During this process, I've made a couple of friends.
I call them my "Cancer buddies".
It's an unfortunate group to be a part of because there are only TWO criteria needed: Be awesome (not a bad thing) and have cancer (very bad thing).
Lisa is one of my cancer buddies. She is awesome. I am so happy that cancer introduced us to one another. Back when I was first diagnosed, I went onto YSC (Young Survivors) in a panic! I was pregnant, I had cancer, what the f*ck was I supposed to do now! And I found Lisa. She was pregnant and mid-treatment. AND SHE LIVED IN MINNEAPOLIS! Just a mere 1.5 hour drive away! I immediately sent her a message that literally said "please be my friend." (I'm subtle like that)
And she responded with an "of course I'll be your friend, do you need me to come to your first appointment with you?"
She left work early to go to my first surgeon appointment with me. To understand the enormity of this, you have to understand that when you have cancer, you miss work ALL THE TIME. So time in the office is sacred! But she quickly and willingly made that sacrifice for me (told you she was awesome).
And was rewarded by getting to see my boobs. That's how I know we're going to be lifelong friends, she saw my boobs on our first meeting. I mean how can that NOT end up in a lifelong friendship :)
Anywho, we've supported one another throughout treatment. We text each other weekly. We'd text back and forth during our chemo treatments. I actually looked forward to some of my Friday afternoons because I knew I'd get to hear from her and have someone to discuss the highs and lows of chemo with.
Basically I just have a ton of love for this girl, even though we're still really just getting to know each other.
And to top it all off, we're both on the same level of semi-hippie-ness. Meaning she cloth diapers her beautiful little girl, her husband is all about natural health remedies, and we're both looking for good ways to nourish our bodies and keep as many carcinogens away from us as we can.
So literally the weekend after she finished Taxol, she sent me an email asking what I thought of the Crazy, Sexy Diet and wondering if I might be interested in doing the 21 day cleanse with her.
What is the Crazy, Sexy Diet? Why, I am so glad you asked!
It's a diet that focuses on eating green, leafy, uncooked vegetables. We all know that veggies are healthy, right? And we all know that cooking them takes away a good portion of their nutritional value, right? So eating alot of raw, green, vitamin rich vegetables is actually pretty intuitive (even though we don't do enough of it).
However, the author suggests that our diet should be, at a minimum 60/40. So 60% of your dinner plate should be covered by those aforementioned veggies. The other 40% should be other healthy, lowfat, unprocessed foods like whole grains, beans, and even a little meat (if you don't want to go vegan). Again, aside from the vegan thing, this isn't really all that crazy. We all know processed foods are bad. We all know whole grains are good.
At it's very basic, this diet makes COMPLETE sense.
However, there are some other suggestions made by the author that will seem kind of alternative/hippie for most Americans. Like going vegan. And introducing juicing into your diet. And she has some other lifestyle suggestions that I don't know if I can completely buy into. Right now I'm just reading my way through the book (I'm on chapter 3) and understanding more of the "why" behind her lifestyle choices.
But, I do need to start eating healther. And, generally speaking, this diet makes alot of sense to me.
So, now that I'm 75% done with my treatment, I think this blog will move forward by trying to explore how to keep cancer at bay using natural methods. Modern medicine has few to no good suggestions other than "eat low fat foods" and "exercise", so this is my way of exploring how deep my inner-hippie really goes and hopefully providing my readers with an understanding of changes they can make in their own lives to help prevent cancer.
OK, that sounds far to "big" of me. Like my goal is to bring about world peace. I don't actually expect my readers to make these huge changes in their own lives. But I do want to bring awareness and education. Because cancer is truly becoming an epidemic in America and I don't ever want anyone that knows me to be diagnosed and say "if only I'd known..."
But aside from all that "beneficial to your health" crap I just said above, I expect this experience to provide me with alot of funny blog material. Because let's be honest, I LOVE junk food, sugar and most procesed foods. I love meat. I think there is nothing better than a hot meal. Basically, my current diet IS the "Standard American Diet". This transition to raw, healthy, green is going to be a tough one. This blog will NOT be from the perspective of an animal loving, bleeding heart, liberal who thinks we should eat more veggies b/c it's "cruel" to eat animals. Nope, this blog will be from the perspective of an average American who knows this is the right thing to do for her health... but isn't going to love making the change. I expect some of my blogs will involve phrases like "this is crazy" and "If I see one more green, leafy vegetable, I'm going to puke." So even if you think I'm totally nuts, feel free to follow along and laugh at/with me.
Thus, my next few blogs will probably focus on the Crazy, Sexy diet, the science behind it, and my personal plans for how I intend to change my lifestyle.
Here's a hint: Step 1, stop drinking soda and caffiene (OUCH!).
I call them my "Cancer buddies".
It's an unfortunate group to be a part of because there are only TWO criteria needed: Be awesome (not a bad thing) and have cancer (very bad thing).
Lisa is one of my cancer buddies. She is awesome. I am so happy that cancer introduced us to one another. Back when I was first diagnosed, I went onto YSC (Young Survivors) in a panic! I was pregnant, I had cancer, what the f*ck was I supposed to do now! And I found Lisa. She was pregnant and mid-treatment. AND SHE LIVED IN MINNEAPOLIS! Just a mere 1.5 hour drive away! I immediately sent her a message that literally said "please be my friend." (I'm subtle like that)
And she responded with an "of course I'll be your friend, do you need me to come to your first appointment with you?"
She left work early to go to my first surgeon appointment with me. To understand the enormity of this, you have to understand that when you have cancer, you miss work ALL THE TIME. So time in the office is sacred! But she quickly and willingly made that sacrifice for me (told you she was awesome).
And was rewarded by getting to see my boobs. That's how I know we're going to be lifelong friends, she saw my boobs on our first meeting. I mean how can that NOT end up in a lifelong friendship :)
Anywho, we've supported one another throughout treatment. We text each other weekly. We'd text back and forth during our chemo treatments. I actually looked forward to some of my Friday afternoons because I knew I'd get to hear from her and have someone to discuss the highs and lows of chemo with.
Basically I just have a ton of love for this girl, even though we're still really just getting to know each other.
And to top it all off, we're both on the same level of semi-hippie-ness. Meaning she cloth diapers her beautiful little girl, her husband is all about natural health remedies, and we're both looking for good ways to nourish our bodies and keep as many carcinogens away from us as we can.
So literally the weekend after she finished Taxol, she sent me an email asking what I thought of the Crazy, Sexy Diet and wondering if I might be interested in doing the 21 day cleanse with her.
What is the Crazy, Sexy Diet? Why, I am so glad you asked!
It's a diet that focuses on eating green, leafy, uncooked vegetables. We all know that veggies are healthy, right? And we all know that cooking them takes away a good portion of their nutritional value, right? So eating alot of raw, green, vitamin rich vegetables is actually pretty intuitive (even though we don't do enough of it).
However, the author suggests that our diet should be, at a minimum 60/40. So 60% of your dinner plate should be covered by those aforementioned veggies. The other 40% should be other healthy, lowfat, unprocessed foods like whole grains, beans, and even a little meat (if you don't want to go vegan). Again, aside from the vegan thing, this isn't really all that crazy. We all know processed foods are bad. We all know whole grains are good.
At it's very basic, this diet makes COMPLETE sense.
However, there are some other suggestions made by the author that will seem kind of alternative/hippie for most Americans. Like going vegan. And introducing juicing into your diet. And she has some other lifestyle suggestions that I don't know if I can completely buy into. Right now I'm just reading my way through the book (I'm on chapter 3) and understanding more of the "why" behind her lifestyle choices.
But, I do need to start eating healther. And, generally speaking, this diet makes alot of sense to me.
So, now that I'm 75% done with my treatment, I think this blog will move forward by trying to explore how to keep cancer at bay using natural methods. Modern medicine has few to no good suggestions other than "eat low fat foods" and "exercise", so this is my way of exploring how deep my inner-hippie really goes and hopefully providing my readers with an understanding of changes they can make in their own lives to help prevent cancer.
OK, that sounds far to "big" of me. Like my goal is to bring about world peace. I don't actually expect my readers to make these huge changes in their own lives. But I do want to bring awareness and education. Because cancer is truly becoming an epidemic in America and I don't ever want anyone that knows me to be diagnosed and say "if only I'd known..."
But aside from all that "beneficial to your health" crap I just said above, I expect this experience to provide me with alot of funny blog material. Because let's be honest, I LOVE junk food, sugar and most procesed foods. I love meat. I think there is nothing better than a hot meal. Basically, my current diet IS the "Standard American Diet". This transition to raw, healthy, green is going to be a tough one. This blog will NOT be from the perspective of an animal loving, bleeding heart, liberal who thinks we should eat more veggies b/c it's "cruel" to eat animals. Nope, this blog will be from the perspective of an average American who knows this is the right thing to do for her health... but isn't going to love making the change. I expect some of my blogs will involve phrases like "this is crazy" and "If I see one more green, leafy vegetable, I'm going to puke." So even if you think I'm totally nuts, feel free to follow along and laugh at/with me.
Thus, my next few blogs will probably focus on the Crazy, Sexy diet, the science behind it, and my personal plans for how I intend to change my lifestyle.
Here's a hint: Step 1, stop drinking soda and caffiene (OUCH!).
RSS Feed