Dietetic Internship: Week 2

By the time you will be reading this, I will have made it through the second week of my internship — woohoo! While our actual rotations haven’t started yet, class has been in full swing with just a little work to keep us busy 😉 Here’s the rundown from the last week!!

Monday, July 13th: pretty “mon”-dane (very sad pun) day, filled with a morning workout, smoothie, and doing some class work at Barnes & Noble. Thrilling life!!!

Tuesday, July 14th: Regular class was put to the side today, and in place we attended a diabetes summit/continuing education seminar in Cullowhee on WCU’s campus. Despite sitting in a freezing room from 8:30 to 4:00, it actually addressed some really interesting topics. My favorite speaker talked about exercise and its effect on diabetes management and control. We always hear that exercise is good because it helps with weight loss, decreasing blood pressure, increasing cardiac health, fighting osteoporosis and whatnot — which is all good and VERY true — but the speaker, a doctor from the area, focused his presentation on the benefits exercise can have within our body that aren’t necessarily “visible”. Obviously if you lose 30 pounds and your pants don’t fit anymore, you know exercise is working. However, what if you are exercising consistently but still not losing weight? Does that mean you’re not reaping any benefits from your exercise regimen? Not at all! Dr. Provost (the speaker) highlighted multiple studies that have been conducted that have shown how exercise, independent of weight loss, can lead to a multitude of beneficial outcomes, such as modified genetic expression, an increase in endothelial progenitor cells, and a greater secretion of adiponectin that potentially turns “white (bad) fat” into “beige (bad fat acting like good fat) fat”. Another study he mentioned compared the insulin sensitivity of trained (aka in shape) individuals to untrained individuals and showed that despite the trained individuals receiving higher levels of glucose in the same amount of time as those untrained individuals, the trained still had lower levels of insulin at the end of the testing period…even though they were given a larger amount of glucose in the same time frame. I know that’s a lot of science for a lot of people to wrap their brains around (myself included, honestly), but it was truly one of the most interesting and thought-provoking presentations I’ve listened to. As a future dietetic practitioner, it’s my responsibility to remind and encourage patients that exercise is beneficial, even if there are no outward indicators, such as weight loss. Sooo, that’s enough for Tuesday, huh?

Wednesday, July 15th: Back to Barnes & Noble to work on cranking out this evidence-based research paper. It has been a hot minute since I’ve had to throw a paper together, and I’m pretty sure my attention span is getting shorter and shorter. 

Thursday, July 16th: Back to the diabetes summit again! We had three more presentations that we saw today that were all fairly interesting, ranging from diabetes in children, to older adults, to those who are pregnant. Today’s presentations seemed to be more focused on treatment protocols for hypo and hyperglycemia episodes, as well as control and management. The doctor that presented on diabetes in children was equally as interesting as the doctor that spoke about exercise on Tuesday. Dealing with young children that suffer from diabetes presents an extra challenge, as these young toddlers and children aren’t always able to express their thoughts or how they are feeling. If a one year old is suffering from severe hypoglycemia, she can’t just tell her mom “hey mom, stick me with my glucagon pen and call 911, my blood sugars are at 20 right now”. In this case, it is our responsibility to teach parents the warning signs of hypo and hyperglycemic events in young children. The presentation on gestational diabetes was also interesting as it highlighted the negative effects of hyperglycemia and uncontrolled diabetes on both mother and fetus during pregnancy and even after delivery. Ideally, a woman should work on getting her blood sugar under control at least 3-6 months prior to conception to minimize the potential complications that can come with uncontrolled diabetes. After the summit was finished, our group of interns went to a local brewery for a round of beer and hung out for almost 2 hours before going our separate ways. It was a beautiful afternoon and I was antsy from sitting all day, so I ended up finally finding a great place to run outside. It felt gooood. 

 

Friday, July 17th: Another fun Friday! Squeezed in a quick workout before heading to Biltmore Park to work on class work yet again with one of the other interns. I’m pretty sure this was my most productive day thus far. It’s amazing what a quiet workspace at a real desk can do for my productivity! The two of us broke for lunch around 2 and went to a restaurant right down from the school building called 131 Main Restaurant. One of the other interns had raved about their veggie burger, so we both felt it was necessary to try it. Yeah, it didn’t disappoint. After lunch, I headed back up to pound out some more work before heading home around 5:30. Friday evening was spent doing an unintentional progressive brewery crawl (just made up that term on the spot) which was fun! If you know me at all, you know I’m all about a good glass of Cabernet, but since moving to Asheville I’ve found myself drinking and reaching for craft beers over wine. *GASP* I smell an identity crisis. We went to this really awesome brewery called Funkatorium (which is a branch of Wicked Weed) that fermented their brews in old wine barrels, so it kinda combined the best of both worlds 😉 

Saturday, July 18th: Grabbed lunch at a BBQ place called 12 Bones which was awesome. Continued to work on this evidence-based research project…chugging away a little at a time, obviously. It’s due Monday though, and I actually work a little better under a time crunch, so I’m not too stressed quite yet. My cousin sent me a sweeeeet little set of steak knives that I got in the mail today, so I cracked those bad boys open for dinner as soon as I could!! Sometimes a simple dinner is just what I’m craving, and tonight was one of those nights. I don’t remember the last time I made a simple baked chicken breast (well okay it was probably in May, when I had my own kitchen), but I brought it back to the menu tonight and it was SO GOOD. Seasoned with ground pepper and garlic & herb Mrs. Dash seasoning before baking in a 400* oven for 30 minutes. What dreams are made of. If you eat poultry, that is. Paired it with simple roasted veggies (thrown on the same pan and roasted for the same time), and threw together a simple salad of arugula, strawberries, goat cheese, and Trader Joe’s champagne pear vinaigrette. Super satisfying dinner!!

 

Sunday, July 19th: Tried out another church in the area with one of the interns and her husband this morning! The pastor preached on Joshua 1:1-5 and stressed that even though we can go through leadership changes throughout history (be it in the church, the nation, a local organization, anywhere really), God and His work are still consistent and present. It was a very refreshing message and good reminder to think about. I came home and made a bomb lunch of avocado toast with a fried egg before packing up to grab some coffee and (hopefully) finish my research paper!!! I’m actually typing this now as a small study break, oops. Technically it isn’t due until tomorrow at midnight, but I’ve got a stack of other assignments that need to be started and my mom is coming to town on Wednesday for the week! Sidenote: Today’s also exciting because I hit my recommended intake of calcium without taking my supplement — YES STRONG BONES! After working with women in the WIC program and counseling them on adequate calcium and iron intake in their diet, I became a little more aware of my own intake of these two minerals. I decided to use the myfitnesspal app to help gauge and keep track of my vitamin/mineral intake, and found that I myself was barely reaching the daily recommended amount of calcium and iron! I’ve been trying to fill my diet with foods that are good sources of these so that I don’t have to rely on taking a supplement or vitamin, and I think I’m getting better at being more aware of varying my intake and making changes to include foods that are good sources of the vitamins and minerals I skimp on. Here’s a quick list of just some of the foods that are high in calcium (that aren’t all necessarily dairy-based!) that I try to eat on a regular basis:

• greek yogurt 
• unsweetened almond milk
• spinach
• arugula 
• kale
• broccoli
• oranges

As for good food sources of iron?:

• leafy greens (spinach, kale, arugula, collard greens)
• oatmeal
• beans
• lentils
• meat or poultry
• nuts (almonds, cashews, pinenuts, for example)

So, week two is in the books! I think it actually went by quicker than week one. Technically we are halfway through with our class, which is scary to think about. Check back next week, or follow me on the ‘gram to keep up to date on the intriguing life of a dietetic intern. Until then, eat the rainbow, drink your water, and do something exciting this week!