CH-CH-CH-CH-Changes

Right after a cancer diagnosis, everything gets a little garbled in your brain because sentences and thoughts -- even random, wholly unconnected to this in any way thoughts -- often seem to end with "Uh.  Mah.  Gawd.  I.  Have.  Cancer." for at least a few days if not weeks.  At least, that's how it has worked for me thus far, and I'm told by friends who have gone through similar battles that was true for them as well.

For me, though?  When I'm facing any daunting challenge, the thing I crave most is to know every possible thing about the oncoming hurdle so that when I have to face it, I have pinpointed several avenues of weakness and am more prepared than anyone else in the room to discuss my options and possibilities.  This is, not coincidentally, how I approached my legal practice when I had a hearing -- I knew every possible nuance and all the case law, every argument for or against every issue that I could identify as having any possibility of being raised before I ever entered a courtroom for a hearing...and I had figured out a way to crush each and every one of them before I ever stepped forward for an argument.  Exhaustive but highly effective.

All this to say, I have now entered the research phase of my diagnosis with a vengeance.

Some books and websites I've been reading include:

-- The American Institute for Cancer Research (AICR), which has a fantastic database of recipes available for the searching online.

-- The Cancer-Fighting Kitchen: Nourishing, Big-Flavor Recipes for Cancer Treatment and Recovery by Rebecca Katz

-- One Bite at a Time, Revised: Nourishing Recipes for Cancer Survivors and Their Friends by Rebecca Katz

-- The Anti-Cancer Cookbook by Julia Greer

-- Crazy Sexy Cancer Tips by Kris Carr

Of all of these, the Rebecca Katz books have been a revelation in terms of healthy eating combined with a gourmet sense of taste and flavor -- maximizing both healthy ingredients along with nurturing the pleasure of eating really good food.  And I've also realized this:  all the healthy eating we'd been trying to incorporate from Clean Eating and Eating For Life and South Beach and Sonoma and all the other diet plans that focus on whole foods and lots of fruits and veggies and a reduction of processed crap?

It's all really good and what we ought to be doing, every single meal, every single day.

So it's well past time to pull myself out of my stress eating crapola stupor and to move forward even faster with my "eat better, live better, feel better" plan for the rest of my life.  I'm going to start sharing healthy recipes here more often as I tweak them for my family and find that they work well -- if my veggie-tolerating-but-just-barely-sometimes hubby and my picky eater child can be coaxed into being healthier along with me, then you know yours can be, too.

Here's a thumbnail sketch of what I've found out thus far:

-- Genetics are a big part of all of this, even if we can't always say exactly why that is (researchers are working on that).  We can't change our genetic code, all we can do is figure out a way to maximize the chances that we have with what we inherited.

-- Being leaner is better -- less fatty tissue in the way when someone has to operate on you, but more importantly less inflammatory tissue to feed whatever tumors may be lurking out there yet to be discovered.  And starving the cancer cells has become my mission in life.  Or one of my missions, anyway, because life is just too short to fixate on the negative alla time, isn't it?

-- Cook with more whole, real foods, especially, fruits, veggies and fresh herbs and spices whenever possible.  Try to eat a fruit or a veggie (or both!) with every meal and as a part of every snack.  Fiber and antioxidants are your very best friends.

-- Exercise is good.  Get a little, every day, and make it something you'll enjoy so you'll keep it up.  Try to alternate cardio with some strength-building something or other if at all possible.  Personally, I plan on walking which is easier on my joints and doing some resistance band work and pilates once I get the okay from my surgeon.  I'll work my way back up to hand weights from there if at all possible.  To have the energy to fight cancer, my body needs to be stronger and in better shape.  (And I plan on fighting.  Can you tell?)

-- Stress is bad.  Not just because it eats away at you, but because that eating away causes your body to make some bad changes including pumping you full of cortisol, a hormone that helps you store bad fat around your mid-section which, in turn, produces bad inflammatory ick that then gets pumped all over your body and, you guessed it, feeds your cancer cells.  Stress reduction is your friend -- regular exercise helps with that, as does keeping a journal and proactively coming up with a way to channel your worry into kicking cancer's ass.  (Did I mention I plan to fight this, whatever it takes?)

-- Get plenty of sleep.  That can seem like a crazy thing to say, given all the worry and stuff, but lack of sleep makes the stress worse, doesn't give your body adequate healing time, and basically messes with your endocrine system in the worst way.  Plus, being sleepy makes me grumpy, so I try to get to bed at a reasonable hour whenever possible for my family's sake.  I suggest you do the same.  The dishes can wait.

The funny thing is -- or maybe it isn't such a funny thing when you think about it -- these same guidelines are the ones that we all should be doing anyway for our day to day health whether or not we have cancer.  Take care of your body and your mind, and nurture them both every day by doing the things that keep them healthiest.

It's funny how everything seems to go right back to Hippocrates, but that's the truth of it:  eat healthfully, get a little exercise, take care of your body and your mind, and enjoy the journey along the way, and life is good.

YouTube -- David Bowie as Ziggy Stardust singing "Changes" live.

Every once in a while, it is great to remind myself of the in-your-face stage that David Bowie went through during his Ziggy Stardust phase. The androgynous, shiny costumes paired with his precursor early-80s styling of overdone eyeliner and blush, smack dab in the middle of the mid-70s glam rock era.  Plus, the jazz riff on the sax at the end is too fun when coupled with the bewildered young girl in the front row who isn't quite ready for musical phrasing and sophistication, and instead looks for all the world like she longs for more shock value in her concert experience. 


Because Bowie in striped metallic spandex and grandma's clip-on earrings isn't nearly enough for her 1970s self.  Oh no.  Hilarious.