Just a little bit ago, I made a new smoothie - it's so much fun playing with this new toy. The Vitamix came with two cook books (Ani's Raw Food Essentials, and Live Fresh) - both vegan & raw. The recipes look amazing, and I'm so excited to walk over to PCC to pick up ingredients for my first recipe! This morning, though, I figured I'd just make due with what's in my fridge and cabinets. So here's what I did:
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| One banana Three large leaves of purple kale (deveined) Half the blender full of baby spinach Two to three cups of water (depending on the thickness you desire) |
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| 1 Tablespoon of chia seeds, soaked overnight |
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| An overflowing tablespoon of Barlean's Greens |
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| My favorite smoothie glass is Dan's Guinness cup :) The blending of this machine is unreal. My old blender would leave chunks of banana, it was so dull. Not this guy, the drink was so smooth - DELICIOUS. |
For my taste, this smoothie was a bit too sweet. Barlean's Greens is very sweet, and earthy. I should have omitted the spinach and just filled the blender with kale, that would have made it more bitter and balanced it out, I think. Still good though - I'm just not used to super sweet stuff.
While I was blending, I couldn't help but dance with Bingie. Life is so great! That article on www.mygreenlake.com was so wonderful, and fun. I'm so lucky to live in Green Lake, and I'm so grateful for the fact that the brain tumor has not grown in the past three months. I truly believe, that if I work hard, and take this seriously, along with my artemisinin, I can heal my body, and say good-bye to Herman. People still don't totally know the most effective dosing, or how often to administer, but researchers are getting closer and closer. Artemisinin is a natural chemotherapeutic that doesn't have side effects (unless you take an absurdly crazy accidental dosage). There are so many stories of artemisinin healing cancers - all cancers. I was forwarded a video from YouTube overnight from our buddy, and it confirms and summarizes exactly what I've been reading with research. It's so inspiring! I'm pasting it below so you can watch it if you choose.
I realize that what I'm doing to try and heal my body is considered "alternative." It's outside mainstream western medicine, and often in our society seen as "quack". The standard of care is surgery, radiation, chemo, another surgery, etc.. But, in my situation I have nothing to lose. I've done the surgery, and radiation wasn't going to extend my life so I don't see why I would fry my brain just in the hopes to slow the onset of symptoms. I've talked to my doctors, both my radiation oncologist, his nurse, a neuro oncologist, his nurse, and even a few residents, but no one seems to be able to come up with a good argument to sell me on this whole radiation thing. I'm not saying I'll never do it (it's dangerous to say never), but at this point it doesn't make sense.
For now I'm going to focus on eating healthy, healing myself cell by cell, happy thought by happy thought, run by run, laugh by laugh, hug by hug, smoothie by smoothie. If you have cancer and you're reading this blog, please know that you're worth the fight. People want you to live. Don't listen to the people that say you're going to die. Don't listen to yourself when you think you'll die. Learn from others who have outlived their diagnosis - they're holding keys that can unlock your survival. Don't give up!
Here's a photo of the lake from yesterday. It was stunningly gorgeous outside, a crisp 50 degrees with a little breeze. I walked and walked and walked, which felt amazing since I can't run yet. The fresh air, and happy faces made me smile. I've decided my favorite thing to see is people walking hand in hand. What a simple and beautiful act. It reminds me how connected we are.
