The dark mood continues

Sorry I haven’t been my usual attentive self. I am still processing the information about our friend with cancer and trying to talk things out with our other friends. So far I have only cried once in the last two days which is an improvement over the past week. I wanted you all to know I am not spending any time on the internet other than putting up my post so that I keep my funk to myself. Sometimes when you are down it is better to be alone rather than inflict that on others at least that is what seems appropriate to me. I wanted to spend a little more time talking about health and cancer if you will indulge me.

Thoughts on Living with Cancer:

Once cancer enters your world life it will never be the same. Sure we could listen to the majority of oncologists and go about life as usual eating processed food, cakes, cookies and drinking wine. After all the problem is already here live it up while you can. The alternative is to say “hell no, cancer is not going to win” and that is the approach we took. When you wonder why I am so passionate about healthy eating now you know. If cancer can be beat we have every intention of beating it. Can I say for certain we will? No but every day that I spend with my husband is a gift for which I am very thankful. If we were to give up and live like most people I am certain there would be fewer days we would be able to spend together. I have no intention of doing things that will distract our bodies from fighting cancer.

I only wish that we had wised up before we had a crisis to deal with. I hope that something that I write inspires at least one of you to make a change for the better. If it does I will be grateful to have made an impact. I don’t want anyone to deal with what we go through. Cancer sucks! If you can avoid it I strongly recommend you take that path. You really don’t want to deal it because it isn’t pretty or pleasant.

For those of you that thinking “what cancer did I miss something?” No you didn’t miss anything I don’t actually discuss cancer in the specific other than a passing reference now and then. I can discuss cancer in the abstract without getting upset but prefer not to think or talk about is as it relates to us because it is too difficult. Sometimes I go days or even weeks without thinking about cancer but then something happens like our friend and all my fears come flooding back and overwhelm me. There are many days when I wish that I was stronger. I try to do everything humanly possible to beat this beast. This is why I am always reading health and nutrition books or articles on PubMed and taking courses. It is my way of taking control in a process where you have very little and are at the mercy of others. Studies have shown that certain lifestyle habits can slow the doubling rate of cancer. We employ all of those tactics in the hope that when combined together these tactics are more powerful. Studies have also shown that food combinations can slow cancer growth so the same should be true for combining food and lifestyle.

When I put up the post talking about eating healthy food versus toxins I knew that many people, maybe most people, would disagree with me. It wasn’t that my thoughts weren’t valid but that it is human nature to not want to admit that there is something you could/should be doing that you aren’t. I read somewhere that everyone wants to believe good news about their bad habits and I think that is very true. Hell, I used to be exactly the same way. Most nutritionists preach everything in moderation and I was right there. Moderation sounded good to me, I could have my cake and eat it too. Sadly that really didn’t work out well for us. However now that my decisions have a life or death impact I have been surprised by what we are capable of, I think you will find the same thing is true for you.

In our case we have the perfect combination of the right motivation (cancer) and hundreds of hours of research to point us down the right path in terms of diet and lifestyle. Did you know that scientists are now saying that lifestyle is the direct cause of anywhere from 25 to 40% of all cancers and the at genetics account for less than 5%? Knowing things like that make it easy for us to make good choices most of the time.

I don’t expect that most people are ready to believe what I have to say. I wish you were but since most of our friends don’t “get it” I can’t expect other people to embrace the idea either. However I sincerely want to make a difference and if something I write sticks in your head and you put it into practice later then I am thrilled. My goal is for everyone to live a happy and more importantly a healthy life.

Okay that is all the doom and gloom I can take at the moment. What follows is an abbreviated version of what we have been up to. I did document the recipes from Sunday but didn’t calculate the numbers on them maybe  I will get them posted later.

Sunday:

We started our morning earlier than Saturday with two quick trips one to Wegman’s and then Whole Foods. We needed a few things to replenish the fresh produce supply. Most importantly we were out of kale and I couldn’t have Dan starting his day without a green smoothie. Since he has learned to love them, and they are good for him, I like him to have them at least every other day.

Once we got home from grocery shopping and got things put away we had our green smoothies. As usual our smoothies contained: kale, frozen banana, cinnamon, powdered ginger, ground flaxseed, walnuts, a little stevia for Dan (none for me), and water to process.

After breakfast we started discussing what I was going to prepare for the meal with my parents. Since it was cold outside I thought two hot dishes would be better than one hot and one cold (salad). Both my parents like soup and since that is easy it seemed like a good plan. I made a curried crème of carrot soup as a first course.

To accompany the soup I made a dish with Brussels sprouts, red onions, garlic, miso, orange juice, orange zest, stevia, and red bell pepper over quinoa.

Like usual we had something quick from what was in the refrigerator. This time it was leftover barley risotto and a green salad with black beans and curried tomato sauce. Intentional leftovers are so handy when I don’t feel up to cooking.

Monday:

Monday really wasn’t much better than the last few days for me emotionally. We did go to the gym and I managed to stay on the elliptical and spin bike except for ½ mile on the indoor track. Fortunately my knee held up pretty well.

Breakfast was a bowl of oatmeal with wild blueberries, cinnamon, ginger, ground flaxseeds and walnuts.

Lunch was a small bowl of red lentils of quinoa with fresh basil.

My afternoon snack was an orange with two Brazil nuts.

Dinner was a bowl of quinoa topped with Mexican flavored black beans and tomatoes finished with cilantro. Clearly we would have starved without intentional leftovers. ;-)

Tuesday:

The gym wasn’t going to open until 11am this morning which meant working out at home instead. I was confused about when the gym went back to its normal schedule which is next week.

My breakfast was white potatoes topped with lentils and tomatoes, parsley and olives.

I wasn’t particularly hungry so lunch was a bowl of marinated mushrooms topped with parsley.

Dinner was a giant salad with mixed greens, the lentil and tomato sauce, cucumber, red bell pepper, cherry tomatoes, fresh basil and walnuts. Once again without intentional leftovers who knows what we would have eaten.

Tomorrow is a busy one but I need to find time to cook since we don’t have any more leftovers on hand.

Happy Thoughts:

With my mood happy thoughts are hard to come by at the moment. Hopefully I will be more like myself in a few days. Presently I am happy to functioning and doing the things that I need to but other than that I don’t have anything positive to report. Sorry!

Signing off:

I hope you are having a better week than I have been. Tomorrow will be a busy day for me. With a little luck my mood will improve and I will be back to my old self. I am wearing myself out with all this doom and gloom. Talk to you again as soon as I am up to it.