What Do I Eat?

Quite a few people are wondering just what I'm eating these days. I guess I got sidetracked in telling you that part, didn't I?!

Here's my main law:

"I Shall Eat the Whole Foods and Nothing But the Whole Foods, So Help Me, God."

Subheadings and sub-subheadings:
- I shall eat nothing processed or refined.
       (This kicks out the contents of the whole center of the store (including bread), plus the
       dairy department. Wasn't that easy? Store time just got cut by 3/4.)
- I shall eat nothing that has been genetically modified (GMO).
       (This kicks out anything with soy and corn -- which is practically everything. Try 
       reading your labels; you'll see what I mean.)
- I shall eat nothing with pesticides or herbicides or growth-hormones or antibiotics.
       (So, only organic. Isn't this fun?)
- All grains shall be eaten whole and shall be soaked prior to cooking.
       (This makes them easier to digest. Makes them taste better, too -- kind of nutty.)
- At least half of all foods shall be eaten raw.
       (Not eggs. I draw the line at raw eggs -- even if they are Salmonella-free. Ewww.)
- Sweetness shall be kept to a minimum.
       (and then only in the form of whole fruits and raw honey. Or homemade jam that a dear 
       friend gave me. I can't offend her, right?)
- Fats shall be eaten in abundance but shall be of the natural, unprocessed variety.
       (This kicks out such "healthy" oils as vegetable, canola, and corn; but allows butter and 
       coconut oil. Isn't this great?)
- There shall no caffeine pass my lips. (grammar; I know) 
       (except green tea which is so beneficial we'll overlook the caffeine)

Are your eyes rolling back in your head yet? It's really not as bad as it sounds. Honest.
I mean, if you look at all the stuff you can't have, then I suppose it would be depressing. But if you think about all the things you can have . . . it's AMAZING! And if you add to that how awesomely *good* you're going to feel . . . well, there's just no contest at all. The hardest part is finding sources for all the foods you've never shopped for before because -- let's face it -- most of this is not found at your friendly neighborhood Walmart.

So here's what's for Breakfast most days:
 - 2 (organic, pastured) eggs fried in (organic, pastured) butter (yes, saturated fats are 
    *good* for you now; did you know?)
 - topped with 1/2 an avocado, sliced
 - splashed with Cholula or Tabasco (optional)
 - perched on half a sprouted-grain English muffin or a slice of Ezekiel bread (toasted and 
    buttered)
or
 - a cup or so of oat groats (fancy name for whole oats -- not rolled or steel-cut) that have 
   been soaked overnight, then cooked gently for 15 minutes (for detailed instructions, read  
   here)
- topped with blackberries, raspberries, blueberries, pomegranate, pecans (or walnuts), 
   ground flaxseed, and coconut milk (Yes, all of that. The oats are pretty much buried.) It is 
   so yummy!

Lunch is usually a big salad with everything possible on it. Truthfully? I often end up at Clark's Fork for their salad bar -- waaay better than I could make at home. Start with a lovely mixture of colorful salad greens (no iceberg or packaged lettuce at this place!); add some grated carrot or radish from their own garden; some cilantro; some mushrooms; either cauliflower or broccoli; some green peas; a bunch of garbanzo beans for protein; sometimes some boiled egg (if I haven't already had eggs for breakfast); a smidge of real Parmesan cheese (because some days it sounds heavenly); some sunflower or pumpkin seeds -- and then a drizzle of thin Ranch dressing (which is not actually on my program, but until I find a recipe I like, it'll do). Are you hungry yet?

Other days, I'll have some homemade lentil or split pea soup or some black beans and brown rice (both of which have been soaked overnight before cooking). Or, once in a great while, Wendy's fixes my lunch -- their almond-berry chicken salad.  It isn't organic, but it's fresh and good and fills in, in a pinch.  

This is a marathon, not a sprint.

I don't too often eat supper -- for a few reasons. (This is probably a subject for another post, but I'll tackle it here anyway, because . . . well, you're here now, and I may never get back to it.)
  1) I usually eat breakfast around 8:30 or 9:00 a.m. and "lunch" is often around 3:00 or 
      4:00 p.m., so supper would be around 9:00 p.m.  Nah.
  2) I usually have a handful of supplements (that should've been swallowed throughout the 
      day), and taking them with a glass of water takes care of any hunger issues that may 
      have been developing.
  3) System cleaning (another post I'm working on) needs to happen every night, and it 
       takes at least 12 hours to do, so eating late in the evening is a bad idea.
  4) Eating three meals a day is apparently a relatively new development -- within the last 
       200-300 years -- so it isn't strictly necessary. I do fine on two meals a day, so I'll go 
       with it.

Meat:  I was raised on it and always thought I had to have it, so it has come as something of a shock to find out that I really don't need it. Even more shocking, it doesn't even taste good right now! I have no idea if this state of affairs is temporary or permanent or temporarily permanent or permanently temporary or what. I'm just going with it.

Oh! I almost forgot -- I also juice most days. My idea is to flood my body with nutrients so it will have an abundance of Legos (did you read that post yet? it's here) to build and heal with.  Because I'm keeping things simple (oh okay, it's because I'm not very creative in the kitchen), my juice usually consists of:
- 2 large carrots
- 1-2 stalks celery
- a medium-ish beet
- a couple handsful of kale (stripped of the spines) or spinach
- half an apple (preferrably Granny or Pippin)
- a squeeze of lemon
- 1/2 tsp paprika
- and sometimes a small bunch of parsley and/or a thin slice of gingerroot
This makes about three cups of juice. I swig on it all day.

There you have it . . . my "diet". If anyone cares to do the calculations and tell me where you think I'm coming up short, feel free. I'm just listening to what my body's telling me and eating accordingly. It's simpler that way.

I know I've left out a lot of information in attempting to keep this post from becoming a book, so if you have any questions, leave me a comment. Actually, leave me a comment anyway.

A Couple of Things of Interest

A couple things of interest (to me, anyway) . . . 

For several weeks now I have woken up (awakened? woke up? nevermind) with a sore throat some mornings. You know, the kind that feels like you're coming down with a cold? At first, I was bummed because I haven't had a cold in three years, and here I'm eating all healthy, and NOW I get a cold?? Bah.  But here's the thing -- no cold has developed.  I'm still waiting. 

Item of Interest #2: My mood is usually pretty good, but some days . . . not so much. Yesterday was one such. Grouchy? Oh, my word, I was off the meter! I was very glad to have only one massage booked. Today, though? I feel awesome! Not hyper-awesome; just cheerful and upbeat and able to see the good in humankind (even in spite of all those Facebook postings that focus on the evil stuff).

Well, I've come up with a theory: These are both signs that my body is continuing to detox -- letting go of more of the crud that's been stashed in my adipose tissue (read: "fat"). You see, eating all healthy like I've been doing for the past almost-five months has side effects. Among them are improved digestion, increased energy, improved mental clarity; improved sleep; . . . and, well, . . . weight loss. It was bound to happen.

(Just an aside. Losing weight is not my primary concern -- or even secondary, for that matter. It's just a side effect. I don't want it to become a focus, so if you ask how many pounds I've lost, I'll tell you, "I have no idea.")

Back to the point. Disposing of adipose tissue frees up the toxins that were residing there, allowing them back into circulation where they can be flushed out through the kidneys, colon, skin, and lungs. If a person doesn't take in enough water to do the job though, the flushing system slows down to the point that the toxins start settling out again -- looking for a new home. So when I wake up with a sore throat, I make sure to get in at least 36 ounces of water before I leave for work (not rocket science; it's just three 12-oz. glasses because that's the size that lives in my cupboard dishwasher). Sore throat is gone within an hour or two.

Oh Ah-chie, it's MAGIC! (visualize Edith Bunker's voice)

Prayers Help Immensely

My heart hurts for the ranchers in South Dakota who have lost so many cattle in last weekend's early snowstorm. If you haven't heard about it, here is a blog from folks close to the situation:

The Blizzard That Never Was

Most of the mainstream media seems to have chosen not to cover this catastrophe . . . which is sickening in itself, but I choose not to go down that path today.

When I first announced that I had cancer, there was an out-pouring from friends and family members expressing that their thoughts and prayers would be with me. It felt like nothing I've ever experienced before. I can't describe it exactly, but I *felt* God's presence all around me and in me. I was filled with hope and . . . warmth . . . I guess is the best word I can come up with. And an absolute certainty that I was on the right path.

My reason for writing today is to ask that, as you go about your day over the next weeks, you find a few seconds here and there to pray for the ranchers in South Dakota who have lost so much. Our God appreciates it when we care for each other and He will pass our prayers along in a mode that will be just what those poor people need.

He's Been There, Done That . . . 10 Years Ago

From time to time I will post links, book titles, videos, and other information I find useful and/or interesting. This is one of those times. 

Here's someone who's been where I'm at and is saying exactly the same thing. How cool is that?!  Check it out (in two parts):

 

And a Q&A session afterward:

I'm glad it's him on national television and not me! Great job, Chris!

Why I'm Going This Route

Well, I broke down and posted my blog on Facebook, and the response has been waaaay bigger than I ever imagined. Which is more than a little mind-boggling.  Anyway, I’ve been getting a lot of questions about why I’m going this route and whatever possessed me to think I could actually win a battle with big, bad CANCER, and why am I giving up without a fight, and so on and so forth . . . and I realized that because I’d been telling so many people orally, I had failed to cover a lot of it in the blog. So for all you newcomers, here you go:

I am a massage therapist by trade, working in an office with two chiropractors. Between the three of us, we deal with the fall-out from surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation on an almost-daily basis.  For instance, take the person who had hip replacement surgery and ended up with one leg ½” longer than the other, giving him back problems for the rest of his life.  I’m not saying hip replacement surgery is bad – just that all surgeries seem to have unforeseen consequences. Like scar tissue that continues to grow inside the body of some people after abdominal surgery, adhering to the intestines and causing blockages, not to mention pain (which was the reason they had the surgery in the first place).  It doesn’t happen to everybody, but how do you know whether you will be one of the lucky ones?

I have worked with several people during and following chemotherapy treatment, and have gotten to see up close and personal the toll it takes on them. They’re miserably sick (to the point of wanting to die), and the poisons stay in their tissues for many years after they’re through with treatment (probably the rest of their lives).  They will actually have recurrence of the sickness they experienced during chemo (sort of a flashback), following a deep tissue massage because it releases some of the crap back into their blood stream again. And the really rotten part of it is that most of them have ended up dying of cancer anyway. (Or the treatment thereof, but that’s another story.)

Then there’s the person who had radiation for throat cancer eight or nine years ago and had to talk through a hole in his throat. Over the years, the radiation apparently continued to disintegrate his cervical vertebrae because he had to begin wearing a neck brace in order to hold his head up. He recently passed away as well.  And have you ever seen the burn scars left behind from radiation?

As an aside, what would you guess is the ten-year survival rate of all cancer victims?  50%?  25%?  Would you believe 2.6%?  Apparently published statistics are based on five-years of survival, but if you look at the ten-year numbers, they plummet. Why?  Because the cancer comes back. The underlying cause and environment that allowed it to grow in the first place are still there. And the second time around, the immune system is shot from all the prior rounds of chemotherapy, so it can’t fight, leaving the only options stronger and stronger chemo cocktails, and/or more radiation/surgery.  Think about all the people you’ve known whose cancer was in remission for a few years but came back and got them. Sad isn’t it? It’s because they treated only the cancer itself -- not the underlying cause. And they wrecked the body in the process.

I kind of wish I had kept a list of all the reading I did in the first month because it would be nice to be able to cite it here, but I was trying to get as much information into my head as I could and wasn’t thinking about things like blogs.  Anyway, at least one research study found that surgery actually increases the chance of metastasis (spreading to other areas of the body), for two reasons:

-           - Any time you cut into the body, it grows new blood vessels to the area to help heal the wound. This provides a new freeway system for any stray cancer cells to emigrate to a new home; and

-          - Anesthesia suppresses the immune system for – not days, but --  several weeks after surgery, so any cancer cells left behind have a chance to get re-established. 

I don’t know what ranking this next reason gets, but from a strictly practical standpoint, I suppose it’d be pretty close to the top: I can’t afford to go the traditional treatment route. In the first place, it costs the price of a rather large house; and secondly, I can’t afford to be sick and unable to work. The nice lady at the hospital assured me I could get on Medicaid, but I don’t understand why the taxpayers should have to foot the bill for my cancer.  It’s a moot point anyway, because I am so completely repulsed by the whole concept.

Which brings up another thing. There’s a very interesting book by Norman Cousins called “Anatomy of an Illness.” It spends a whole chapter talking about the placebo effect – how strong it is and how, rather than poking fun at it, we should embrace and use it to our benefit. In a nutshell, whatever a person believes will work, will work. People who thought they were receiving a drug (but who were in fact given a placebo) had the same chemical changes in their bodies as those who were given the drug! Pretty intriguing, yes? The opposite holds true, too. So my point is, because I don’t believe in the benefits of conventional treatment, it won’t help me as much as it might someone else. And because I do believe in the medicines God made for man, they will benefit me. 

Which brings up another thing. When God created Earth, he also created everything that Man would need to live on it -- including medicine.  He created herbs, plants and foods that would nourish, heal, soothe, calm, and even stimulate.  In the past 50 or 60 years, Western medicine has come up with “better” medicines. But are they really? Every one of them has side effects. And most (if not all) just cover the symptoms like a Band-Aid but do nothing to aid in healing.  Even antibiotics have a dark side. Anyway, over the years, I have come to trust God for absolutely everything and in every situation, so why would I not trust His creation over man’s improvisation?

Which brings up yet another thing.  (Okay, the connection is probably only in my mind, but let’s go with it.) Why is our society so dead-set against dying?  It’s part of living, right? Nobody survives life. So what is with this thing of keeping people alive  waaay past their expiration date, no matter how much it costs or how much misery they have to endure? Well, it’s malarkey, that’s what. So I will live my chunk of life the best I can – putting God first, and attaining as many of the characteristics of Christ as I can – and when my time is up, I will die with satisfaction, contentment and dignity.  That is the natural order of things.

So no, I don’t have a death wish. I’m not suicidal. I’m not taking the easy way out. (You try eating this way, then tell me it's the easy way out.) I’m treating myself with the medicines God made, and I’m leaving the outcome in His hands.

There’s more.

Our bodies were created with the innate intelligence to heal themselves. Did you know this? It’s true. It may retain a scar or the stump of a limb, but it will heal and go on functioning – if it has everything it needs to work with.  Take a set of Legos, for instance. If you have all the pieces, you can make about anything you want to. And if you’re missing a few pieces, you can usually make do. But if you’re missing too many pieces, or missing key pieces, then your project is doomed.  Think of the Lego blocks as nutrients. When we run short of nutrients for a short time, our body makes do. But if we continue to run short for years and years, the body can’t function like it should be able to. The heart, the brain, the digestive tract, the liver – all of these systems are vital to the body. If they don’t work, the body dies. So when things start to go wrong, something less vital has to be dispensable. And that something is the immune system.

When functioning optimally, our immune systems recognize and destroy viruses, evil bacteria, and sick or dead or mutated cells (think “cancer”).  When it can’t function well due to lack of “Legos”, mutant cells slink by the radar and set up housekeeping.  Which brings me to my main point:

It seems completely illogical  and absurd to carve up the body, leaving it scarred and defaced;  flood it with poison; and then drop an A-bomb on it – all in an effort to kill a few billion cancer cells that the immune system could take care of while leaving the body unscathed.  

Does it not make more sense to build up the body’s immune system so it will identify and annihilate the buggers like it’s meant to do?  I think so, too. 

So that's why I've chosen this way of treating my health. I feel very certain that I will lick this thing, and that I will come out the other side of this experience healthier than ever before in mind, body, and spirit.  If not, if it licks me instead, then I will consider that 50+ years is the extent of my lifetime, and call it good.

Oregon Coast

I'm sitting in a lovely condo on the coast of Oregon, watching the fishing boats bobbing in the distance, the pelicans skimming the surface of the waves -- apparently in search of breakfast, and the occasional whale blowing a mist into the air before swooping down for . . . what do whales eat, anyway? Whatever it is, it probably fits under the heading of "Seafood", so I pity the poor creatures.

I am with Steve and Julie, and Julie enjoys seafood -- pretty much any make or model, as near as I can tell. Steve and I have no comprehension of this, coming from a childhood on the prairies of Montana where our entire experience with seafood consisted of fish sticks and tartar sauce for hot lunch at school and (much later) the all-you-can-eat-breaded-shrimp deal at Sizzler where they served cocktail sauce in large vats. We prefer our chowder made without clams, and our oysters . . . well, on somebody else's plate, thank you. Poor Julie.

We are here for a lovely break from all things Normal -- deadlines and commitments (name that tune?), work, laundry, bills, drama, planning, thinking, and all the other minutiae that fill the Normal days. Normal bedtimes are cast aside as a matter of principle, as are Normal waking times and meal times. Cooking is done by crockpot or by restaurant, if at all.

'Tis lovely. I don't ever want to go back. 

But I will. Because I'm Responsible. (And because, in one and a half more days, I will be Homeless and Carless if I don't.) Sigh.

Have a lovely day, my dears. I hear some of you can see snow on the mountains now. That'll definitely help the Coming Back! Ciao for now . . .

Food As Medicine

Whew! I got caught up in a time warp and thought I'd *never* get back, but it spit me out yesterday and here I am. (Lame excuses should at least be entertaining, right?) 

What really happened is that I got stuck in the Slime Pit of Grumpiness and, since I couldn't string two cheerful (let alone humorous) words together, I wallowed.  But female issues have subsided and life is good again. (That, and fall is in the air. Can winter be far behind?)   :-)

A couple weeks ago I got to see a lady who does muscle testing and body reading and all kinds of interesting stuff. But the best part was that she uses Food as Medicine. Is that not the coolest thing ever?? *Exactly* what I've been looking for! 

I spent three hours with her, and she sent me home with a personalized "prescription." Here's what it looks like:

Kohlrabi - 3 slices daily x 3 weeks
Rosehip petals - 1/2 tsp/qt (drinking) water, 4 times/week x 2 months
Lemon juice (fresh) - 2 tsp/qt (drinking) water, 3 times/week x 2 months
Buckwheat kashi - once weekly
Millet - once weekly
Morning:  
 - 30 grams of protein within 30 minutes of waking up. Then:
 - 2 egg yolks
 - 1 tsp raw honey
11:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.:
[The body's energy is especially strong in a different system of the body every two hours. Hence, the timetable - nourishing specific systems with specific foods.]
 - A-F Beta Food, 2 tablets, for 2 months
 - Filberts, 3, for 2 months
 - Parlsey, 3 capsules, for 3 weeks, then switch to 5:00 - 7:00 p.m.
 - Apricots, 2, for 2 months
 - Prunes, 3, for 2 months
 - Black beans, 1 cup, Tues, Thurs, Sun, for 2 months [Turns out the body works on a different system each day of the week, as well. Cool, huh?]
3:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.:
 - Pecans - 4 halves
 - Raw honey, 2 tsp
 - Primal Force Ultra Greens, 2 tsp [I had been using this already, mixed with applesauce]
 - Just Barley, 1 capsule [Ditto, this one.]
5:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m.:
 - Heavy Metal Detox, 3 capsules
 - Filberts, 2, x 1 month
 - Vitamin B6, 1 capsule [Ditto this one, too.]
 - Magnesium Oratate, 3 capsules
 - 1/2 cup green beans, 1 small zucchini, 1/8 tsp. paprika, 3 times/week x 1 month
 - Pumpkin seeds, 2 tsp x 2 months (begin in 3 weeks)
9:00 p.m. (bedtime):
 - Sea Cure (hydrolyzed fish protein), 4, x 1 month
 - CoQ10, 2, x 2 months
 - Evening Primrose Oil, 1
Exercises for balancing and de-toxing:
Knee squeeze x 2 min. daily
Salt glow - 4 tbsp olive oil mixed with 2 tbsp sea salt; rubbed over body once a week x 2 months
Figure eights with right ankle over left, 12 times
Figure eights with left wrist over right, 12 times
Hold points on head [as demonstrated].

How's that for a regimen? I confess, the hardest part is eating meals in addition to all this stuff. I do okay for breakfast, and usually have a salad bar for a late lunch, but supper often falls by the way-side because nothing sounds good. 

Next post: Muscle Testing (maybe. Unless something else jumps to the head of the line. Like the fact that meat tastes gross.)