UBC - Day 15 - Eating Healthy - Tips for Carers

Welcome to day 15 of the Ultimate Blog Challenge and my focus on Tips for Carers.  These tips have been things that I have found helps me, and I hope you have found some of the tips useful, and would love to hear about some of the things you have been doing.

When you spend a large proportion of your time caring for someone there are often things that slip, and you tell yourself you will sort later.  Eating healthily is one of those things.  It is so important, the very fuel that you need to carry out your tasks needs to be of a good quality.  You have to make sure that you have a balanced diet, nutrient rich so that you can get all that you possibly can.  When the body is under stress the levels of vitamins and minerals within your body reduces dramatically, and you therefore need a constant top up as you go along.

Importance of eating healthily for Carers

You also need to ensure that the one you are caring for also has a balanced diet, as this could have an impact on their overall health. When you are not eating good quality food, it affects the energy level, your mental clarity, and your general health and there are lots of books which can tell you the side effects of not getting certain nutrients into the body.

Smoothie Love - Day 2 of 30 delicious drinks

We recently brought a nutri-bullet and we have been blending a combinations of greens, fruit and nuts and seeds, it can be a complete meal in itself once you have finished, but this means that you are getting a whole range of vitamins and minerals that you might not have been able to get if you tried to eat them all at once.  I have found that the smoothie is easy to digest and it means that it is a healthy option that mum can have alongside her food that is good for her.  We have definitely seen the benefits in mums general health from drinking a daily smoothie.

As you improve your eating habits and introduce more fruit and vegetables, you will notice the difference in your outlook, energy levels and fitness. Speak to your doctor and check out the many programs, books, and online help that you can get to think about changing your diet.

A good balance of fruit, nuts, and seeds to your diet

For now think about investing in a smoothie maker or juicer. Take a look at what you are consuming on a daily basis, and try and increase your fruit and vegetable content and most importantly - drink more water!  Check out my Smoothie recipes for some great tasting drinks full of natural goodness.

You can also click on the 'Celebrating life' image to be taken to the rest of the posts from the Journey of a Carer.

Quote Wednesday - Henry Moore

To be an artist is to believe in life....Henry Moore

You have to have a plan, cause without a plan you drift aimlessly.  Your life is to be lived, each and every day, to be expressed to the full.  We all have creative muscles it just depends how often you use them.  What are you going to do with yours?

Each Quote Wednesday I share a quote with a photograph that I have taken. Quotes can be so inspiring and uplifting it is a good idea to meditate on the words and make a point of saying something encouraging about your life!  Do something great!  

Join me next week for the next inspiring quote and image. Blessings

UBC - Day 13 and 14 - Time to Talk - Tips for Carers

Welcome to the Ultimate Blog Challenge for today, hope your day is a blessed one!

In Sundays post I mentioned joining your local Carers group and the support and friendship that you will find if you get to know other carers.  The Carers groups have so much information, training and resources available that you will find something that will assist you in your role.

Compartments - example of how the different areas of life are managed in their neat little boxes

The thing that I wanted to focus on today was to look at resources available to allow you to talk about your role.  This is different from sitting in a group and sharing your experience, which is very helpful, but this is a one to one.

You would be surprised the amount of emotions that you go through that very often you don't have time to think about, but they are there in the background and come out in the way that you treat yourself, ie 'lack of self care' or how you respond to your caring role and what it involves.

Compartments holding hidden compartments beneath, as a way of managing the situation

As carers we can give ourselves a hard time because we feel that we should be able to cope, we don't want to ask for advice or help and we shoulder it all, locking our feelings away inside. There was nothing that prepared me for the role of caring for my mother.  One minute she was fine and I would visit on a Sunday, have dinner, chat for a while then go home and then the next I was having to leave my son at home while I stayed at my mums overnight, looking after her sometimes 3-4 nights a week.  I got stressed out, resentful, but locked my feelings inside.  I love my mum to bits but I wasn't coping and missing out on my son growing up.

Hidden faces of a carer - you see the face that is coping when beneath tells a different story

Accessing the Carers group put me in touch with a service called 'Time to Talk', which was 6 sessions with a therapist/counselor.  Whilst I was the sort of person that loved to talk the idea of sharing how I felt about my role as a carer was out of the question.  As the sessions went on I realised that talking about the situation and what I was finding difficult would actually help me get the necessary support to care for mum, which meant that I could spend the time with her, but also spend time with my son.

Hidden Faces - revealing a range of faces that are going through

I was able to articulate what I needed to help us as a family, address the guilt I felt, which was about things that I had no control over - it's not my fault that mum has dementia.  I could stop taking on the burdens of this world and spend quality time with those I cared for.  

We know that those who care take a large portion of the burden from the communities that they live and not every borough provides the same amount of support and assistance to help those who need care to stay in their own homes, and the communities that they live are fragmented, so that an elderly person can go for weeks at a time without speaking to another person.  

Selection of art produced in Art Therapy class

The other thing that might help you address some of your feelings is getting involved in Art Therapy groups and a number of them are running specifically for those who are carers. I was again able to take part in a series of 12 sessions that allowed me play with the art materials, spend time for myself, but also produced work that without having to articulate expressed how I felt, the work that you can see in this post enabled me to express visually how I felt, and how I wanted to feel.

Encouraging post cards to post to myself over a period of time as a reminder to make time for myself

For now recognise the importance of communication, talking about what the role that your talking on has impacted on your life.  Talk about the guilt, the fear, accept that you may not want to do the role that your doing, talking about those tough things will make how you relate to your role and help you move forward.  Also try and incorporate some creativity in your day to day, I will be creating a series of short tutorial videos to show you how you can get your creative juices flowing in coming weeks.   Also ask at your Carers Group if they run any Art Therapy sessions that you can join.

You can also click on the 'Celebrating life' image to be taken to the rest of the posts from the Journey of a Carer.

31 Tips for Carers

31 Tips for Carers

During the month of October I am taking part in the Ultimate Blog Challenge.  The overall title for my posts is 31 Tips for Carers.  It is a combination of things that I have done and found useful in my walk as a carer.  For ease, I thought that I would put all the posts that I had written together in one place.  If you want to get in touch with me about any of the tips do leave a message, share your experiences and any tips that you have found useful!

Reflections and Understanding

Celebrate Your Life - Day 31

Permission to Breath - Day 30

Long Term Plans - Day 29

Each Day is a Gift - Make it special - Day 28

Don't Sweat the Small Stuff - Day 27

Dealing with the Loss - Day 26

When Fear Strikes - Day 25

Support Network - Day 24

Guess who is coming to dinner - Day 23

Caring Faith - Day 22

Once a man, twice a child - Day 21

Being Practical - Day 20

Tell Your own story - Day 19

Time for a Book - Day 18

Taking a break - Day 17

Home Environment - Day 16

Eating Healthily - Day 15

Time to Talk - Day 13 & 14

Local Resources - Day 12

Fresh Air - Day 11

Release - Day 10

Day 9 - to come...

Day 8 - to come...

Encourage - Day 7

Family and Friends - Day 6

Independence - Day 5

Remember their Story - Day 4

Savor - Day 3

Organise - Day 2

Adapt - Day 1

Come back tomorrow for another tip!

If you want to read about some of my experiences as a carer as I look after my mum who has dementia, check out the image below and it will take you to the posts.