Wednesday, January 2, 2013

A Healing Experiment

My New Year's resolutions tend to be a bit generic like "don't die" and "try not to kill others," but this year is a little different.

I say on a pretty regular basis that I want my health back, and it's coming along, but very slowly.  Sure I ran a 5k in October, but aside from the training for that, I'm still mushy and not to thrilled with my chemo recovery progress.  I admit that it's likely my expectations are too high, but I wanted a healthy, strong, awesome new me and I'm just not there yet.  My immunity still sucks and I get every passing cold, fever, and flu.  My liver went bonkers for a few months, but x-rays, CT scans and hida scans showed no problems other than the pain I was in.  I'm depressed and tired all the damn time, even though I'm taking depression/anti-anxiety meds and sleeping as much as possible.  And of course, allergies and asthma are kicking my ass.

So I've decided to reboot.  Start over nutritionally and really give my body what it needs to heal instead of scarfing down a piece of tiramisu after a few slices of pizza.  Yeah, that happened.

I'm starting the Whole30 this week with my coworker, Sabrina, which means I'm eliminating damn near everything from my diet for 30 days, then slowly reintroducing things to see what's making me feel like shit, if anything.  This includes sugar, soda, alcohol, grains, legumes, soy, and dairy.

For starters, I KNOW I'm allergic to dairy, but I haven't removed it from my diet in many years, so I'm interested to see if removing it will help my allergy issues.  I've never removed grains from my diet so I'm a little nervous about that.  Also, removing dairy AND soy means no coffee or tea because I don't like them black.  We could be in for very rocky times, friends.

I'm excited about this little science experiment though.  It's something I've been wanting to do since I found out I had cancer, and I finally feel strong enough.  If you're tempted to join me, read this blog post about why you should go ahead and do it!

P.S. Did I tell you that I'm writing a book?  Cause I totally am.  :D

9 comments:

  1. I'm planning on doing the whole30 in Feb. I figure trying it the same month I'm having surgery... probably setting myself up for failure.

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    1. Yeah, probably. Good thinking though, and good luck with surgery!

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  2. What about almond milk for your coffee/tea? It's pretty delicious.

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  3. I can't wait to follow your progress!

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  4. I use SODelicious (coconut creamer) in my coffee. It's pretty good too. Best of luck!

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  5. Re: Dairy... if you're into taking acidophilus supplements, give Good Belly probiotic drinks a try. They are non-dairy juice type drinks (pretty tasty actually), and the bacteria strain that is in it, is not milk-derived like acidophilus and other microbes in yogurt etc. I found the product at Whole Foods, in the dairy section. They're in cartons (not bottles).

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  6. This is a great idea. You inspire me, I think that's a good idea for anyone to do!

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  7. I can understand the frustration of not feeling "right" yet. It's been about 8 months since my last treatment and even though I do everything I want to, I still just don't feel normal. I've been doing the paleo thing for over a month now and I do feel the difference. Every once and a while I do get some cravings, but I just keep telling myself that I'm not going to feed my cancer cells anymore. Good luck with the book!

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  8. Thanks, Rachel! Congrats on your recovery!

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