We Are What We Eat

Good nutrition starts with YOU and your food choices 

Making the right choices can be a challenge especially around any holiday. Some tips to help you succeed in making healthy choices for all your “get togethers” as well as every day include:

• Drink Water! Water will help you stay hydrated while making you feel more full. This may in turn decrease how many calories you consume. Water provides a healthier choice to empty liquid calories such as those found in sodas.
• Keep Moving! Take a walk, stand and interact, or even pump your ankles or march in place if you are sitting. This may seem silly but these little habits can increase the calories you burn and promote overall fitness.
• Prepare and Plan Your Meals to Limit Empty Calories. Include healthy choices such as vegetable trays or dishes made with lean protein such as fish. Include healthy snack options like yogurt and fruit to help avoid higher calorie snacks. Don’t skip meals! This can lead you to feel hungrier than normal and in turn increase the tendency to make poor choices.
• Leave Leftovers! It is okay to stop eating when you are no longer hungry—even if there is food left on the plate!
• Adopt Substitutions. Fat free or low fat options such as low fat milk, using egg whites instead of yolks, and substituting greek yogurt for sour cream are just some of the substitutions that can help you create a more nutritious meal.

At meal time, stick with non-processed foods when possible such as lean meats and vegetables. Avoid the “empty calories” by opting for water or unsweet tea instead of soda for example. And eat frequent small meals or choose a healthy snack between meals such as an apple so that you don’t arrive at mealtime overly hungry. Poor nutrition can impair our daily health and well-being and reduce our ability to lead an enjoyable and active life. This is especially true around the holidays with so many poor food choices available but with proper preparation and a healthy mindset, you can navigate these temptations with ease. At St. Mark Village our reputation is well founded. For over thirty years, St. Mark Village has provided an exciting blend of senior living options to meet the needs of Suncoast residents in all stages of life. Give us a call for more information 727-785-2580

How's Your Vision?

Did you know 

6.5 million Americans have severe visual impairments? In fact, the number of Americans impacted by vision loss is on the rise and is expected to double by 2030. Low vision describes disease related visual impairments that cannot be fully treated or corrected with glasses, contact lenses, medications and/or surgical operations. Low vision is measured via visual acuity ranging between 20/70 and 20/200 with corrective lenses and tends to decline as we age. Normal visual acuity measures 20/20, which means one is able to see clearly 20 feet away from an object; 20/100 would represent an individual who can see 20 feet of what someone at 100 feet with normal vision could see.
Low vision symptoms develop as a result from the four most common eye diseases affecting different areas of the eye within older Americans including cataracts, macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy and glaucoma.
Symptoms and causes of these age-related eye diseases include:
• Cloudy vision as a result from cataracts
• Blurred or partially obscured central vision from macular degeneration
• Blind spots or visual distortions from diabetic retinopathy
• Poor peripheral vision from glaucoma
• Genetics
• Demographics
• Lifestyle modifications
While we cannot change our genetic or demographic characteristics, the risk of developing eye diseases and visual impairments can be prevented through our modifiable risk factors and lifestyle modifications, such as eating a healthy diet, avoiding the use of tobacco products, maintaining a healthy weight, wearing protection to reduce injury and from UV light.
Early detection is imperative to reducing your risk of visual impairments; your risk can be reduced through checkups with your eye doctor. The American Optometric Association recommends Americans over the age of 60 to get their vision checked annually or as symptoms are noticed.
Don’t wait too late! With low vision, the ability to carry out safely become four times more difficult than someone who does not experience visual impairments or low vision. Vision loss can increase our risk of falls and our risk of depression while decreasing our ability to properly identify medications and to carry out activities of daily living, including bathing, feeding and dressing.
While the complications associated to low vision can be frustrating and the individual may feel less independent, there are techniques and treatment to help cope with visual impairments, such as:
• Lighting modifications
• Magnification of objects for reading and writing
• Audio enhancements for caller ID, watches, books
• Utilization of color contrasts for objects used for dressing, feeding and bathing
If you feel a change or symptoms related to your visual acuity or it’s time for your annual checkup, ask your doctor if they feel therapy could further assist you or if visual aids are required! It’s important to be pro-active in your overall approach to living a healthy, independent lifestyle. Read More information on our blog for healthy senior living at St. Mark Village in Palm Harbor, FL.