How to stare down that plate of chocolate chip cookies

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 8 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas  ♥ @HeartSisters

What would you do if you checked into your hotel room and found there a welcoming plate of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies waiting for you? I know what I’d do – I’d have a cookie. And then, because it tasted so darned good, I might eat another. And then, while I unpacked my suitcase, maybe just one more. And then, particularly if I were feeling tired or stressed or hungry, I might even say to myself: “Oh, what the heck! It’s been a hard day – and I deserve this little treat!” – and there goes the rest of that plate of cookies.

But that’s not what Dr. David Kessler decided to do when this very situation presented itself to him. As a person who had battled his own weight problems for years, he knew that he could have easily eaten all of those cookies in one gulp, but he also knew with equal certainty that he did not want to do that this time. There was only one way to gain the upper hand, and he had to act quickly.   Continue reading “How to stare down that plate of chocolate chip cookies” →

Year in review: top 10 Heart Sisters posts for 2011

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 5 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas

It’s that time again, when navel-gazing pundits everywhere compile their Best Of or Top 10 lists for the year that’s just about to slip away.  Same here at Heart Sisters!  So let’s take a nostalgic look backwards today at what I like to describe as this “cardiac rehab for my brain” – and why almost 280,000 people like you have visited this site since its launch.

I wish a very Happy New Year to my readers, especially to those of you who choose to share what you like here with your colleagues, families or your health care professionals, to my loyal subscribers, to those of you who have generously shared your heartfelt, inspiring and sometimes very entertaining personal comments here, and particularly to all women living with heart disease. You are not alone.

Now here’s our Top 10 list of the most widely-read Heart Sisters posts of 2011:    Continue reading “Year in review: top 10 Heart Sisters posts for 2011” →

The lost art of common courtesy in medicine

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 15 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas  ♥ @HeartSisters

So I showed up for a scheduled medical test at the hospital the other day. It was one of those particularly distasteful tests that involve a full day’s prep at home choking down a range of hideous chemical cocktails, consumption of which is designed to induce explosive liquid diarrhea that requires staying very, very close to a toilet all day long. The procedure itself  on the following morning was right up there on the Creepy Disgusting Embarrassing Cringe Scale of medical experiences.

Hospital procedures like this feel invasive, uncomfortable, distressing, and revoltingly undignified for most patients. All the more reason that medical staff who administer such procedures need to start treating us like we’re more than just the nameless, faceless 10 o’clock patient in Bed 8, what I’ve previously described here as “the obstacle between them and their next coffee break, just a piece of meat on a slab – but worse, an invisible piece of meat.”

Call me crazy, but I might even go so far as to insist that patients deserve to be treated with common courtesy, and let’s start with the simple basics of saying something like:

“Hello. My name is _____ and I’ll be doing your ______  today.” Continue reading “The lost art of common courtesy in medicine” →

How to have a waste-free festive family dinner this year

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 9 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas  ♥ @HeartSisters

Since surviving a heart attack, I’m smugly happy to announce that my consumption of heart-healthy fruit and veggies has increased nicely.  I should preface that by explaining that I grew up in a Ukrainian family where we considered dill pickles to be a vegetable course.  So veggies are not my favourite food.

Sometimes, when shopping for that lovely fresh produce at the market, my “eyes are bigger than my stomach” – as my mother used to say – and the veggies at the very back of the produce crisper in the fridge can begin to resemble slimy, mushy compost instead of tonight’s dinner. My distress about this slime is why I like what Wasted Food blogger Jonathon Bloom is doing.  Continue reading “How to have a waste-free festive family dinner this year” →