When you were diagnosed, did you start eating organic vegetables, exercising

[hedgehog]

regularly, avoiding red meat and gluten; or did you say to hell with it and go eat a juicy hamburger?


AS for me, broccoli will never again cross these lips!

[olddots]

1. I still wish brocoli didn't smell so funky

now that I can taste again alot of my habits have changed .

[alfredo]

7. Steam it and season with lemon juice. Even kids will eat it and like it.

It's really good with Baked Salmon.

[Solly Mack]

2. I gave up red meat years ago, before my diagnosis.

I couldn't eat for a long time, so type of food wasn't much a consideration. It got to the point the doctors didn't care what I ate as long as I could eat and could keep it down.

That included a little red meat for a time.

Part of my recovery does include more exercise.

I love broccoli.

[alfredo]

8. My comfort food broccoli dish.

Broccoli
garlic
crushed red pepper
ground black pepper I like a lot of pepper.
Soy Sauce or Tamari
oil for saute

Spaghetti added to the saute garlic and broccoli.

Parmesan or saw dust if desired.

[Solly Mack]

10. Sounds tasty. Thanks!

[alfredo]

12. I hope it is still tasty after all this.

[Solly Mack]

14. Eventually. :)

And you might still find it tasty anyway.

[alfredo]

15. Until I can fully enjoy some Chicken Shawarma, I won't be satisfied.

[Ruby the Liberal]

3. If by "organic", you mean

Grey Goose and if by "exercise" you mean "learning how to shoot pool", then yes.

I went a little overboard in the beginning...

Actually, I have been gluten free for many years, and have the luxury of living close to an organic farm market whose prices are lower than the grocery stores.

Red meat sometimes, but it can be a little heavy. That said, I did have a hamburger for lunch - first time in a LONG time. In my defense, it was blackened and smothered with bleu cheese and wing sauce. No way to resist that!

[alfredo]

9. I did enjoy some pulled pork, cole slaw, and potato salad

[Tab]

17. I could die happy

shooting pool and drinking Grey Goose. I'd rather be on the beach, but if my choice is the hospital or the pool room with vodka, you can bet my last moment will be sinking that 8-ball for a win.

[wordpix]

4. I went 100% organic, grass-fed, pasture-raised and low sugar-salt-fats

I also eat a lot more raw fruits/veggies. I was diagnosed with Stage 4 mCRC that was operable. I'm 9 mos. out from ending chemo and 1 yr., 5 mos. out from the operation. So far, so good---no recurrence.

I learned to love nut milk, sauces and soup made w/out cream or half n half, coffee w/out cream, etc. I still crave the usual things like baked goods but I cook and bake almost everything myself and that way I can control what dairy and sweets I do allow myself. It takes willpower but I had a pretty good diet before diagnosis so the changes weren't that hard. LOL, one of my friends was marveling that I like dandelion detox tea and I said, "It's better than chemo!"

I had high cholesterol pre-cancer and now it's in the normal range so I also did something good for my heart/artheriosclerosis.

If you don't like broccolli, you can get the same benefits with my delicious cole slaw (brocolli, cabbaage, cauliflower, kale, collards and brussel sprouts are all in the same cruciferous veg family). Shred the raw cabbage with carrots (add beets, onions, fruit or whatever else you like) and put in oil, lemon and a little maple syrup for the dressing. I use olive oil. Add a little mayo if you want.

It should all be organic. The FDA, Dept. of Ag and EPA are NOT protecting us from agrotoxins and there are 11,000 ag chemicals that are manufactured/distributed that are either untested or under-tested. This from NRDC, confirmed by EPA. Is it any wonder that 1 in 3 people have, had or will have cancer in their lifetime in this country?

[alfredo]

16. Michael Pollan gave good guidelines for food in "In Defense of Food."

Michael Pollan suggests: "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." "Food" is the stuff your grandma would recognise as food, you know, the stuff around the perimeter of the supermarket.

http://michaelpollan.com/books/in-defense-of-food/

BTW, greens and beans is a favorite dish.

[Tab]

5. When I could eat

I was unabashedly going for prime rib, burgers, whatever. Granted, I couldn't always eat under chemo. I did gradually move to "better foods" (less carbs) but I'm an omnivore, heavy on the carnivore side, and aren't giving that up. That said, one side effect of my surgery was a colostomy, and as a result of that I find I have to skip certain foods (spicy foods, or foods with seeds), but otherwise I didn't dive headfirst into the healthy eating stuff.

I would like to comment that I think I'm one of the first generation with this cancer problem - colon cancer. I know it's been around a long time, but when my mother was growing up (WWII era) they ate relatively naturally, had a garden, etc. Probably had some horrible canned food too, but I don't know about that.

My generation (I was born end of baby boom, early 60s) was probably the first heavily raised on artificial crap, everything from Count Chocula to Fruity Pebbles to god knows what was in TV dinners, etc. Snacks, candy, etc. - all heavy in artificial crap.

I can't prove it, but I think that is a big factor in the increasing prevalence of colon cancer in people of my age.

Now I avoid as much artificial crap as I can, and I like it better.

[alfredo]

6. I didn't. I went the other way just to gain a bit of weight going into this trial.

[Solly Mack]

11. Good!

[alfredo]

13. It was fun.

[moonscape]

18. Ironic

When I learned of my cancer end of last year, I said 'at least I'll lose some weight!'

Then, I find out I have to take a huge dose of steroid along with my chemo, and that not only was I not likely to lose weight, but I could gain. And would experience muscle wasting.

Cancer PLUS I'll gain weight? That's just wrong!

Turns out, I'm staying fairly weight-neutral at this point, but to the original question: I already ate pretty healthy (all fresh foods), but I have cut back on red meat and don't drink more than a small glass of wine every 2-3 weeks. But I did start taking some specific supplements and explore anything I could do to give my body the best chance of fighting the cancer as long as it could.

The hardest part is keeping up with exercise with sometimes crushing fatigue.

[alfredo]

19. I've lost 15lbs, but now I am back on my feed.

I'm still slightly overweight. If I can manage the nausea, I might get control of the weight.
I'm 71, I can allow some jiggle in the middle.