This is a new beginning (again): My story of diets, cancer and nutrition.

Tower of Onion Rings
by Brad Snoke

Something most of my friends and family do not know is it has been one year since I decided to have the surgery which led to a cancer diagnoses. I think back to those days and wonder how different things would be if I had known where this journey would end. I definitely would have made sure the cancer was removed with the first surgery rendering the second operation as unnecessary.  Unfortunately, I would still be required to go through those scary months trying to determine how far the cancer had spread. Thankfully, or as my mom says, PTL (praise the Lord) every place it had spread could be removed by surgery.  According to my last set of tests, I am cancer free and very healthy. My cholesterol is even within normal limits. The only thing I need to be concerned about in regards to my health is my weight and high blood pressure. Losing the weight is going to be an issue for multiple reasons. One: I love food. Two: the HRT medication I am taking makes it virtually impossible to lose weight. Third: I love food. I know I already said it but I really do love food.

Since I need to lose weight and build up my body’s health, low-calorie nutritious eating needs to be a very important part of my life. I am having a tough time with consistency in my goal of eating healthy.  I will go for a few days eating right and then those processed, fake, high-calorie foods reel me into their tasty grips and I fall off the proverbial food wagon. I guess that every day I eat well is better than one more day eating like a starving victim of food rationing that has been let loose in an all-you-can eat buffet. But I need to make this a change that lasts a lifetime not just a few days. That is what the reviving of my blog is all about, accountability. I read somewhere that if people blog about the changes they want to make, it is easier to make the change. So here I go.

My goal is to eat on a daily basis a wide variety of food that is packed with antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals. I also want to make it a high priority to exercise 45 minutes a day. Through this I should lose some weight and lower my blood pressure. These are great steps to living healthier.

 I am also in the beginning stages of using Genesis Pure. Genesis Pure is a nutritional product line created by Lindsey Duncan who believes in using top nutrition to create overall healing and wellness. I hope to eventually take their full product line, but at this time I am using their Immunity6 (which has gotten rid of all my allergies) and their  MetabolismBoost.  I have heard wonderful testimonies from many people (my mom included) who have received great results from their product and I am looking forward to using them to improve my health.

Thank you everyone for stopping by and reading my rambling words. May God bless you and receive the Glory for his good works.

How do you tell people you have cancer?

How do you tell family, friends, and co-workers that you have cancer; especially a rare form of cancer? This question has plagued me for the past couple of days.  On Tuesday, an oncologist told me I had carcinoid cancer. It is a rare, slow growing cancer that people can live with for decades and never even know they have it. On the other hand, this is the cancer that killed Steve Jobs, Dave Thomas (the founder of Wendy’s hamburger chain) and countless other people. How do you tell people who you care about and who care about you this type of news?

In this social media world we live in, what is the etiquette for this type of news? Do I tell each person individually, maybe do a post for all of my friends or tweet it to all of my followers? Should I take a picture of the pathology report and pin it to Pinterest? I do not know what to do. I do not want to offend anyone or make anyone upset that they found out by a post on Facebook. On the other hand, it can be tiring to say the words “I have cancer” over and over again.

I am thankful that the type of cancer I have is very different from the traditional cancer everyone is familiar with. As my oncologist stated “Most people die with this cancer not from it.”  It would only be under the most unusual of circumstances that I would need to have chemotherapy. The traditional treatment for Carcinoid Cancer is surgery and medication for symptoms and to slow tumor growth. Unless things go bad, most people would never even know I had cancer. Let’s pray that things do not go bad.

 I will admit I have some major guilty feelings going on. I feel guilty that I am scared about where this could go when my treatment is so easy compared to what other brave souls are facing. To all those who have faced or are facing cancer in your own lives, know that I honor you and your bravery.

Well, now that I have finally spilled my guts for all to read, I will say goodnight. May you all have sweet dreams. Oh, for you Grammar fanatics out there, I wrote this straight from the heart, without a thought for proper punctuation and grammar. Please forgive me for all the mistakes. I will try to do better next time. See ya.