Cancer Reality Check

I never realized how wide-spread and far-reaching cancer was until this past year brought it to the fore-front of my life.  My aunt passed away from breast cancer in the spring.  Tim's mom was diagnosed 1 week after my dad was.  Two of the parents that I had worked with in the past have been hit with a diagnosis within the last year.  One of my friends even had to put her dog down recently after it had suffered from the disease.  It seems like every time I turn around lately, someone that have been in contact with, or love dearly is having to deal with their lives being turned upside down by one little word- cancer.

Cancer is a mysterious disease to me.  I know that it is expected to effect 1.5 million new people just this year.  More and more patients are being diagnosed every day which also means that more and more patients are dying from cancer (about 1,500 A DAY).  People are walking as we speak in breast cancer 3 days, racing (or sleeping in) for the cure, buying products that support Live Strong or anything pink for breast cancer research, and donating exorbitant amounts of money to foundations to find an escape from this terrible disease.  And yet, we can't find a cure.  We know what causes it and some things that fight it.  We know how to treat it once you have it, and how to support others that get it.  We are searching, supporting, praying, racing, donating, and HOPING...But we can't find a cure.

I said a while back that once we got past the beginning stages of healing, I would begin writing about some of the solutions we explored throughout  our journey with cancer.  We learned many things from all of our readings and from talking to the many people that have touched our lives with stories similar to our own.  I can't say that I've been a perfect saint as far as changing my lifestyle, but I have definitely opened my eyes to the dangers of certain foods!  We can't find a cure yet and I don't know for sure if I can undo 29 years worth of damage that I may have been doing to my body but I'm sure as heck going to give it a shot!  I want to be around when I'm 80...don't  you?!?

One of the main things that we learned was how much crap we subject our systems to every day that our bodies just can't handle.  We weren't meant to eat artificial products made in factories- we were meant to eat foods that exist naturally on the Earth that have been used for thousands of years.  A good rule of thumb is: if you can't pronounce the name of the ingredients in the food, you probably shouldn't be eating it!  So, before I head off to hopefully get more than 4 hours of sleep tonight, I leave you with a few things that we have learned should be avoided...have fun purging the cancer-causers from your refrigerator and pantry!  I know that I felt a little more in control of this disease that has taken over my life after throwing a ton of unhealthy items into the trash to make room for those foods that will keep my body running for many, many years to come!

1. Avoid ANY items with additives such as aspartame or sorbitol.  As a lifetime dieter, I was surprised to find how many products I had in my refrigerator that I thought were helping me keep off the pounds when in reality they contained a carcinogen (aspartame) that turns into menthol, which turns into formaldehyde when in your body and gives your system all sorts of fits in trying to get rid of it.  Diet pop and anything that has reduced calories are no-nos.  Also avoid those little pink (artificial, chemical based), yellow (artificial, chlorine added), and blue (aspartame, artificial, chemical based) packets at the dinner table.  If you need to add sweetner to something, use    Stevia.  It's all natural, calorie free, and is actually sweeter than white table sugar. 

2. Sugar- both white and brown.  Since brown sugar is really just white sugar with molasses added to it, it's not any healthier for you than the white stuff.  Cancer feeds off of sugar.  We don't want to FEED cancer, we want to kill it!  I was shocked to see how much sugar I was consuming every day: yogurt, even the vanilla one I thought was healthy had over 10mg, the light dressing I was using on my salads had 16g per serving, my jelly had 11g, and a small bottle of apple juice had 25g!!!  I don't even want to think about how many sugar grams were in my morning Starbucks!  With 24g of sugar being the recommended amount for women per day,  (American Heart Association) I was most likely consuming double or triple that amount and not even realizing it.  And companies are smart with how they hide added sugar in our foods.   They don't make it simple for us by putting "sugar" on the label; they disguise it under names like high fructose corn syrup, sucrose, fructose, maltose (actually, anything with -ose), and maltodextrin.  You can't avoid sugar all together but you can try to limit the amount that you take in by really reading those labels and taking control of what goes in your body!

3. Fried foods contain hydrogenated oils, trans-fats, and acrylamide which is a by-product of the deep frying process.  Acrylamide is a known cancer-causer, and adversely effects both the brain and the reproductive system.  Not good.  I'm slightly partial to my reproductive system since I'm hoping to have a family of my own one day!  Plus, fried foods make you gain weight.  Also not good. 

So there's my input for the night (my apologies for the length of the post).    It wasn't a surprise to me to find out that the above items were carcinogens and unhealthy for me.  What shocked me was how prevalent they are in our diets and in the products that we buy.  Like I said, it really opened my eyes and caused me to look at the foods I put into my body just a bit differently.

Friday at Home

I officially know that I'm out of the 20-something going-out stage when I'm home on a Friday night and the most exciting thing that I can think of to do is update the look of my blog (not very well, obviously, since nothing is centered) and write a new post.  I did begin the night by spending a few wonderful hours catching up with Courtney, my best friend, and eating everything on the P.F. Changs menu.  I mean, she is eating for two (oops...cat out of the bag!) and I had to keep up ;-)  Then we went to the new H&M and checked out all the great clothes they had to offer.  I ended up spending over $200.  In a store that is well known for it's cheap but stylish clothing, I am convinced that I picked out the most expensive item in there- an $80 winter coat.  It was so cute though that it was worth it and it was so much fun to catch up with my good friend!

Everyone has been asking how I've been doing lately.  My new answer is, "I'm coping".  If I said I was ok, I'd be lying and if I really told people how I've been feeling, the answer would be much longer and more involved than they would have time for or even care to listen to.  So, coping it is.  It's so weird to me that I'll be in the middle of doing mundane, every day activities and the tears will just start to flow.  Can't listen to country songs for fear that a Kenny Chesney song will remind me of the last birthday I was able to celebrate with him.  Can't watch football because knowing that I won't see him calling plays on the sideline is just too much to handle.  I moved his golf clubs out of my garage the other day so that I wouldn't have to see them every morning that I walked to my car.  And, thank goodness my mom hasn't yet turned his phone off- I call it regularly just to hear him when the voice mail picks up.  I feel like I've been walking around like half a person- in zombie mode- just trying to get through the day.  After over a month, I feel like any normal person would be starting to get back to life by now...but I guess everyone heals differently and at different paces.  

The girls at Rachel's wedding

To give me something positive and happy to look forward to, I'm currently counting down the days until I'm reunited with my best friends from college (only 5 to go!!).  Spending time with them will be just what the doctor ordered after a few tough weeks and I can't wait to see them, cheer on our Devils on Saturday, meet baby Aubrey, eat some Oreganos, and just relax!  If there's one thing that I learned from my father, it was to never make yourself so busy that you can't make time for people that matter.  Despite his 100+ hour work weeks, he always made time for us kids, for my mom, and for weekly Monday phone calls with his dad.  I have been very lucky to have a group of friends that have been able to stay close throughout the last 7ish years although we are spread all over the world (literally.... Kate left us for Australia!) and don't get to see each other often.  We have supported each other through some great times and some really tough ones and have outlasted every disagreement along the way!  I am blessed to have such wonderful friends and the time and the means to be able to travel to see them next weekend!


Happy weekend everyone! :-)

Rest, Relaxation, and Race Planning

With the waves of supportive texts, well-wishing phone calls, flowers, sympathy cards and dinner offers coming to an end, we are finally faced with picking up the pieces of our lives and trying to find a way to move along.  Not going to lie, it's a slow process.  Luckily my fall break (if you can call two days off a break) fell at just the right time for me to be able to spend a much-needed weekend with my mom.

We headed out of the city and up to Gatlinburg, TN to enjoy the beauty of the changing leaves and cooler weather.  We didn't plan on it pouring rain the entire 5 hour drive up there.  Let's just say that talking about memories of my dad, recapping what lead up to his passing, and comforting each other as we spilled about our feelings didn't mix well with driving in a downpour.  We arrived safely but promised each other that we wouldn't talk about anything "sad" on the way home- just in case our guardian angels had been working overtime on our drive up!

It was awesome to see the view from our window in the morning!  The leaves were such beautiful colors and they don't call the range the "Smoky Mountains" for nothing.  Since it was raining still, we chose to spend the day wandering around the Aquarium.  We literally sat and watched the penguins for 2 hours- they were so cute and we just loved how they paired up with their mate and lived in their own little houses together!

On Saturday we were so thankful to have a sunny (but still chilly) day to explore and enjoy.  We took a tram up the mountain to look around the ski slopes that are available in Gatlinberg.  I tried to find a trail map to bring home since Tim loves maps and loves skiing even more.  I couldn't figure out why everyone kept looking at me like I had 3 heads when I would ask them but eventually realized that a ski hill with only 3 runs doesn't need trail maps.  We're so spoiled in Colorado! :-)  My mom felt like tapping into her German roots and participating in the Oktoberfest celebration at the mountain peak.  After dancing the Chicken Dance, sharing a pretzel, singing along to songs with words I couldn't pronounce, and drinking a German beer that my mom said "tasted like horse pee" our spirits were lifted quite a bit.  It's strange to me how easily laughing and having fun comes even while we are mourning still.  It's definitely a roller coaster and every day is different but it's nice to share a laugh and a smile after so many tears have been shed.  We spent the rest of the day enjoying the local art galleries and spending some money on one-of-a-kind items.  So many creative people!

Mom with the accordian guy

    




On Sunday we spent the day driving through the Smoky Mountain National Park and decided to stop and take a quick hike up to Laurel Falls.  It was so beautiful and the weather was warm- it was a perfect day!  We spent the rest of the day in the car driving back to Nashville to have dinner and do a little race planning with some great friends.  Anyone who knows me knows that I have severe ADD (not ever diagnosed but I'm convinced) and after 6+ hours driving around, I was ready to jump out the window!  There's a reason why I have a million Southwest miles and don't drive anywhere!  But, being able to spend time with my mom was VERY worth it.  We needed time together to laugh, to cry, to remember and hadn't had a chance to do so since my dad passed away.  We need each other now more than ever and although we will always feel the pain of him being gone, it's good that we have family to lean on.

Dinner was wonderful and after brainstorming and bouncing ideas off of each other, we decided that if we are going to create a charitable event in my dad's name, it should be a golf tournament, not a race.  He hated running and spent his life in the off season on any golf course he could get a tee time on so this will fit much better.  Since changing our minds, things have really taken off!  We have a date set (June 28th and 29th), location (Legends Vanderbilt Golf Course), logos being created, and some sponsors already lined up to help!  Now we're just trying to figure out where the money will go...no easy task.  I'm tired of foundations that raise billions of dollars through events (Race for the Cure to name one) but don't filter the money down to the people who need it the most- the patients that are battling for their lives.  The LAST thing these people need to worry about while staring the possibility of death in the eye is money and if we can find a way to help alleviate some of that stress from even one person, I feel that's worth it.  Eventually we are looking to create a 501c-3 foundation to help others but, for now, we are just looking for some foundation somewhere that will give the money to the people rather than to overhead, research, providing information, scrubs, medical equipment or wherever it usually goes.  I thank God for my partner in crime, Dru, for having a passion for this cause and being willing to help me get it all off the ground.  We are making baby steps every day and I know that by June we will be so proud of what we have done to help!

As my Streams in the Desert reading said on the 30th,
"When all our hopes are gone, 
It is best our hands keep toiling on 
for others' sake:
For strength to bear is found in duty done;
And he is best indeed who learns to make
The joy of others cure his own heartache.

So planning for the 1st Annual "Drive for Dinger" is underway and in full swing (no pun intended)!  Keep touching base for updates!