Mark Bittman Suggests We Eat Less Meat

I love Mark Bittman's "How to Cook Everything" cookbooks and really enjoyed watching his TED talk on food and the fate of humanity. It is great to hear such sensible thinking from a foodie!!!

In a nutshell Bittman says we eat too much meat, too few plants; too much fast food, too little home cooking -- all putting the entire planet at risk.

 

Direct video link: Mark Bittman on what's wrong with what we eat

Roaming Freely

Today was a big day. For the first time in >1 year, I left the state. Via airplane! (Lymphedema sleeve and gauntlet on, naturally.) What a thrill! It felt amazing to experience a takeoff again and even better to land in cooler weather.

I'm going to soak it all in. Probably won't write much for the next week or so (unless another family member wants to...anyone?).

Thanks, readers, for checking in. I do plan on continuing to write blog posts for the foreseeable future.

Pilates

In January of this year, I committed to attend a once-a-week Pilates class for 1 month. The class is offered through OncologyRehab, where I receive lymphatic massages. I noticed a definite positive change in my core strength and muscle tone, so decided to go back in May and June - after the clinical trial. I also plan on revisiting Pilates class after my switch-out surgery.

Shannon instructing class.
She modifies movements based on our individual abilities.

Shannon Pascoe

Pilates is an excellent way to condition and gain strength, flexibility, and overall body symmetry while minimizing impact on joints. Shannon Pascoe, PT, DPT is a certified pilates instructor who has experience working with different medical populations and is able to adjust exercise as needed. Shannon will develop an individualized pilates based exercise program focusing on impairments experienced by the patient. (this paragraph copied from OncologyRehab's web site)

Shannon is a positive, upbeat instructor that's willing to put up with our (at times) talkative group and yet manage to get down to "business time" on the mats. She changes exercises up for each session, which keeps things interesting. We use all sorts of accessories to get in a great Pilates workout: a Magic Circle, yoga mat, foam rollers, round weights, stretch bands, and stability balls. Shannon is familiar with our physical limitations, so she's prepared to give us alternatives tailored to our abilities.





The Magic Circle looks like a friendly little thing...but boy, can it make you do a lot of work! I liked its compact design and multi-use so much that I purchased one here on Amazon!



I LOVE the feeling of my core being sore (in a good way) in the days following Pilates class. Weeks of chemotherapy usually lead to decreased activity = soft tummy syndrome (STS). Pilates is a low impact way to fight back against STS! It's also been a good way for me to meet other survivors.

Try it - you just might like it!

The Tutu Project

Have you heard of The Tutu Project?

photo from The Tutu Project web site

Now you have! An excerpt from the Project's web site:

"...nine years ago my wife, Linda, and I moved to the East Coast and, as odd as it may sound it, the self-portraits proved to be a perfect way of expressing myself. Why? Because even though the move was exciting, exhilarating, and inspiring, it was 180 degrees from what I knew. So I took the old, mixed it in with the new, and kept the tutu handy.

Six months after the move, Linda, was diagnosed with breast cancer. She beat it, only to have it recur in 2006. During these past nine years, I’ve been in awe of her power, her beauty, and her spirit. Oddly enough, her cancer has taught us that life is good, dealing with it can be hard, and sometimes the very best thing—no, the only thing—we can do to face another day is to laugh at ourselves, and share a laugh with others."

Check it out. Neat pictures. I found some funny, some encouraging, some emotional, and all interesting!

Also...a link to their Today show interview.

And...a link to The Tutu Project web site.

Time for a Camping Trip

This past weekend, we went camping to get away and enjoy some solid time together. What a LOT of adventures we had! Here's a sampling of pictures from our weekend.

All packed up and ready to go!

We found a relatively flat location for our camp site.

...and enjoyed a few minutes of cloud gazing
before getting to work on camp life.

First priority: water.
We pumped and filtered it from a nearby stream.

Reading while it was still daylight.
Buffs come in really handy for staying warm
and helping(ish) with mosquitoes. Ouch!

Willing the water to boil faster.

Joshua read up on camping safety info before leaving home.
We hung all of our food and scented products between trees.

You can practically hike ANYwhere!
So many trails to explore... 

Much to my surprise, we made it to The Colorado Trail -
which runs from Denver to Durango. 

Laura the explora'.

The sky just looks different here.
We love it!

Requisite shadow picture along the trail. 

Our typical meal while camping:
dry food packet and tea. Mmm!

We is Hobbitses!
Or at least we felt like it while walking along this path.

Survivor Anniversary

Yesterday was a special day to me. It marked a new anniversary date in my life. A year ago yesterday, I received results from a breast biopsy I'd had the day before: the "suspicious" lump in my breast was invasive breast cancer. How easy it is to type that sentence now - and how difficult it was to wrap my head around a year ago.

My, we've all come a long way since June 3, 2011! This blog has provided a wonderful way to spread news, share information, and educate about my personal journey through and beyond breast cancer. Thank you, readers, for following along and making me feel like my writings are important, useful, interesting, and sometimes humorous.

Naturally, Joshua and I couldn't let an anniversary slip by without doing something to commemorate the occasion. We printed out a Groupon and headed out for...SUSHI! :) See a trend? Thought so.

So it's only fitting that today I met with my plastic surgeon to discuss the "next step" - the lovely switch-out surgery. First off, he thought my breast skin looked good and handled radiation nicely. That felt wonderful to hear coming from him! He didn't think there would be any benefit to me waiting above and beyond my 6-month window post-radiation for the switch-out surgery. (Music to my ears, but I'd do pretty much anything he'd recommend if I knew it would help my body and its reaction to this upcoming surgery.)

Although the expanders have done their job (stretching my skin to accommodate the implants), I'm of the opinion that I've lived with them long enough. They will have been in me 9 months and 6 days, to be exact! Definitely looking forward to the softer, movable implants. Now I'll cut to the chase: switch-out surgery will be on July 31. Oh, happy day!

The Greenest Juice of All

May 27 marked the day of superior juicing quantities. We practically juiced our bladders out and had to...um...expel the liquids often. What follows are some shots of the making of the greenest juice of all that day.

Joshua piled a special concoction of raw ingredients into the Vitamix.

Ingredients:  lots of chard, 6 little peppers, fresh ginger, water 

He blended until the consistency was uniform and "just right." Then he poured the contents into a milk nut bag. Mom was on squeeze duty (hey, someone had to take pictures!) - this was so we would be drinking pure juice sans fiber.

Squeezing pure juice from the milk nut bag.

The resulting ball of fiberous goo was weird, devoid of most color, and would be great for composting!

Joshua plays with his fiber.

Poured into stylish vessels, of course. It's all about presentation!

Then it was down the hatch!

review: Juice Fest 2012

All of our ingredients. We were prepared!

The weekend juicing getaway was a success! Being away from home took away a lot of the temptations of other foods that weren't part of our juicing plan. Mom was a sport and not only came along for the experience, but was 100% into following the juice fast weekend plans. A lot of our time was spent washing and cutting the fruits and veggies. Rather than me blogging about this experience all myself, I asked Joshua and mom to write their own thoughts about last weekend. Hope you enjoy the pictures and find our descriptions informative.

JOSHUA

most craved food: steak tartar

weight lost: 10 lbs

favorite juice fast meal: blackberries on a hike

Where we ate Joshua's fave "meal."

Going into the juice fest weekend I had some trepidation on what it would be like to feel hungry, since we would not be having much solid food for a couple of days.

We did eat raw fruits and vegetables in-between juicing and I think this did help, but even on the day when we primarily juiced I was rarely hungry, felt light, healthy and always ready for an activity. From swimming, to hiking, to running up a mountain I remained active each day.

Juicing gave Joshua super strength!

There was a very contemplative component to the fast pertaining to food. Perhaps it was the lack of caffeine and the simplicity in the answer to the question "what are we going to eat" that made for the reflective mood. All the smells and sights of food everywhere were not going to end up in my stomach so there I came to the conclusion there was no point in grasping onto the pull these things had on my conscience. It was interesting to feel the pull of suggestion and "sit with it" as my meditation teachers have often brought when you are facing something uncomfortable. It made a big difference to also know that I was getting plenty of nourishment from the leafy green juices and that hunger, desire and nourishment can all be looked at separately, but often become confused in my mind.

I saw how easy it is for me to fall into the trap of eating something due to the power of suggestion when that food isn't healthful and I'm not really hungry. There is a lot of eating that is driven by emotion and the fast really let me see that clearly.

Coming back to food was the hardest for me and my stomach. I had some stomach cramping and gas on a run. I think my system was probably shocked by all the raw vegetables and fruits I ate that day. On day three of normal food I had no more issues. I'm glad I took it really slow going back to "normal" food.

LINDA 
(a.k.a. mom)

most craved food: scrambled eggs and hearty whole wheat toast

weight lost: 4.5 lbs

favorite juice fast meal: the last juice which contained lots of fruit as well as greens???

OK, I’ll admit that I was somewhat skeptical about the juice fasting weekend; thus, the comments on our calendar that “Linda will bring steak and potatoes.”

What would the green juices taste like?  Would I constantly be thinking of real food?  Would my energy totally disappear – rendering me a couch potato in beautiful Vail?  Despite these concerns, some recent blood test results made me more than open to trying the juice fasting in an effort to move toward an alkaline diet, as have Joshua and Laura, to decrease inflammation in my body systems.

I have to admit: I was favorably impressed!  Chef Joshua mixed up the ingredients so that no two juice events were alike; the initial taste on some were “surprising” but after a sip or two, not bad at all.  Naturally, the more fruit he put in, the more palatable the taste.  I’ll admit that each day I was thinking of chewing something – anything, but no particular food occupied my thoughts.

Two bumps on a log.

Third day hike.

Thankfully, my energy did not disappear!  In fact, we hiked about 5 miles above Dillon on Sat., walked all over Vail Village on Sunday, and stopped on the trip back Monday to hike about 4 miles up Shrine Pass – wow!  It was so great to see Laura’s ability to hang in there during our hikes!  Of course, neither one of us were able to match Joshua’s run up the ski trail in front of our resort (did he drink some kind of energy drink or what?).

All in all, it turned out to be a great way to celebrate Laura’s perseverance and strength through this year as she met her BC diagnosis head on!  Yea for Laura!  Yea for us!

LAURA

most craved food: popcorn (what the heck?)

weight lost: 6.5 lbs

favorite juice fast meal: toss-up between chia seed drinks or avocado

Chia seed drink - mmm.

Since the end of my last chemo treatment (mid-April), I'd been looking forward to this weekend for three reasons: to have a mini celebratory vacation in the mountains, to help my body detox after the last year of meds running through my system, and to experience a fast firsthand. Right before the weekend, I started to think about food differently: What I'm eating now I won't be able to enjoy all weekend! This ended up being time wasted, because I never really wanted anything other than what was available to us.

Fridge upon arrival.

This was my first time participating in any type of fast. Honestly, it wasn't bad. We set ourselves up for success by not having many food choices: juice, raw fruit, or raw veggies. For beverages--water or decaf tea. That's it. Although some of the smells while walking around Vail were tempting, none snared a hook in me. What a powerful feeling!

Fridge on last day. Good job!

As a group, we had several interesting conversations about fasting. We talked about how ads target people and pull "us" into thinking we want certain foods and products that are just plain unhealthy. Ads that target kids are especially saddening...children don't have the knowledge base to make these decisions and cute little characters make things look friendly and fun. We also talked about how fortunate we are to rarely experience true hunger. And how forcing ourselves to experience it for some time is a good thing. Even though we felt hungry at times, we had what we needed to survive through the day. Think how many humans do not have enough nourishment to survive and thrive!

I believe that the experience of breast cancer and life as a survivor can be an enlightening one, if you allow it to be. (It is a given it'll be a challenging experience, too.) Being open to not only Western medicine but also alternative therapies, spirituality, changes in eating habits and lifestyle, and other such endeavors can be empowering. You can question things you simply took for granted before and be awakened to new ways of thinking. I wasn't sure if I could handle a 3-day fast; I now know I can not only handle it - but enjoy it!

The top of Shrine Ridge was elusive.
When we met up with this snowpack,
we did a U-turn and headed back down.