~ It’s an inspiration, it’s a wakeup call, it’s time to make changes for my life~
My Weight
From the start of chemo in Nov 2020 till January 2021 over a period of two months, I lost 8kg, from 71kg to 63kg.
I was told I looked pale and my voice was lack of energy. I could not tell by myself but I guess they were right. Most said, as it was really obvious, I looked so much slimmer and could hardly be recognized. For the past twenty years I had been trying to loose weight but it just kept going up. I never had thought that one day I could wear again my clothes from twenty years ago because of this 5 cm tumor in my gut.
Lifestyle Changes
From the limited study I started to do, from my conversation with Cecilia, and as well when I looked back how I went through every day the past decades, I knew then why I was getting this tumor; it was giving me a slap. The tumor was a sign, a wakeup call.
I had done much damages to my body, through diet, through bad habits, through my lifestyle. With this awareness, I had to make drastic changes to my life to win the battle, to send the tumor away. It was more than just taking poisonous drugs then cutting a part of my gut.
In The Old Days
I never went to bed before 1 am as I needed some cooling time after a long day work. On weekends I could stay up till 3am to watch movies at home. I socialized with friends at bars till “early” in the morning sometimes.
I spent long hours at work. For some years, I worked 7 days a week as I was running my own business. Work was stressful as it was for most of us. It took me many years to realize the need to take breaks and to stop working at weekends.
I did not eat breakfast but for sure I had my black coffee in the morning. Lunch was mostly fast food. I did not eat dinner until almost 10 pm that’s usually the time I returned home from work. I ate relatively large portion as I loved food.
I thought I was having a sort of “balanced” diet as I ate almost anything, meat, rice, noodles, vegetables, lots of fruits, though as well lots of junks. My favourite was potato chips. It was my comfort food. I could finish a “Lays” family size pack within an hour. My favorite drink was champagne. I am not alcoholic but occasionally I could finish one bottle by myself easily.
While I knew the benefit of it, I did not exercise as I felt I was too occupied with everything else so that I had no time for it.
To give a conclusion, the Me at the time was not taking good care of myself.
The First Steps – Changing Habits
Since I found the tumor, I undertook big changes. I started going to bed at 11pm, woke up around 8 am. I have been capable to not to work in office every day, thanks to my staff. I have been lucky to have them taking over most of the tasks at work so that I can concentrate on taking care of myself. The stress needs to be removed or minimized for mental health which in turn impact the physical health.
As I was physically quite weak during and after chemotherapy, I did not force myself to exercise but was doing walks at the podium garden from time to time. For someone who never exercised, it was a good start.
My Diet
I had regular 3 meals a day. I stopped eating junk snacks. I initially thought it would be difficult. Fortunately, I had no craving for it, only missing it occasionally and that’s very bearable.
I became more careful in choosing what to eat. Under the guidance of Cecilia, I was working on a diet of low fiber as the tumor was in my gut; I ate less meat, minimum processed food, no refined sugar. I used simple cooking, avoiding deep fried. It was not the perfect diet yet as Cecilia said but as a first step and as I was still receiving cancer treatments, these were good to begin with.
I ate small portion of steamed pork, chicken and fish, dumplings, lettuce, bananas, noodles. What was good to see was that I could have regular bowel movements without irritating the tumor; my stool was in shape and I did not see blood other than that I mentioned before which was found in the slimes a couple of times.
Juicing
For the first time in my life, I bought a juicer and started juicing. I followed the recipe from a book of Chris Wark who had colon cancer when he was 28. He is now in his 40s. The juice gave me good nutrients but no fiber so its perfect for me at the time. I am still having it as part of my breakfast, with a bit of my own addition. I share the recipe:
- Half beet root
- One carrot
- 3 stalks of celery
- One apple
- 2 cloves of garlic
- Few slices of ginger or like me I put a lot as I love ginger
- Half lemon (with skin if organic)
Then top it up with Alovera juice to make the juice at about 400ml.
You can modify the ingredient as you like. I like this recipe for its nutritional, anti-inflammatory and anti- cancer benefit. I used to add into the juice supplements such as CBD oil, probiotic powder, turmeric powder…. I will talk about this more later.
I love Chris Wark’s books. He shared so much of his own experience of fighting cancer and also information of his search along these years. It gives me useful references on how to heal cancer through diets, lifestyle changes, supplements, alternative therapies, stress management, and more. I will talk about it later. If you would like to know more about him, here is the link:
Chris Beat Cancer – A resource for healing cancer holistically by Chris Wark.
