• Fresh Views

    Feeling Out of Balance? 4 tips to help restore work-life balance

    September 27, 2023

    “We need to do a better job of putting ourselves higher on our own ‘to-do’ list.”

    ~Michelle Obama, former First Lady

    Restoring work-life balance some months back in a rooftop igloo during a weekend escape to Nashville

    Coming from two highly driven multi-taskers, work-life balance has been top of mind lately. Tami recently has found herself waking up in the middle of the night with work issues running through her mind. Deb’s been racking up skymiles lately traveling (happily) for work, yet family life pulling at her time and attention while planning her son’s wedding rehearsal dinner party and her mom’s surprise 90th birthday party. Sometimes we both find our lives a little out of balance. In talking about life recently, it gave us pause to think about those living with diabetes…not only is there the need to maintain  equilibrium between work and life, there is the added challenge of managing diabetes.

    What does work-life balance look like?

    That’s the million dollar questions. In short, work-life balance is prioritizing one’s career equally to the demands of personal life. Work-life balance can look different to each person as we each have different life commitments. What tips that balance for you? And what about for the clients/patients that you work with? Work-life balance is a factor to assess and consider in your diabetes care and education encounters.

    It’s said that a good work-life balance has numerous positive effects, including less stress (which could translate into blood glucose spending more time in range with diabetes), a lower risk of general burnout (and diabetes burnout), and a greater sense of well-being. 

    4 tips to help restore balance

    Today we’re sharing 4 tips that you can add to your solution-focused tools and tactics to use with your clients/patients with diabetes (or put into practice yourself) to help restore balance.

    1 – Prioritize your health. It’s easy to put work before health. We both have been guilty of doing so. But working beyond physical and/or mental limits can result in poor work quality and increased health risks. Building on the solution-focused tenet of doing more of what works, prioritizing physical, mental and emotional health can make one a better employee and person. Find a healthy way to get work done without exhausting your body or mind. Prioritizing health can be as simple as fitting in some physical activity or daily meditation.

    2 – Plan personal time. It’s said that achieving work-life balance requires intentional action. A mentor of Tami’s instilled that if you don’t schedule your personal time (such as date night with a spouse, girls/guys night out with friends, or family time) it likely won’t happen. Planning and prioritizing personal time is as important as planning for work. We have to remind ourselves that ultimately we have control of our time and life (at least for the most part, although sometimes we may forget that!).

    3 – Take time to unwind. It’s critical to success. Unplugging from the outside world from time to time allows us to recover from stress and gives us space for other thoughts and ideas to emerge (read some of our past blogs on nature, being with friends, and rest). Unplugging can mean something simple like reading a book for pleasure, binging a new streaming series, or practicing gratitude on your way to and from work, instead of thinking about work. Taking that time to unwind can help prevent burnout and help you feel more energized when at work

    4 – Strive for a realistic balance. Some days, you might focus more on work. Other days you might have more time and energy to spend time with family and friends or enjoy a favorite hobby. Keep the big picture in mind – that balance is achieved over time, not each day.

    We welcome anyone interested in our approach to Subscribe to our blog and we’ll email you when a new post is published.

    If you are a health care professional and interested in learning more about our solution-focused practice and approach, when you subscribe to our blog, we’ll send you in return a FREE resource of 10 Solution-Focused Questions to start a solution-focused discussion with your clients. 

    Follow us on Twitter @AFreshPOVforYou

    Deb is employed by Dexcom, but her words and opinions in this blog are her own.

    Tami is employed by the University of Kentucky HealthCare Barnstable Brown Diabetes Center, but her words and opinions in this blog are her own

    Read More
  • Fresh Views

    10 Solution-focused tips to sneak in movement during the holidays

    December 7, 2022

    Gaylord Opryland hotel grounds in Nashville, TN. Tami and her husband sneaked in quite a few steps while walking around the festive holiday hotel grounds.

    Three little words: You’ve got this. (Now, get it.) – Anonymous

    The holidays can be hectic without a doubt! We find that for many, physical activity takes a back seat to all of the festivities and gatherings. For those who are challenged to fit physical activity into their day, especially during the busy holiday season, we feel empathy because some days it’s a challenge for us too! So that brought us today to share practical tips to “sneak” more movement into the holiday season.

    As DCES’s, using solution-focused talk, together, we can help clients/patients identify what activity they like and makes sense to them. By refraining from “all or nothing” thinking, described by Adam Brown in his book Bright Spots and Landmines (we interviewed Adam here), let’s help clients/patients take small steps towards a more active holiday season and acknowledge their success.

    10 solution-focused tips to sneak more movement in the holiday season

    1. Wrap holiday gifts, standing at a table or counter, instead of sitting.
    1. While watching a favorite holiday movie, walk in place or on a treadmill, or ride a stationary bike. 
    1. At commercial breaks or between streaming shows, march in place, walk around the house, or do jumping jacks.
    1. When doing holiday cooking or washing dishes, alternate standing on one leg then the other. Mix in a few leg lifts, squats, or push-ups against the kitchen counter.
    1. When writing holiday cards at a table or desk, strengthen your core by sitting on an exercise ball.
    1. While visiting with family or friends, get up every half hour and walk around 2-3 minutes.
    1. On holiday road trips, do leg stretches and ankle rolls every half hour or so. When stopping for bathroom breaks, stand and stretch and walk around the rest stop for 2 or 3 minutes.
    1. Shovel snow! Not only is it purposeful in clearing the sidewalk and driveway for holiday guests arrival, it sneaks in a lot of movement!
    1. When holiday shopping, park in the back of the lot to fit in extra steps. Make an extra lap around the mall.
    1. Turn on holiday tunes and dance around the house!

    Sneaking in more movement throughout the day is not only a healthy behavior, it can help cope with holiday stress. After the holidays have passed, reflect with your client/patient on which strategies worked for them. With a solution-focused perspective our focus is on doing more of what works. Maybe they decide to continue incorporating some of these strategies into their day in the new year?

    If you are a health care professional and interested in learning more about our solution-focused practice and approach, when you subscribe to our blog, we’ll send you in return a FREE resource of 10 Solution-Focused Questions to start a solution-focused discussion with your clients. 

    Follow us on Twitter @AFreshPOVforYou

    Deb is employed by Dexcom, but her words and opinions in this blog are her own.

    Tami is employed by the University of Kentucky HealthCare Barnstable Brown Diabetes Center, but her words and opinions in this blog are her own.

    Read More
  • Fresh Views

    3 Solution-Focused Fresh Starts for Fall

    October 7, 2021

    “Step out of the history that is holding you back. Step into the new story you are willing to create.” —Oprah Winfrey

    Lake Nevin at Bernheim Forest and Arboretum

    Fall has arrived! While some consider Fall an “ending” with the wrap-up of the glorious long days of summer, we here @AFreshPOVforYou think of Fall as a time for new “beginnings”. The air takes on a crispness. The trees magnificently change colors and leaves begin to fall. And it’s the perfect time for a solution-focused fresh start or two (or three)!

    Today we’re sharing 3 solution-focused fresh starts for Fall that you in turn can share with your clients/patients: 

    1. Fit a few more steps into the day. With shorter days and cooler temperatures it can be easy to become more sedentary. We know walking is good for us, and doesn’t require any equipment other than some well-fitting walking shoes. A favorite way to fit in more steps is to intentionally stand up every 30 minutes or so during the day and walk around for 2-3 minutes. That activity has been shown to benefit blood glucose and heart health. We’re also big fans of fitness trackers to keep up with how many steps are accumulated during the day, then try to bump that average up by 500 per day. Once that’s achieved, try adding another 500, and so on, working toward a goal of 10,000 steps each day. Read more about solution-focused practice applied to activity tracker conversations in a previous post here.
    1. Enjoy Fall vegetables (of the non-starchy variety). In fact, try filling half of your plate with these! Flavorful fall bounty includes arugula, carrots, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, kale, radishes, and spinach. These are all very low in carbohydrate (only 5 grams in a 1-cup serving raw or ½ cup cooked), so can help keep post-meal BGs in target and help bring more time in range. Plus, these veggies are packed with fiber to help fill you up. One of our favorites is roasted Brussels sprouts. Roasted radishes and roasted broccoli are pretty fantastic too! While Tami’s not a fan of raw radishes, roasted radishes are a different story. She’s found they become sweet and lose the bitterness when roasted. If you’ve never roasted vegetables, here’s the simple “how to” here. 
    1. Check-in on those New Year’s “solutions” (rather than resolutions) that you set 9 months ago. You can read more about our take on setting New Year’s “solutions” rather than “resolutions” here. This solution-focused approach focuses on things that have gone well in the past, and pinpointing how you can do more of that (rather than trying to change in the new year). Autumn is the perfect time to see what you have accomplished and had success with, and look ahead to what you want to do before the year closes out. 

    Find 3 more solution-focused fresh starts for Fall in our blog here from 2019.

    Stop back by in 2 weeks when we’ll share a few favorite apps that can be used in solution-focused practice. 

    We welcome anyone interested in our approach to Subscribe to our blog and we’ll email you when a new post is published!

    If you are a health care professional and interested in learning more about our solution-focused practice and approach, when you subscribe to our blog, we’ll send you in return a FREE resource of 10 Solution-Focused Questions to start a solution-focused discussion with your clients. 

    Deb is employed by Dexcom, but her words and opinions in this blog are her own.

    Tami is employed by the University of Kentucky HealthCare Barnstable Brown DIabetes Center, but her words and opinions in this blog are her own.

    Read More