Category Archives: Health & Fitness

For plant-based cooking and nutrition instructor Deb Czech, the ongoing COVID pandemic and its health impacts have expanded the reasons why people are starting to put more plants on their plate. 

Czech is the owner of Planted Platter of Saratoga Springs, a business providing plant-based cooking classes, coaching services, and customized workplace wellness programs. Planted Platter also collaborates with Capital Region nonprofits on plant-based cooking events for their members and clients.

To address rising consumer interest in plant-based diets, Planted Platter is offering a dozen online classes this fall that people can mix and match to their own health needs. 

“The fundamental principles of a whole-food, plant-based diet remain the same across all classes,” said Czech. “What changes is the presentation of medical information and research specific to a given condition, whether that’s Type 2 diabetes or heart disease or anxiety or menopause or something else.” 

By Christine Graf

After being closed for four months during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Capital District Sport & Fitness (CDSF) has expanded their facility at 21 Wood Road in Round Lake. 

Owners Mike Sirani and Dan Jones are Capital Region natives who met while on the baseball team at Springfield College. Both men have degrees in exercise science as well as extensive experience working with professional, collegiate, and high school athletes. 

Opened in June 2018, CDSF specializes in small group, semi-private training and offers customized workout programs that are developed based upon a client’s movement assessment, goals, health history, and injury history. With their 1,500-square-foot expansion, they are able to offer additional gym space as well as a baseball pitching cage that runs the length of the gym. 

A CDSF membership is not required to book the pitching cage coaching sessions that are available to athletes in middle school through college. 

By Christine Graf

According to a study conducted by the American Psychological Association, more than 40 percent of adults have reported gaining unwanted weight, an average of 29 pounds, since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Saratoga County professional life and health coach Laura Conklin said that many people have turned to food for comfort during the pandemic. The owner of HELD Life & Health Coaching, Conklin offers individualized weight loss programs to her clients and works with them to uncover the root causes of their weight gain as well as their motivation for losing weight.

“If you are struggling with your health or weight, chances are that there are some things going on in your mind that need some balancing and reframing. When people come to me wanting to lose weight, we start getting into some core issues of what they believe about themselves. It’s about a deeper level of transformation than just body weight,” she said. “Without strong motivation, it’s easy to put aside all of the strategies and revert back to overeating.”

There is no one-size-fits-all model for weight loss. Conklin said there is often trial and error involved.

By Christine Graf
According to national data, doctors in the United States logged more than 1 billion virtual telemedicine appointments during 2020. Its usage peaked in April at which time 69 percent of all patient visits were virtual.
Saratoga Hospital Medical Group, a group of more than 250 providers practicing out of 20-plus locations, implemented a telemedicine platform in the spring of 2019.
“We had the capability, but found we weren’t using it,” said Julie Demaree, Saratoga Hospital director of informatics and data integrity. “We didn’t have much interest from our providers and patients.”
The COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 put the issue in a different light.
In mid-March, all providers in the group were trained on how to use the platform. In the two weeks that followed, 3,500 virtual visits were conducted.
“It was a learning curve for both patients and providers,” said Demaree. “I really give so much credit to our providers because they had to pivot very quickly. Delivering medicine through a camera is very different than doing it in person. They also had to take on a new role of being tech support for patients.”
At Glens Falls Hospital, no telemedicine system was in place when the pandemic began. As a result, administrators had to scramble to get a system in place.
“This was all new to all of us,” said Patti Hammond, vice president for physician practice management. “One of the reasons was that the insurance companies including Medicare were not paying for virtual visits as though it was an in-person visit. Because of COVID, there were some emergency approvals, and the insurance companies said they would pay for that visit just as though the patient was in your office setting.”
In a matter of 48 hours, Glens Falls Hospital had a telemedicine system up and running. The hospital uses the Doxy.me platform and pays a monthly fee for each provider who uses the tool.

Saratoga Hospital recently completed a $5 million expansion of its central sterile processing department to accommodate significant growth in complex surgical procedures at the hospital and its Saratoga Surgery Center in Wilton.
The renovations increased the central sterile processing space by about 80 percent and added the latest disinfection and sterilization equipment, officials said.
The number of surgeries performed at Saratoga Hospital and Saratoga Surgery Center continues to increase each year. Much of the growth is in minimally invasive procedures that involve smaller, more sophisticated instruments that can be more challenging to clean and decontaminate, according to the hospital.
“Each instrument has to be cleaned differently, and each is sterilized and disinfected to meet the highest standards,” said Clay Landry, certified central processing director at Saratoga Hospital.
The department runs 24/7 to clean and decontaminate hundreds of surgical instruments used each day in the hospital’s surgical pavilion and Saratoga Surgery Center, as well as in the endoscopy suites at both locations.

By MAria Savino
Tis’ the season for health and wellness resolutions. While there is no shortage of diet plans and exercise regimes to follow in a New Year, I believe the most important aspect to achieve any health goal is the mindset you have going into it.
Many wellness resolutions are created from a place of lack and restriction.
For example: “I am going to cut out processed foods,” “I’m going to give up soda” or “I am going to stop sitting all day.”
Although these goals have positive intentions, the mindset behind them is not setting anyone up for success.
As a health coach, I instruct clients to set wellness goals from the mindset of positivity and addition, rather than restriction and subtraction. This mindset shift is a key component of their long term success for two reasons.
The first reason pertains to how we are naturally wired. As human beings, it never feels good when things are taken away or restricted, especially if those things have given you a sense of comfort or happiness in the past. For example, overeating can be a form of comfort, binge watching hours of television can provide stress relief, or grabbing that afternoon chocolate bar can promote a sense of joy during an otherwise dull or stressful day.
Understanding that your not-so-healthy habits do in fact have positive intentions, and that restriction doesn’t come naturally, makes it clear that goals like those above are not the most effective.

By Lisa Balschunat
Use of online classes and parking lots kept some clients of local gyms and fitness centers participating in their exercise routines, but the lack of social connection was an important element that was lacking during the shutdown caused by the coronavirus.
The state recently allowed gyms to reopen in late August. They had been closed since March 16.
“We are very excited about our reopening. We’re trying to help people find their new normal,” said Saratoga Regional YMCA Interim CEO Scott Clark. “During the past five months, our Malta location offered a full-based pre-school for 175 kids for parents who were essential workers, and operated our summer Care program for 92 kids per week.“
“The kids had an opportunity to get outside and run around,” he added. “We had to be flexible and fluid to meet state regulations, but we wanted kids to be kids whenever possible.”

By Jennifer Farnsworth
After 19 years of practicing emergency medicine, Dr. Clara Somoza felt the time was right to start her own practice. As a doctor of osteopathic medicine, Somoza offers a patient-focused approach to health care that looks into a patient’s physical, personal and spiritual well being.
Somoza said not only were her emergency room patients wanting her to offer a place to continue care, but her colleagues were hoping she would do so as well.

By Christine Graf

By offering year-round opportunities for athletes in grades 3 through 12 to train and compete, ADK Field Hockey LLC in Round Lake, is growing the sport of field hockey in the Capital Region and beyond.

Owners Phil and Jen Sykes of Round Lake have been involved in the business for more than 10 years. The club started with just 14 players but grew rapidly due to positive word of mouth.

“People started hearing about the club and then it doubled, tripled, and quadrupled. It just kept growing and growing,” said Phil Sykes. “We now have more than 250 players.”