Felicia: ⁓ hospital food. The lovely time to be in the hospital. And wow, the food they give to y'all to people in the hospital is a bit ridiculous. We're gonna be talking about that today and also kind of my tips of what to do if you find yourself in the hospital and especially a guest in the hospital because you were there. So welcome back to the Grains and Grade podcast, y'all. So this is a podcast where you get me, Felicia, from the YouTube channel Grains and Grit, where you get me unsifted, that is unfiltered, unedited, and kind of where we basically just sit down and have a more lengthier conversation, as if you were sitting with me with some coffee and we were just having a little chat. So we're gonna be talking about hospital food. This is something that I've been on my brain for almost a year. ⁓ And I wanted to chat with y'all about, and I definitely got a lot of comments whenever I posted about this months ago. So, backstory of why I'm doing this. So, if you are new here, hi, first of all, my name is Felicia, and I teach all about real whole grains, all from a biblical perspective. Why do you be milling your own grains, consuming ⁓ whole grains in your house, and myth busting the whole thing with bread, all those things? So, also if you are new here, ha I know a thing or two about hospitals because back in March of 2025, depending on whenever you have listening to this one, in March of 2025, my husband was shot multiple times by our neighbor and life-lighted to the hospital and all of that. So we spent a very long time in the hospital. So, in regards to that. Few qu to answer immediate questions that I know pop into people's brain right now. Yes, the guy who shot him as of this recording is in jail, no bond. And we're still going through the whole investigation, all of that. We're still going through the judicial process with that. So please keep your prayers about that. ⁓ and also, ⁓ no, my husband is not necessarily better. He did survive. He definitely should have died in those woods. ⁓ the Lord was with him and the Lord miraculously saved him. He was shot from what we can tell about five times. Most of them were kind of more abdominal type shots. And but unfortunately, one of the bullets did hit his spinal cord and he is paralyzed from about the waist down. So we are now dealing with this whole world of ADA, disability, all of those things. But if you again, if you've been around for a while and you've been following us this whole journey, it's been insane. But y'all's support has been out of this world. And I can't thank y'all enough. Y'all's prayers and love and comments and support has just been incredible. And I'm truly, truly humbled. Both my husband and I are so grateful for that. ⁓ so as of right now, just to give y'all an update, ⁓ so we're we're dealing with this, but he his our main thing right now is that he's in chronic pain every single day. And that's something that we are trying to navigate is to figure out how to manage his pain, to alleviate his pain. So please keep that in prayers. And if you really want to see ⁓ keep up with any updates, I try to do post updates. I am in need of supporting of posting another one. But you can actually check this out on our support now page. And I'll link this in the in the description box. But if you go to supportnow.org slash jocelin dash family, and that's Jocelyn J O S is in Sam, C is in Kat. Is an egg L Y N is a Nancy dash family. So support now.org slash Jocelyn dash family. That's where you can view any updates and things like that. Okay, so long introduction and catching people up who maybe new. So needless to say, when this happened, ⁓ my husband was in ICU alone for a few weeks and then regular hospital for a couple weeks, and then he was in like inpatient rehab for a few more weeks. And so it was like a couple of months before he ever even got to come home. And ⁓ so I I spent a lot of time in the hospital away from my home. And y'all, that was so hard. It was, it was so hard. Our the hardest crazy enough, besides him, you know, possibly dealing with the fact that he, I mean, it was probably a good week before he was out of the danger zone of actually dying. So Besides that, once we got past that, a big difficulty was just the separation of our family. ⁓ because we were just always together. I'm a homeschooling mama. ⁓ my husband had also worked from home at that time, so we were always together. And honestly, the separation of our entire family for weeks, that was super, super, super hard. Yeah, that was that was really hard. But the Lord has been with us and he has been good. But I say all this to say that I was also being away from my home means mama wasn't cooking, like at all. And a lot of eating out, so on and so forth. So let me tell you a little bit of a not humorous story. I mean, I guess it's kind of funny because it had been maybe like a week and a half, a week or two. So my husband was sedated for a couple of days. I mean, he it wa he was out of it on a ventilator, like all of that stuff. So and even when he came out out of it, whenever we woke him up, he was like on a lot of pain medication. And so I think it was probably about a week before he was starting to kind of realize things going on around us. When he was talking to us and everything, but I think he he definitely started observing the things that I was eating in the hospital. Let's face it, y'all, hospital stuff. Now he wasn't eating hospital food at this time, but I was eating out all the time. I wasn't home. I had to buy everything, you know, get all my meals. Now I had some wonderful friends that literally they're like, whatever you want, we will bring it to you. And I'm so grateful to all of my community that I had here. Y'all are, y'all were amazing. But I was doing I was eating out a lot, which like we hardly eat out at all. Large family, you don't eat out a lot. So this was way off of my normal diet. So yeah, yep, white flour happened. Okay. ⁓ they there was, I gotta admit, they have one place in that hospital that had some killer biscuits and gravy. All white flour, motto's good. And ⁓ but regardless, I was definitely not eating the healthiest. And about a week into this week and a half, my husband looks over and says, Felicia, you cannot, you cannot keep this up. Like this is not, this is not good. And I knew I was like, ⁓ yeah, because by that time, y'all, after about a week of eating out, I don't know how people eat out all the time because me doing it for a week, like breakfast, lunch, supper, ⁓ mama was starting to feel it. Okay. My body was not exactly happy about certain things. And I definitely felt the lack of my good food that I had. Unfortunately, there at the hospital, at least what I found, you either had like, you know, your typical fast food places or even the cafeteria style food that they had. Any of what I had seen there, maybe somewhere else in the hospital, they had it. Not good salad, not many good salad options. And I will be honest, y'all. ⁓ let me just be flat out honest. There's something to comfort food. And I was wanting it. Okay. Whenever this happened, especially that first week, I was not caring about, you know, where's the healthiest food? What's the real options? I'll be honest. I I'll be flat out honest that having, you know, those comfort foods, I I liked it. You know, it was it was nice to it was good to have. Was it healthy? No. No. But not the highest priority for me at that time. However, so, but I was starting to suffer from this. So my husband looked at me and said, You you you've got to figure something out. He's like, You have friends, you have people here who have literally offered you whatever you're wanting. You need to ask, which I have a horrible time, have a horrible time asking for help. Going through all this has made me learn to ask for help, but I was horrible, horrible asking for help beforehand. And so what I did. was you know I knew I was still going to be in the hospital for a while but I'm like okay okay we gotta change something so I reached out to I actually have two friends that I know mill their own grains and one of them makes a killer sourdough from 100 freshly milled wheat and so I reached out to them and said hey I need help could ⁓ could you possibly ⁓ send me some of your bread or muffins or something with 100% freshly milled wheat I will pay you for it. You know, just let me know. I'll come and get it, whatever it is. And they were, of course, like, because they were awesome, they were like, ⁓ absolutely, here you go. Like, no payment. They would refuse to accept it. And so one of my friends ⁓ gave me two different types of muffins. One of them is like a chocolate chip, ⁓ but I think it's like has apple in it or something. Either way, she sent me the recipe, she'd modified it. Hmm, word, it was so good. Another one I think was like a pumpkin type muffin, which was also absolutely amazing. But y'all, when I got those muffins, they ⁓ my body was just like thank you. Real food. And that was so wonderful to have for me to be able to eat because those just made an easy, quick breakfast. I could keep them in there in the room with me. and that was that was absolutely wonderful to have. And what she's like, anytime you want some more. She didn't live that far from the hospital. And she's like, just let me know and I'll get them to you. And so God bless you, Sarah. I love you so much. Thank you for that. And the other one, Marianne, you know, I love you, made a killer sourdough bread and she sent me a loaf. And ⁓ that was wonderful. And so what I ended up doing is then we went to Publix because we're in Florida and we're the land of Publix. And I actually got some ⁓ healthier options. So we actually got some really good like cheeses, ⁓ you know, some healthy like deli type. Meats. ⁓ we got ⁓ what's it called? ⁓ where you ferment ⁓ yeah, the gar ⁓ really bad at the garden nera, the gar gardenera stuff, which is like a fermented cauliflower and carrots and stuff like that. Like it's something with Italian. Like so you like ferment a lot of these things that like soak in oil and it's really, really good, especially when you put it on bread, cheeses, olives. So we actually just got real food and then we were able to just have that in the hospital. And by we, not my husband. They weren't allowing him to eat yet, but me and my brother-in-law, who was there a lot. We were able to have those. And that was so wonderful to be able to have. And so ⁓ right now we're speaking as someone, if you find yourself having to always either be gone all the time, you're in a hospital situation, you were not the patient, but you were there. I do recommend of just being creative. If you know people around that actually mill their own bread, I mean, reach out to them. Y'all, if anyone was to reach out to me in this situation and be like, absolutely, how what do you want? I'll make it for you and I'll and I'll get it to you. Okay. And I know that we have amazing people in our freshly milled community that I know would absolutely do this, no charge probably. So reach out to those who know we and there are many, many Facebook groups for freshly milled bread. Be sure you're a member of those. And you know, if you find yourself in this situation, post on there, say, Hey, I'm I'm having to be stuck in a hospital for a while. Anyone in the this area, wherever it is, and I guarantee you you've got someone, you've got someone close by. Someone will be there or at least give you tips or offer to help or something. So many, many thanks to my friends, Sarah and Marianne, who kept me with freshly milled grains while I was stuck in a hospital situation because that was so wonderful. Like my body needed real food so bad. And I felt a difference whenever I was then eating real food. ⁓ so not always perfect, of course. I'm still eating out, but just to have that. was so helpful to my body that is used to consuming only 100% fresh and milled grains, wheat, breads, things like that. So that's my biggest suggestion with that is if you find yourself in this situation, reach out to friends. Another thing is do what I did where you know you go to the grocery store and you actually see what you can find. There are ⁓ what's the brand? There's like a it's a I think Kodiak brand that actually has granola bars and things like that that is actually whole grain, good ingredients, non-GMO. So you're gonna pay for it. Okay. It is more expensive, and I would definitely not be buying this all the time because it would be way too expensive for my family. But in a situation like that, depending on the grocery store, you can find pretty good options. Real food that is actually in, you know, doesn't require an oven. It's easy snacks for you. That are that is more of a whole food. Of course, you can find fruits, grapes are a wonderful thing because you know they're already in bite-sized pieces. So bananas is another one. So that's one thing that I recommend is. you know, just go to the grocery store instead of the restaurant and see what you can find there that can work for your situation. So for us, like when we were in ICU, there definitely was no fridge. So I had to have like a little cooler bag and, you know, it's not like I could buy like and all this bulk stuff. But if I remember right, yeah, when we got to a regular hospital room, I think he had a fridge. I might be mistaken. I may be thinking of when he went to rehab. I know when he went to rehab, ⁓ A inpatient rehab, there was a fridge in the room that we could keep things in, which was great. I cannot remember if our hospital had it. I may be remembering wrong. But in saying that, get to know your nurses because ⁓ if there's something like not a ton, okay, not a ton, but if there's a little something that you have, like maybe yogurt or something, ⁓ ask your nurses, like, hey, is there a place that you know I could put this in a fridge? Because many hospitals have like a refreshment area. Well, you can get water, you know, things like that. And oftentimes I saw that there was a fridge in there. So probably just label it. But I think they would be real willing to help you out. So just, you know, be nice to your nurses, y'all, and ask them and see ⁓ if they can help you. Now, let's actually talk about being a patient. Hmm. Y'all the things. So with my husband, he due to multiple surgeries, things like that. ⁓ you know, he was on a feeding tube for a time. Nothing I could do about that. Nothing I can do about that. That was, you know, doctor's orders. And this is where, and but after that, when he was now allowed to start eating food. Now, this is where just know this is not medical advice. I'm not telling you what you should and should not do, but so listen overall, listen to your doctors. There are reasons why if they put you on a liquid diet, there's a reason. If they say you're not allowed to eat, There's a reason. Okay. So I I highly suggest you listen to them when it comes to that. Cause most likely if you're on a liquid diet, it's because you're post surgery and your body's probably not ready to handle it yet. However, in saying that, ⁓ when my husband was able to be transferred more to a liquid diet, ⁓ they were just gonna get going to be giving him like ⁓ broth, you know, from the hospital cafeteria, which I know is probably not exactly great broth. And so I actually offered, hey, I have canned chicken stock at home that I made from like our chickens that we raise ourselves. And I know it's all in this, and I know that it's like the optimal nutrition. I said, Can I bring this? And he can have that. And the nurses were like, Absolutely. And they kept it in their fridge. And whenever we could give it to him, they had like a microwave or something, which I know is not ideal, but we're we're working with what we got. And I was able to at least give him some of our chicken broth. Again, he was already gonna be on that anyway. That's what they were gonna be giving him. I was just able to give him a better option and just ask. Okay, just ask if you can do that. They had no problem with me doing that. Another way that we helped him is ⁓ the doctor kept insisting that he drink these insure shakes. And if I hear about insure one more time, I I promise you, I'm pretty sure that the doctor, and again. I really am thankful for this doctor. He helped save my husband's life. However, he was pushing Insure protein shakes like he was being sponsored and paid by Insure. Okay. And I have no doubt in my mind that Insure paid a lot of money to be going into these hospitals and, you know, and all that stuff. No doubt in my mind they do that. However, the problem was as soon as they brought it, and I immediately looked at the label and y'all like. High fructose corn syrup, corn sugar or cr corn syrup, ⁓ more sugar, and it was all this fake stuff that I'm like, this is supposed to help him. Are you trying to send him into a diabetic attack? But they were the reason and the reason why they were doing this is because the protein, they were like, he needs to have protein. Protein helps the body heal. I do not disagree about that, but I do disagree about giving someone the amount of sugar that's like in a can of soda. For the sake of giving them protein. And so we're like, yeah, we're so not doing that. ⁓ so what I did is thankfully I was able to go back to Publix, my beloved Publix, and they did have options, better options. The protein drinks I just bought myself, but we were able to get it was like one gram of sugar and non-GMO ingredients, and I think it probably tasted better for him, but still getting the protein. So we're still following. You know what the doctor is wanting him to do, but we just did it in a better way. And yes, that meant that I had to spend some money out of my pocket. Okay. And maybe you don't have that option, but for me, praise the Lord, we did. Okay. The Lord did provide. And we are very grateful for that. So that's something that we were able to do as well. And then, you know, as my husband was able to start eating real foods and everything, you know, I was able to have the breads there for him. And You know, he had to listen to his body, he had to go slow. It was ⁓ months before he was really able to eat kind of normal again. Again, he had a lot of work done on him. A lot of those shots were to the ⁓ were to the abdomen. And so it took a long time, but at the very least, I knew was like, Well, let's give you of all times to give you the most nutritionally dense food. Let's give you that, even if it's only in small quantities, it's better than nothing. And when the doctor said, Hey, you need to eat more protein, okay, ⁓ we're gonna find better protein, like better options for protein, ⁓ and things like that. So that is the struggle with hospital foods. I I really wish, like, ⁓ this is something whenever RFK Jr. came about. But I was like, ⁓ good. Tackle this. Tackle the house the abominable hospital food that they feed people, the people who are sick, who need nutrition more than ever. And we feed them junk. Okay. Like clearly you're wanting them to come back. But you know, that's that's the thing with our modern healthcare is the United States healthcare, it is, I would say, probably the best in the world as far as trauma care, you know. And by trauma care, like you got into a car wreck, you broke a bone. ⁓ you sliced your finger off with a knife, you know, those type of things where you definitely need medical care. The United States shines with that. It's the things that they did with my husband to save his life, it is astounding. I mean, I didn't even know these things were possible. Okay. And I'm so thankful for, you know, the hospital and the doctors that did that. I'm not, I'm not knocking them for them. But the nutritional side of things, especially those like with cancer. And cancer studies have come out, you know, that sugar feeds. Cancer really likes sugar. And so you're allowing cancer patients to just eat whatever they want, eat all the sugar, these sodas, all these things. I've seen diabetics where they're just drinking soda in the hospital, you know, eating cakes and you know, all these things. I'm like, ⁓ no, no, no, no, no, no, no. You know, we need to be focused on nutrition. And so this is definitely. Definitely where they are just really lacking in this country. And I do believe that our hospital food, we need it needs to be better. It it needs to be better. We need to be if you are sick, ⁓ you need to focus on nutrition. But then again, that's also the chicken and egg situation because I do believe many people are in the hospitals because of poor lifestyle choices to begin with. We need to be eating good food, real foods outside of the hospital, so you don't end up in the hospital. But that is a whole vicious Circle that we could spend all day talking about. ⁓ so ⁓ yeah, these, so I just wanted to share with y'all my thoughts. So hopefully you won't find yourself in the situation that I was in where you're in the hospital for weeks on end. But if you are, hopefully this helps you and gives you ideas of how you can still maintain some bit of healthy food. Again, it's not gonna be, it's probably not gonna be perfect, especially if you cannot afford or you don't have the money to actually go out and get what you are needing or wanting. ⁓ now in saying that, as a Christian, I certainly do believe that if you that we should be asking God that He knows our needs and say, Lord, I am really in need of real food, of your food that will nourish my body, that will honor my body in this circumstance, to give me the things that I need, please He's provided. And I think if we just ask and not just give up, that he will provide. I didn't even really have to ask. God provided. Because of everyone's like donations and everything flooding in. You know, I had the money where I could actually just go to Publix and get what I needed, get the real food that I needed. But on top of that, God provided the friends in my life who already were milling their grains and were. excellent, still are excellent bakers of fresh and mill grains, and that they were there when I needed them and that they were willing to come and help me ⁓ and give me things and to provide real food whenever I really needed it. And y'all, it was I remember the first time I baked bread myself. It was probably two months after my husband got shot that I was finally able to mill my grains, mill my wheat, bake my bread again. And that was nice. I will say that was so wonderful to do something normal that I had done before. That was a rabbit trail. but y'all, if you're looking for real food in the hospital, it's probably not gonna happen. But you know, do do your best. And as and again, I wanna emphasize that if you were a patient in the hospital. Not medical advice, please listen to your doctor, but also just have that conversation with your doctor because that's what we would do. It's like, hey, ⁓ he's so like the doctor who was really big on him getting in sure, like, no, no, no, you need the protein, you need this protein, it's gonna help your body heal. And so we just basically showed him, like, look, he is he is getting it. This is what we're giving him. And he was satisfied with it. He was okay with what we were getting for him. Because I explained to him, like, no, no, no, he does not need like all the sugar. We want better ingredients. We don't want we don't want non-GMO ingredients. So we're doing what you're telling us to do. Just better. so definitely work with your doctor, pray about it and follow that wisdom ⁓ in regards to if you if you are an actual patient. Cause again, many times they have, they, they have these restrictions for a reason. So don't just completely throw the restrictions out the window. They're probably there for a reason. But otherwise, let me know in your comments below if you have any other advice. to add to this. So this was my advice. And then in like one of the extreme circumstances that I pray none of you find yourself in, ⁓ where we were just long hospital visits, long time. ⁓ my husband, I will say it it just took him a while before he could really enjoy food again. He was dealing with nausea for a while. And so those were tough times. ⁓ but it's one of those things where if you yourself are the ones who is recovering or you're sick, you know, All the more important reasons to first of all listen to your body. ⁓ I think often our body tells us what it is needing by what we are craving, but maybe not always, or if you're not in tune with your body. But also just take it slow, give yourself some grace. And when what you can eat, try to let it be the most nutrient dense as you possibly can. ⁓ and maybe that's just homemade chicken broth that you made, ⁓ or you know, full-blown grains. It's really up to you. But hopefully this was helpful, y'all. ⁓ enjoyed this little chat and a little bit of a behind the scenes of our time in the hospital when all of that happened. But thank y'all so much for watching and I'll see y'all in or hear y'all or listen to y'all, whatever it is, in the next episode. Y'all have a great day.