Healthy Caregivers Make Better Caregivers™

This is the Truth Network. Welcome to Hope for the Caregiver here on American Family Radio. This is Peter Rosenberg, and this is the program for you. As a family caregiver, so glad to have you with us today. Hopeforthecaregiver.com.

Hopeforthecaregiver.com. You know, the overarching principle of everything that I do with family caregivers is that healthy caregivers make better caregivers. And over the last 18 months, I've aggressively started pursuing some healthier choices for me. I used to be pretty big. How big, you ask?

I'll tell you how big. When they put ropes on you at the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade, you know you're pretty big. And that's something I had to work on because I came to this conclusion that I was no good to Gracie if I was fat, broke, and miserable. And so I took it upon myself with the encouragement of a very good friend of mine. Yeah.

say, you know what, Peter, we got it we gotta get this weight off of you. It's not good for you. And we did. And then Gracie went in the hospital for five months, and the breakfast buffet at the hotel where I was staying, right across the street. from her called my name.

I mean, it was like, you remember in the Odyssey, I think there was a Ulysses had to be, he told his men to tie him to the mast of the ship when they went by the siren so he would not divert and go and put the whole ship at peril because he was under the siren's spell and he had to tie him to the mast. That's what I had to do at the hotel buffet. They had to tie me to the mast because it was calling me. And I put on a little bit of weight while I was with Gracie at the hospital for five months. You don't eat very well in the hospital, but I tried to watch it.

I got back and I dropped. All that I put on, and I'm working on dropping even more thanks to my friend Dale, who's helping me. And Dale's doing a welfare check on me right now to make sure that I am not in any way. diverging from this. But I'm hoping I'm going to get down another twenty by the time spring rolls around.

I don't know that I need to lose another twenty, but I think I'd like to go a little bit overboard and then kind of back it off a little bit just to Just to kind of retrain my brain on what to do with food. And that's the problem we have at the holiday season: this food is everywhere, chocolate's everywhere, sweets are everywhere.

So, Dale, welcome back to the program. You've been on here several times before. Thank you for the work you've done in my life, and you've done so much for so many others. The holidays are a tough time to watch what you eat, aren't they? They are.

And there's a lot of stress. There's stress of being back in a, sometimes in a family situation that might be really happy and then sometimes uncomfortable. And there can be changes in the family and dynamics and things that cause us to have emotional stress. And I think the question for you to ask yourself is: where do you go for comfort? You know, some people go to a bottle, you know, alcohol.

Some people, you know, take drugs to soothe yourself. And but to go for the emotional eating part, for comfort, Uh that's where we have to stop and ask ourselves when we When we're running to that Pie in the middle of the day, where it's not like a designated time that we're, but you know, because at holidays, you just think you can eat anytime.

Well, you know, they say the calories don't count when you're over the kitchen sink. Is that true? Is that a true statement? And on Sundays at Potluck, but with all that leaning over the sink and crying. No, no, no, no, that's and you're right.

It's there, and there's too many desserts and sweets and tidings of comfort and joy. That's not the comfort the hymn is talking about, is it?

Well, let me give you a different perspective. I um You know, when we're on, when I'm doing as a coach, I'm trying to get. Weight off of someone. They're going through the program with me. It's very structured.

And we, you know, we have sweets, we have savory, we have things that will satisfy those sweet tooths and savory. And we teach you how to eat. You know, we teach you about how much protein is good for a meal, how much fat goes with that. You know, we teach and we give you the tools about vegetables and carbs and different things. It's so easy because you don't even have to think about it, really.

It's so structured, and we just give you the whole plan. But what happens is um When you go to an event where you know you're going to see your grandmother's or your mother's or your whatever's favorite recipe, casserole. Pie or cake or whatever it is, you can go and have a plan and you can be very intentional and say, you know what? The first plate of food I get is going to satiate my hunger, you know, and support my energy, digestion, mood, all that goals. And that's like, go for the meat.

Go for the meat, go for the protein, and then the vegetables. And then Treat yourself if you're going to partake.

Now, some people, you know, you got to think about this.

Some people, if they start something, they can't stop. And that's somewhere where you have to deal with God about. If I'm an alcoholic and I start drinking just because it's a day to celebrate, Am I going to indulge in something that is not going to be beneficial for me? Because it might trigger something and start me back on a track. But for the most part, you can say to yourself, I can have the three bite rule.

You know, and take a piece of cheesecake. Don't feel guilty, just be intentional. And that's what I'm getting at: you need to set yourself up for success. You're not going to eat like you do on Christmas and New Year's and all the different holidays. You're not going to, those are just specific times.

But the rest of the days that That you're living during December, January, November, you are. You're being more intentional. And on those days that you are having Thanksgiving. You decide, you get to decide, but don't shame yourself by not being able to eat something. Just decide: I'm going to have three bites of that, or I'm going to have one bite of that.

Or whatever it is, but just having a plan, being intentional, having someone to be accountable to, I think that's been the greatest thing with you, Peter. You have been, I have to, and I'm not just saying this because I'm on your show. You have been a very, very intentional and very deliberate and decisive and consistent client. I asked you to call me once a week with or send me your scale and let me know where you are. No matter what the scale says, we're going to work with it and, you know, and ask you some questions and get to where we are and what you need help with.

And you also ask questions all the time. You know, you'll call me or you'll text me and say, is it okay if I add this or do that? And I'll say, yeah. You sent me this scale that tells me it has all these sensors on it that'll tell me my BMI, the metabolic age. And when I stepped on it the first time, it said, hey, one at a time, one at a time.

I didn't think that was very nice. But no, I take it very seriously. You know, you're not supposed to weigh yourself every day. And that's what they tell you. I do.

And I, because I think it gives me a little bit more of a structure because I don't want this thing to go off, I want to keep myself on a real tight lease. You know what? I think we used to be that way, but now with this new, you know, the smart scales that you can get, they're all over the internet. You can find them. But the point is, you can see your visceral fat.

You know, and somebody might say, Well, what is that?

Well, that's the most important, that's a big one because it's the fat around your organs, and that's going to affect. Disease around your organs. I mean, that fat needs to go. It really does. And like my husband, he never was overweight, right?

And just in the later part. Freddie could lay under a clothesline and not get a suntan. But you didn't see that he did start gaining weight just around his belly, just around his belly. And he was eating healthily. He was eating very good balance, what his heart doctor said, you know, was a good diet, a Mediterranean diet.

A lot of roasted vegetables, good proteins. And I thought, why is he having this around his belly? And we started watching and really getting, and this scale really helped. And it really helped us see what is the average, what should it be, and getting this visceral fat off. We got to take a quick break.

We're going to come back after the break and find out if Freddie had a stash of Snickers somewhere or what was going on with that. This is Peter Rosenberg. We're talking with Dale Richardson. HopeforthTheirgiver.com. We'll be right back.

I went way back into the groove yard for that one. That's Emmanuel, Amy Grant. Michael Dick Smith wrote that, and I think he's playing on that. And I think. Shane Keister did the keyboards on a new device that had come out at that time called the Synclavir, and it was all the rage.

And anyway, so that's a little inside on that. But I remember when that record came out, it was a great record. And Emmanuel, God with us. Welcome back to Hope for the Caregiver. This is Peter Rosenberger.

Glad to be with you today. HopeforthTeCaregiver.com. We're continuing on our conversation with Dale Richardson about us getting healthier. Healthy caregivers make better caregivers. And when we left off, we were going to find out why her husband Freddie was putting this weight around his waist.

Did he have a stash of Snickers? That was the question.

So, anyway, let's get back to that interview. Did Freddie have a stash of Snickers in the car? Oh, you won't believe it. See, this is where people need to be educated because, sure, nuts are great for you, but guess what? Those things are fattening.

And six cashews is a healthy fat. But I don't know about you, but I used to take a whole bag of cashews and just say, well, this is what I'm going to have for lunch. I'll have an apple and the whole bag of cashews. And It's just too much. And so, what about pecans?

Yeah, the nuts, you have to watch them.

Now, the almonds, you can have more of. 10 to 12 almonds. But, like, it's okay if you have them. You just need to know which ones and how much. And that's in the list that I send you that has all your good, healthy fats and vegetables and what's a good serving size and all that.

But Freddie was having good stuff, but too much fat.

So, there is an app that can track your macros, and it tells you, um, Not just your calories, but if you put in what you're eating, it will tell you the breakdown, like how many carbs you're getting, how many fats.

Well, I put in what I was eating, and like red light started going sirens. Warning, Will Robinson. Black suburban started driving up the road. You know, it was, it was bad.

Well, anyway, this is a it was a good way for us to see it wasn't a good balance of the carbs and fats.

So we got that under control. And now he is at his perfect weight and he's also working out. And we have a whole thing that we do with our family. I think it's good if you can have the support of friends or family or just have a coach that you're talking to and doing this and being accountable. Because community, it's everything.

If you're a Lone Ranger, you might just drift off because who cares, right? Nobody's going to hold you accountable. It's okay if I just slip today or tomorrow.

Well, and that's that's why I weigh myself frequently. And I watch it, and I'm also watch what I prepare for Gracie. I'm not a Nazi about it, but I am aggressive. Because I understand the stakes. And I don't have a gym that I go to because it's hard for me to do that.

But I have a lot of stuff I do out here.

Well, it's just getting out, walking, get up. Even just if you're behind a desk, get up every hour.

Well, even now, I'm standing at a desk. I don't sit, but I have a standing desk. It burns a lot more calories. Yeah. And then I get out and I got to go split some more firewood and things like that.

And then taking care of Tracy.

Well, my studio is at the other end, one end of the house, and she's at the far end. And so I'm back and forth all the time, just a lot of steps. My app on my phone that I have for steps. Is constantly fussing at me, but I don't always carry my phone when I'm walking back and forth. I mean, I'm always usually have a Bluetooth earpiece or something, and so it doesn't pick up all the steps that I'm doing, but I stay pretty active.

You know, you might want to put your phone in your pocket or put something on you that tracks it because if you think we're going to add more of those aminos if you're doing well, I am doing and I am. I want to stay active. I mean, I'm always doing laundry and cooking cleaning. And even the other day, I did a carpentry project, and you know, but I had to get out and split some wood because I've got some firewood, but I'm going to have to get some more. And Gracie likes to see me swinging an axe outside.

And she called me Paul Bunyan. Peter Bunyan, Peter Paul, and Mary Bunyan, you know, the family. Yeah. But it's. I want to stay active because, again, I go back to my premise: I'm no good to her if I'm fat, broke, and miserable.

Yeah. And if I'm overweight. Why? You don't accidentally get healthy. It's an intentional decision.

Absolutely. And there's an intentionality to what I'm doing. You've been very much a part of this, and you've inspired me to do it. And you push me, you don't flog me. Slapped me around a little bit.

Now, she will tell me. There's times when I call Dale and I'm having to do the call of shame. And having to say, look, I ate the entire cheesecake. I saw that pecan pie you made. I did make that, you know, and it was very good.

Gracie said it was the best one she's ever had. Did you say pecan or pecan? I say pecan because I'm from South Carolina. I am from South Carolina too, but we said pecan. That's because I know you laugh.

I know you laugh.

So I changed it to pecan because it was embarrassing. That's okay. We didn't want to say anything, but right now you are on a lot of prayer lists to help with your vocabulary. And we're going to do the best we can. I want to bring you on on a regular basis.

And I talk about health a lot because so many of us as caregivers put our health secondary. It's more important for me to take care of Gracie than it is for me to take care of myself. That's the mentality I had. Does it matter what happens to me?

Well, yeah, it kind of does, doesn't it? Because what happens to her if I go down? If I have any type of sickness or issue, and so I have a vested interest to stay healthy and strong, but it takes work, it takes intentionality, it takes a team, it takes partners, it takes accountability groups. Not accountability, say, I, you know, I have sinned, you know, kind of thing. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Say, hey, I'm struggling here. Hey, listen. And another thing is, when you do eat the whole cheesecake, or and I'm just playing with you on that. Who knows? Maybe you do.

But if you do have a day, a lot of times people will say, well, it's Wednesday and I've already messed up. I'm just going to wait till Monday and just, you know, start over next week. Or if you're on a weekend and you're like, well, I messed up.

So I might as well just. throw in the towel for the weekend but no you're only two and a half hours away from your next meal because we have you eat every two and a half to three hours because it's healthy and doctors will tell you that that is the best way to keep your sugar levels down and so the desire to stress eat is it isn't a moral failure it's just a human you've been very helpful to me why are we stressed That's the first thing we ask is what's on you that's leading to this. And as caregivers, we don't have to really look too far. We know we're stressed because of the relentless nature of our journey.

Okay, so let's have somebody who understands that. Dale has known me and Gracie. She and Freddie, Gracie and I go back, gosh, almost 40 years. Wow. And yeah, I don't want to say anything, Dale, but you and Freddie are old.

I was only 12 when I met you. But it's, we go back a long ways and they've known this journey of ours. They've seen it. They've watched it unfold. And so it helps to have somebody who.

Who understands the enormity of what we carry as caregivers? And you've got a lot of caregivers that you work with. Oh, yeah. And there are a lot of people that are dealing with this. And it helps to have somebody who is not oblivious to this and the sheer magnitude of what we carry and can help baby step us.

Into healthiness. Let me tell you about Carol. She told me she could do this because it was so easy. But she said, when it comes to that one meal a day that I make for myself, she said, I don't have time. I've got a 24-7 job taking care of my daughter who totally needs her help with everything.

So she said, I really don't have time to go in the kitchen and do all this cooking.

So I said, well, we have products that are on the shelf and you pull them off the shelf and you poke holes in the top like a little TV dinner kind of thing. And Peter, you know what I'm talking about. I do. I love them. And I'm great.

And even like the what was it that you decided? I do. I do add hot sauce to it. Yeah. And if you have the beef stew or if you put like a cottage cheese, a little bit of extra protein on top, it tastes like lasagna.

Well, yeah. And so it's. The thing is for me, I mean, I'm I go back to what you told me at the beginning. Oh yeah. Your future self will thank you.

Yeah. And I put on a shirt the other day. I had the same shirt when I was in Denver, and it was a little bit tight because I was a little bit punchy. Yeah. Yeah.

And I noticed it's not, it fits loosely and comfortably on me. Oh, I'm so glad. You know, when you had your jeans, I love the story of your jeans. He couldn't. I'm not laughing at you.

I'm just thinking it's cute the way you've had bigger people than you laugh at me.

Well, no, you were saying that your horse thanks you. And I'll just get a kick out of that because your horse is like, thank God he lost the weight.

So you kind of breathe a sigh of relief. No, I don't have to hang the jeans up to dry. I can put them in the street. Exactly. And so you posted a picture of you with your blue jeans in the dryer, and you said, Now I can do this, and they still fit.

I don't have to go buy a new pair of jeans. And I just thought, you know, it's not just that his jeans fit. His his he's getting healthy from the inside out, and it's helping his mood and his energy and what we do for you, and then we teach you how to eat. I think that's the thing that you've done the best for me. Is I've now I examine things.

you know, I never I used to like all kinds of Flavored yogurt. And I realized now I can take plain organic yogurt and mix it with quite a few things, and it's fine. I mean, I'm very happy with it, and I feel like I'm making a better decision. I think that's the whole thing: is this good, best, or better? You know, those are the kinds of things I evaluate every time I buy something.

What do I buy? What food do I purchase? And what am I putting into my body? What am I spending money on? And you look at the things that we have just been consuming over our lifetime and thinking, oh, this is okay.

You know, there's certain things I just can't bring into the house, like Captain Crunch. I can't do it. Grayson brought me some the other night, Dave, just as a treat for Thanksgiving. Yeah. I got to tell her, don't you ever do that again.

Because I'm sitting there late at night in a closet somewhere just sucking down Captain Crunch. Oh, gosh. Listen, we stopped the other day to get my granddaughter a smoothie at Smoothie King or whatever, one of those drop-up things. And I was so, so tempted to get one. And I started looking at their menu and I looked at the carbs and all the sugars.

And I just went, if I had this, I couldn't eat another thing for the whole day. And I would still probably be going over on my sugar level stuff. And then I thought to myself, no, I can go home. I can get out, like you said, the yogurt, and I can put my whey protein chocolate in it and mix that together. And oh my gosh, it's just as good.

And it's so much better for me. And when you go to bed that night, you're like, you know what? That's a check for me today. I am proud of myself. I think you have to celebrate when you make good choices.

And I want to encourage you: if you say, you know what, Peter, it's time. I got to do this. Then you call up people and you do celebrate. And there's no victory too small to celebrate. Oh, yeah.

And I think one of the things that surprised me, the way I ate, I'm surprised I wasn't bigger. And I got big. I mean, when you leave footprints and dry concrete, you know you're big. And I got big, but I'm surprised I wasn't really morbidly obese. The way I ate.

And I realized that the kinetic energy I had as a caregiver is what kept a lot of that at bay. Oh, yeah. Yeah. And so that stuff came off of me pretty quickly, making some small changes, regular changes, consistent changes in the way I ate. And I realized, oh, I have enough activity going on right now to keep myself from descending into madness.

But if I start making some dietary changes with that same activity level, and I watch pounds just melt off of me. Yeah. We're talking with Dale Richardson. We're talking about being healthier. Healthy caregivers make better caregivers.

This is Peter Rosenberger. This is Hope for the Caregiver. We'll be right back. I went way back into the groove yard for that one. That's Emmanuel, Amy Grant.

Michael Dick Smith wrote that, and I think he's playing on that. And I think. Shane Keister did the keyboards on a new device that had come out at that time called the Synclavir, and it was all the rage. And anyway, so that's a little inside on that. But I remember when that record came out, it was a great record.

And Emmanuel, God with us. Welcome back to Hope for the Caregiver. This is Peter Rosenberger. Glad to be with you today. HopeforthTecaregiver.com.

We're continuing on our conversation with Dale Richardson about us getting healthier. Healthy caregivers make better caregivers. And when we left off, we were going to find out why her husband Freddie was putting this weight around his waist. Did he have a stash of Snickers? That was the question.

So, anyway, let's get back to that interview. Did Freddie have a stash of Snickers in the car? Oh, you won't believe it. See, this is where people need to be educated because, sure, nuts are great for you, but guess what? Those things are fattening.

And six cashews is a healthy fat. But I don't know about you, but I used to take a whole bag of cashews and just say, well, this is what I'm going to have for lunch. I'll have an apple and the whole bag of cashews. And It's just too much. What about pecans?

Yeah, the nuts, you have to watch them.

Now, the almonds, you can have more of. 10 to 12 almonds, but like it's okay if you have them, you just need to know which ones and how much. And that's in the list that I send you that has all your good, healthy fats and vegetables and what's a good serving size and all that. But Freddie was having good stuff, but too much fat.

So, there is an app that can track your macros, and it tells you, um, Not just your calories, but if you put in what you're eating, it will tell you the breakdown, like how many carbs you're getting, how many fats.

Well, I put in what I was eating, and like red light started going sirens. Warning, Real Robinson. Black suburban started driving up the road. You know, it was, it was bad.

Well, anyway, this is a good way for us to see. It wasn't a good balance of the carbs and fats.

So we got that under control, and now he is at his perfect weight, and he's also working out. And we have a whole thing that we do with our family. I think it's good if you can have the support of friends or family, or just have a coach that you're talking to and doing this and being accountable. Because community, it's everything. If you're a Lone Ranger, you might just drift off because who cares, right?

Nobody's gonna hold you accountable. It's okay if I just slip today or tomorrow.

Well, and that's that's why I weigh myself frequently. And I watch it, and I'm also watching what I prepare for Gracie. I'm not a Nazi about it, but I am aggressive. Because I understand the stakes. And I don't have a gym that I go to because it's hard for me to do that.

But I have a lot of stuff I do out here.

Well, it's just getting out, walking, get up. Even just if you're behind a desk, get up every hour.

Well, even now, I'm standing at a desk. I don't sit, but I have a standing desk. It burns a lot more calories. Yeah. And then I get out and I got to go split some more firewood and things like that.

And then taking care of Tracy.

Well, my studio is at the other end, one end of the house, and she's at the far end. And so I'm back and forth all the time, just a lot of steps. My app on my phone that I have for steps. Is constantly fussing at me, but I don't always carry my phone when I'm walking back and forth. I mean, I'm always usually have a Bluetooth earpiece or something, and so it doesn't pick up all the steps that I'm doing, but I stay pretty active.

You know, you might want to put your phone in your pocket or put something on you that tracks it because if you think because we're going to add more of those aminos if you're doing well, I am doing and I am. I want to stay active. I mean, I'm always doing laundry and cooking cleaning. And even the other day, I did a carpentry project. And you know, but I had to get out and split some wood because I've got some firewood, but I'm going to have to get some more.

And Gracie likes to see me swinging an axe outside. And she called me Paul Bunyan and Peter Bunyan, Peter Paul, and Mary Bunyan, you know, the family. Yeah. It's. I want to stay active because, again, I go back to my premise.

I'm no good to her if I'm fat, broke, and miserable. Yeah. And if I'm overweight. Why? You don't accidentally get healthy.

It's an intentional decision. Absolutely. And there's an intentionality to what I'm doing. You've been very much a part of this, and you've inspired me to do it. And you push me, you don't flog me.

Slap me around a little bit.

Now, she will tell me. There's times when I call Dale and I'm having to do the call of shame. And having to say, look, I ate the entire cheesecake. I saw that pecan pie you made. I did make that, you know, and it was very good.

Gracie said it was the best one she's ever had. Did you say pecan or pecan? I say pecan because I'm from South Carolina. I am from South Carolina too, but we said pecan. I know you laugh.

So I changed it to pecan because it's just embarrassing. That's okay. We didn't want to say anything, but right now you are on a lot of prayer lists to help with your vocabulary. We're going to do the best we can. I want to bring you on on a regular basis.

And I talk about health a lot because so many of us as caregivers put our health secondary. It's more important for me to take care of Gracie than it is for me to take care of myself. That's the mentality I had. Doesn't matter what happens to me.

Well, yeah, it kind of does, doesn't it? Because what happens to her if I go down? If I have any type of sickness or issue, and so I have a vested interest to stay healthy and strong, but it takes work, it takes intentionality, it takes a team, it takes partners, it takes accountability groups. Not accountability, say, I, you know, I have sinned, you know, kind of thing. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Say, hey, I'm struggling here. Hey, listen. And another thing is, when you do eat the whole cheesecake, or and I'm just playing with you on that. Who knows? Maybe you do.

But if you do have a day, a lot of times people will say, well, it's Wednesday and I've already messed up. I'm just going to wait till Monday and just, you know, start over next week. Or if you're on a weekend and you're like, well, I, you know, I messed up, so I might as well just. Throw in the towel for the weekend. But no, you're only two and a half hours away from your next meal because we have you eat every two and a half to three hours because it's healthy.

And doctors will tell you that that is the best way to keep your sugar levels down. And so the desire to stress eat is it isn't a moral failure. It's just a human. You've been very helpful to me. Why are we stressed?

That's the first thing we ask is what's on you that's leading to this. And as caregivers, we don't have to really look too far. We know we're stressed because of the relentless nature of our journey.

Okay, so let's have somebody who understands that. Dale has known me and Gracie. She and Freddie, Gracie, and I go back, gosh, almost 40 years. Wow. And I don't want to say anything, Dale, but you and Freddie are old.

I was only 12 when I met you. But it's, we go back a long ways and they've known this journey of ours. They've seen it. They've watched it unfold. And so it helps to have somebody who.

Who understands the enormity of what we carry as caregivers? And you've got a lot of caregivers that you work with. Oh, yeah. And there are a lot of people that are dealing with this. And it helps to have somebody who is not oblivious to this and the sheer magnitude of what we carry and can help baby step us.

Into healthiness. Let me tell you about Carol. She told me she could do this because it was so easy. But she said, when it comes to that one meal a day that I make for myself, she said, I don't have time. I've got a 24-7 job taking care of my daughter who totally needs her help with everything.

So she said, I really don't have time to go in the kitchen and do all this cooking.

So I said, well, we have products that are on the shelf and you pull them off the shelf and you poke holes in the top like a little TV dinner kind of thing. And Peter, you know what I'm talking about. I do. I love them. And I'm great.

And even like the what was it that you decided? I do. I do add hot sauce to it. Yeah. And if you have the beef stew or if you put like a cottage cheese, a little bit of extra protein on top, it tastes like lasagna.

Well, yeah. And so it's. The thing is for me, I mean, I'm I go back to what you told me at the beginning. Oh yeah. Your future self will thank you.

Yeah. And I put on a shirt the other day. I had the same shirt when I was in Denver, and it was a little bit tight because I was a little bit punchy. Yeah. Yeah.

And I noticed it's not, it fits loosely and comfortably on me. Oh, I'm so glad. You know, when you had your jeans, I love the story of your jeans. He couldn't. I'm not laughing at you.

I'm just thinking it's cute the way you say. I've had bigger people than you laugh at me. No, no, you were saying that your horse thanks you. And I'll just get a kick out of that because your horse is like, thank God he lost the weight.

So you kind of breathe a sigh of relief. No, I don't have to hang the jeans up to dry. I can put them in the track. Exactly. And so you posted a picture of you with your blue jeans in the dryer, and you said, Now I can do this, and they still fit.

And I don't have to go buy a new pair of jeans. And I just thought, you know, it's not just that his jeans fit. His his he's getting healthy from the inside out, and it's helping his mood and his energy and what we do for you, and then we teach you how to eat. I think that's the thing that you've done the best for me. Is I've now I examine things.

You know, I never I used to like all kinds of Flavored yogurt. And I realized now I can take plain organic yogurt and mix it with quite a few things, and it's fine. I mean, I'm very happy with it, and I feel like I'm making a better decision. I think that's the whole thing: is this good, best, or better? You know, those are the kinds of things I evaluate every time I buy something.

What do I buy? What kind of food do I purchase? And what am I putting into my body? What am I spending money on? And you look at the things that we have just been consuming over our lifetime and thinking, oh, this is okay.

You know, there's certain things I just can't bring into the house, like Captain Crunch. I can't do it. Grayson brought me some the other night, Dave, just as a treat for Thanksgiving. Yeah. I got to tell her, don't you ever do that again?

Because I'm sitting there late at night in a closet somewhere just sucking down Captain Crunch. Oh, gosh. Listen, we stopped the other day to get my granddaughter a smoothie at Smoothie King or whatever, one of those drive-up things. And I was so, so tempted to get one. And I started looking at their menu and I looked at the carbs and all the sugars.

And I just went, if I had this, I couldn't eat another thing for the whole day. And I would still probably be going over on my sugar level stuff. And then I thought to myself, no, I can go home. I can get out, like you said, the yogurt, and I can put my whey protein chocolate in it and mix that together. And oh my gosh, it's just as good.

And it's so much better for me. And when you go to bed that night, you're like, you know what? That's a check for me today. I am proud of myself. I think you have to celebrate when you make good choices.

And I want to encourage you: if you say, you know what, Peter, it's time. I got to do this. Then you call up people and you do celebrate. And there's no victory too small to celebrate. Oh, yeah.

And I think one of the things that surprised me, the way I ate, I'm surprised I wasn't bigger. And I got big. I mean, when you leave footprints and dry concrete, you know you're big. And I got big, but I'm surprised I wasn't really morbidly obese. The way I ate.

And I realized that the kinetic energy I had as a caregiver is what kept a lot of that at bay. Oh, yeah. And so that stuff came off of me pretty quickly, making some small changes, regular changes, consistent changes in the way I ate. And I realize, oh, I have enough activity going on right now to keep myself from descending into madness. But if I start making some dietary changes with that same activity level, and I watch pounds just melt off of me.

Yeah. We're talking with Dale Richardson. We're talking about being healthier. Healthy caregivers make better caregivers. This is Peter Rosenberger.

This is Hope for the Caregiver. We'll be right back. And that's when love was born for the broken soul life began. again that first Christmas morning. That's when welcome back to Hope for the Caregiver.

This is Peter Rosenberger. This is the program for you as a family caregiver. That song is being performed by Dale's brother Hank, that we talked about in the interview I did with Dale. That's her brother, Hank Martin. Great friend of mine and wonderful songwriter, wonderful singer.

He is. I won't tell you how old he is. I always kid him how old he is. I say, Hank, you're so old. When you're on stage and you see a spotlight, you walk towards it.

Okay, please.

So He is just a dear friend and an amazing singer. I mean, just a wonderful singer. What a voice. And you ought to hear him do his BJ Thomas impersonation when he sings. I mean, he can absolutely nail it.

But anyway, I love that song. Great Christmas song. And we're going to get to, speaking of psalms, we're going to get to the caregiver keyboard here. And we're going to talk about today's Hymn that every caregiver ought to know. And this and Christmas, so I want to do a Christmas hymn, is one of my all-time favorite Christmas hymns.

I love Christmas music, and this particular hymn.

Well, this is one of my all-time favorite Christmas hymns, and it's almost impossible for this song to be done poorly. It's such a great song. The tune was written by Mendelssohn, Felix Mendelssohn, wonderful composer, but the text was written again by Charles Wesley. Charles Wesley, who we owe such a debt to. And he wrote this only a few months after his conversion to Christianity.

He wrote this amazing lyric, but it didn't start out this way. His friend George Whitfield. Uh Whitefield, sorry, George Whitefield. Was instrumental in helping clean it up a little bit on the first line. The first line, Charles wrote out: Hark how all the welcome rings.

Welcome, W-E-L-K-I-N, glory to the King of Kings. Welcome meant the vault of heaven. It was a poetic and a theological term, but you know, it's not exactly one that kind of. It rolls off the tongue. Hark how the all the welcomes ring.

Welcome, y'all. But but it's it's It was one of those things that just needed to be cleaned up. And so Whitfield, who wrote this, line that we all know, Hark the Herald. Angels sing glory to the newborn king, and Whitfield helped clean it up. This version took hold.

Now, Charles Wesley was really. not pleased when any of his hymns had edits. But George Whitefield took a good hymn. And turn it into An iconic hymn. One that is just it's known all over the world.

And of course, Felix Mendelssohn's tune is wonderful with it. But look at the text of it: why this is important to us as caregivers. Yeah, first off It announces peace. To those who have, you know, he didn't say he came to give peace to people who already had it, he gave peace to people who didn't have it. That's us.

That's us. Not just as caregivers, just as human beings, as sinful human beings. And you know what? There's so much unsettled in our life. as caregivers.

But look at this text right here: God and sinners reconciled. God and sinners reconciled. What an amazing text I mean, think about that. As we deal with the things in our life that are very painful, that are very difficult to deal with. The fact that God Reconciled us to Him.

Through Christ. That transcends everything. Peace on earth, mercy mild, God and sinners reconciled. Joyful all ye nations rise, join the triumph of the skies With the angelic host proclaim Christ is born in Bethlehem.

Now, let me ask you something. Did you know? That the only time the angelic host came out to sing like this was was at the birth of Christ. Was it at the resurrection? Was it at the ascension?

There were some angels around for that, but not the host. Why is that? because that is when God became flesh. He became incarnate and it goes all the way back to Genesis three, when the promise was given that the seed of the woman Well, come and he and he said to the servant, He's going to bruise your head, and you'll bruise his heel. but God promised the Incarnation.

all the way back into the garden, and he shepherded that entire line. all the way through. And you think about all the things that happened with the flood, with wars and with disease and all those kinds of things, and yet God did what He said He was going to do. and the whole angelic host came out to celebrate that God invaded this earth, and wrapped himself in flesh, Christ by highest heaven adored, Christ the everlasting Lord, Late in time behold Him come, Offspring of the Virgin's womb, Veiled in flesh, the Godhead see Hail the incarnate Deity Pleased as man with man to dwell, Jesus our Emmanuel, God with us Hark the herald angels sing Glory to the new born king. Boy, those guys could write a hymn, couldn't they?

Hail the heaven born Prince of Peace Hail the Son of righteousness Light and life to all He brings, Rising with healing in his wings Mild he lays His glory by He laid His glory aside. Born that man no more may die. Born to raise the sons of earth, born to give them second birth, hark the herald angels sing, Glory to the newborn king. And then the last verse: Come, desire of nations, come, fix in us thy humble home, rise the woman's conquering seed. Go all the way back to Genesis 3.

Bruise in us the serpent's head. I mean, man, these guys could write a hymn. Adam's likeness now effaced, stamp thine image in its place. Second Adam from above, reinstate us in thy love. Hark, the herald angels sing, Glory to the newborn king.

What a hymn!

Now, let me just bluntly say: it's really hard to think about the craziness of caregiving when you're singing that hymn. It's really hard to do it.

Okay, you may be able to do it, but boy, when I read that. Man.

Now, again, I play this hymn a little slower, a little softer, because I like to play it that way. And and and I'm gonna let you just listen to it.

Okay, I'm not I'm not gonna try to sing this one. May well, maybe I will. I don't know. But anyway, let's just listen to it for a moment. The new born king So, again, I play this a little slower than most, and that's okay.

But, you know, there's some people that really like to, you know, just put the head. Herald Angels, you know, and it's great for congregational singing. It really is. But I'm playing for an audience of caregivers.

So I'm going to take it down a little bit. Gracie was, I was playing this the other night for Gracie, and she's like, you know, you are playing a little slow. I said, well, I like playing it slow. I think slow. I are slow, you know, but it's now.

Let me just take just a moment for those of you who are music performers at your church or do music, whatever. If you want to do some of these chords, they're real simple. Do the walk down.

Well, first do the walk up. Art the Harold. I'm just walking up to a minor two. Angels. And then I throw in a minor four chord here.

Sing. With the added 13th, sorry. But you can also do a flat seven chord there. And again, if you're not a church musician, just tune me out for just a second. But just for those of you who want to learn to do these things, here it is: do the flat seven.

World angel We'll see. Glory. And then just do a walk down. Res And mercy my God and sinners broken And then just do that chord right there, then go up. And just throw in, experiment with the kind of chords that you like with it.

I like doing that. It's a beautiful piece that lends itself to rich, embellished chords like that. And I think you'll enjoy it. I hope you've enjoyed this in our series of hymns that every caregiver ought to know. Hark the Herald Angels sing.

So when you hear it over Christmas, just think about the promise that started all the way back in Genesis 3.

Okay, we are out of time and I have to go. Don't forget our new caregiver calendar, the 2026 caregiver calendar, is available. Standingwithhope.com/slash. We're going to give you this calendar as our gift to you for supporting Standing With Hope with your tax-deductible year-end gift. It helps us strengthen family caregivers.

It helps us provide prosthetic limbs to Gracie's fellow amputees. It helps us equip others to continue Standing With Hope as we point them to Christ. The caregiver calendar is filled with pictures that I've taken out here in Montana where we live, and I put a caption on each one that points fellow caregivers to a nugget that I've learned over these 40 years to help stay strong and healthy as we take care of someone who is not.

So standingwithhope.com/slash giving. If you want to see more about how you can get a 2026 caregiver calendar. Thanks for spending the time with me today. I hope you enjoyed the series on hymns that every caregiver ought to know. There's more out at hopeforthecaregiver.com.

This is Peter Rosenberg. We'll see you next time. Merry Christmas to you. Gracie, when you envisioned doing a prosthetic limb outreach, did you ever think? The inmates would help you do that.

Not in a million years. What does it do? I would have ever thought about that. When you go to the facility run by Core Civic and you see the faces of these inmates that are working on prosthetic limbs that you have helped collect from all over the country that you put out the plea for. And they're disassembling.

You see all these legs, like what you have, your own prosthetic legs. And arms, too. And arms. When you see all this, what does that do to you? Makes me cry.

because I see the smiles on their faces and I know I know what it is to be locked someplace where you can't get out without somebody else allowing you to get out. Of course, being in the hospital so much and so long. When I go in there, and I always get the same thing every time that these men are so glad that they get to be doing, as one man said, something good finally with my hands. Did you know before you became an amputee that... Parts of prosthetic limbs could be recycled?

No, I had no idea. I thought we were still in the. 1800s and 1700s. I mean, you know, I thought of peg leg, I thought of wooden legs. I never thought of.

Titanium and carbon legs and flex feet and C legs and all that. I never thought about that. I had no idea.

Now that you've had an experience with it, what do you think of the faith-based programs that Core Civic offers? I think they're just absolutely... Awesome. And I think every prison out there. have faith-based programs like this because I'm not sure.

Return rate. of the men that are involved in this particular faith-based program. and other ones like it that I know about this one. Is just an amazingly low rate compared to those who don't have them. And I think that that says so much.

But that's so much. about Just, that doesn't have anything to do with me. It just has something to do with God using somebody broken. to help other broken people be whole. If people want to donate a used prosthetic limb, whether from a loved one who passed away, Yeah.

You know, somebody who outgrew them, you've donated some of your own. What's the best place for them to do? How do they do that? Where do they find that? Please go to stanningwithhope.com/slash recycle, and that's all it takes.

It'll give you all the information on that. What's that website again? DanningwithHope.com/slash. Slash recycle. Thanks, Chris.

Take my hand. Leno. On me. We will stay.