Recently, I have been taking a series of webinar format midwifery classes every Thursday night. The midwife who teaches them lives in British Columbia and has been attending births for over thirty years. I get to pay a small fee and sit with her for an hour while I watch a real-time video of her teaching and sharing a power-point presentation simultaneously. Last night's class was on Gestational Diabetes, last week on optimal nutrition during pregnancy and the week before on the dilation and effacement of the cervix. I am so grateful for the opportunity to sit with a wise woman every Thursday night from the comfort of my own home. The teacher's name is Gloria Lemay, and you can check out her website here: http://glorialemay.com/
I had often in the past thought that distance education would be challenging for me, but this format of real-time interactive class is so compelling that I am feeling inspired to try and teach this way in the future. Costs can remain low for all, and the opportunity to reach many more interested students abounds! I am also looking into the possibility of attending a distance education midwifery school that utilizes webinars for class time. An entire school! Although it's unlikely that I would begin this until next Spring term, 2012, since I've got lots going on until then, it's exciting to consider the option.
As for the Gestational Diabetes class last night, I learned a lot. I especially appreciated Gloria's emphasis on how possible it is to prevent the symptoms of GD from arising through diet choices. I really am so interested in how our food effects our health. If you think about it, we are eating every single day. We make choices that effect the physical and energetic state of our body every day through our food choices. I love when this understanding becomes clinical in nature so that I can help others recognize steps that might be helpful to preventing and reversing conditions brought on directly by diet choices.
Basically, the GD-prevention diet is just a healthy diet in general: avoid sugars, decrease dairy intake, have only small fruit servings, eat complex carbs and whole foods, avoid sodas and tonic water, eat small meals throughout the day rather than in large lumps, avoid desserts, avoid caffeine, and avoid alcohol. It's not necessarily an easy diet for most folks to take on, but it's a healthy one. As Gloria said, there is no harm EVER in suggesting this diet to anyone. More likely than not, it will increase health and vitality in whoever adopts it, diabetes-diagnosed or not. In fact, Gloria's homework for us this week is to attempt to adopt the diet until class next Thursday- so I'm trying it out. So far, I've been doing okay, though I am having some tea this afternoon. Other than that, the diet is not terribly different from my normal one these days, which feels pretty good to recognize.
It's definitely given me a more aware eye, however, on what I am choosing to put in my body- which is a really beneficial effect of the homework assignment for me, regardless of whether I completely follow the diet or not. Would you like to try to adopt the diet for a week? See how it feels?
I had often in the past thought that distance education would be challenging for me, but this format of real-time interactive class is so compelling that I am feeling inspired to try and teach this way in the future. Costs can remain low for all, and the opportunity to reach many more interested students abounds! I am also looking into the possibility of attending a distance education midwifery school that utilizes webinars for class time. An entire school! Although it's unlikely that I would begin this until next Spring term, 2012, since I've got lots going on until then, it's exciting to consider the option.
As for the Gestational Diabetes class last night, I learned a lot. I especially appreciated Gloria's emphasis on how possible it is to prevent the symptoms of GD from arising through diet choices. I really am so interested in how our food effects our health. If you think about it, we are eating every single day. We make choices that effect the physical and energetic state of our body every day through our food choices. I love when this understanding becomes clinical in nature so that I can help others recognize steps that might be helpful to preventing and reversing conditions brought on directly by diet choices.
Basically, the GD-prevention diet is just a healthy diet in general: avoid sugars, decrease dairy intake, have only small fruit servings, eat complex carbs and whole foods, avoid sodas and tonic water, eat small meals throughout the day rather than in large lumps, avoid desserts, avoid caffeine, and avoid alcohol. It's not necessarily an easy diet for most folks to take on, but it's a healthy one. As Gloria said, there is no harm EVER in suggesting this diet to anyone. More likely than not, it will increase health and vitality in whoever adopts it, diabetes-diagnosed or not. In fact, Gloria's homework for us this week is to attempt to adopt the diet until class next Thursday- so I'm trying it out. So far, I've been doing okay, though I am having some tea this afternoon. Other than that, the diet is not terribly different from my normal one these days, which feels pretty good to recognize.
It's definitely given me a more aware eye, however, on what I am choosing to put in my body- which is a really beneficial effect of the homework assignment for me, regardless of whether I completely follow the diet or not. Would you like to try to adopt the diet for a week? See how it feels?
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