Inside Marcy's Mind
Having hosted the Aging aint for Sissie's podcast for two years, I wanted to expand what I could discuss. This podcast will touch on the fun of aging and whatever has crossed my mind! Please join me as I walk through life! #retirement #travel #fun #aginggracefully Link in my bio! Listen now!
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Inside Marcy's Mind
From Burnt Brownies to 8 foods to live longer and 8 foods to avoid before bed
Ever wondered how a simple cold could lead to a deep dive into workplace dynamics and the origins of the hashtag symbol? Battling a cold, I navigated the frustrating experience of purchasing new COVID tests after my government-issued ones expired, offering a comparative look at the healthcare landscapes in the U.S. and Canada. Despite feeling under the weather, this week was packed with productivity and fascinating discussions about foods that can help you live longer and those that might keep you up at night. Plus, you'll hear some jaw-dropping workplace stories that underscore the importance of looking out for our colleagues.
As we embrace the fall season, I share my reflections on city life, from the aftermath of a much-needed storm to ongoing concerns about cleanliness and safety. My book group added some much-needed vibrancy to the week, particularly our lively discussion on "Clara and the Sun" and the crucial role of engaging audiobook narrators. From burnt brownies to a delightful water taxi trip to Chinatown, this chapter explores both the challenges and joys of community interactions and personal growth.
Lastly, we dive into the intriguing history of the hashtag, formerly known as the pound symbol. Discover the etymology behind the term "octothorpe" and how this symbol has evolved in our digital age. This episode wraps up with a thought-provoking message encouraging listeners to make positive changes in their lives, leaving you inspired and better informed. So join me, Marci Backus, for a week full of personal anecdotes, practical advice, and a touch of history that promises to be both entertaining and enlightening.
Hello and welcome to the Aging A for Sissies podcast. My name is Marci Backus and I am your host. All right, good morning, hope everybody is doing well. I have my very deep podcast voice today. I'm getting over a cold and know it's not COVID. Thought it was for a couple days, but tested negative, tested negative. I'm still very resentful over COVID. I don't know about you. I'm resentful that I have to buy a $10 test now because all my government tests have expired and although you could probably use them, then you don't trust the results. It was a mind game for me this week. So I went to craig and I went to cvs and we grabbed three tests because we figure if I have it, then I have to have another one to test that I don't have it anymore and then we need to test to see if he has it. So we purchased three tests and I'm thinking, okay, five bucks a piece, right, what, what, what could it cost 10 bucks each?
Speaker 1:When we were in canada last year at this time we um in september, we went on a cruise with our friends and we went to canada and in canada, at the end of the trip I got sick so we went into the pharmacy. I needed to get some cold medicine and I prefer to take the one for blood pressure. It doesn't have all the anxiety inducing drugs in it and asked the pharmacist and she said, well, have you tested for COVID? And I said, well, no, I'm here on a vacation and I just figured I had a cold. And she said, well, it's going around again, and it sure enough was last year. It always goes around just before we get the new shot. But she says here, take a box. She hands me a box with five tests in it. Thank you Canada, not CVS in Chicago. Ten dollars a piece. Then I was mad that I threw out all my expired ones. I'm like I should have just whatever. This is my problem.
Speaker 1:Anyway, I hope your week has gone well. Despite having a cold, I've had a great week. I'm going to try to stick through it. Today I have my cough button, so you may hear the cough button go, so you don't hear me cough occasionally. But yeah, pretty exciting, right? We've got a few things to talk about this morning. Then we're going to talk about eight foods that help you live to 100, according to centenarians and then eight sleep-depriving foods. Now I debated on whether to give you guys all 16 of these foods at once, because I'm afraid you might confuse them and you'll be sleeping all the time and you'll just sleep to 100. I don't know what happens if you confuse them all, but I do have the windows open this morning. It's gorgeous. It's 6 am here in Chicago on Wednesday. I did say I'm going to start dropping the podcast on Wednesday, so I'll either record them Wednesday mornings or Tuesday nights. My cold was really bad last night so I decided to wait till this morning. So the sunrise is going to happen in about 25 minutes. Craig is off running, my household is on the move, the cats are in the windows, so let's get started.
Speaker 1:What happened with me this week? Well, other than the cold, oh, there were some things in the news I wanted to talk about. Did you hear about this poor woman, 60 years old, died at her desk in Wells Fargo and they didn't find her for four days. Okay, people, we really need to be back in the office. I mean, that's an argument for anybody that says we need to be back in the office. This poor woman. No one came and said hey, margo, margo, you want some lunch? What's happening, margo? Like nobody talked to her for four days, people, she was dead at her desk. That's just wrong, wrong, wrong. So here's the thing that really bugs me. They know she clocked in because she has to clock in on her computer. So companies care about you clocking in. But here's something people, companies don't give a rat's patootie that you ever clock out. It's like the roach motel check in but you can't check out a little sip of my coffee there to keep my throat going.
Speaker 1:And then here's another one. Okay, team building exercise T. Okay, capital T. In that team building, a group of coworkers go to a mountain to do a team building exercise and end up leaving a coworker on the mountain overnight. Okay, what is this saying about our work ethic and our work societies? I don't know. But man, oh man, a team building exercise and you leave one of your coworkers on a mountain. It boggles my mind Unbelievably. So Okay, we're doing the catch exercise. Where's Bob? Don't know, he could have been eaten by a bear. There's so many things. It's so bad overnight. And a storm came in, I think. Or maybe making that part up, making it more dramatic. I do love a dramatic story, but anyway, those are two things that, if I was still working would give me pause for cause. I'm telling you Pause for cause on that one people Dead at your desk and left on a mountain.
Speaker 1:We need to look into our office, how things work. Check on your coworkers right now. If you're listening to this at work, which you probably aren't supposed to, but are on your break, when you get back, check on Diana in her cubicle in the back, please. Diana's my ex -supervisor who absolutely adore who listens. So, hi, diana. But yeah, somebody check on Diana. Somebody go to Tracy's new office down there and make sure she's OK occasionally. Ok, my old office mates, don't let this happen to each other. I'll be very sad. All right, what else? Oh, craig and I, beautiful, oh, ok.
Speaker 1:So last week you heard about the weather in Chicago. Good Lord, it was on the national news. It was not that hot people. Two days we were in the 90s but our heat index was in the hundreds and I don't know. I was out when the heat index was supposed to be in 100. And you know I love heat. It did not feel hot to me, it just felt humid. So, whatever.
Speaker 1:But after that we have slid into our hopefully long slide into fall and winter. We're in the 70s, it's just gorgeous. It's in the 60s this morning, windows are open, air is fresh. I you know, after that big, huge storm that came in a couple of weeks ago kind of cleaned the city really good. That was a good hard rain. We need that to clean our sidewalks because, god knows, this city spends no money on cleaning.
Speaker 1:That's something that Craig and I were just talking about before he left this morning, because something bad happened on one of our trains and four people that were sleeping early in the morning were shot, and that's just unacceptable. Sleeping people on a train may sound awful. If you don't live in a city, it's no big deal. They're sleeping. Leave them alone. Coughing, coughing button Okay, I hit the coughing button and then left it pressed and continued to record, so I've got to go back. So we were talking about the train Also. I'm not sure whether I now I'm so confused on what I've talked about, but nonetheless that was very sad and we need more security on our trains. We need our train stations cleaned. We need things done.
Speaker 1:So I maybe I should be mayor. I'm not qualified to be mayor. I'm barely qualified to run a podcast and run a book group and be on the head of the stewardship committee at church, which my little something is creating a playbook, and that's my goal on this committee is to create a playbook for the next person so that they're not having to figure it out. I I deplore creating a wheel when a wheel has been created before, so my goal is to leave something for others to follow. You don't have to follow it exactly, but it gives you an idea of who has what and what has what and who handles the website and how do you get things changed on the website and things like that. It's. I feel like I'm struggling to figure those things out and that should be something that's fairly easy. So, nonetheless, that's what's going on.
Speaker 1:Oh, speaking of book group, craig and I had book group last night. We discussed clara and the sun. If you haven't read it, it's a slight sci-fi book, um, in the sense that it's a ai related, it's about an artificial friend for a young girl. Very good book, very good book, not very long. I listened to it. I'm excellent reader. You know, when you listen to books, I'm going to take a sip again. When you listen to books, it's really important on the person that does the reading, because they have to do voices for different characters and some are better than others, fyi. But I do love listening to books. But I do love listening to books. Um, it's easier for me if I read books. I fall asleep so and I can listen in the car, I can listen when I'm walking to the gym, I can just listen all the time. So I do enjoy that.
Speaker 1:Um, but I always bring a treat, and yesterday I don't know if you've ever had my favorite brownie mix by far is Trader Joe's. What are they called? Truffle brownies. They are the best brownies. You make them with butter and eggs and the mix so stinking good. A stick of butter, two eggs, you melt the butter, you whisk the eggs, you put it together and then you add the mix in and they are. They're like eating truffles almost. Truffles are too rich for me, so they're not. Yes, patrick, thanks for sharing, if you heard Patrick, um, anyways. So I popped them in the oven.
Speaker 1:I sat at my desk, I was making I like to make bookmarks for the book club with when we meet and the dates coming up. So I made a cute little fall bookmark and I'm cutting it. And then my friend Shane called and Shane and I were gabbing on the phone and my microwave timer only beeps once. This is a problem I usually use. You know who, alexa I can't say it cause she'll wake up over there but I started using when we got all the new stuff. The microwave timer only only beeps once and I now have learned that that's a problem. Because I didn't hear it and I burnt my brownies.
Speaker 1:Honestly, I've never burnt a baked good in my life. I've burnt steak, I burnt chicken, I burnt other things, but I've never burnt a baked good. And I'm to have to throw out this pan of brownies sitting over there because they're really burnt. Even with my taste buds not being at the tip top right now, they're burnt and that made me really sad. But you know, what was really nice is we live a block from Trader Joe's.
Speaker 1:So I threw on my shoes, I walked down to Trader Joe's, got me some cookies and called it a day. Craig goes are you going to make them again? I'm like no one big good, a day is enough. So I went down to Trader Joe's, got some cookies and took care of that, had those for book group. They were just fine. Book group was small. Getting a little worried, you know you can't drag people to water. And I have learned another thing about a city church it's not a suburb church. You know. People, unless they live close by, I don't think are going to come during the middle of the week. So Craig and I are going to have to do some work on that and see what we can do to improve our attendance at our book group.
Speaker 1:What else, oh, I was talking about the beautiful weather and the reason I was talking about it, because Monday, which was Labor Day, craig and I took the water taxi here on the river. We live a couple of blocks up from the chicago river and we took the water taxi there up to chinatown. How fun chinatown was, hopping. We had actually driven through it saturday on our way home. We were coming home from the suburbs and, um, we went to a birthday party out there for our one year old and three year old niece and great niece and great nephew on Craig's side and they are adorable had a fun little country farm birthday, lots of bugs, but super, fun, fun. And we were driving home and as I go to get on Lake shore drive, I realized that there is a soccer game happening at the stadium which we drive right by. So I shifted my driving and we ended up driving through Chinatown on Saturday night, hopping, hopping, hopping place, I'll tell you that Chinatown in Chicago, and uh. So we took the water taxi up there. How fun, and it doesn't go fast, it goes nice and slow up the river. It's quite enjoyable, it's not like a taxi driving that drive crazy. Got up to Chinatown and walked into Chinatown and had lunch, walked around old Chinatown, went into some bakeries, got some yummies, ate those in the park where they drop you off at Ping Tom Park is where the boat comes in. So we had our little snacks in the beautiful park there with beautiful trees, willows, and then got back on the boat and took it back home and walked home. It was just what an enjoyable day.
Speaker 1:I come up with great stuff. I love living in a city. There's so much to do and you can do nothing. It's your choice. You can be up in your little tower here and not talk to anybody or you can be down with people. I was talking with it with a gal last night and it's it's just your choice. Where in the suburbs, like nobody's talking to anybody, nobody comes outside, everybody goes in their garage and into their house and and that's all fine and that's what we lived for a very long time. But I'll tell you, I, a people person, enjoy a city. I love talking to people when I walk. I love eavesdropping on conversations and butting in, which I do quite often.
Speaker 1:So far it's gone. Well, you never know, but I kind of know when to talk and when not to. Um, I don't know. It's a pretty great place to live. I have no now. I have been warned that this winter is going to be bad. Well, you know. Okay, I'm ready.
Speaker 1:Um, we are going on a trip in the beginning of December. We leave the day after Thanksgiving, heading to Switzerland and we are going to the Christmas markets from Switzerland to the Netherlands. We'll end up in Amsterdam, which is awesome because my nephew, dennis, lived in Amsterdam for years and he's given me all kinds of good places to go. I'm very sad that they moved back last year. I was hoping they would be there, but that's how life goes. But he's giving me all kinds of insights and places to eat and things to do, which I appreciate. If you ever come to Chicago, I'm happy to do the same for anybody.
Speaker 1:Again, please share my podcast inside Marcy's mind with your friends. You can go to my website inside Marcy's mindcom. You can listen to all episodes there for free. You can listen to it on Spotify, apple, anywhere. You get your podcasts, I am. So share them with your friends. You can actually share a podcast. Hit that share button and share it, trying to build my following. I think I'm going to have to go with video, but that's going to make me really sad because that means I need to get my act together for video. But I think video is really how a podcast grows. I am on YouTube. You can listen on YouTube. There's no video, but you can listen to the audio on YouTube. So if you're a YouTuber I know a lot of people in my demographic are you they listened to, they watch videos on YouTube, so you can listen to it. Just search Inside Marci's Mind, at Marci's Mind on YouTube, and you can listen to this podcast. We are now dropping every Wednesday, so that's the housekeeping for right now, but please tell your friends. If you enjoy this podcast, please share it Again.
Speaker 1:Today we are going to talk about eight foods that allow you to live a long time and eight foods to avoid if you want a good night's sleep. So hang in there. Grab a Diet Coke, a coffee, a tea. I'm going to take a couple swallows of my coffee, have a few good coughs before I move on and we go through the foods. All right, hang in there. Okay, so these are eight foods that centenarians eat often. But what might fascinate you is that these long-lived individuals are the foods they eat and the habits that they have around eating. Some eating patterns seen in centenarians include eating a large breakfast, eating mostly plant-based food, avoiding weight loss diets, moderating alcohol and reserving sweets for celebrations. Well, damn, you got me there. I don't reserve my sweets for nothing. With these practices in mind, these are eight foods that researchers have identified as staples.
Speaker 1:So legumes one of the top foods amongst centenarians is legumes, and they're rich in fiber and they give you protein. So it makes absolute sense and they're not hard on your stomach like meats and other proteins. So, um, fiber rich foods. They help with your cholesterol, blood sugar and they lower the risk of chronic diseases like cancer and heart disease. Again, remember I'm no doctor, so take whatever I say with a grain of salt. Legumes encompass beans, peas and lentils. So regardless of whether you typically reach for chickpeas, black beans or red lentils, snap peas. They're all good for you and they're all part of that diet.
Speaker 1:Olive oil we have heard this, we know this. It's a culinary staple. It's got plant compounds, vitamin E, vitamin K, and it serves as an antioxidant. It's also an inflammation lower and you know how I feel about that, further decreasing chronic disease risk. So olive oil, okay. So legumes and olive oil like what is hummus, crushed up, chickpeas and olive oil, like there you go, there's your longevity food, right there in your, in your aisle at trader joe's seven different things to keep you to live to 100. Now let's talk about that for one second. I only have the desire to live long as long as I'm healthy. So I think that's all of us I. That's a huge part of it. Okay, nuts and seeds. Nuts are full of vitamins, minerals. Nuts are associated with reduced risk for heart disease and inflammation. Again, antioxidants. So again, longevity benefits people. So we're look, I do not know what's wrong with my little kitty this morning.
Speaker 1:Tea, whether it's green, black, herbal, caffeinated or decaf tea, is one of the top beverages amongst blues owners. Oh, my God, I didn't even know about that name Blues owners. I think that comes from old ladies with blue hair, blues owners, this is likely, thanks, I'm going to use that more. This is likely thanks to the multitude of antioxidant rich plant compounds it contains. In fact, tea consumption has been shown to support immune, heart, gut, brain and metabolic health. So tea is good for you.
Speaker 1:I like iced tea. I'll drink black tea, occasionally. Hot tea I had it in Chinatown Interesting, I always like it when I am eating Asian food, so that's kind of funny. Seafood that's a bust for me, but we all know that fish is another. Many blue zoners are located near the ocean, so I don't know what that means. But anyhow, certain types of seafood, omega-3 fatty acids so those are good. You can also take those over the counter. I do. I can't eat fish. Don't like fish, never will.
Speaker 1:Don't ask why whole wheat sourdough bread whole get listen to that. Whole wheat sourdough. While whole wheat sourdough bread combines a few common food trends, seen across centenarians, whole grains. It. It's rich in fiber, minerals and B vitamins, especially when compared to their white refined counterparts. Well, we know refined bread has not got nothing. Eating whole grains is associated with lower mortality risk from cardiovascular disease and cancer. Many centenarians are known for their high energy level. Starchy foods may help centenarians stay active until very late in life, and this is an interesting one. Many people living 100 or longer bake their own bread, a lot of times using a sourdough starter. There's some information. People, sourdough starter there's some information, people, the bacteria, the culture. And the bacteria sparks fermentation in bread dough, helping to digest some of the gluten. So if you've got a gluten issue, sourdough is going to be your best bet because of that.
Speaker 1:Sweet potatoes I love sweet potato fries. Does that count if I do them in olive oil? But sweet potatoes, they're high in potassium, vitamin A and vitamin C. Again, those are things that are found to help improve immune, heart and metabolic health. I love sweet potatoes. You know you can bake a sweet potato just like you bake a regular potato. Potatoes. You know you can bake a sweet potato just like you bake a regular potato. It's you know. I know they seem like foreign to so many people, but instead of doing a baked potato just, my mom used to bake a sweet potato when she lived alone and, and, and that would be her dinner.
Speaker 1:And um, turmeric, turmeric is another one. Turmeric is hard on my stomach. I can't take turmeric. It causes problems for for me. But if you can, um, it's a certain nutrient, dense spice, like turmeric, that can promote longevity. Turmeric is rich in phytronutrients such as flavonoids. So that's it. And again, it reduces inflammation in the body, supporting overall health. So those are our eight centenarian foods that you can eat for a long life, you know, and I happen to like a lot of those foods, so let's talk real quick about eight. These are foods now that we're talking about that mess with your sleep.
Speaker 1:So we always think about what we drink. Caffeine, caffeine, caffeine. You know, alcohol is not good for your sleep. People drinking before you go to bed, those sugars all of a sudden wake you up in the middle of the night. Not a good thing. Having it prior to bed, maybe a glass of wine with dinner is good, but don't drink just before bed. Um, and we know about what we. We consume liquid wise that causes problems. But what about? These are the eight worst things, worst foods. So caffeinated tea. Caffeinated tea is above coffee on this interesting caffeinated tea. So if you're going to drink that tea to relax, make sure you're doing a non-caffeinated tea.
Speaker 1:Although chocolate has what many of us crave late at night, got a cough hold on, okay. Although chocolate is what many of us crave, late at night, it, if you consistently enjoy it before bed, it could be the culprit. It's rich in both caffeine and added sugar. Sugar is another nutrient that can negatively affect sleep. So avoid sugary foods. That's when I love to eat. My sugary foods is in bed just before I go to bed. But carbonated beverage there's another problem for me. No wonder my sleep is so messed up. People, I'm doing everything wrong.
Speaker 1:Carbonated beverages I love carbonated beverages, but even no sugar added. Decaffeinated carbonated beverages are best to avoid, and not at bedtime. This is because the air bubbles responsible for the fizziness in the drinks can lead to gas, bloating and general stomach discomfort, which, by the way, I have noticed lately. So, pretty funny, I get decaf Diet Coke from Chick-fil-A on the corner thinking I'm doing something great. Now I can't even drink my carbonated beverage before dinner. I mean before bed Cheese drink my carbonated beverage before dinner. I mean before bed cheese, whether it's cheese puffs or cheese plates, another cheesy treat. All cheesy products should be finished well before bedtime approaches.
Speaker 1:Cheese can interfere with healthy sleep for a handful of reasons. It causes digestive discomfort and rich acid reflux symptoms and other certain varieties of cheeses, especially aged cheese, has tyramine, high tyramine. Tyramine is an amino acid found in aged and fermented foods. Can trigger the release of I can't even say this word people. Noropene oh, norepinephrine I can say that word A brain stimulant, so good to know. Cheese Stay away from that cheese. Citrus fruits Again good to know. Cheese Stay away from that cheese. Citrus fruits Again acid reflux Not a good thing. Eat a low acid fruit like a mango or a banana or a pear is a good swap.
Speaker 1:Alcohol we've talked about. Alcoholic beverage can actually keep us awake at night, while certain types of alcohol contain tyramine. All varieties have been found time and time again to interfere with healthy sleep patterns. They're just not good. And this comes from you. All know I'm an alcoholic, been sober 36 years. I'm telling you it's not good. Spicy dishes unless it's something that is in your culture and it's something that you're used to, spicy dishes again are going to knock up that acid reflux. It's going to interfere with a night's sleep. It's going to keep you awake. Okay, this is sad.
Speaker 1:This is the last and final one, and this one is ice cream. Ice cream is a classic pre-bedtime snack for many Americans, and I don't know why, but it is. It is for me, bedtime snack for many americans, and I don't know why, but it is. It is for me. However, it's high saturated fat content may be preventing you from getting the beauty rest you deserve. In a 2015 study, it found that men who had higher saturated fat intake demonstrated greater symptoms of insomnia compared to those who didn't. And, to add insult to injury, high fat dairy foods like ice cream can also promote stomach upset and acid reflux. So there you have it, people. I've given you eight foods that are going to help you live longer, eight foods to avoid if you want a good night's sleep.
Speaker 1:So take that Hope. You learned something. Hope it's something that helps you. That's what I'm talking about. Something that helps you. That's what.
Speaker 1:All right, today's fun fact is built around what is now known as the hashtag. So when I was a kid, it was called the pound symbol and it showed up when we got push button phones and they said, at some point in our life, we would use it. Well, we did back in the day when we had to I don't know about those of you that remember when we had to do long distance calling and we had to put in a whole bunch of different numbers and you could only call on Saturdays because it was cheaper, et cetera, et cetera. But that's when we started using it. So now it's called the hashtag. It is technically called an octothorpe. So here's your hashtag knowledge for the day.
Speaker 1:According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, the octo prefix refers to the eight points on the popular symbol, but the thorpe remains a mystery. One theory claims that it comes from the old English word for village, based on the idea that the symbol looks like a village surrounded by eight fields. So there you have it. There's your useless fact of the day. And did you know a hashtag pound symbol is called an octothorpe. Have a great day and go out and do something positive. Thank you.
