Survivors who had chemo etc and are into Complementary medicine
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BOO HOO! I think I am going to have to cook more
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Having relocated from NYC to the Midwest, I noticed that any time I would eat out I'd gain at least 2-4 lbs overnight. I realized that everything out here is drastically oversalted and oversweetened (even good restaurants). Personally, I think it's to make up for the anemic taste of most veggies out here, but that's just a hunch.
In any case, I figured out a while ago that eating out even one day a week was really going to set my diet backwards. If I do eat out, I'm really careful about what I eat the rest of the time. And I'm taking advice from Lago and hitting the weight bearing exercises with a little more gusto to get the base rate metabolism up.
Livestrong has really helped. Indian food, my personal fave, is just no longer on the list. I used to be able to eat it fairly regularly and not gain weight. Now, forget it! Tamoxifen, chemopause...something. I've always noticed though that my body kind of does what it wants. Sometimes, my metabolism is up and will knock off a few pounds. More often, it is stuck where it is, and even calorie restriction doesn't amount to much more than a pound or so. I'm well within my BMI, but for ER+ cancer, wouldn't mind losing about 5 lbs.
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thenewme if you want the recipe PM me your email address. I don't qualify for the study. (What else is new). I'm not overweight. Even though I might want to lose a few pounds I know I am not overweight.
Last time I wanted to get into a trial I couldn't because they changed the protocol. It was stage II-III HER2+ but they added you had to be node positive. So a stage IIA node positive can get into the trial but me at stage IIB couldn't. Just didn't make sense to me.
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Balsamic vinegar doesn't have that much sugar in it unless you use a lot of it. Vinegar in general is recommended for diabetics (type II) because it actually makes blood sugar go down. You just need to read how many grams per serving and understand how big a serving is.I do believe in cutting back sugar intake but I'm not going to go nuts. I do believe there is a balance. If a tablespoon of Balsamic is going to get you to eat your broccoli then it's worth it.
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Thank you Sherbear! It feels so good to be done with chemo, had a couple of blue days just after finishing, go figure why. Guess I let my survival mode guard down too fast, and was angry I still had SE's (like they would disappear over night!). Today I'm positive, feeling I can do this; research what's good for you and what isn't (which I remember was, and still is sometimes, so demanding in the beginning) decide and be at peace. I believe I would be more anxious if I was on Tamoxifen for example than DIM.
I don't have a ND yet, have an appointment coming up with my acupuncturer though, and will ask that he recommend a good naturopath, someone I can talk to seriously about all of this. Feels like I'm ready to do so, it was all such a blur but now things start to clear up. And you're absolutely right to wait with the DIM, I am myself going to India for a month in November to cleanse my body, of course it would be silly to start something that will be flushed out! Better to rebuild on a clean, healthier body afterwards.
Have a nice evening everyone!
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Thought I'd post these links as they pertain to vitamins and safe sun exposure. They're from a skincare companie's blog that I found (tried their skincare back in 2008 and broke out and since my wedding was coming up I discontinued and never gave it another chance, looks different now). Anyway, thought it was a little helpful.
http://www.sophyto.com/blog/2011/06/02/do-you-know-your-vitamin-abcs-how-about-your-d-e-and-k/
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lago, so glad you said balsamic vinegar is recommended for diabetics. When I saw it had sugar in it I though of darn something else I love I have to give up. I have been experimenting with cooking my vegetables in the oven, and have found I like them with balsamic vinegar and oil.
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For you chocolate lovers, I am one of them (I even gave birth to one real chocolate lover) dark chocolate 80% minimum is good for you in moderation. I keep it in my drawer at work and when I need a pick me up I have a small piece. In my before BC life I would go for the white and milk chocolate bars and eat them in one sitting.
Now I look at the dark 80% chocolate as a special and important treat for my health
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Mary
I would NEVER give advice about what medication, treatment, a person should have. Suggest you talk with your doctor. Just wanted you to know that the "normal range" you quoted for TSH is no longer accepted by the American Society of Endocrinologists.
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For al those wondering about why so many restaurants have such high calorie food, I suggest you might want to read: The End of Overeating by Dr. David Kessler. Esp. check the index for the sections on "palatability." Kessler was head of FDA, and exposed, alsong with Cong Waxman, the cirarette manufacturers adding more addicitive ingredients to their products.
This book is one of my favorites. Just amazing - hyperpalatable food, anyone????
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Hi Girls - glad you are enjoying the thread.
I must say I feel sorry for you guys (the US located ones) - don't attack me for saying so.
I absolutely hated the restaurant food over there. We get the best fresh veggies, meat etc here. We don't eat out much but our restaurants are fabulous (except for KFC, Maccas etc). I remember going to a couple of supposedly nice restaurants in Redwood City CA and I couldn't eat the food. One dish was so soaked in oil it was inedible. We ate at a famous restaurant in Honolulu and even that wasn't too good. The best place for me was Hard Rock Cafe and Planet Hollywood. I went to a place near Redwood City and they served potato crisps with the burger???? What's up with that?? I also noticed you don't seem to get many veggies with your main meal and have a salad as a starter. Here, we have at least 3 veg with our main meal, or eat the salad with the main meal. My mother has just come back from visiting my brother near Seattle and all she has done is complain that she couldn't eat the food. She said the carrots were really strange and small whereas here we have lovely big juicy ones. I'm sure if you cook your own you would be doing better than eating out by the sound of it.
Sue
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Kira the Balsamic vinegar I use has 2g per tablespoon. I use it all the time but I am not a diabetic. My husband is a resolved diabetic so we still look at sugar content. If you haven't talked to a nutritionist ask your endocrinologist about that. It will really help you understand how to cut back on sugar and starches that can turn to sugar a swell as portion control for these. You can eat pasta but it's now a side dish not a main meal. But exercise is key for diabetics. And as I mentioned vinegar is excellent but do stay away from the fruity and overly sweetened ones.0
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Lago, it sounds like you love good food and cooking as much as I do...so don't blast me, but what about occasionally using Braggs Liquid Aminos in place of soy sauce? There is a taste difference, but it cooks the same. I stir fry everything in it...my family has fully adjusted to it and it's so much healthier. It's sold often times in regular grocery stores in the soy sauce area, or in the nutrition section.
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Caerus-Sunflowers Caerus-Sunflowers,
I had never heard the turn hyper palatable food, so I looked it up. That is really scarry to think they are doing that to us on purpose. Makes me wonder about the food our kids are eating at school. When I look at how much are kids are given daily it makes me sick. They eat so much food with the school lunches, way more than their little bodies need.
lago, thanks for the info. it's not me that's diabetic, but my husband has been told he needs to watch as his blood sugar levels are too high.
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I really love oriental food, just can't seem to make it taste good, so I buy it from the restaurant. Boy I wish I had some idea how to make it myself.
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Ditto. I'm primarily vegan, and eat super clean...most of the time. Indian food, is my favorite. There are lots of very healthy Indian dishes...what list was it removed from above? The livingstrong list? ...and why?
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Kira..I use a little sesame oil with some soy and flash fry some veggies of choice chopped the same size. the sesame oil is the key to the oriental taste. Snow peas, carrots, book choy, red and yellow pepper etc. It's all super quick and easy.
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geewhiz have you tried Pakistani? My next door neighbors are Pakistani & Indian. I think she does mostly Indian cooking and it does not smell healthy but it does smell good. (I'm in a condo so I smell it).0
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Oh so it's the sesame oil. I had no idea. I will have to get some when I go to the store this weekend. Is it in the isle with the other oils?
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Oh right that is the ingredient I left out of the bok choy recipe. Oops.
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I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Indian food but that said, I saw a documentary recently produced in India and shown on CBC here in Canada showing that Indian food is very high in fat content and huge in carbs - people from India and Pakistan are becoming diabetic faster than even those in our North American culture - from the food and also from a genetic predisposition - they also crave sweets and of course they make heavenly desserts (shows that someone has a sense of humour) - anyway my late dh was a diabetic for 21 years and the first food he gave up eating regularly was his beloved Indian food - it became an occasional treat.
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OMG I never got bread with my Chinese food in Boston when I grew up. Most of the Chinese food in the Boston area in the 60's & early 70's were Cantonese and Polynesian maybe some Mandarin. It has changed a lot since then. They have more now but not as much as they do in the SF area. The best Chinese was always in Chinatown back then.
Lots of Thai and Vietnamese people moved to MA in the 80's. The only sushi restaurant I knew about in the late 70s was the Genji on Newbury St. My family was the only Americans in the place when we went in the 70's.
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Pakistani & Indian food is "peasant" food. Now that many of the people are not out in the fields working (and have desk jobs with stress) they don't need that kind of "fuel". This is why they are putting on the weight and having issues. I'll say it again exercise is a huge help in controlling diabetes.
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I have a question for anyone who might have an answer.
Memory? I think it's Tamox, but if not it is something. My short term memory is...what was I saying.??? lol
I read somewhere on here that CoQ10 is good for memory? Is that correct?
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Coq10 is good for lots of things. I haven't heard it associated specifically with memory. As an antioxidant it fights free radicals and therefore has proven quite effective in alzheimers care. It's a great supplement.
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TonLee if you are interested in something door memory, google gingko blob and omega 3 's..both have good results.
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Acetyl-L-Carnitine is memory booster
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This thread is making me very hungry!!!!!
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susieq:
A lot of people who come to the US complain about the same things you do. In this country, organic is a luxury. In most places (especially developing countries) it is the norm. You can often tell Americans in other countries by how well fed they look - we really load up our food here. But, of course, most Americans are too well fed, according to the scales. And by "well" I mean "overfed." The supermarkets here are a gush of almost neon-like colors. The carrots are unnaturally orange, etc... All the coloring and preservatives really show.
I almost never have meat in the US because it is so packed with hormones that it loses its taste, amongst other things. Organic fillet mignon? Very, very hard to get here.
The Farm Bill has a lot to do with it, but I won't go into that. :-)
Gutsy: In both my pre- and post-cancer life, I continue to have an incurable weakness for white chocolate. Oftentimes I compromise by choosing milk chocolate - and I know that is not much of a compromise - dark is still better. I tell myself that at least I am getting iron.
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Americans are also one of the worst at throwing away food. I am guilty of it all the time. When I clean my refrigerator out and toss food I always think what a waste of money. Where as in some other countries they would think what a waste of food! We Americans do like to eat for entertainment too. Everything seems to revolve around food.
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