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
Family Adventures and Nutritious Breakfasts!
Imagine waking up to the smell of freshly baked chocolate almond croissants and southern-style biscuits in the heart of Denver. Join us as I recount our adventurous trip to the Mile-High City, where my husband Craig, our son Alec, and his girlfriend Sharon, and I indulged in delightful breakfast spots. From bustling mornings filled with hiking and climbing to a rare late-night concert outing, this episode captures the essence of family bonding and the invigorating spirit of Colorado. Craig's impressive stamina at nearly 69 years old will inspire you, and our shared experiences might just rekindle your own sense of adventure.
As we traverse through our Denver tales, we also delve into meaningful conversations about voting, especially emphasizing the critical role of young people in elections. Listen to why I, a libertarian, chose to support Kamala Harris, and how this decision sparked lively debates in our household. Additionally, I'll recount a picturesque train ride through the mountains and a quirky dining experience in Georgetown, blending personal anecdotes with broader reflections on civic duty and the journey towards Medicare eligibility. Nita Wenrick and Jeannie Gormick, whose insights can be found on my website insidemarcismind.com, also add valuable perspectives to our discussion.
Fuel your mornings with our anti-inflammatory breakfast ideas, designed to kickstart your day with a healthy boost. We'll guide you through delicious and nutritious options like oatmeal with walnuts and goji berries, homemade flaxseed and almond butter bars, and the vibrant combination of eggs with greens. For those seeking variety, we also explore tofu scrambles with turmeric, vegan breakfast burritos, and nutrient-packed smoothies. Plus, get practical tips for making homemade veggie patties and discover the intriguing fact about how hot water can freeze faster than cold. Tune in for a blend of culinary inspiration, health insights, and a sprinkle of science, all wrapped in the warmth of family tales and personal growth.
Hello and welcome to Inside Marci's Mind. My name is Marci Backus and I am your host. Well, for those of you that listen to my old podcast AG&E for Sissies, you recognize that music and I just love that music so much I brought it back. My other music for Inside Marci's Mind was fine. This one I liked better. So now it's Inside Marcy's Mind. But I will be honest with you, that intro was hard to record because I kept saying AG name for sissies instead of Inside Marcy's Mind Kind of amused me. Anyway, always welcome. My name is Marcy Backus.
Speaker 1:We talk about all kinds of things here on Inside Marci's Mind, and I'm glad you're here, I'm glad you're listening today. Today is no difference. We'll talk a little bit about what's been going on with my life. So, to get started, let's do that, but first go ahead and grab yourself something to drink. Get yourself a coffee, iced tea, diet Coke my favorite. If you're driving, make sure you're focusing on the road, and let's get started. Well, let's see, it's been a week since I last talked to you. Again, just a reminder that we drop our new episodes on Wednesdays. And so last week, on Thursday, my husband and I in the evening, took off to Denver to see our son and his girlfriend, sharon had a wonderful weekend, gosh, we were so busy. I don't know about you, but when you reach a certain age and maybe younger, I'm not quite sure. But I don't like to do more than one event a day, and let me tell you we were doing a lot of events, a lot of things, a lot of things. My son loves breakfast, going out to breakfast, so do I. I'd rather go out to breakfast than any other meal of the day. How about you? Is it breakfast, lunch or dinner for you? I'm a breakfast fan. I love all breakfast foods. I don't love all foods, so therefore, lunch and dinner are not my favorite. Breakfast is, and we went to several great breakfast places. Or, on um Friday, we went to a bakery that they love there in Denver and I got a chocolate almond croissant and um, croissant and um. It was delicious, it was so good, so yummy, um and um.
Speaker 1:Each day, we went to a great breakfast place. The second day was like a southern place that had really good biscuits and things like that. I'm trying to think of what I ate there, though. Oh, I wasn't super hungry. I had a, a single egg and a biscuit, so that's why it wasn't that memorable. I wasn't super hungry. I had a single egg and a biscuit, so that's why it wasn't that memorable. I wasn't hungry. The third day we went to a breakfast place and I had the best breakfast sandwiches on a Kaiser roll, an egg with bacon in it, cheese, a hash brown. It was delicious. I ate half of it. So Alec got half of it for his lunch this week. So it was, it was just it was.
Speaker 1:We did a lot of breakfast places, we did some walking, we hiked. On Saturday we went to breakfast to the southern place and we met my son's friend, pete, band musician. He plays for a lot of very famous people. Plus he's also a music director and he was in town with Suki Waterhouse, who is very famous but not in our sector. She's much younger demographic, so just keep that in mind as we move forward and we talk about things. But she's got a young demographic and Pete. So we got to see Pete perform. But we also got to have breakfast with Pete. I've known Pete since he was very young. Alec was glad to see his friend. It was lovely.
Speaker 1:But so Saturday went to breakfast. Then we drove out to a place where Sharon and Alec my son, if you don't know, is a climber and so is his girlfriend, sharon they had set a permanent route. They are now certified to set permanent routes into rock for people to climb and so they took um craig. Well, we all hiked out there but we took they took craig to climb on this route and I was very proud of craig. He turned 69 in a week. It's his second time climbing with alec and he he's done a great job. He's a good sport and he goes and he does it. And I'm really proud of him because, to be honest, with the kids growing up, craig worked and wasn't very involved in anything the kids did.
Speaker 1:I was involved in everything. I've been involved in Alec scootering, climbing, skateboarding, you name it. I've been there Snowboarding, getting in boots when he's going just everything. I was always there. It boots when he's going snow just everything. I was always there. It's great to see Craig participate but I have to be honest, turning 69 in a few days, what he did was very impressive and Craig works hard at keeping himself healthy. I hope you do too.
Speaker 1:I waited till way late in life to try to keep myself healthy, but I'm doing it. But I should have done it a lot sooner. I kind of left myself about 25 years of not doing the best things for me, Staying sober but not eating healthy, not being healthy. And with that said, our segment today, our information segment today, is going to be about anti-inflammatory breakfasts and we'll talk a little bit about inflammation. But it was fun, but the funny thing was so then we then we got, we went to dinner on our way back because everybody was starving and then we went to the concert. Now it's been a very, very, very, very long time since Marcy has gone out at nine o'clock at night to start her evening. So at nine we left the house about eight 30 and got to the concert venue at nine, did the concert and as we were leaving the concert we were kind of a hanging around waiting for Pete to see if we can see Pete.
Speaker 1:And another older gentleman walks up to Craig and I thought, oh, I was talking with Alec and Sharon and I thought, oh, that must be one of Craig's friends. That's kind of weird, cause this again the demographic was twenties, teens and 20s, like high school kids were there. I missed my homecoming for this. You know, her music is great. It's just that's. Her demographic is very tick tocky, I think, and she's married to Robert or she has Robert Patterson's child, if you know who Robert Patterson the actor is. So she's got street cred.
Speaker 1:But this gentleman walks up to Craig and says says can I shake your hand? And Craig goes sure, and he goes. I need to ask you something. And Craig goes yes, he goes, how old are you? I need to know if I'm the oldest guy here. And Craig goes well, I'm 68. He goes, well, you win. And then this guy, poor guy, goes on to tell us how much he loves Suki Waterhouse and literally I mean she's good, but she's not. I'm not there because I'm a fan, I'm there because Pete's playing and I wanted to see Pete. And again, she was good. The show was great, pete did a great job, it was really good. But it was pretty funny because this guy just wanted to know who was the oldest person there. And Craig probably was, and I was probably older than that guy too. So that kind of cracked me up.
Speaker 1:Oh, and then the next. So you, so when you go to a concert these types of concerts to obviously draw younger people they give you a wristband if you're able to drink. So when you come in, they look at your ID and they wristband you if you're over 21. Well, of course, they looked at mine and Craig's ID, which was just cracking me up to no end anyway, but I'll take it. You know, I know they have to do their job and I got my wristband. So when I woke up on Sunday morning and I looked at my wrist and there was a wristband. It's been a lot of years, let me just tell you. It's been some time since I've woken up and had a bright lime green wristband on my wrist. And they didn't even do that when I was young. I mean, I've had it done when I was probably in my 30s for something. So it's been like 30 years. But yeah, yeah, that was pretty funny, kind of cracked me up.
Speaker 1:And this is our 21st episode of Inside Marcy's Mind. I'm very excited to tell you that. So if you haven't heard the others, you can go back and listen. You can find them on my website, insidemarcy'smindcom. You can find them wherever you get iHeartRadio. You can find them on Spotify. You can find them on Apple. Wherever you get your podcast, you can find mine. I would love for you to share it. We're trying to grow this new audience. Um, I did lose some people, which is kind of weird, but I I lost a few people switching podcasts. I'm hoping that they're working their way through um, aging aid for sissies and when they get to the end they realize that, uh, I've switched over to this podcast but nonetheless, I'm sticking with this podcast. Um, I am enjoying this format, being a little bit more free to talk about other things besides aging.
Speaker 1:But, speaking of that, next week you're going to hear our favorite, nita Wenrick. Her and I are doing an episode today talking about all the changes in Medicare. So if you're not on Medicare but you're going to be soon, like me, in 16 months this is important. If you have a parent who is on Medicare, a lot of people don't follow the changes and they don't know the things that are changing. Medicare sends out information, but people don't always pay attention. So if your folks or someone in your life that you care about is on Medicare, listen to the episode and get them the information and updates.
Speaker 1:There's some good things. I don't know if there's any bad things. I do know there's some good things. So Nita is going to fill us in with all of that If you have listened to me and Nita before. Nita Wenrick's information is on my website. Again, jeannie Gormick, who I spoke with last week her information is on my website and it's just super easy inside Marci's mind dot com Can't get any easier than that. You can also email me. I'm happy to send you any information that you may need, any information or where I get my facts. Again, I'm not a doctor, so anything I ever talk about is my opinion or my research.
Speaker 1:Only the elections coming up. I care who you vote for, but I'm going to say I want you to vote, just vote. If you're one of my young listeners, vote. Voting is important. It's a right that you are given. Not everybody has the right to vote. Some people have lost their right to vote. People die for the right to vote, so I know in our right to vote People die for the right to vote, so I know in our country it seems so blasé, but it shouldn't. And if you have convictions of any sort, make sure you're voting those convictions. If you are a woman and you want your rights back, vote accordingly. Again, I'm not going to tell you who to vote for. I'm voting outside of my party this time.
Speaker 1:I am a libertarian. I believe in the libertarian concepts. If you don't know what a libertarian believes, go to libertarianorg and find out. You may be one too and you just may not know it. But I am going to be voting for Kamala Harris at this election. That is my choice.
Speaker 1:My husband disagrees with my choice, but again, we're just married. He's not the boss of me. So if you're married and you are feeling different than your spouse, it's fine to vote that way. I have my convictions, he has his. They usually align with most things, but this time is going to be a little different. Let's see what else is going on.
Speaker 1:So we had a great time in Denver. Back to Denver a little bit. Let's see what else is going on. So we had a great time in Denver. Back to Denver a little bit. On Sunday. The aspens are changing, so we went up into the mountains to Georgetown and Silver Plume, silver Plume. We caught a train that went down to Georgetown, back up to Silver Plume, got to see all the fall foliage so beautiful. The aspens are just golden and they just are twinkle. They're so beautiful Against those evergreens is amazing.
Speaker 1:Then we drove down to George, back down to Georgetown, walked through, georgetown had some dinner on the river. You know, when you go to places like that and you eat, it's always kind of an experience. So we waited an hour to get into this restaurant on the river. So the gal comes to take our order and can we order any appetizers? And I said yes, um, we would like the brie. Oh, we're out of brie. Would you like another choice? Madam, that's what she said. I said, okay, then let's do the um. Oh, my gosh, now the name just went out. Another there was a cheese, uh, the burrata. Oh, I'm sorry, we're out of that. I'm like, okay, and I pick one more. Can't even remember what I picked and they were out of that. Oh, it was their um, like a fondue type, buffalo chicken dip thing, something they're out of that. So he said, okay, can you let us know what else you're out of before we make any more decisions? So she comes back and she tells us what they don't have for food. Um, you know, so it's just.
Speaker 1:But you know, I'm a little irritated after this one. Alec is like mom, just relax. I'm like, you know, like I, it's it. He never wants me to have an emotion of any kind, good or bad, and it's like I can be frustrated that I ordered three appetizers and they don't have any of them. That is a fair thing. That is, that's fair. I wasn't like, ordered one thing and I was irritated. I ordered three appetizers, but apparently I'm not supposed to be irritated, so lesson learned, whatever.
Speaker 1:Um, then they were out of. Some of it was quite comical, quite quite comical so. But we did get some food. It was decent for being kind of a small town and in the mountains and so forth. But there you have it. And then we got back to their place and we got to watch a couple hours worth of great video and pictures of their two week river rafting trip with 14 of their friends down the Grand Canyon this summer. And there's so many videos, so many pictures, I felt like I was there. So that's what's been going on with me. I hope you had a great week. I hope things are good.
Speaker 1:Oh, my last thing is you know I was on Cobra insurance from Craig's last job and that ended and I started my own insurance on October 1st. So I'm on my own plan and just in case you are working for a company that's giving you insurance, just so you know, when they offer you insurance at a low or less than average price or a price that you are even still shocked with. Let me tell you mine's $1,300 a month, and it's not even the greatest plan. It's a good plan because I have issues and I want to make sure I'm covered for 16 more months until I turn 65 and I'm able to go on the glorious Medicare plan, and Medicare is good. So if you remember from back in your parents' day, when everybody said Medicare wasn't, it's good. So it's the first time I'm excited to age, because that $1,300 is a hit and that's you know. And then you still have to pay when you go to the doctor. You still have. It's just. That is something that needs to be fixed in this country. Well, sit back, refill those drinks I'm going to have a couple sips of my coffee that's sitting here in my hand that I haven't had and then we're going to move on to anti-inflammatory breakfast. Okay, so, anti-inflammatory breakfast food.
Speaker 1:So, first of all, all, what is inflammation? Inflammation is something I talk a lot about on this podcast, because inflammation hurts and it's a response from your immune system that occurs when your cells have been damaged. So this is causes the body to release chemicals, antibodies, proteins, which increase blood flow, to repair that. For chronic inflammation, the response lingers, eventually causing damage to organs and tissues. So inflammation is not good. Not all inflammation is bad. In fact, inflammation is our body's natural way of protecting us against harm. The important distinction lies in the difference between the two types of inflammation acute and chronic. Acute inflammation is what happens with a cut or a scrape, but chronic inflammation is present for a longer period of time. Having chronic information, information having chronic information isn't great either, but having chronic inflammation can lead to fatigue, pain, gastrointestinal issues. Dealing with chronic inflammation for a long time can make the body's inflammatory response healthy cells and potentially lead to chronic diseases like heart disease and arthritis. So, needless to say, inflammation is not good.
Speaker 1:One of the things I have when I go to the gym you all know I've banged this drum enough that I do water aerobics but I also go into the steam room. The main reason I go into the steam room is to get rid of extra water, and I also read that it helps with inflammation and I can tend to be a little inflammatory. It helps with inflammation and I can tend to be a little inflammatory. So the benefits of eating an anti-inflammatory breakfast, foods that can help decrease inflammation, based on antioxidants, vitamins and minerals, decreasing the amount of sugar that we eat processed foods. So you're going to see that in this Reducing your sugar intake. If you're looking to avoid that post sugar crash, watch for hidden sugars. They lurk wherever you're not thinking about them. They lurk in yogurts, granola cereals. They lurk in milk. So keep an eye out for that.
Speaker 1:So the first one, the first anti-inflammatory breakfast I want to talk about. I love oatmeal. I don't know about you. My mom gave me oatmeal. I know it was her cheap, fast breakfast, but, man, I still love oatmeal and I like a good, thick oatmeal. I don't like a mushy, watery oatmeal and I like my oatmeal without milk. But this is a gluten-free grain that's high in fiber. So for those types of issues you can't look, don't look, don't, don't sleep on the oatmeal. I'm telling you oatmeal is delicious. I love the one minute oatmeal. Craig gets the other one.
Speaker 1:We have two types of oatmeal in our cupboard because we're two types of oatmeal family. But go ahead and throw some walnuts on that. Throw some goji berries. Why do you want walnuts? They slow down digestion and they produce some omega-3 fatty acids. I cannot eat walnuts. Walnuts inflame my mouth unless they're toasted. So if I toast them, I can do that. Goji berries are sweet with flavor, without a lot of sugar and have a lot of antioxidants. So there you've got a packed breakfast right there.
Speaker 1:Fruit with almond butter Now, I love almond butter. I, for me, I have started making a bar. Um, I have issues with constipation and um always have. And since I've been making, I'm going to tell you about my bars before we go. With fruit and almond butter, I make a bar. I made up my own recipe. I use um. I make a bar. I made up my own recipe.
Speaker 1:I use flaxseed mulch or meal, so it's the ground up flaxseeds. I use two cups of that. No, maybe, yeah, two, two and a half cups of that. I use a full cup of oatmeal. I use probably a cup of almond butter and then I use maple syrup to moisten and you can use dates, you can use other things to add the sweetness and to moisten it and then some water until I get kind of like a nice cookie dough formula and I press it into an 8x8 pan and put it in the fridge and then cut it into bars, put it into a container and keep it in the fridge. And I eat one bar a day and let me tell you, I take it when I'm traveling. If you are a lady that has that issue during traveling, I take these with me. I don't have any issues anymore.
Speaker 1:So that's my flaxseed bar recipe when you're on the, and I add some cinnamon and some flake salt because I like that little bite of salt. But if you have to stay away from salt, you don't have to add it. You can add whatever you want to it. You could add cranberries to it, you could add. That's just the base recipe and it is delicious. So grab an apple, grab a banana and get yourself some almond butter.
Speaker 1:Almond butter is delicious. It doesn't have a lot of sugar. Almond butter has fiber, healthy fat, vitamins and minerals. So it's better than your Jiffy. Like get away from the Jiffy, step away from the peanut butter with sugar, greek yogurt and fruit.
Speaker 1:I have the birds on the TV. I don't know if you have cats, but if you do I um. Birder king is patrick's favorite cat videos. They are all birds and things on the video. And I just put youtube on and he's sitting in front of a giant squirrel on the giant tv screen right now. It's cracking me up.
Speaker 1:But give yourself some greek yogurt again. Greek yogurt as um it's. It has anti-inflammatory properties, aids in digestion and it keeps you satiated. Remember all this protein keeps you satiated, also keeps you from breaking down your muscles. Pair it with antioxidant-rich berries, which have powerful breakfast full of protein. So your blackberries, your raspberries, of course. Do I like any of those? No, I only like strawberries. I know. Whatever, whatever eggs and greens. Make yourself a salad, throw an egg on it. Uh, vitamin eggs have vitamin d, protein, omega-3 and another one I can't pronounce. It's also powerful protein food. And use greens. That are true superfood, rich in nutrients, void of sugar and high in fiber.
Speaker 1:Tofu scramble with veggies. This one's going to be controversial. If it's your thing, great, not mine. But if you're not, an egg lover, try tofu. Tofu is chock full of nutrients, including um isoflavonoids, which help reduce inflammation. I'm not going to knock it. Tofu is full of all kinds of great things. Not my favorite. I'm a texture person. Not my favorite texture. But you can do a tofu scramble. Add some turmeric to it. Turmeric is an active compound called curcumin that's been shown to provide I practiced that word, I still can't do it shown to provide anti-inflammatory effects. Turmeric is really good. Turmeric's not great for me. I don't feel good on turmeric. I was taking turmeric. I think I could sprinkle it in food, but I can't take it in pill form.
Speaker 1:Vegan breakfast burrito yes for veg vegans. Get yourself a vegan breakfast burrito. Include avocados which contain heart healthy unsaturated fats. Tofu scramble whole wheat tortilla again. Create your own wrap that has antioxidants. And your smoothie is always a good go-to. You can pack that full of protein. The berries that you choose. Choose the anti-inflammatory berries. Add chia seeds to it. Add flax seeds to it. If you're adding those things to it unsweetened nut milk you're going to get fiber, vitamins, antioxidants and omega-3 fatty acids again. All those things are going to help with inflammation.
Speaker 1:Chia pudding speaking of chia seeds, start your day with a filling and nutritious chia pudding. You can add vanilla, cinnamon, chai, whatever you need. It comes together in a couple hours. You can do it ahead of time, eat it in the morning. And then here's's the famous avocado on multigrain toast. That would be great for me, except for I can't stand avocados. But avocados make a great spread. They have carotenoids and tocopherols. They both help the redisks of chronic disease. So what we are, you know, they've always said we are what we eat, and after I've done a few of these segments, you can kind of see that For extra anti-inflammatory goodness, sprinkle hemp seeds on top of your avocado toast and, for that matter, sprinkle it on your chia. Sprinkle it, I could put them. Probably a good thing to add to my flax bars.
Speaker 1:Look up things you know we're talking about here and customize. Customize them, make them your ways, make them the way you're gonna like them. The last thing we've got here are some veggie patties. They are a great alternative to processed meat which contain inflammatory, saturated fat and sodium. So again, your salt, all those things, um.
Speaker 1:So if you make these veggie patties, look up a recipe for veggie patties. You can make it with whatever vegetables you have on hand. You kind of fry them up, grate them and you can store them in the freezer and you can make them just like sausage and you can season them like a sausage, or you can buy them in the store, but then they're going to have processed things. So just look up a recipe for veggie patties, create them, freeze them. This one I have here has flaxseed meal in it, which I'm telling you is the greatest thing ever Zucchini, onion, kosher, salt garlic. And then just grate your veggies broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, a cup of chickpea or all-purpose flour Use your chickpea flour, it's going to give you some protein. Parsley, six tablespoons of virgin olive oil to get it to stick together, and you just make them into little patties, fry them up and delicious. And you just make them into little patties, fry them up and delicious. Put your oil and your virgin olive oil into the pan and fry them up, throw them in the refrigerator, freezer. You got them, eat them up. Yum.
Speaker 1:So there are some anti-inflammatory breakfast for you. I hope that gave you some ideas. If anything, start looking up some recipes. I don't know what made me think. I just knew flaxseed was good and I wanted and I knew it was a good fiber and I was trying to figure out how to get more fiber, and so I just read a bunch of recipes and then made my own. I don't follow any recipe, nor do I measure anything. I just do it by eye to get it's a consistency thing so that you can press it in the pan and then cut yourself up some bars. So that's how it worked for me and it's been the greatest thing I ever invented for myself anti-inflammatory properties.
Speaker 1:It's something that I can eat before I go to the gym because, as much as I love yogurt, I jump around in a pool like crazy and it does not sit well in my stomach, so I had to find an alternative. If you're not eating any breakfast at all, not great people get that protein in. Get something in in the morning. It doesn't have to be a lot like these little bars and I have protein in them because they are full of almond butter, so I get it all in that little bar. It's not a big deal, it's not like oh you know, I've got to eat this big breakfast before I go to work. You can wrap them up, you can take them on the go. So look at all these breakfasts and see if something works for you. Hope that gave you a little information today. So stay back for our quick segment of.
Speaker 1:Did you Know? All right, here's your amazing fact. You may or may not know. Did you know that hot water can, in fact, freeze faster than cold water? For a wide range of experimental conditions? This phenomenon is extremely counterintuitive and surprising, even to most scientists, but it is a fact. The reason for the observation is warm water evaporates more quickly than cold water, as evaporation will produce the cooling effect. Water will get cooling immediately and freeze earlier than cold water. So it has all to do with evaporation and freeze earlier than cold water. So it has all to do with evaporation. So the next time if you're still making ice or a lot of people are making those fancy round and square ice cubes in the silicone trays and things now use hot water. It's going to make your ice quicker, did you know? Anyways, go out, have a great week and do something positive.
