Welcome to Healthy Lifestyle PAP !

The Missionary Once upon a time, you were called to this, “your” country. You came, saw and adjusted. While the strenuous life of “the field” came, saw and took over. Food was not like home, but this new country being your new home, you adjusted to the new food – while folks “back home” continued sending the old food. So, you had double. You somehow grew bigger, which by times made you feel uncomfortable as you were ministering to people who did not. You needed the “double” strength, as the demands of the field were more than your old frame could bear. And now you’re in the “squeaking and creaking” age, but you keep reassuring the congregation back home that you can just grin and bear it. But deep down, the cracks in your earthen vessel show up on the outside. And start bothering those who’ve sent and supported you throughout the years. “Shouldn’t you get back home now?”, they ask, unaware that “this” country is now your home. “Aren’t you becoming a risk?” the missionary hea...

Juice in a Ziploc - or "what's in your bag?" Juice carton, Ziploc against the leaking, adding a washcloth for when it did anyhow – and so my purse got bigger and bigger. The “load” of being diabetic. Hurray for tablets: no hassle with leaks, but a working a bit slower to get my blood sugar up. Oh, and then adding the insulin pens, for those occasions where my blood sugar went “up” a tad too enthusiastically. The hassle of trying to balance your blood sugar, the hassle of having type 2 Diabetes, the enormous hassle of being on insulin. You should see me now! Just my Phone and me, some plastic cards in the cover for unplanned expenses – and that’s all I carry…. If you are on diabetes medication and want to learn how to lower or even eliminate your diabetes medication, send me a message to healthylifestylehaiti@cheerful.com and I’ll gladly how you can enroll in my “Doable Diabetes mini class”. Healthily yours, Evelien

  “oh, I’ve tried that – but I just can’t plank”. Were you the one saying or thinking that? Could be, as I hear it often. I, too, couldn’t master the plank. Just getting on the floor on all fours is quite an issue when you’re overweight or have squeaky joints. So here’s my challenge: could you, just for one time, try this one: yes, get on the floor, on your elbows. Now up on your tiptoes, belly off the floor: YOU DO A PLANK! Just for 1 second. Now, plop down and let this sink in: you actually managed to do a plank for 1 second. Maybe not the best technique, maybe … whatever. You did it. For just 1 second. And you didn’t need to change clothes, or buy some special outfit. And you didn’t work a sweat – while you did work some major muscle groups. Could you try again tomorrow, adding 1 second: that would mean you can plank for TWO seconds. And then next day…. You get it. We have a planking challenge going on, which started on August 1 st with a one second plank. If you w...

 If only this  thing  is over ....  You used to live here. No, not “here”, but in your location at the time. That time when you could only think in terms of “if only I make it out of here”…. Your “here” being Nigeria, Rwanda, Haiti or similar place. Remember Haiti? By now, you most probably only remember her people, her beauty, her “there’s no other place like that”, the “only in Haiti!” Remember the Embargo? Or the burning barricades, the violence, the whatevers. You probably do, because you used to tell everyone that THAT was the cause for your unhealthy living. “If only this thing is over”, “if only I’m out of here” …. Well, we survived the embargo, and you moved on to other places: the new assignment, the new ministry, the new “home”, “back home”, “anywhere else than Haiti”, or whatever name you chose for your Neverland. Let’s fast forward. Oops, something seems off . What happened? Your waistline now larger than your new country’s GNP, the shelter-in-...

  Slow as molasses Slow as molasses. As crystallized honey through a tea strainer. Slow to get started, slow to move, slow to keep going or going to the right place. My body slow. My head slow. My emotions slow. Not as in laid-back, slowing down or “Slow Life”, but slow as in dull, drowsy, heavy, sluggish, blah and out of it. A lack of energy, as blood sugar levels get low. Welcome to Type 2 Diabetes. My low sugar making me feel as … molasses, or that thick crystallized honey. Standing knee deep in a river, dying of thirst. Talking about thirst, that’s what kicks in when blood sugar levels get too high. Body on high, running going nowhere. Head on high, starting and not finishing jobs. Emotions on high, playing roller coaster. I remember working with my doctor to get my glucose levels more balanced throughout the day. Small pills, larger pills, more pills, insulin shots in the evening, then before the meals. It worked! It worked so well, that I blamed her for not having s...

  What Insulin do you use? On a Sunday morning, two years ago, staying home to stay off the street. A WhatsApp message from our son, staying at a friend’s house:     “Which insulin do you use?”               Me: “Levemir and Novorapid”               He: “Apparently, the MD pharmacy has some”      Me: “thanks, but I have quite a stock already”      He: “I’m bombarded with help here for if you need insulin”.      (..)        He: “B.Supermarket carries it also quite often, but at $70 per pen –                       they tell me here that that’s   very expensive”. Oh, those sweet friends and parents of friends, sending messages from here to there, pointing each other to where insulin can be found, which pharmacy is functioning, what other places have started suppl...

  The Pill Caroussel “Can you do that when I’m not around?” he asked with an unusually small voice. “Why, you find it scary? It’s just pills”, I flipped back. My teenage son shrugged his shoulders and got himself out of the way. My counting out of pills apparently made him a little nervous. “Just pills”. A lot of pills. So many, that I needed a daily pill organizer; and then a carousel to organize those organizers into something reassuring me that I was all set for another month. And looking ahead: was there anything in the foreseeable future requiring additional reserves? Travel, shelter in place for either political or tropical storms, upcoming shortages of any kind or any reason? Pills in stock, pills in my purse and my car, pills for “just in case” and pills to counter the absence of other pills. And pills to counter the toll on my stomach. And then came the insulin pens – which needed to be transported from the supplier in a cooler and at home stocked in the fridge (not...