.jpg)
What's Happening MoCo?
An authentic, unscripted update from County Cable Montgomery highlighting items that help residents of Montgomery County. This program will feature interviews with elected officials, employees, public servants, and residents. This program is produced by the Office of Community Engagement from the Department of Technology and Enterprise Business Services. Interviews are recorded live and presented with very few edits to ensure the integrity and authenticity of the conversations.
What's Happening MoCo?
What's Happening with Mental Wellness and Healthy Habits During the Holiday Season
Unlock the secrets to maintaining mental wellness during the holiday season with insights from Dr. Keisha Davis, Montgomery County's health officer. We tackle the challenges posed by shorter days and colder weather. Dr. Davis shares practical strategies like keeping a routine, soaking up sunlight, and considering vitamin D supplements to keep your spirits high. Learn how to spot when a low mood might evolve into more severe depression and the importance of reaching out for professional support when needed.
We also delve into the art of mindful eating, encouraging you to savor each bite of holiday meals and suggest simple yet effective ways to stay physically active despite the chilly weather.
Embrace this festive season with a balance of health, wealth, and joy, supported by our insights and advice. Stay informed, cherish your loved ones, and come away with practical strategies to enjoy a healthy and joyful holiday period.
Good day and welcome to what's Happening MoCo, an authentic unscripted podcast from your Montgomery County government. Now here's your host, derek Kenney.
Speaker 2:Good day and welcome to what's Happening, moco. It's that time of year again the sun sets earlier, the air gets colder, we're putting the leaves out in the street to be collected. It's time to be thankful. It's time to give. It's time to receive gifts. It's time to give gifts. It's that somewhat joyous time of year for many, many of us. This is a happy, happy time, a time that we're focused on enjoying the fullness of all that life can give. But for some of us, there's a struggle. There's a struggle with maintaining our diet, maintaining our health, maintaining the struggle that we have with loneliness, depression, anxiety. Well, all of us are in luck today because we have the county's physician, dr Keisha Davis, the county's health officer. How are you today, dr Keisha?
Speaker 3:I'm doing well, Derek. Thanks for having me back. It's always a pleasure.
Speaker 2:Great. Well, thank you for being here. We have a full year of healthiness that we've been working on. You've been coming back and giving us tips on how to eat better, be more active, how to be more mindful, and now we need your help yet again. We start off the year with keeping our resolutions, but now it's talking about keeping us healthy through the time of year where a lot of us are struggling with anxiety, depression, loneliness, excessive eating and sedentary. Because it's time of year it gets a little colder, it gets a little darker early so you get home from work it's dark, so you may not be able to take that walk. But let's sit back and before we talk about the physical health, let's talk about mental health.
Speaker 2:During this time of year, there's something called seasonal affective disorder. I don't know all about it. I'm sure you know a lot more about it than me, and there was this article in Newsweek entitled Seasonal Affective Disorder how to Prep your Body and Mind for Darker Days and for individuals with seasonal affective disorder. It's a type of depression linked to reduced seasonal light. These effects can be particularly severe. Sad, appropriately named SAD, impacts about 5% of the adults in the United States, and the symptoms typically emerge in the fall or winter and can last until spring, according to the American Psychiatric Association. In addition to that, there's evidence to show as well that many people feel a bit saddened and depressed because of the holiday season, which lasts from Thanksgiving all the way through the New Year's. What are some of the things that you are aware of that people are dealing with this time of year when it comes to mental challenges, and what are some of the symptoms that we might identify?
Speaker 3:So I'm so glad you're bringing this up. This can be a really difficult time of year for many people. It is, you know, the media and the images that are shown to us on TV and in commercial often very happy and celebrating the holidays, but we know that this time of year can be really stressful for folks. Celebrating the holidays, but we know that this time of year can be really stressful for folks. The financial stress of feeling like they may need to buy gifts for people on top of the already expenses that they might have, the expenses of traveling, the stress that might come with being with family, the anxiety that I will recognize that I know some folks are feeling over the election results. And when you add on top of that the change in season, it's colder, we're less able to be outside, it's darker, and seasonal affective disorder is a real thing. People with that lack of access to sunlight can really impact people's mood. People can feel depressed, sad, more lethargic and tired, not having the interest in wanting to do things, not wanting to go out and be with people that they typically would want to be with, and so part of that comes from that lack of sunlight. So there are some things that we can do about it. So one is trying to maintain that regular routine. Getting up, bright sunlight or bright light in the morning helps to reset those rhythms, so we want to still try and get that sun exposure turn on the lights in the house in the morning.
Speaker 3:We know that vitamin D can be helpful. Sometimes folks have a vitamin D deficiency. Now we get your. The sun helps to convert vitamin D in your body and so when we have less sunlight then we're not getting as much vitamin D and so vitamin D supplements. Vitamin D is supplemented in milk, but there's also pills. It may be a conversation to have with your doctor if they feel like you should be tested for a vitamin D deficiency. So we want to maintain that regular routine. We want to make sure that we're getting enough sunlight when we can try to step outside in the middle of the day when you, if you can, we want to be sure that we're getting some of that vitamin D.
Speaker 3:And we also want to recognize when something is going from just low mood to making a transition over to potential depression. So it's not uncommon to feel a little bit down, a little depressed, but if it's getting harder and harder to get out of bed. If it's getting harder and harder to get out of bed, if it's getting harder and harder to get through your daily activities, if it's getting harder and harder to meet the demands of the things that you need to be doing every day, if you're starting to feel guilty about things, if you're starting to have, maybe, thoughts of suicide or hurting yourself, these are all things that make us think that this is a little bit more serious. You need to be talking to somebody. You should consider talking to your primary care physician or a mental health professional, getting an extra level of support so that you get through this time of year, through this phase.
Speaker 3:And I would say look out for your friends and family. If there's somebody in your life that you care about and their mood seems to have shifted in a way that doesn't seem good, don't be afraid to be the one that says, hey, are things going okay, are things going all right? Be the person that reaches out to them to encourage them to get help.
Speaker 2:Be the person that reaches out to them to encourage them to get help to recognize those changes that we see in our friends and family Incredible, incredible. And what do you think about when you're this time of year and you have lost loved ones or, as you mentioned, the election has just passed and you're kind of down and disappointed. Maybe there's a bit of a lack of faith in things and the way things work, and maybe you have challenges with finances, things of that nature? What do you have to say to people that are just kind of just disappointed, um, like they're, they're, they're uninspired, um, they're, they're lethargic? Some of the things that you mentioned are the things that you can say to help people pick themselves back up, if, if, possible, or are there things that they should do, um, to get them out of the doldrums?
Speaker 2:I know you mentioned the vitamin D, you mentioned some of the other things, but just for those folks, especially for people that, when it comes to giving, when we get to the giving part, where you have to make that dinner, and especially when you make that huge dinner, especially when you need to visit your relatives or maybe you're missing a loved one, you know, and then, as you get to the Christmas season, we all want to give all the gifts we want to give the PlayStation 5s, the Tiffany bags, you know, the coach purses and all those things to our loved ones, but we're not always able to do as much as we like to do, and that can somewhat bring a person down. And for many of us, beyond that, there are the basic needs that may not be met as well. What can you say to those folks and where can they look for help?
Speaker 3:So the first thing I want to do is validate that it's okay to feel the way you feel. It's okay to feel sad around the holidays. It's okay to miss a loved one that may not be there with you anymore. It's okay to feel upset or disappointed or excited or happy about election results. It's okay to feel the way you feel. And so I think I've spent a lot of time we spend a lot of time trying to suppress our feelings and put them to the side, like it's not okay to feel whatever we feel. It's okay to feel what you feel.
Speaker 3:It becomes a problem when feeling what you feel is keeping you from being able to get through your day-to-day activities. So I can feel mad, I can feel angry, I can feel happy, I can feel elated, I can feel all of those things, but still should be able to get through the things that I need to get through in the day, and when you can't get through those, that's when we're starting to say there's a problem. We need to be reaching out for help. Now you've felt those feelings right. Use that to drive what the next thing is. Use that to drive your motivation thing is Use that to drive your motivation. And so I'm feeling sad that maybe there's a loved one who's not around the table this year. That was there last year. Okay, sit with that. What am I going to do to honor that person that's not here? What am I going to do to not just push it to the side like that didn't happen? How am I going to honor them and recognize that they're not here? Maybe it's? You know, financial stress is real, inflation is real, not able to afford the things that you want to afford for the holidays, and that can bring stress and tension. Well, how can you still celebrate the holidays without as much of a financial factor? Celebrate the holidays without as much of a financial factor, and really getting back to the true spirit of things is really important. So, feel what you feel. It's okay to feel that and then use that to drive you forward. Don't let it stand you in your tracks. Stop you in your tracks.
Speaker 3:I think the other thing you know, derek, you touched on it a little bit is around the food piece, right? So much of our about. Well, how am I going to approach this day that has a whole focus around food? And so one recognize that there's anxiety about food and so planning ahead for it, about food, and so planning ahead for it If you're somebody who maybe you've got a lot of food allergies or food sensitivities, and going to a dinner with people who have brought all the food from all the different places is really challenging because you don't know what you can eat yeah, plan ahead for that. Bring your food. What are you going to eat so that you are still able to the other folks you know?
Speaker 3:People talk about oh, I gained all of this weight over the holidays. Thanksgiving's one day. People didn't become obese because they overate on Thanksgiving or Christmas or on Hanukkah or New Year's. People didn't. You didn't become obese because you overate one day, right. And so if you need to give yourself the day, give yourself the day.
Speaker 3:We've talked before about enjoying our food, tasting what you eat. Don't inhale, slow down and actually enjoy every bite. Enjoy the pumpkin pie, sweet potato pie, the macaroni and cheese. Take time to actually enjoy it and remember what it tasted like, and so, in doing that, recognize that every day is not Thanksgiving. And so, if you're going to take the time to pause, enjoy the food, enjoy the meal, enjoy the people that you are sharing it with. That's what we're really striving for and really thinking about that's. One day, when you slow down, you might find that you can't eat as much. So get a small, get a small piece, get a smaller plate. Those are all tips that you can help to to kind of get through that day and get through dealing with the increased food that might be there and around us. I think the last thing and we've talked about this before and it helps a lot of things, it's going to help the seasonal affective disorder, it's going to help the low mood, it's going to help with diet is moving.
Speaker 3:Get out and move. And it's really hard, you know, as the days get shorter, as it gets colder, we tend to stay inside. We all do a little bit of hibernating and long ago, when we didn't have jackets and coats, we probably needed an extra layer of fat to get us through the winter, and we'll need them now We've got all these fancy coats and jackets and all those things. Get out and get moving. Um, if you can do it in the middle of the day, do it earlier in the day. It's hard to do it at night, but maybe you get a uh, a headlight and a reflective jacket so that you can get out and get moving.
Speaker 3:It makes a big difference. We know that. It helps with endorphins. The endorphins are that positive hormone that gives you positive feeling, good vibes in your body. So that's your natural high from doing that activity and exercise. It helps you sleep better at night. It helps your mind be sharper excuse me, helps your mind be sharper and, of course, it helps to burn some of those calories. So get moving. That's always going to be good advice, even if it's just sitting in your house doing a chair video, chair yoga video do something that's going to get you, get you moving.
Speaker 2:Get moving. I like that. I've got the chair video. I'm here in my chair and I can do it a little bit. Stand up every once in a while, listen to my Apple Watch and my smart device and every so often get up, take a walk, get outside during daytime, which is important to get the vitamin D, because you can't get the vitamin D at night and so with the day-out savings we don't have the after five o'clock PM to get the sunshine.
Speaker 2:So maybe it's a walk through lunchtime after you had a healthy-ish meal, or maybe it's a walk before the evening football game on Thanksgiving after you had your meal, in which you planned your plate accordingly. And speaking of planning your plate, so you said, maybe use a smaller dish, of course, and being mindful, kind of eating slowly and savoring things. How do you portion your dish? Because sometimes portioning I've heard I don't believe you mentioned before portioning your dish or planning your dish, the way you populate your plate full of all that goodness the mac and cheese and the cranberry sauce and the gibbets and the dressing and the honey baked ham. How can we plan our plate so that the impact of what we're eating is not quite as bad as it would normally be?
Speaker 3:So I go back to the my plate method. Make half your plates fruits and vegetables, a quarter grains, a quarter protein, and so I strategically, when I host at my house, put the vegetables first in line. Everybody's very ambitious, you know. You fill up your place with vegetables and so those higher density calorie things are at the end of the line and there is less room on your plate for them. So if you might be the one who's hosting for the holidays, consider strategically placing where the healthier foods are so that they make it on the plate. If you put the salad at the end, nobody's going to have room left on their plate for the salad. So put the salad first so that people make sure to get it. Same thing with the beans and carrots and all and the greens that we want people to eat. Put those up front. So that's one thing, and you know, thinking about the fiber that comes in fruits and vegetables.
Speaker 3:I think another thing that people often do in preparing for the holidays is they will start to fast or reduce their meal size leading up to the holidays because they're trying to save room. That actually ends up people end up eating more when they do that, because what happens is you've put so much emphasis on that day of eating that people feel like they're trying to make up for the morning the day before and all of that, and end up eating more calories than they would have had they just had regular meals along the way. So don't change your eating patterns. Make half your plate fruits and vegetables. Don't overdo it. So eat your first plate. Don't have everything falling off the plate. You can get back in line, right. You can get more stuff after. So don't feel like you have to eat everything on the first round.
Speaker 3:Try, but the basis is get those fruits and veggies. Make sure that you're getting that base, that good bit of fiber. Secret trick is it's also going to fill you up more. It's going to fill you up a little bit faster. So there's a trick. And you know turkey in and of itself is pretty healthy. Turkey is the star of the show. Turkey is not going to make you overweight either. So don't be afraid to get that good protein. All right, protein.
Speaker 2:All right Turkey. All right, turkey is your friend. Now, what about the fried turkey? What about the honey baked ham? How good, like if you had to rank things on the dinner. That's also a little bit of fun. A little bit of fun. This is not a doctor talking here. How do you prioritize what are your favorite foods for Thanksgiving here? How do you prioritize what are your favorite foods for Thanksgiving? Take out the doctor hat. I'm going to enjoy myself for dinner on Thanksgiving hat. There's a plate full of food. There's honey baked ham, there's mac and cheese, there's stuffing, there's all the accoutrements associated with Thanksgiving and sometimes there's flounder and crab meat. What do you rank as your top three Thanksgiving dishes?
Speaker 3:Oh, that's a good one. What are my, what are my top? So I love some good greens. So give me some kale and collards. I like them mixed. You got to have some good macaroni and cheese. Got to have a nice moist turkey. I like sweet potatoes, but I don't I like my sweet potatoes roasted. I don't like them with all of the marshmallows and glazed and candied and all of that. I know that's what everybody likes. And give me a good one. And you know I, I have to have it. So I have to, you know, strategically place the things on my plate so that the gravy gets to the right. So you know, the mashed potatoes next needs to be next to the stuffing, which is next to the Turkey, so that the gravy hits just right.
Speaker 2:Yes, all right.
Speaker 2:And then the other half is my kale, my collards, my sweet potatoes, all of the advice that you've given us to help us shape our activity and help to shape activity for our families, whether it's taking a walk, eating some vitamin D, whether it's placing, being very thoughtful about how we organize our dinner tables or how we formulate our plates. Where we have fiber and fruits and veggies taking up half our plates, at least half our plates. Where we have fiber and fruits and veggies taking up half our plates, at least half our plates, and then protein and other things, uh, like the sugary sweet potatoes with the marshmallows that I love. So you see me coming to the table. Guys, be ready. Be ready, because I'm going to enjoy thanksgiving this year. Um, but I will be taking a walk. Now.
Speaker 2:There is a couple of concerns that, of course, folks like myself have. This is the end of the year and part of me is thinking in the new year, I'm going to. You know, we started off this year talking about the. I'm going tos, I'm going to do better, I'm going to eat better, I'm going to be healthier. What do you say leading up Like, this is the end of the year and we're no longer in the part of, we're not in the beginning of the year, where people are going to have their resolutions and stuff, but we're at the part of the year where people have let loose or let go of many of their resolutions. Is this a time that we can let go of the old resolutions and just have fun and let loose, or do we double down on our resolutions? Do we think about those things this early? We're two months away from January. We're a month and some change. What do you think? Thank you.
Speaker 3:You know, every day is a new day. Right Midnight comes every single day and that's an opportunity for a reset every single day. You've got January 1st, february 1st, march 1st. Every month has a first of the month, every week has a first of the week, and so you know in a lot of ways that January 1 reset is an artificial reset. There's nothing to say that November 28th can't be your reset. That day is somebody's birthday and so make that day the day that you reset. You know, whatever is that motivator for you to say I need to make a change and don't wait for some external artificial day to be the day that you make the change. When you're ready to make the change, you make the change. And if that's Tuesday at 2 pm, that's Tuesday at 2 pm.
Speaker 2:All right, all right, so you're saying we have no bounds or limitations when it comes to starting our fitness journey, or reinvesting in our fitness journey, or re-re-re-investing in our fitness journeys, or maintaining our health? We don't have to wait until january.
Speaker 3:we can start tomorrow, we can start friday, we start the day after thanksgiving, as we we walk through all the malls and and buy all the things that we need and don't need and if you know, I'll say hey, you know, maybe you started the year on track and then fell off track, and should I get back on track or just wait till the next thing? I heard this quote once and I can't take credit for it, but I'll share it. If one day you get up and you're driving to work and you run through a stoplight, you don't say well, I ran through one stoplight today, so I guess I'm going to run through every other stoplight today. No, you see, I messed up the next one. I'm going to pay better attention.
Speaker 3:And so I think, it's like that with diet. It's like that with exercise. It's like that with all our goals. You start on the past, you do the best you can, you mess up, you get back on track and you keep going. And it doesn't matter that you messed up yesterday or last month or last week. If it's still a goal that you want to achieve, then you get back on and you keep trying.
Speaker 3:And if you find that you're messing up again and again and not staying on this track, it's time to take a really hard look and say what's getting in the way of my success and let's start to work on moving some of those barriers, because trying to do something but out without setting up your life to actually do it is just lying to yourself and it's going to create frustration and you know all of the things. Looking at the scale, that's not going to make a change. So sometimes it takes saying I am recommitting to goal. This is still something that I want to do and if it is, then what are the things that I'm going to do, that I'm going to put in place to make it happen?
Speaker 2:All right, all right. And when it comes to getting help, there's a website. The county has Health and Human Services website where they can find some assistance and almost immediately on the HHS website there's assistance that's readily available that people can look to Everything. Sometimes you can't find all the support that you need internally. Sometimes you need a little bit of help, right yeah. And when it comes to that little bit of help, the county does have this website available, which is MontgomeryCountyMDgov. Forward slash, hhs, or as a backslash, depending on how you look at it. Just look at it there. There's numbers right there available for the crisis center. If you find yourself or your family in a crisis, you can dial 240-777-4000. You don't always need to call 911. If there's a family mental health emergency, I think that's maybe one of the first places you start. There's also items or numbers in there to get assistance for people that are facing abuse or neglect.
Speaker 3:I'll also highlight the number 988 um, which is mental health emergencies. So if you are um, you can call or text 988 uh suicide prevention hotline. If you are feeling like things are getting to be too much, you can call that number. They will help and reach out. Um, the crisis center, also as uh as was is a great resource. So feel your feelings. It's okay to not be okay, but if not being okay is getting in the way, then it might be time to reach out for some help. Don't be afraid to phone a friend and don't be afraid to be the friend who recognizes that your friend needs help.
Speaker 2:That's right, and don't be afraid to ask the question. What's happening, MoCo? And that's what. That's what's happening right Taking care of yourself, getting help as needed, being a being, a help and being a resource to loved ones as well. Helping to identify that.
Speaker 2:You know, sometimes we can't see ourselves, Sometimes we don't know that we're exhibiting characteristics of depression or other things where we might be seeking help or we might need help. We don't know how to get help. Sometimes that help comes from someone else. Now, that's a hard thing to talk about, because in our community because, well, I'm going to say in my community, African-American community there's this thing called snitching and you don't want to call someone on someone else because you think they are going to hurt themselves, but you don't want to wait until after someone has hurt themselves or taken themselves out of the game to make that phone call. So what do you say to people that are hesitant to make the call themselves to help themselves, to get maybe therapy or counseling or some help, even during a crisis or during an ongoing season of challenges, or that needs to call for someone else? It's a hard call to make. What do you say to encourage those folks?
Speaker 3:You know all the folks that I know that have wrestled with that. Should I call? Should I get help? Just when they finally make the call, nine times out of 10, what they say is I wish I'd called sooner. There is support out there for you and the. You know all of the other things, the stigma that comes, the wanting to be strong. The. You know not wanting to get in other people's business. When a loved one is in crisis, you wish that you had called, and when you yourself are in crisis, the folks. The regret that people have is that they let themselves sit in it longer than they should have or could have.
Speaker 2:Wow, well, thank you. Thank you, dr Keisha, for those, those wise words and all the great advice that you provided us today. Really, really appreciate it. And that's what's happening in OCO Take care of yourselves this holiday, enjoy yourselves. This holiday. You can enjoy yourself and still be healthy, wealthy or wise, healthy mentally and physically. Get out there, hug your loved ones, eat the food, be thoughtful as you eat the food and, as always, ask the question what's happening, moco? Be sure to subscribe and share and have a happy, happy holiday season. More to come soon.
Speaker 1:Thanks for listening to what's Happening, MoCo. Please subscribe via your favorite podcasting platform and follow us on Facebook. This podcast is brought to you by County Cable Montgomery, your source for news and information from the Montgomery County Government. Connect with us via cable, Facebook, Instagram or YouTube by searching for County Cable MoCo.