The Big C

It's All a Matter of Taste -- and Childhood Trauma

A couple of years ago a friend of mine and I tried the Atkins diet to lose weight. At one point we had some french fries and agreed how absolutely disgusting they tasted.
Well, we soon got over that foolishness but it is interesting how your tastes change when you change your diet.
I've never been a big vegetable fan (which makes being on a vegetarian diet interesting) and I liked most fruits other than avocado. The texture of the avocado kind of gave me the heebie jeebies. Or it may have been the traumatic viewing of "The Exorcist" when I was 16.
But now, after a couple of months on the Budwig protocol, I find some things have changed.
I like bell peppers. I never did before. I'd get Kung Pao chicken at the Mandarin and pick out the bell peppers. I'd order chicken curry and pick out the bell peppers. Anything I got with bell peppers, I'd pick them out.
Now I make this great dish with brown rice, black beans, peppers, zuchini, tomatoes and salsa. The peppers are key.
And what do I put on top of that dish? Guacamole. Yeah, avocado and spices. I get flax seed crackers and eat them with guacamole. I put avocado on sandwiches instead of mayo. I put guac on most anything I can.
I guess I've gotten over the whole Linda Blair upchucking scene.
Now even with this change I don't know that I'll ever cotton to cauliflower or brussel sprouts. That horrific seventh grade cooking class where we burnt the brussel sprouts is still fresh in my mind. And the cauliflower? I can still picture the White Meal I got in Norway after backpacking for a week. After days on rations, we go to a restaurant for a good meal and get fish with the heads still on, boiled potatoes and cauliflower soup. What a downer.
If only this were a fruititarian instead of vegetarian protocol. I can eat raspberries, tangerines and grapes till the cows come home. Wait, I can't have cow.... Till the beets come home?
Just doesn't have the same ring to it.

Yes, I'm still here, cancer and all

I haven't posted in a few weeks and all I can say is, I was on vacation and I'm sorry.
I took two weeks off. It was the time I was supposed to travel to Fiji for a writers retreat (yeah, I know, sounds suspect, but really, it's true) but I canceled the trip because of this unwelcome reappearance of the big C.
My docs said I could go. But that's when they wanted me to do chemo, which consisted of taking a bunch of horse pills. While more convenient, certainly, I don't think my body would have liked them.
I do think my body much prefers what I'm doing now, healthy diet and all. Not that my taste buds always prefer it. And convenience isn't exactly high on the list of Budwig protocol attributes.
But we carry on.
I've kind of recommitted to Budwig in the past couple of days. I haven't made the progress I would have liked, at least from what I can see on my chest of my cancer. I wanted it all gone by now but I know that probably wasn't realistic. Still, I wanted something different. And I don't see it.
Oh, there are changes. The black salve is making a few inroads in some of it but it also keeps popping up elsewhere. Now it's not popping up as fast as it was or anything and not in as many places so I supposes that's good.
But I have to remind myself it's a marathon not a sprint (yeah, yeah, I want it done NOW, whimper, whine, wah, wah, wah.) It took me years to get my body out of balance. It may take more than a few weeks to regain it.
See, that's what always got me about weight loss. When I want it gone I want it gone now. None of this, it took you years to gain the weight, it my take years to get rid of it.
Who made up these rules anyway???? Where do I mail in my complaint???
Unfortunately, the Budwig plan is relatively complex. Oh, it's pretty simple in its components but complex in its execution. I have problems with the timing of things -- drinking the sauerkraut juice one hour before eating the morning flax seed oil and cottage cheese; having vegetable juice at 10 a.m. and 3 p.m.; eating dinner at 6 p.m., etc. I don't get off work until 6 p.m. and it takes longer to make brown rice, my favorite dinner meal.
Yeah, I know, complain, complain. It is your LIFE, after all, Kathy. Suck it up.
I had thought on my vacation I would get some of the timing down. I mean, I didn't have to go to work so I could try to find a rhythm of things. Instead, I slept in most mornings, read in bed, puttered around and didn't do much of nothing. (Except go to Cache Creek and go home with $200 more than I left with. YAY. Although I did wonder as I drove up there if I wanted to waste any karma on gambling when I needed all my luck to fight cancer. But I suppose that's a bit whimsical.)
But I'm back to work now and actually finding the timing of things a bit easier. A bit.
So I'm trying to follow things to the letter now. They say it usually takes at least 12 weeks of following Budwig to the letter to overcome cancer, although it can take longer. So I'm 2 days into my 12 weeks and I haven't cheated once. Although my cheating before was what I would call mini-cheating (eating white rice instead of brown rice in a restaurant, for example.) I'm going to try to eliminate all things I can control and buckle down with it.
I'll let you know the results in 12 weeks.
But I won't wait that long to post another blog. I'm back on schedule now, buckling down on life. And that includes this blog.