No shops? No fuss!
By Chloe McLeod, Dietitian
Beef & Lemongrass Stir-fry
We are getting busier and busier, yet increasingly, more and more interested in food and cooking, but how can we fit planning a delicious meal, shopping for it, and cooking it into our busy schedules?
Some of us (luckily enough), have the time for this, but more and more I am seeing people who say they simply ‘don’t have time to shop AND cook’…
Funnily enough, I was recently contacted by a company called ‘Hello Fresh’, to see if I wanted to try out their product. Hello Fresh is a Sydney based company, which delivers recipes and all the ingredients you need for each recipe to your door, so all you need to do is follow the instructions, and cook a delicious meal, and I must say I was intrigued.
A box was delivered to our office here at BJC Health, and inside was all the ingredients that I would need to make beef and lemongrass stir-fry for two people – all I had to do was cook it!
I was very impressed with the quality of the ingredients I received, and I loved that I was getting to try something a bit different (that was also a surprise) that I can add into my memory bank of recipes; I make stir-fry all the time, but mine would usually use some different ingredients.
The only issue that I can see so far is if you have very specific food requirements, such as intolerances, this may be difficult. That said, I think this is a great concept for those of you who a) find it tough to find time to get to the shops, but enjoy having a home cooked meal, or b) those who are feeling a bit stuck for recipe ideas and want to try something different.
Check out their website for more info: www.hellofresh.com.au
Why is it so difficult to provide integrated rheumatology care?
By Dr Irwin Lim, Rheumatologist
Yesterday, I was invited to present at an international symposium in Germany on rheumatoid arthritis. My brief was to discuss how BJC Health, our clinic, provides integrated patient care for rheumatic disease. As it turns out, I had to turn down the invite due to conflicting commitments.
But I was flattered. Our Connected Care approach is being noticed.
Over the course of the last 24 hours, I’ve been thinking about what I would actually say about BJC Health and our integrated approach to rheumatology if I was to give such a presentation.
Sure, we’ve had some wins and we do have a dynamic, interesting workplace.
But, there have also been challenges. It’s simply not easy to provide integrated rheumatology care. Not if the goal is to always strive to improve the standard of care and to improve the patient’s experience on their individual journey to better health.
I started to ask myself why this is so?
Why is it so difficult to provide integrated rheumatology care? By this, I mean, coordinated, comprehensive care for our patients suffering from rheumatic disease (most patients do require input from a variety of different health professionals). Care which is convenient, co-located, and cohesive.
It’s not cost or affordability. This is of course important but where there’s a will, there’s usually a way around these.
It’s not procedures or processes. Great clinical prowess and good business practice needs by necessity to be present for a well-functioning, viable medical clinic.
The answer I think is the Staff.
Staff are people and people are complex.
Rheumatologists, physiotherapists, exercise physiologists, dietitians, administration staff, etc. We all have our own bias. We were all trained differently, in different systems and different hospitals/clinics. Unfortunately, none of our training systems were geared towards integrated care.
Getting a bunch of very busy individuals to work together in a coordinated manner, where each understands the other’s role and has confidence in one another, as well as a commitment to take that extra step to further the patient’s cause, is a big challenge.
Building a team.
Creating a great work culture.
Connecting care.
All these take loads of time and loads of commitment.
As I said, I was flattered. But I also realise that our clinic still has a long way to go. We do a great job in treating rheumatic disease but we would like to do an even better job.
Patients suffering from arthritis and rheumatic disease deserve an integrated approach to their care.
Dr Irwin Lim is a rheumatologist and a director of BJC Health. You should follow him on twitter here. Arthritis requires an integrated approach. We call this, Connected Care. Contact us.I’m losing motivation. Help!
By Dr Irwin Lim, Rheumatologist
I shared with you my New Year’s Resolution to be healthier. The 1st 3 months were relatively easy. I was pretty pumped and was exercising 5, even 6 times a week. And it yielded results (read One Less Fat Rheumatologist).
The last 3 months have been much harder.
During this time, I’ve travelled overseas 3 times for a mixture of business/pleasure. As you can imagine, lots of food and drink, and negligible exercise. Travelling’s also very disruptive to a routine and it usually takes me a few weeks to re-establish my usual “habits”.
Work has been busy (pay-back for going overseas!) and our 3 young kids lead busy lives with various activities requiring parental supervision/transportation.
Worse still, my wife, Mary is also losing her motivation. It’s much easier if your spouse/partner is sharing your journey to better health as you tend to push each other along. Cooking different meals just does not work long term.
To top it off, winter has arrived down under. It was really hard to wake up this Sunday morning, in the dark and cold, to exercise.
Excuses, excuses, excuses.
I’ve heard it all before. I’m sure you can appreciate all these reasons.
I think I’m still on track, exercising 3 times a week and still eating more smartly. I think that’s because I’ve managed to make these a habit.
But it’s definitely more of a chore.
I’d love to hear what you think, either as someone who needs motivation or someone who motivates.
Almonds & Porridge
Courtesy of www.FreeDigitalPhotos.net
By Chloe McLeod, Dietitian
In Winter, we tend to want something nice and warm for breakfast, but how can we make it exciting, and healthy?
For me, my favourite breakfast in winter is Porridge. However I do sometimes find it can get a little bit boring…. even with the addition of berries or banana, cinnamon, yoghurt…
I miss that ‘crunch’ you get from cold cereal, and I have been finding many of my clients feel the same. So what to do?
Research is showing that almonds are a fantastic addition to breakfast. In a recent randomized control trial* of adults with impaired glucose tolerance, inclusion of almonds reduced the risk of developing type 2 diabetes; those who included almonds stayed full for longer, and also had lower blood glucose levels.
The exciting thing about this study was that improvements were not just shown after breakfast; improvements continued on until later in the day, after the second meal as well!
Furthermore, consuming 30g of almonds per day can also help reduce levels of bad cholesterol.
Almonds supply healthy fats, protein, fibre, vitamin E, calcium, zinc, and plant sterols; all important components of a general healthy diet.
Addition of almonds to your breakfast, whatever you choose to have, is a great way of maintaining your overall health, along with your blood glucose levels.
If you’d like any more information about how to maintain blood glucose levels, or any of the other topics I’ve touched on today, as always, don’t hesitate to contact me.
Porridge with blueberries, cinnamon and some chopped almonds for brekky sounds devine…
Hope you all have a good day, and for those Sydney-siders reading, enjoy this gorgeous sunshine whilst it lasts!
*Mori, A.M, Considine, R.V, Mattes, R.D, 2011, Acute and second-meal effects of almond form in impaired glucose tolerant adults: a randomized crossover trial; Nutrition & Metabolism, 8:6 http://www.nutritionandmetabolism.com/content/8/1/6
EULAR 2012: my Berlin rheumination
By Dr Irwin Lim, Rheumatologist
I’m writing this, early in the morning here in Sydney, still jet lagged after returning from Berlin a few days ago. I attended EULAR 2012, the European League Against Rheumatism’s annual scientific meeting. So did 15000 other delegates.
The conference is huge. Interest and scientific advance in the field of rheumatology has rapidly grown over the last decade. It’s an exciting time to be a rheumatologist and Berlin was an exciting place to be.
My trip had many highlights so I thought I would share a few of these.
Of particular note, there were 2 studies presented featuring head-to-head comparisons of biologic disease-modifying drugs used in rheumatoid arthritis. This is a very important development. This sort of comparison is rarely performed due to the costs of such trials and the commercial risk to participating pharmaceutical companies.
And yet, these are the sort of trials we clinicians would like to help inform our decision making (click on the links to read more about the AMPLE trial and the ADACTA trial). These will definitely generate more discussion amongst the rheumatology community.
Given my interest in inflammatory back pain (Ankylosing Spondylitis & Spondyloarthritis), I made sure I attended the key sessions on this. I’d like to bring to your attention that there has been increasing evidence that for patients with Ankylosing Spondylitis, regular use rather than irregular, low use of anti-inflammatory medication (NSAIDs & COx-2 inhibitors) leads to less long term damage to the spine (for another abstract on this, click here). This is important to realise given the generally bad press given to this group of medications.
It’s also increasingly clear that smoking leads to more severe inflammatory disease in rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis and spondyloarthritis. We need to do much better with making our patients who smoke, stop . If you have any suggestions, I’m all ears!
There were many, many other sessions which were interesting but as always it was hard to choose what to attend. There can be as many as 15 sessions running concurrently.
Away from the conference, I enjoyed Berlin. It was my 1st time in this city and I found it a very interesting place to wander around. If you get a chance to go, do take one of the many walking tours around the city. Given my limited time to sightsee, the 4.5 hour walking tour I went on provided a great introduction.
I had the great pleasure to attend a dinner with a number of rheumatologists who are active on twitter. They all seem very pleasant, interesting people, committed to improving awareness of rheumatology and committed to providing a balanced view for the internet community. If you’re on twitter, you should follow Ronan (@RonanTKavanagh), Lothar (@Rheumatologe), Chetan (@rheumi_), and Michiel (@zandbelt).
All in all, another good experience. If only the travel from Sydney wasn’t so taxing…..
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