HJBR Jan/Feb 2022

TRANSFORMATION plays such a poignant role in the lives of Americans today, it seems like everyone who surfs the platforms out there is influ- enced by the most widely accepted (and self-proclaimed) beautiful, marketable per- sonalities in cyber-land, and, yes, youth gets its more-than-fair share of promotion. The truth of the matter is that we are all aging — some gracefully and some begrudg- ingly. Why is it that the cosmetic industry in 2018 generated nearly $90 billion in the U.S. alone? I’m not saying that cosmetics are evil — not even saying that you shouldn’t wear them — I simply point this out to highlight how important a role that physical beauty plays in our lives today. No matter how much makeup anyone wears, it doesn’t erase the person we are on the inside. I tell my girls to let that person shine and flour- ish! No one can love us for our external fea- tures and guarantee that they will be in love with what they see in 10 years. But, if you can love yourself, my belief is that we will connect with someone that loves the same thing we do … get the picture (pardon the pun)? We, as human beings, thrive in commu- nity settings. Being connected with loved ones, we are generally more healthy people, live longer and are happier. Let the joy and love in your heart pull in those around you, and live a lifetime of love, regardless of what others think. Editor Our South Louisiana cuisine, we are told, is one of the main reasons our health index is so low. You, however seem to enjoy Louisiana’s food treasures. How do you find balance? Fontenot Haha, you just answered your own question, Mrs. Hartley. … Balance! I abso- lutely love the food that I was raised on! My mother, being an amazingly good cook (paired with the fact that we have access to some of the most tasty, fresh seafood in the world), absolutely spoiled me growing up in South Louisiana! The issue is that every- thing she cooked started with some kind of fat (butter, vegetable oil, lard, etc.), was high in carbohydrates (rice at every meal, corn- bread, garlic bread, etc.), and tended to be calorie-dense. Couple with that, no gover- nor on my eating, and you’ll get what index we have earned. I have no regrets of my childhood, espe- cially the family dinners we shared, but I think today that I have a better approach to what balance is. Balance is eating until I am comfortable, which is before feeling stuffed! If I have a bowl of crawfish etouffee today, I balance it out with salad or clean veggies of some kind. Bottom line is, it takes some dis- cipline to be able to enjoy the comfort foods that I want to and do it in a way that doesn’t compromise my health and fitness today. If I know that I am having a meal high in carbo- hydrates, Ben Greenfield (fitness guru) sug- gests, “Consuming protein, fiber, and healthy fat prior to carbohydrate intake can lower your body’s glycemic response (change in blood glucose) ... .”There are plenty of man- ageable ways to ensure that we can continue to enjoy the foods that we love with a little ingenuity, knowledge and motivation. Editor What would you like Journal readers to know about you? Share something that may surprise us… Fontenot I guess the one thing that stands out would be something that I learned from my father: he used to say that “every short- cut leads to the back of the line.” I think he was trying to instill in me the value of hard work, which I know that all of us are born with certain gifts or strengths that we can capitalize on, but those who pair natural born talents with good, old-fashioned hard work have a much better chance to reach and surpass goals. Not that my life hasn’t been filled with mistakes along the way — it most certainly has — but the one thing that has remained constant is that I continue to move forward. Things may not have worked out the way that I wanted them to, but they worked out far better than I ever could’ve imagined. Editor What can we look forward to hearing about in your column over 2022? I hope that I can give some of you some tools to help reach your goals. Maybe a new perspective on life, maybe a newway of liv- ing that leads to your lifelong dreams, or maybe, just maybe … give you the courage to change your life! Editor Appreciate it, Jerry. Look forward to having you on the team as a coach. n 32 JAN / FEB 2022 I  HEALTHCARE JOURNAL OF BATON ROUGE