Author Archives: Shelley Eagleman-Bointy

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About Shelley Eagleman-Bointy

I am an Ihanktonwan Dakota winyan, enrolled Fort Peck Assiniboine and Sioux of Montana. Mom of 2 Swirlies and 2 older bonus kids in Oklahoma. I am a wife of 21 years to my "legendary" fancy dance husband - Joe Bointy. Love to run, one of the founders of the local "Smokin Mocs" running club. I am a fancy shawl dancer FOR LIFE. I am interested in improving the health of my family and my Native communities, one tiospaye (extended family) at a time. I want to share my family's search for good health (Wozani Was'te) as we eliminate as much processed food as possible, help start a marathon club at my girls' school, figure out how to garden, and learn how to maintain our physical fitness through osteo-arthritis, other aging-related maladies, and the hectic schedule of raising an 11-year old and a 9-year old.

Weight Training Update

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I wanted to give an update on the strength training and the T25. 🙂 I have temporarily shelved the T25, but have plans to return to it once I get stronger. I found that although it didn’t bother my hip, it was starting to bother my knees….which I found strange. Again, I think it’s the strength issue. I think my joints need more muscular support from all the “helper muscles” to keep my joints stable when going through the T25 routines. Also the extra weight I am trying to lose is a factor in any joint pain from the lower back and hip on down. So for now it’s shelved but I will pick it back up again.

I did start lifting at work like I had planned. Kirmayer Fitness Center at KU Medical Center has an awesome weight area, two areas in fact. I headed for the machine area and I loved all of them. I had to overcome my inherent shyness because I picked the busiest day of the summer (when they were holding a student resources fair in Kirmayer) to begin my weight training and both areas were very busy. But I didn’t let it deter me and I felt good about making the effort.

Then my sister found a personal trainer here in town that used to work at Haskell as their certified trainer for their athletic department. She visited with him and discovered he was running an intro special on individual training sessions. He does Olympic-style weight lifting, something I didn’t have a clue about but was interested in. So Sharon set us up with an appointment last week and I’m heading into my 3rd session with Travis.

I was able to visit with him before we started our first session and I told him my health history and my goals. He did an excellent job of explaining how Olympic-style weight lifting will benefit me and my hip OA. He is very personable and very encouraging. You can tell immediately how knowledgeable he is about his work. From what he shared with me, Olympic-style weight lifting is all about learning how to do the “Clean and Jerk”, and I am fortunate that he is acquainted with a power lifter who has gone through total hip replacement surgery and still returned to lifting heavy

My sister and I are doing 2 individual training sessions per week with Travis. It’s fun working out with my sister again, so I am very grateful to her for finding this and encouraging me to try it. Right now we are all about learning technique and proper form. I really like how I can feel the different muscles in my back firing as well as the muscles that I know need to be strengthened around my hips and legs. We are learning at a good pace where I can tell later that day (or the next day) that I’ve put in some work, but I can still move around. My favorite thing about this is that it’s brand new to me….so it’s really interesting. I’m learning something new and it’s helped immensely at getting me motivated to lift again.

Travis has just created a website for those in my area that may be interested. Here is the link:
http://www.travisbarrett.com/

He also has a Facebook page, Barrett Sport Performance LLC.

I’ll update this later as I progress through this individual training program. I have another session today and I’m looking forward to it. 🙂

Strength Training Motivation….finally.

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I’ve been having a great summer so far. Dancing when we can, and doing alot of sewing. Different factors determine how my arthritis feels from day to day….my diet, the weather, if my hip is out, etc. I’ve noticed that my recovery time from dancing at powwows is longer than it used to be. I’m very sore until Wednesday following a powwow. It makes it difficult to work-out on a regular basis between powwows because some days I am so sore that I can’t bring myself to go to the gym and it hurts to walk. I just try to be patient, try to manage the inflammation with my diet and rest, but it is taking a toll on my conditioning.

I danced at Prairie Island Wacipi 2 weekends ago. A family “adopted” me, took me as a daughter in that community, so it’s always felt like my 2nd home. My adopted dad has been gone for 10 years now, and this year dancing in his home community was the best experience I’ve had in years.

That wonderful spirit I felt in the arena, and outside of the arena….getting to visit with friends I had only known through FaceBook, seeing old friends I haven’t seen in years, and having so much fun dancing and spending time with my family and extended family….was such a good experience that it’s hard to put into words.

What I can describe is how it has motivated me since then. Yes, it still took several days after we returned home from PI to stop being sore. Took several days to feel rested. But I found a renewed interest in strength building after PI. I used to lift weights regularly, it always enhanced my running and dancing and other training. But ever since I had my 2nd baby, I have had ZERO desire to get back into the weight room. And my 2nd baby is 8 years old now. Something about dancing at PI this year made me want to get stronger….not like dance for 10 songs strong (which I can’t do right now anyway), but to really concentrate on increasing my muscle mass. I think I’ve realized that my path back to running and to continuing to dance will not rely on cardio conditioning alone. I need to focus on getting stronger. If I have strong muscles, those will support my joints more effectively. Did I mention before how darn heavy my new beadwork and shawls are?? Yes…strong muscles will help me support my heavy outfit too. Lol.

So tonight I headed for the stadium steps. When I was recovering from my 2 C-sections (not by choice) and I wasn’t cleared to run, I walked. Walking quickly became boring and I couldn’t seem to get my heart-rate up. So I started walking stadium stairs. That was the fastest way to safely increase my cardio and muscle mass. And it helped immensely with my dancing. Today I picked up my kids and nephew from bible school and we headed for the track. I did 1.5 stadiums and sets of girl push-ups (yes, GIRL push-ups…gotta start somewhere) in between stadium sides. I thought about doing another half a stadium, but I’m trying to train smart and not over-do it when I haven’t walked steps in forever. My kids did a run/walk program I downloaded on my phone around the track while I was on the stairs.

Tomorrow I’m going to get on the elliptical only long enough to warm up and then I’m hitting the weights at the fitness center at my work. Free weights, some machines and some planks. I’ll announce when tickets to the “GUN SHOW” are ready to go on sale….hahahaha.

My search for wellness continues….it’s a constant learning process as I figure out how to best deal with osteo-arthritis. But I feel like I’m still moving forward and that’s what matters most to me. It matters that I keep trying. It matters that I don’t give in to OA. It matters that I still have a goal of running one of these days. I refuse to give up on my own health.

#GoDownSwinging

Motivation….that elusive “thing”

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I have osteoarthritis in both hips. I am only 46 years old and I am looking at total hip replacement surgery sometime down the line. It’s hard for me to run because of the ensuing joint pain and I’m losing range of motion in my right hip. It’s painful to tie my shoes or tape up my moccasins when I dance. I can’t dance the way I used to even 2 years ago….I have to modify several of my steps or just not do them.

I am getting a good lesson in dealing with a chronic condition….like diabetes or lupus or rheumatoid arthritis. It’s hard. It’s hard to get motivated to find what works to manage the pain. It’s hard and very emotional when I look at what may be down the line for me…it’s hard when I think about losing the things that have been such a big part of me for so long. Like running and shawl dancing. I have a lot of ups and downs and it’s hard to tell anyone about it because I don’t want to drag anyone down, and I don’t feel very many understand. I just recently went through a very difficult and emotional time, one of several that I’ve experienced in the last 20 months.

But this week I have felt awesome. Really really good. I feel like I have found and gotten a good grip on that thing that health educators talk about all the time…”motivation”.  Defined as “the general desire or willingness of someone to do something.” In order to make positive change, we must be motivated to do so. I remember working a social work job and one of the social work specialists said, “They don’t train us in this job how to motivate people to change.” Which is true. While psychologists or public health workers can be trained in motivational interviewing (a technique used to evaluate the level of a person’s willingness to change and help push them forward), most people in the helping professions are at a loss as to how to motivate people.

There are 2 types of motivation: “Intrinsic” and “Extrinsic”. Extrinsic motivation is where your motivation comes from an external source….like getting good grades because your parents offer to pay you for every A on your report card, or buying you something if you make the Dean’s List. There are endless examples of extrinsic motivation….but this type of motivation is short-lived. It may last until the reward has been earned and then it’s gone. It may disappear before the reward is earned if the reward seems too far away or unattainable. Point is, It doesn’t last long. Intrinsic motivation, is the internal desire to change….it can be based on some type of perceived reward or fear that hits close to home. My best example of that is when a grandparent makes long-term changes to their health regimen in order to be able to see their grandchildren grow up. Or a person decides to lose weight or exercise more, not because they want to improve their appearance alone, but because they want to FEEL better both physically and emotionally.

My motivation has had some severe ups and downs since my diagnosis. I believe I’ve had a string of short-term motivated times because my motivation has been extrinsic…I’ve been motivated to do my PT exercises until I felt it wasn’t really helping the pain or help me get back to running. I’ve been motivated to just keep doing what I’ve been doing, kind of like rebelling against my OA, only to be struck down by debilitating joint pain. I’ve been motivated to try all different kinds of supplements until I overdid my activity and felt miserable because of the pain.

These days I feel very motivated. And I believe the positive vibe I have going is because I’m finally sorting out everything I have tried before, which includes changes in diet, supplements, hot yoga, biking, reaching out to friends and family, and changing my way of thinking of my dance career. A few weeks ago I was looking at the near-end of my shawl dance career….I thought that I could last another year or two at the most and then I would be done. And when that sunk in, I grieved….like I was losing a life-friend. Thankfully my friends, my companion, and my family pulled me out of that pit of despair. I have a sense of hope now….which feels brand new to me. And I have a deep-seated confidence, which is also new, that I will achieve my wellness goals that I have altered in a positive and realistic way. Both of those feelings, the hope and the confidence, have boosted my motivation.

My motivation comes now from knowing that I can manage my OA pain. It’s not hopeless. A good quality of life is not out of my reach.  I’ve had several weeks of pain-free joints and I’m confident that what I’m doing is working and that I can continue. I KNOW what works now. Limiting carbohydrates in my diet, taking some supplements that are working, including Xyngular’s Global Blend, alfalfa, Omega-3, a B-complex, and drinking my turmeric tea. Drinking alot of water. Eating alot of nutrient rich vegetables. Avoiding commercially raised feed-lot red meat and switching to grass-fed beef. I love the elliptical machine…it feels like I’m running without the joint pain. Stretching, I am learning to love and get better at. And getting my rest. My motivation increases each day that I wake and can walk with little to no pain. And my shawl dancing….we’ll see how that goes. But I’m hopeful. I’m focused and grateful for what my body can do….instead of obsessing about what it can’t do. I’m looking at all I have to gain with maintaining these positive changes, instead of thinking about what I am losing. When I make food choices in a restaurant I think about what will help me the most, and that means selecting salmon and spinach and broccoli and giving away my bread and NOT ordering dessert. I don’t think about HAVING to give up a French Dip sandwich or a slice of lemon meringue pie, I think about all the good things the salmon and the Omega-3 and all those green veggies will do for my body and my joints. So my motivation comes from a place of positive thinking, encouragement, helping and healing my body. Because I want to feel better. I love how I feel when I do these things. The changes make my bad days not so bad and make the good days that much better. I’m making myself better, which will make me better for all those around me.

I really want to publicly thank my husband Joe B…who has had to put up with my mood swings but he never gives in to my negative thinking. And I want to thank my sister Sharon who is my biggest cheerleader and always finding new things for me to try. My sister Sandy, who with my sister Sharon, always keeps it real with me, and my BFF, my Maske, Erica….my example of perseverance through tough times. My brother Elwood because he has no idea of how special he is to me. Special acknowledgement and thanks to Mike LaFrombois and Kevin Tacan….the male version of “maske” for me. They both have such positive outlooks even with all they deal with, and lend me their good vibes all the time. They are excellent listeners, and Kevin recommended the alfalfa supplements. These people help hold me up even if they don’t realize it, and I’m eternally grateful. Wopida tanka to each of you, and to the others I didn’t mention (you know who you are) who have helped me in any way.

Trying a New Exercise Regimen: Focus T25

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I love to run. L.O.V.E. it. But with my hip arthritis its been a challenge to run consistently. I’ve been trying several different activities, seeking an alternative to running that’s easier on my joints but gives me as much satisfaction as running has in the past. Also trying to find an exercise regimen that will get me in shape for powwow season. Although I enjoy biking, it hasn’t really clicked with me yet, and walking for too long bothers my hip. I can’t always get to the stadium to walk the stairs either. I miss being able to just run out my door and around the neighborhood when I find myself with a spare 20-45 minutes. P90X is very time-intensive. I love to swim but getting to the pool is proving daunting as well. And even though I L.O.V.E. Bikram yoga, I can’t afford to go as often as I would like. I tend to have some “All or None” tendencies, so finding a healthy balance is also a challenge.

So….at a powwow in Ann Arbor, MI recently, I noticed that I am struggling to carry my old school flat-fringe shawl and my new beloved floral beadwork through 2 contest songs. The shawl and beadwork are both surprisingly heavy, and I need to get stronger just to wear them for contests. At the powwow I also noticed how in shape one of my shawl dance sisters appeared to be. So I complimented her on her conditioning at the end of the powwow. She immediately recommended Sean T’s Focus T25. She said she tried Insanity the year prior but as a busy mom and studio owner, she didn’t have the time to do an hour per day, and she said she felt tired all the time. She liked T25, said it didn’t bother the knee that she has trouble with, and said I would notice a difference after 1 week.  She had been doing the workouts for 10 days and said she felt alot better dancing during contest. So I came home and promtly ordered the workout series. Lol.

I am going to blog about my T25 experience because I think I need to share my struggles with wellness, with the challenges I have been presented with in terms of physical limitations, time, children, work, and finances. A few of my friends believe that I’ve never had a weight problem and that’s it’s “easy” for me to maintain my weight. It’s work, like everything else in life is. I’m concerned about maintaining lean muscle mass as I get older (I just turned 46 a few weeks ago) especially with not being able to train like I did 10-12 years ago. And if I can bring my weight lower it will ease some of the stress on my joints and make my arthritis easier to manage without getting cortisone shots. I have alot of reasons for wanting to do this, all of them for me and wanting to feel better and be able to continue to do the things I love to do….and modeling the behavior I want my children to emulate.

Focus T25 is a 10-week program. 5 workouts per week, the first 5 weeks is the “Alpha” series, the 2nd 5 weeks is the “Beta” series. And it’s just 25 intense minutes per day. That’s the draw for me. I received a nutrition guide and it looks as though I will need 1600 calories per day. The 5-Day Fast Track has a more limited calorie amount to get fast results in the first 5 days. All whole foods, except that they push BeachBody’s “Shakeology”. I am not going to buy into the Shakeology, I feel I can come up with plenty of good things to eat without the powdered meal supplement. Plus it’s too expensive….but I really just want to do this with my own whole foods. I had to take a “Before” picture and am promised a free t-shirt if I follow the program and submit my “Before” and “After” photos.

I just finished Day 2 of Focus T25. Yesterday was Core Cardio and today was Speed 1.0. Both workouts were very intense…but I was able to do almost all the exercises right along with Sean T and company. I had to modify 1 exercise yesterday and 1 exercise today because I couldn’t do them with my hip…but they have a lady that shows the modifications throughout the entire workout. Speed 1.0 actually had some moves similar to fancy shawl dancing…lol. That similarity is what helped me power through the tough parts of the workouts though.

The first workout, although intense, left me feeling energized. I was very sore yesterday, but not sore enough to avoid today’s workout. I experienced the same feeling of having energy. I still have that energy….I just feel good today. And I was so happy to discover that the exercises do NOT bother my hip!!

I’m looking forward to the next 3 days of my Week 1. I’m also hoping that blogging about it will help keep me accountable and help keep me consistent. I have no excuses, it’s only 25 minutes per day!! I did it the past 2 mornings before my kids got up for school, tomorrow I have the day off and can relax a little and do it after my kids go to school. I’m optimistic and excited about this.

So stay tuned for progress reports…..lol.

Need your daily fruits and veggies? Make smoothies!!

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We are doing our Nutrition unit in my diabetes class and we discussed the number of fruit and vegetable servings that people need each day (5-7). A smoothie can be a really good meal/snack and a very efficient way to get your fruits and veggies in. I prefer making a smoothie to “juicing” because when you juice fruits and veggies it just extracts the liquid and the fructose, leaving you with a simple carbohydrate (read “sugar”). The pulp is left in the bottom tray of the juice machine and discarded, but that’s the important part….the pulp contains the fiber of the fruits and veggies. Whole fruits and veggies have a high water content, fructose, nutrients, and FIBER which is important to heart health, colon health, and keeping your digestive system running like a well-oiled machine. Your body has to work harder to break down whole fruits and veggies due to the fiber so it slows down the blood sugar spike that can occur when you drink fruit juice alone. Smoothies are the way to go. Although the blender breaks down some of the food for you, smoothies are still a healthier alternative to any kind of juice.

I have four “go-to” smoothie recipes. My kids like some of them, Joe B likes all of them, except for the new one I came up with this morning because he hasn’t tried it yet. One of them I got online and the others are variations of recipes I’ve seen on-line. Easy to make and I love the fact that I can get a couple of servings of fruit and vegetables consumed in one shot.

Green Monster Smoothie (courtesy of “Fit Mama” and motivational speaker Erin Brown): 1 Cup of milk (I use unsweetened almond milk for myself, 1% organic milk for the Swirlies), 1 banana, 2 Cups of Spinach. Optional: I will add half a scoop of organic whey vanilla flavored protein powder to give it smoother, more creamy texture. Feel free to add a little bit of maple syrup or stevia if it’s not sweet enough (although the bananas add plenty of sweetness). Make sure the put the spinach on the bottom of the blender and the rest of the ingredients on top so it doesn’t fly up and stick to the lid. And add some ice, it will feel like a milkshake. Shelby’s favorite smoothie to date. Makes 1 large serving or 2 Swirlie sized servings. http://www.fitmamatraining.com

Green Kale/Cucumber/Apple/Pineapple Smoothie (2 Servings): 2 Cups Kale (or spinach), 1 cup peeled diced cucumber (i use seedless cucumbers), 1 diced apple (leave the peel on, use any apple of choice), 1 C diced pineapple, 1 C water, 1 C ice, 1-2 packets of Stevia. Optional: 2 tsp. Omega-3-oil supplement. Put the leafy greens at the bottom of the blender and layer the rest of the ingredients. Blend until smooth. Joe B’s favorite smoothie. Even some of my students have tried this and like it, bright green color and all. 🙂 I didn’t see a recipe for this, I just used what I thought sounded good.

Peanut Butter Protein Smoothie (serves 1):  1 C unsweetened Almond Milk, 2 Tbs natural peanut butter, 1 scoop organic chocolate whey protein powder (make sure there are no more than 2 g of carbs per serving), handful of ice. I take this smoothie on the road with us to powwows and this is mine and Joe B’s breakfast in the morning. I bring my Magic Bullet and my protein powder. I usually find the milk and PB when I get there, or I bring it in a cooler. Good power protein breakfast and this also makes a good workout recovery drink.

Cherry Almond Smoothie (serves 1): Just tried this out this morning. Modified a recipe I saw on Pinterest. 1 C frozen cherries, 1 handful of spinach, 1/2 C unsweetened almond milk, 1/2 C greek yogurt (I use regular, full-fat greek yogurt), I threw in some sliced almonds and a little dab of maple syrup. It was delicious! The recipe I saw on Sweet Peas and Saffron’s website (www.sweatpeasandsaffron) called for almond extract instead of the sliced almonds (I didn’t have any extract) and omitted the spinach. I added so I could get the leafy greens. And it called for 1/2 tsp of honey but I just added a very small drizzle of maple syrup, I knew the cherries would make it very sweet.

I’m sure I’ll add more blog entries like this when I try different smoothie combinations. Drinking fruit and veggie smoothies consistently does wonders for your energy, your mood, your skin, etc. You will be surprised how your body responds to really nutritious foods on the regular.

Some of the “Rules” I Go By

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I just came home from a trip to a powwow in Michigan. Drove all night to get there, danced all weekend, drove all night traveling home. I am exhausted. When I am this tired I have the most trouble trying to stick to my healthy eating and exercise. I have many many times that I don’t feel like working out, many times that I actually don’t. As for healthy eating 24/7….lol. That doesn’t happen in my house. But we try. And I have found a few things that help me push through the times that I feel like I’m failing at my healthy habits and doing healthy things for my family.

It feels like there are a million different “rules” that govern healthy eating and activity. Don’t eat this, make sure you eat that….etc. People tend to give up on any eating plan when they encounter difficulty sticking to the rules or guidelines of the plan. They get frustrated with having to start over, or wonder why they can’t stick to it 100% of the time. Same with working out. If they can’t get their workouts in everyday as planned they tend to give up. So here are two of my “Rules” that help me persist in my search for good health.

“80/20 Rule”:  I don’t remember the exact place where I read this rule, I did not come up with this on my own. It basically says to strive to adhere to your plan of eating and/or exercise 80% of the time. 80% shows consistency and persistence. It is much better than 0% and also far preferable to 50%. Strive to stay on-plan 80% of the time and then you have 20% for incidentals…such as a time crunch that leaves you little-to-no opportunity to get a health meal or workout, fatigue, stress-induced cravings or naps, or to just treat yourself. 80% is your goal and you can relax with the remaining 20%. This helps me feel accomplished on the days that I feel like I’m falling off of everything. If I can eat really good and healthy 80% out of my day or week, I feel ok about letting myself have a little indulgence for the 20% of the day/week.

“!5-Minute Rule”. Again, I don’t remember the exact place I read this, I know it was years ago. The 15-Minute Rule is put in use during times of procrastination…when you don’t feel like doing something you need to do. Such as workout, study for school, or write a new blog entry. 🙂 If I am feeling very tired but I have a run planned for after work, instead of heading for the couch (which is what I want more than anything at that moment), I tell myself, “If I start my run right NOW, I will only run for 15 minutes then I’ll stop.”  Or, “If I start to study/write this paper right NOW, I’ll only study/write for 15 minutes then I’ll stop.” See a pattern here?  The idea behind committing to 15 minutes immediately is this….once you get going on your run, studying, writing, 9 times out of 10 you will complete your task.

I’ve put the 15-Minute Rule into effect many, many times. Sometimes I do feel like quitting my run after 15 minutes. I’ll tell myself then, “Ok, I think I can do another 10 minutes.” Then ten minutes later if I’m still not feeling it, “Ok, I’ll try another 5 minutes.” I kept giving myself small increments of time to run and pretty soon I had completed my entire workout.

Now, here is the beauty of the Rule…sometimes you won’t be able to talk yourself past 15 minutes of anything…sometimes you are done. Fork stuck in…just D.O.N.E. If that is the case, then BE DONE. You told yourself you will stop after 15 minutes, so by all means, stop. Even if you stop, you still will have gotten in 15 minutes of activity, which is far preferable, and much more beneficial to your body then zero minutes of activity.

Both rules encourage and promote consistency. Research has shown that the workouts you do consistently, even if they are mild to moderate, are more beneficial to your health than a vigorous workout only done occasionally. Walking for 30 minutes 6 times a week will bring more health benefits than running 5 miles 1-2 times per week.

So now, even though I am still recovering from my travels and I just want to lay down on the couch, I just told the Swirlies I would take them for a short bike ride….a 15 minute bike ride and then we are coming home. We’ll see how far we end up going. 🙂

Eating is complicated….

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I teach a class called “Diabetes and the Native Americans”. I took over teaching this class seven years ago and it has morphed from a wellness/exercise class to a culturally-tailored, science-based course on how type 2 diabetes impacts Native populations. We discuss risk factors, symptoms, diagnostic tests, complications, in addition to the history of Native health and all the legislation that has impacted our population’s health. During the unit where we discuss prevention and management, we discuss eating. Just a whole lecture or two devoted to just how and why we eat.

I first read this book in August of 2008. I was overweight, having gained weight from breaking my foot the previous summer, and had difficulty motivating myself to track calories and keep up with my food journal. I don’t remember what made me buy this book (“Mindless Eating” by Brian Wansink, PhD), but I read it on the way back from a powwow in Michigan. It was eye-opening. And my first insight into the complicated maze of the psychology of eating.

There is so much fascinating information in this book: food labs to research exclusively what will make us eat more, “health halos”, why we seek comfort foods, how labeling and marketing campaigns convince us to buy more/eat more, and what was most interesting to me….the different “cues” to let us know when to stop eating. I didn’t realize that we are socialized to know when to stop eating.

For example….as in the book, I ask my class “When do you know that you have had enough food? When do you know when to stop eating?” I get all kinds of answers. “When I fall asleep”, or “When I have to unbutton the top button of my jeans”, or “When I have to change into stretchy pants”, or “When my plate is clean” or “When I’m full”. I got similar answers to what Dr. Wansink lists in his book. I catch myself telling my kids “just 2 more bites” which means I am socializing them to eat more as well (I have since made a concerted effort to not do that).

I read in his book that eating until you are full, and “eating until you are no longer hungry” are two entirely different things. He went on to describe how there can be a 25% caloric intake difference by stopping eating when you no longer experience hunger, as opposed to when you feel full. I like the examples he gave from France and Japan and how they are socialized to eat until they are no longer hungry. In the U.S., the love of Golden Corral restaurants (my husband’s favorite) and the proliferation of casino buffets, we tend to encourage eating until we pass the point of being full. Although I am well-acquainted with the concept of “eating until you are satisfied”, that phrase never truly clicked with me….but eating until I wasn’t hungry anymore did click (*lightbulb!!*)

So I had to see for myself. After getting back from Michigan and thinking about the concept of “eating until I wasn’t hungry”, I gave it a whirl. I had some leftover taco meat that I was going to fix a salad with for my lunch. I served myself the amount I normally eat, but I paid close attention to how I felt as I ate. I didn’t read or watch TV, or do anything that would take my mind off the eating task at-hand. I ate slowly, drank water, and when I reached the point where I didn’t feel hungry anymore I looked at my bowl. There was approximately 1/4 left of what I served myself. I then set about to see if those results would be replicated in my dinner and breakfast the following morning. I discovered I ate 25-30% LESS when I really attended to what I ate and stopped when I didn’t feel hungry anymore.

I ended up losing about 6 pounds within 2-3 weeks just by paying attention, or being mindful of what I ate and how I felt. I didn’t count calories, I didn’t buy any specific “diet friendly” foods (such as low-fat or fat free or low calorie). I I felt much more comfortable after eating because I wasn’t stuffed. As a result, I started serving myself less food so it wouldn’t go to waste, and learned to take more if I felt I really needed it. I figured if I didn’t stop eating when I was no longer hungry, the food was going to waste in one of two ways: it would either be left on my plate and go to “waste” and be tossed out, or it would go to “waist” and be stored as fat in the form of a muffin-top if I cleared my plate and didn’t burn up all the energy I took in. It was a true epiphany.

Native people have additional factors to deal with as well in regards to what we eat and how much we eat. On-going colonization (the methods used by dominate society/government to subjugate Indigenous peoples) is a huge factor in the status of our health. Under the colonization heading we can list historical trauma, food insecurity, socio-economic factors and all the mental health issues such as depression, anxiety, substance abuse, trauma from abuse. These factors can make it difficult to stop eating when we are no longer hungry. If you have experienced times where there wasn’t enough food, or have learned through hard life’s experiences that you need to eat as much as possible as fast as possible because you don’t know when your next meal will be, it will make it next to impossible to not clear your plate because you have been conditioned to not waste food. If you have attended residential boarding schools or were in the military, you have been conditioned to clean your plate. Depression and anxiety, or chronic stress, heavily influences our eating behaviors, as does substance abuse. And that’s not even taking into account the sugar/starch/carbohydrate-laden commodity foods many of us grew up on, and may find comfort in. We also have our cultural/social mores, many times which dictate having to serve ourselves a portion of each food offered at a feast or ceremony, or not turning down an offer of food so as to not offend a host/hostess in their own home. Although these factors influencing our eating are not insurmountable by any means, they are deeply entrenched and it will take concentrated effort and practice, and learning new coping mechanisms to overcome them to regain our health.

Like I tell my students, eating is complicated. There is so much more to healthy eating than just “don’t eat junk” (which is a blog post all on its own). Like one of my previous weight-loss participants said, “There’s more to it than just making poor choices.” We have many many influences on what we eat and how much we eat, but I truly believe they can be managed and we can improve our collective Indigenous health.

Breakfast ideas for my Swirlies

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I like to post on FB about my girls. The Swirlies. A lot. They are hilarious….like two little old ladies. And to clarify, their nickname “The Swirlies” came from how I used to call them when they were really small. I’d say “Let’s go girly-swirly-whirlies!” when we were trying to leave the house or if I was trying to get them moving. Then it became abbreviated to “Girly Swirlies”….then just “The Swirlies.”

They, like all kids, have completely different personalities and tastes. Shelby tends to be a picky eater and Sara tends to “graze” where she will snack on fruit, yogurt, cereal, cheese sticks, etc., all day long. My focus since the beginning of this year is to get as much “fake foods”, processed foods, foods with long lists of ingredients that I can’t pronounce, out of our eating. “Clean eating” is what it’s often referred to, but I just think of it as getting as much real, whole foods, onto our plates as much as possible. Doing this gradually, so no one will freak out or rebel in house…I know when I am pushing it too far because I can just smell mutiny in the air when I do (and their dad is usually the rebel leader).

This can be very challenging for most families because the food industry is so clever at packaging foods to make them appear more healthy than they really are. “Health halos” is how Brian Wansink, PhD (“Mindless Eating”, 2006) referred to the deceptively “healthy” packaging of most processed foods (a book that I highly recommend). I fell victim to the health halos in spite of how I always prided myself on being able to distinguish between what is healthy and what isn’t. I found myself eating much more processed food than I perceived. And feeding that to my children. Seeing my 9-year old’s weight go up this winter was the motivation I needed to do something different. Cooking most of my meals at home out of real foods, whole foods, is my focus and I can already tell it’s making a difference in all of us. I’ll blog more on this later, but I just wanted to give a little background on what started us on this whole foods thing.

I cook my girls breakfast at home every day. I am fortunate that my work schedule allows this, I am able to feed them at home each morning and take them to school. I have a go-to list of breakfast ideas that I have to switch up occasionally, depending on the whim of the Swirlies.

Their favorite breakfast right now is homemade waffles. Santa brought me a waffle iron two Christmases ago and it’s been awesome. It doesn’t take long, I use Bob’s Red Mill 10 Grain Pancake & Waffle whole grain mix and follow the directions for waffles. It mixes up fast and tastes really good. It has whole flax seeds in it, and you don’t get the Omega-3 benefits of flax unless the seeds are ground up. So I always throw a couple tablespoons of ground flax seed into the mix (I keep a package of ground flax seeds in my freezer so it won’t go rancid so quickly), and I use olive oil or melted coconut oil for the mix. If you are pressed for time in the morning, you could make several waffles in advance and then freeze them. My waffle iron is for a thicker, Belgium-style waffle, so I’ve been afraid to freeze them because I don’t know how they will reheat in the microwave. Maybe I should invest in a toaster oven (like I NEED another appliance up in hurr).

I stopped buying what I thought were healthy, whole grain, frozen waffles because of how many ingredients they had, and how much unhealthy fat they contained (trying to get away from soybean oil, and any type of fat derived from corn). Not to mention the ever-present high fructose corn syrup, or one of the many other names for processed sugar.

Pancakes are always another Swirly favorite. I use the same Bob’s Red Mill mix but follow the directions for pancakes. And I change up the flavor by adding mashed bananas, or blueberries, or strawberries, or their current favorite – semi-sweet chocolate chips. Sometimes I’ll make a large pancake for each of them and they’ll decorate them with fruit, similar to the “Create-a-Face” pancake that they serve at IHOP.

I switched to organic maple syrup as well last year. One of my issues is that my 9-year old finds it too sweet, as do I. So I admit I keep a bottle of low-carb pancake syrup on-hand. Lol. I have to figure out something that works besides that because it is loaded with ingredients I don’t recognize. It’s all a work in-progress….

I don’t buy yogurt in a tube anymore. One of my goals with the change in foods is to take alot of the food dyes and processed sugar out as well. Shelby had an allergic reaction to one brand of kid yogurt and I think it was the food dye they used in it that set her off. Any kind of kid yogurt in a tube has a lot of sugar, so I just quit buying it for a long time until they forgot about it. I recently started buying plain, low-fat, organic yogurt and flavor it with maple syrup or sometimes add a little vanilla extract. I have some strawberry puree in the refrigerator that I want to use to try to make strawberry yogurt, but I don’t have any takers, or any enthusiasm, for that idea just yet. Sara is a fan of plain, sweetened-at-home yogurt with homemade granola mixed in.

Eggs are a breakfast staple. They like them scrambled or hard-boiled, with a slice of toast on the side. I started buying whole wheat bread from a local bakery and it was a tough sell for the Swirlies. Although I like it because it is locally produced and only has 5 ingredients (no high fructose corn syrup or sugar, it has honey in it), they didn’t like the coarse, heavier texture. So that same bakery (Great Harvest Bread Co., here in Lawrence, KS) also offers a bread they call Half & Half bread. All the same ingredients but instead of 100% whole wheat flour, they use half whole wheat flour and half white flour. It’s softer and it has a slightly sweeter taste. The Swirlies love it. I’m willing to give a little on the bread so that they will eat something as close to whole foods as I can get it. I always give them some fruit with their breakfast and they always drink a cup of 1% organic milk, Shelby sometimes prefers water.

Sometimes they like smoothies for their breakfast. Shelby is a fan of a smoothie I got from Erin Brown’s Fit Mama Training website (http://www.fitmamatraining.com) called the Green Monster Smoothie, while Sara just likes a banana blended with a cup of milk. I like to give them a smoothie with a homemade, whole grain muffin or donut. The fruit is in their smoothie so I don’t need to serve any additional unless they ask.

They also like to eat toast with different toppings. Shelby has a peanut allergy and I haven’t convinced her of the virtues of almond butter. She was addicted to Nutella, but with the food changes, that was the first thing to go. I made a homemade version of Nutella using fresh ground cashew butter that I got at the Community Mercantile here in town, and blew out my Magic Bullet AND my blender trying to mix it with cocoa powder, coconut oil, and some maple syrup. I like it. It’s sweet and chocolatey without all the sugar and palm oil in Nutella. Shelby tolerates it. I think I need to tweak my recipe next time. Shelby will eat a slice of toast with homemade nutella and sliced bananas on top, Sara will eat a slice of toast with natural peanut butter and sliced bananas on top. I noticed that since I switched breads (I used to buy a low-carb 45 calorie name brand bread), and changed the nutella from store-bought to homemade, that they get full faster. Shelby went from eating 2 slices of low carb bread to just getting full on one.

Cream of Wheat and oatmeal from rolled oats (old fashioned oatmeal) are always good as a back-up plan. They just like them plain, there was a tepid response when I cooked them with diced apples and cinnamon. They will ask for a diced banana in their hot cereal sometimes. I used to throw some vanilla protein powder in their cereal, but I stopped doing that and just find another source of protein to go with it, like a boiled egg or a piece of string cheese. They are pretty good at telling me what they want in the morning.

For my wild rice loving peeps: I am a huge fan of a rice pudding type breakfast. I figured out how to make a hot cereal dish with wild rice when I have the good stuff from Minnesota. I take leftover cooked wild rice, mix it with some almond milk, add dried cranberries, some cinnamon, a little maple syrup, a dash of vanilla extract, sometimes I’ll throw some sliced almonds or pecans in, and heat in the microwave for about 30 seconds to warm it all up. It is soooooo good. It’s almost dessert-like. And you can’t get any closer to clean, organic, whole grain than the real wild rice from northern Minnesota.

And I have to give some…so this week I bought them a box of Cascadian Farm Organic Cinnamon Crunch cereal. They really liked that this morning.

Here are some of the websites where I get recipes for homemade donuts, muffins, granola, etc. They have awesome recipes that I’ve tried for breakfast, lunch and dinner and I’m still working my way through their lists.

Real Fit Real Food Mom:  http://www.realfitrealfoodmom.com

*My girls love the recipe for Snickerdoodle pancakes on this site, and the recipe for applesauce donuts.

100 Days of Real Food:  http://www.100daysofrealfood.com

Super Healthy Kids: http://www.superhealthykids.com

So those are some ideas to get started. Look for more posts like this in the future because I always have people asking me for meal ideas. And I’m very thankful for all the moms who blog who have inspired me and helped me learn how to feed my family better.

My first experience with weight loss and RUNNING

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I’m a shawl dancer. I’m friends with shawl dancers. Joe B likes to say that shawl dancers remind him of race horses….that we are kind of high strung, anxious, but fast. A lot of fast-twitch muscles. Lol. So we shawl dancers tend to obsess about being in shape, bringing new outfits out, and trying to maintain a healthy weight. Not so easy at times, especially after “life” kicks in and you start having kids or working full-time. One time I had a shawl dance friend relay her frustrations with trying to get in shape. And she got mad at me for trying to share my story with her and she said, “You don’t know what it’s like to be out of shape because you’ve never had a weight problem.” Ohhhhh, I beg to differ…..

I was a chubby kid in grade school, starting about 2nd grade. I was heavier than most of my peers throughout grade school and high school. Looking back, I wasn’t as big as I felt I was. I was athletic and played sports. But I was bigger than my non-Native peers in the parochial school system I was in and I always felt different. My mom, even though she always worked, cooked at home. We rarely ate fast food when I was in grade school. My dad was a runner. Both my parents played softball during the summer, so we had active role models. We played outside in our neighborhood. Basically, I was in good health growing up, just a little heavier than most. I remember trying different things to “get in shape”…like running with my dad at the track. Or rather, running a few yards, then feeling like it was too hot in my little sweatsuit with the stripes down the sides of the sleeves and legs and deciding to sit down until he was done running his laps. Ever see “The Royal Tenenbaum’s”? I think I dressed like those little boys when “working out”.

My first experience with successfully losing weight was when I was in 9th grade. I played basketball my Freshman year and stayed busy every day after school with practices or games. When basketball season ended, most of my teammates tried out for the volleyball team. My only experience with volleyball was in PE that semester. Our PE teacher was one of JV coaches I believe and she spiked a ball at me during a game in gym class. Instead of trying to return or block the ball, I just got the hell out of the way….like anyone with sense would do. She looked so disgusted with me it was almost comical. And I discovered that it really stung the forearms and my bony wrists to “bump” the ball. Needless to say, that killed any inkling I may have had about trying out for volleyball team. So instead of going to more practices every day after school, I went home.

It took about 2 days to become bored out of my skull being at home every day. And I had a lot of energy because I was used to practicing every day after school. I remember organizing the hall closet, and then doing every single piece of laundry in the house. That took up the first week post-basketball season. Then I needed to find something else to do. So….out of pure boredom, I put on my high-top Adidas basketball shoes and decided to go for a run around the neighborhood.

I kind of liked that….running after school. So I started running more and exploring nearby neighborhoods. I have no idea how far I ran, I think I was out running for maybe 30 minutes at a time. But I did it consistently. I had nothing else to do.

One day when my dad was home from work, he stopped me and asked me, “Shelley, are you losing weight??” He kind of had what you would call an incredulous look on his face. Hard to explain but if you have ever had my dad look at you like that, you would know what I’m talking about. My answer was “Yes, I think so,” Followed by me asking him, “How can you tell?” He said he could see new laugh lines near the sides of my mouth that weren’t there before and that I just looked thinner. Still wearing that same look he asked me, “Well….what are you doing to lose weight?” My answer: “I’m running.”

I can still see the shocked look on my dad’s face. The memory is crystal clear. Remember, I would get too hot and sweaty after part of lap a few years ago. So he repeats and asks,”You’re running. Where are you running? How far?” I tried to explain my route to him. He gave me a piece of paper and said, “Show me.” So I drew out my route.

Still looking like he is having a hard time grasping this new knowledge of his oldest, formerly-chubby daughter, he asked me, “What are you running in?” My answer: “My high tops.” A nice stretch of silence for a few moments, then he said again, “Show me.” So I brought him my basketball shoes that I had been running in. He held them and looked at them for a few moments and asked me, “You are running in these?” Yeppers. The rest of the conversation is a little fuzzy…I just remember that he took me out and bought me a pair of running shoes that weekend.

I think I dropped 2 clothes sizes during that time. That felt great to a high school freshman. I would like to say that I became a dedicated runner after that, but I would be lying. I continued with running, on and off, serious or frivolous, for years. But I always remember my freshman year where I made the connection that consistent running led to weight loss.

My weight continued to go up and down over the years. I have topped out at being 36 pounds overweight (not including when I was pregnant with my Swirlies), and I actually feel blessed that it hasn’t been more than that. There have been 2 more times in my life where I’ve had to lose 32-36 pounds to be healthy and to be able to dance how I would like to dance. Where it’s not hard and I don’t give my weight an opportunity to cause an injury. So yes, I’ve had my experiences with having a “weight problem” and losing the weight. And running was always a part of me losing weight.

I like where I am at now in my life…where my focus isn’t so much on weight as it is on my health and well-being. I know now that weight isn’t the only determinate, or even the most important determinant, of my overall health. That it’s more important for me to know my numbers (blood glucose, blood pressure, cholesterol panel), and to do good things for myself consistently throughout the year, rather than just “getting ready for pow-wow season”. Running has become far more to me over the years than just a means to drop some pounds. More on that in a future post. And I think it’s important to my Swirlies that I have a healthy approach to my appearance and that I continue to stress “health” over weight. I have to go pick them up now, so I’ll try to think of better stuff to write about tonight. 🙂

Welcome to my blog!

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Hihanna was’te! My name is Shelley Eagleman-Bointy. Welcome to my blog, Wozani Was’te*. I started this blog with the encouragement of friends and family, hoping to provide a source of health/wellness information and motivation from an Indigenous/Native/Dakota Winyan perspective. I want to share my personal and professional experiences in the health and wellness arena, and my family’s experiences as we work towards good health (thus the “Seeking Good Health” name for this blog).

I am a mom to 3 beautiful daughters, Samantha (26 – my bonus child), Shelby (9), Sara (7), I have a bonus son in OK, Joey (in his 30’s…lol), and have been married for 19 years to my companion Joe B. We are a powwow family, I have been a fancy shawl dancer since the age of 5. I am enrolled with the Fort Peck Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes of Montana and descend from the Little Traverse Bay Band of Ottawa Indians in Michigan. I am blessed to have 2 healthy parents and an older brother and younger sister. True to our ways, I have countless family, adopted sons, daughters, grandkids, sisters, brothers, aunts, uncles, and grandparents all over Indian country. I earned my MSW at the University of Kansas and have worked in the education/public health field for 13 years. My area of interest and expertise is in the field of type 2 diabetes in Native populations, and I currently teach a culturally-tailored diabetes education course at Haskell Indian Nations University.

I love to cook, especially recipes my mom cooked for us growing up. I have taken on learning how to cook our true traditional foods this past winter. I love to run, although my diagnosis of hip osteo-arthritis makes that a little more challenging these days. I love to sew pow-wow outfits for my family and friends, love to bead, read, text and harass my friends, watch movies, and I’m addicted to “Chopped” and cleaning/organization shows like “Clean House” and “Clean Sweep”. I love to Facebook about my favorite subjects….my girls “The Swirlies”, and posting pow-wow results. Lol. I am slowly figuring out Twitter and SnapChat and Instagram. I am determined to start a garden as safe food sources and sustainability is quickly becoming a serious interest.  I am truly a nerd at heart…I get excited about stuff like ordering a break-maker or or a food dehydrator, figuring out a better way to organize stuff, or coming up with a new smoothie recipe all by myself. Finding the time to indulge my nerd-like tendencies is a challenge. And now I’m adding blogging to the mix.

Thanks for reading this….even though it looks like my bio/resume or a match.com profile. Now I have to slow my spinning mind and decide what I am going to blog about first!

*Thank you to Ramey Growing Thunder for coming up with the name for this blog, and to Mike LaFromboise for encouraging me to use our Dakota language for the blog’s name.

Disclaimer: I really have no idea what I am doing, so please be patient with me while I figure out how to add tags, make my page look decent, etc. Pidamaya in advance!