we don’t do a big Valentine’s Day exchange, just a couple cards and something kitschy. His sister owns a flower shop, so I do usually get flowers and then I stump him with “Oh yea, well what does the card say?” He seems to get that right most of the time so maybe he really does fill out the card. So to give you all a heads up, let me tell you some of the worst and best Valentines Day presents.
Best
A Spa Gift Certificate, we love massages with no strings attached
A really great pair of shoes that you know we have been eyeing for awhile.
Flowers, we do enjoy these, just no baby’s breath.
A sweater from our favorite store with the gift receipt (Just in case)
Something sentimental, like a nice picture frame with a picture of the two of you from somewhere special
A weekend trip somewhere close but romantic
A “Fort Night”: Build a fort in the living room and watch a romantic movie with all the childhood favorite foods (sundaes, pizza, PB&J)
A nice dinner, we get to pick the place
A homemade coupon book with coupons for stuff we would appreciate (One Make Dinner AND Clean Up; One Foot Massage)
A trip to our favorite place: the bookstore, a coffee shop, a beach, anything that shows you are paying attention.
Worst
Anything Nurse themed; it takes a very rare person to get excited about a nurse ceramic frog. Let me know when you find them; I’d love to meet them.
Any kind of appliance. A vacuum cleaner does not spell R-O-M-A-N-C-E.
A gym membership. Enough said.
Anything you buy at the drug store (and we know what their stock looks like), i.e. a Valentine’s tiara, salt and pepper shakers, a huge stuffed gorilla, and/or vitamins.
Less than upscale lingerie. This should be a gal’s idea and if she hasn’t bought any yet, she probably doesn’t want to wear it.
Low end chocolates. If you are going to go the choco-route, please go Godiva.
Any kind of flower creation that has baby’s breath in it. Baby’s breath screams “old lady flowers” and its just really cheap filler. Get the green stuff instead.
A singing telegram…wait, this could go either way.
Any kind of self help book.
A mixed tape. No one should even own a tape player anymore.
These are my tips for you Valentine’s Day Gift Givers out there…I’m usually a pretty good gift giver so my advice shouldn’t lead you too astray. Just please, no nurse themed ceramic frogs, cats, monkeys, dogs…you get the picture. Happy Lover’s Day, everyone!!! ‘
Medical Equipment, Oxygen, C-Pap, Scrubs, Scooters
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Sunday, February 7, 2010
HEALTH BENEFITS FROM KINDNESS
Health Benefits of Kindness from The Random Acts of Kindness Website
Numerous scientific studies show that acts of kindness result in significant health benefits, both physical and mental. Here are some key points:
Helping contributes to the maintenance of good health, and it can diminish the effect of diseases and disorders serious and minor, psychological and physical.
A rush of euphoria, followed by a longer period of calm, after performing a kind act is often referred to as a “helper’s high,” involving physical sensations and the release of the body’s natural painkillers, the endorphins. This initial rush is then followed by a longer-lasting period of improved emotional well-being.
Stress-related health problems improve after performing kind acts. Helping reverses feelings of depression, supplies social contact, and decreases feelings of hostility and isolation that can cause stress, overeating, ulcers, etc. A drop in stress may, for some people, decrease the constriction within the lungs that leads to asthma attacks.
Helping can enhance our feelings of joyfulness, emotional resilience, and vigor, and can reduce the unhealthy sense of isolation.
A decrease in both the intensity and the awareness of physical pain can occur.
The incidence of attitudes, such as chronic hostility, that negatively arouse and damage the body is reduced.
The health benefits and sense of well-being return for hours or even days whenever the helping act is remembered.
An increased sense of self-worth, greater happiness, and optimism, as well as a decrease in feelings of helplessness and depression, is achieved.
Once we establish an “affiliative connection” with someone – a relationship of friendship, love, or some sort of positive bonding – we feel emotions that can strengthen the immune system.
Adopting an altruistic lifestyle is a critical component of mental health.
The practice of caring for strangers translates to immense immune and healing benefits.
Regular club attendance, volunteering, entertaining, or faith group attendance is the happiness equivalent of getting a college degree or more than doubling your income.
Numerous scientific studies show that acts of kindness result in significant health benefits, both physical and mental. Here are some key points:
Helping contributes to the maintenance of good health, and it can diminish the effect of diseases and disorders serious and minor, psychological and physical.
A rush of euphoria, followed by a longer period of calm, after performing a kind act is often referred to as a “helper’s high,” involving physical sensations and the release of the body’s natural painkillers, the endorphins. This initial rush is then followed by a longer-lasting period of improved emotional well-being.
Stress-related health problems improve after performing kind acts. Helping reverses feelings of depression, supplies social contact, and decreases feelings of hostility and isolation that can cause stress, overeating, ulcers, etc. A drop in stress may, for some people, decrease the constriction within the lungs that leads to asthma attacks.
Helping can enhance our feelings of joyfulness, emotional resilience, and vigor, and can reduce the unhealthy sense of isolation.
A decrease in both the intensity and the awareness of physical pain can occur.
The incidence of attitudes, such as chronic hostility, that negatively arouse and damage the body is reduced.
The health benefits and sense of well-being return for hours or even days whenever the helping act is remembered.
An increased sense of self-worth, greater happiness, and optimism, as well as a decrease in feelings of helplessness and depression, is achieved.
Once we establish an “affiliative connection” with someone – a relationship of friendship, love, or some sort of positive bonding – we feel emotions that can strengthen the immune system.
Adopting an altruistic lifestyle is a critical component of mental health.
The practice of caring for strangers translates to immense immune and healing benefits.
Regular club attendance, volunteering, entertaining, or faith group attendance is the happiness equivalent of getting a college degree or more than doubling your income.
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Tuesday, February 2, 2010
BEST 3 MID MORNING SNACKS
Three Best Mid-Morning Snacks
*Grumble* *Grumble* *Grumble*
Yes, that’s your stomach talking to you – and anyone around you that can hear!
Your body is such a wonderfully amazing machine. Even for the ‘laymen’ it will let you know when it needs fuel. The problem is most of us either don’t have the time to re-fuel, or make poor choices on what to feed your grumbling belly.
There are a couple things that come into play when you’re looking for that mid-morning snack. First and foremost, I really hope you had a good breakfast. I know there are people out there that do not eat a breakfast??!! Breakfast is the meal that sets the stage for your whole day. Not eating breakfast is like not putting gas in your car – just doesn’t make sense! (But I digress)
Here are some things to keep in mind when choosing your mid-morning snack:
Food likes and dislikes
Do you have time to sit and prepare something
Are you ‘on-the-run’ and need something ‘quick and easy’
So lets take them one at a time.
Food likes and dislikes
This is kind of a no-brainer. You want to have or find food you will eat on a consistent basis. The bottom line here is find, prepare, or bring something you know you’ll enjoy. For instance I LOVE anything that has apples or apple flavoring in it. I also like eating almonds and peanuts, but don’t put them ‘in’ a food product. Blegh.
Do you have time to sit and prepare something
Is there a microwave available? Do you need hot water, cold water? Will the food require you to ‘mix’. If so do you have a container to mix it? This becomes very important for most of us nurses. We usually have none of the above.
Are you ‘on-the-run’
Uhm- yeah. This also applies to just about every nurse out there. So you need something portable, something preferably non-perishable and non-crushable. I don’t know about you but some ’snacks’ get destroyed in my bag that I carry to work.
OK. Here is the ’skinny’ on mid-morning snacks. (Yep -chose that word on purpose) The snack should be something with a decent amount of staying power (carbohydrates) and something that will sustain and maintain some amount of energy for the next 2-5 hours (protein). I won’t go into the miniscule details about carbs vs. protein. I’m simply saying stay away from the simple sugars. All those immediate release sugary substances are only good for one thing – their sweet taste, nothing more.
Let’s keep it simple.
Fruit, fruit and fruit. Everything from sliced to whole pieces of fruit. My two favorites are bananas and apples. You can carry and store them anywhere and everywhere. The bad part is you have to have some clean hands to eat them, so be careful about eating these while working on your unit. You could open these two up and cut them up? Or you could prepare them prior to work by slicing up the apple?
Also in the fruit category, blueberries, strawberries, heck any type of berry. You’ll have to prepare them ahead of time of course, and you are at the mercy of the time of the year, whether or not they are in season. So be careful.
Along the same course are nuts. Almonds are a GREAT source of energy, keep in mind they are low in carbs and have some fat content. I prefer these as a hunger-pang killer. A handful of these go a long way.
Another great source is anything-oatmeal. Oatmeal by itself, as a snack bar, an oatmeal mix, etc. Oatmeal is great in fiber, as well as a good carb source. I myself have oatmeal not only for my breakfast, but I have a ‘oatmeal bar’ mid-morning.
The one thing I would caution you on would be all those ‘100 calorie’ snacks out there. They are great, don’t get me wrong, the problem is most will find out that the snack content for the 100 calories isn’t very good at satisfying your hunger, so you end up eating 2 or 3 of these snacks. Then there goes the 100 calories! Just be careful with this choice.
There is always the ’shake’ option. You can either make your own shake, or buy one. In each case be careful with your choice of ’shake’. Some shakes are high in simple sugars (fructose) and can be high in fat.
Last but not least be very, very, very leary of anything that advertises ‘low fat’ or ‘no fat’, most of the time they replace the lack of fat with sugar. Sugar is good if used properly by your body. If you consume an over abundance of sugar, meaning you have ‘left over’ sugar that your body doesn’t immediately need for fuel. Guess what happens to that sugar? It slowly gets converted into fat and fills up the fat stores in your body. Be careful. Many get ‘tricked’ into thinking that ‘low fat’ is there ticket to freedom, when in fact it does the opposite.
If anything, be sure to eat something! The last thing you should be doing is not eating. Not eating is simply not an option. Even if it’s a ‘bite’ of something, something is better than nothing.
So my three best mid-morning snacks:
Fruit (I guess you could claim this is more than one option)
Nuts
Oatmeal
*Grumble* *Grumble* *Grumble*
Yes, that’s your stomach talking to you – and anyone around you that can hear!
Your body is such a wonderfully amazing machine. Even for the ‘laymen’ it will let you know when it needs fuel. The problem is most of us either don’t have the time to re-fuel, or make poor choices on what to feed your grumbling belly.
There are a couple things that come into play when you’re looking for that mid-morning snack. First and foremost, I really hope you had a good breakfast. I know there are people out there that do not eat a breakfast??!! Breakfast is the meal that sets the stage for your whole day. Not eating breakfast is like not putting gas in your car – just doesn’t make sense! (But I digress)
Here are some things to keep in mind when choosing your mid-morning snack:
Food likes and dislikes
Do you have time to sit and prepare something
Are you ‘on-the-run’ and need something ‘quick and easy’
So lets take them one at a time.
Food likes and dislikes
This is kind of a no-brainer. You want to have or find food you will eat on a consistent basis. The bottom line here is find, prepare, or bring something you know you’ll enjoy. For instance I LOVE anything that has apples or apple flavoring in it. I also like eating almonds and peanuts, but don’t put them ‘in’ a food product. Blegh.
Do you have time to sit and prepare something
Is there a microwave available? Do you need hot water, cold water? Will the food require you to ‘mix’. If so do you have a container to mix it? This becomes very important for most of us nurses. We usually have none of the above.
Are you ‘on-the-run’
Uhm- yeah. This also applies to just about every nurse out there. So you need something portable, something preferably non-perishable and non-crushable. I don’t know about you but some ’snacks’ get destroyed in my bag that I carry to work.
OK. Here is the ’skinny’ on mid-morning snacks. (Yep -chose that word on purpose) The snack should be something with a decent amount of staying power (carbohydrates) and something that will sustain and maintain some amount of energy for the next 2-5 hours (protein). I won’t go into the miniscule details about carbs vs. protein. I’m simply saying stay away from the simple sugars. All those immediate release sugary substances are only good for one thing – their sweet taste, nothing more.
Let’s keep it simple.
Fruit, fruit and fruit. Everything from sliced to whole pieces of fruit. My two favorites are bananas and apples. You can carry and store them anywhere and everywhere. The bad part is you have to have some clean hands to eat them, so be careful about eating these while working on your unit. You could open these two up and cut them up? Or you could prepare them prior to work by slicing up the apple?
Also in the fruit category, blueberries, strawberries, heck any type of berry. You’ll have to prepare them ahead of time of course, and you are at the mercy of the time of the year, whether or not they are in season. So be careful.
Along the same course are nuts. Almonds are a GREAT source of energy, keep in mind they are low in carbs and have some fat content. I prefer these as a hunger-pang killer. A handful of these go a long way.
Another great source is anything-oatmeal. Oatmeal by itself, as a snack bar, an oatmeal mix, etc. Oatmeal is great in fiber, as well as a good carb source. I myself have oatmeal not only for my breakfast, but I have a ‘oatmeal bar’ mid-morning.
The one thing I would caution you on would be all those ‘100 calorie’ snacks out there. They are great, don’t get me wrong, the problem is most will find out that the snack content for the 100 calories isn’t very good at satisfying your hunger, so you end up eating 2 or 3 of these snacks. Then there goes the 100 calories! Just be careful with this choice.
There is always the ’shake’ option. You can either make your own shake, or buy one. In each case be careful with your choice of ’shake’. Some shakes are high in simple sugars (fructose) and can be high in fat.
Last but not least be very, very, very leary of anything that advertises ‘low fat’ or ‘no fat’, most of the time they replace the lack of fat with sugar. Sugar is good if used properly by your body. If you consume an over abundance of sugar, meaning you have ‘left over’ sugar that your body doesn’t immediately need for fuel. Guess what happens to that sugar? It slowly gets converted into fat and fills up the fat stores in your body. Be careful. Many get ‘tricked’ into thinking that ‘low fat’ is there ticket to freedom, when in fact it does the opposite.
If anything, be sure to eat something! The last thing you should be doing is not eating. Not eating is simply not an option. Even if it’s a ‘bite’ of something, something is better than nothing.
So my three best mid-morning snacks:
Fruit (I guess you could claim this is more than one option)
Nuts
Oatmeal
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