Emotional Eating

Bad foods cannot live in my house. I only have self control when I have no other option. Unfortunately, Danny and I bought Halloween candy on Friday, and I have been devouring it. I can't stop myself. It's horrible!! I think I'm emotionally eating because I'm scared for my MRI. It's not just the results, but also everything that comes with it, the needles, the IV, the contrast dye, the machine, the smells, the other people in the beds next to me (some with obvious recent surgeries, others not so easy to figure out), it's everything.

I am 80% sure that I will not do radiation even if they recommend it. I have heard over and over from all of the doctors, that radiation will not extend my life. They claim that it's supposed to improve the quality of my life, but looking at the seizure medicine and how they said the meds would improve my quality of life (what a joke), I feel like I have to do what feels right to me, not what the doctors say.

I had a nightmare the other night. I dreamt that doctors administered radiation while I wasn't paying attention. They concluded the radiation several months before I realized, and I didn't notice until I reached to feel the back of my head, quickly realizing when I had a massive bald area (it's very common for radiation to kill the follicles around the tumor area - often never growing back). When I woke up, I felt around on my head for any abnormalities, taking care to touch every single millimeter of scalp. I have incredibly vivid dreams, to the point where sometimes I don't know if I've dreamt something or it's a memory, so it was incredibly scary. I woke up sweaty and panicked.

Anyway, even though I'm pretty positive I will opt out of radiation (at any point), it's still scary and it obviously weighs on my subconscious. It's completely counterproductive that I gorged myself on Halloween candy. I wish I wasn't an emotional eater.

Watercress & Wunder Runners

Recently, a fellow brain tumor fighter sent me all kinds of information on Artemisinin, sulforaphane and sweet wormwood. The research is incredibly promising, and it looks like I will be starting an alternative treatment based on the research. The best part, according to the research though, is that I had already been including a lot of the main foods that cause the death of the brain tumor cells. A lot of the research is relating to sulforaphane in the brassica family, and sweet wormwood. Although I have not been taking any supplements, I have been eating a diet highly enriched with the brassica family. In fact, I just ate my breakfast of an Omega 3 organic free range egg (it gets the extra omegas from flax in the diet), sprinkled with turmeric (a healthy teaspoon), placed on a slice of sprouted bread which was stacked high with watercress leaves (brassica family) and sprinkled with a clove of diced raw garlic. Needless to say my breath is ripe, but my macha green tea is helping calm it down.

My Little Watercresss Plant

I bought a living watercress at my PCC the other day. I've been picking off the leaves of the poor plant every time I walk past it. It's delicious! It's spicy, and helps disguise the garlic, which is a plus.

I don't always eat so wonderfully, for the record. I have to be honest. Last weekend was our third annual Oktoberfest Marathon Relay, and it happened to fall on a double birthday weekend. The birthday girls were Meghan, and Jenny. So, of course, I brought two dozen organic cupcakes (gotta love that it's all organic ingredients, it makes it sound healthier, but the truth is that they were loaded with scrumptious mind altering SUGAR. Yum!). I didn't make them, which is probably good because I would have eaten my weight in icing. As it was, I ate all kinds of delicious crap. It was fun! And then on Sunday night Danny and I realized, that once you get the taste of blood it's really hard to stop. The cravings are tricky, and it's so easy to go get crapy food. Crapy food melts in your mouth then hits your stomach like a rock. Healthy food has crunch and within moments you have more energy and you feel better about yourself. Even knowing that, it can be really hard to forgo the instant gratification that my tongue is pleading for.

Here's a photo of our group. I'm so proud of everyone. This marathon relay was my dream, it's my little baby. I always wanted to get a group to celebrate running and friendship. It's just a very, very happy thing for me. I've got a great group, and I can't wait for next year!! I guess you could say that my only long term goal right now is to be healthy for next year's race! Is that weird? Maybe I should have a different goal. I guess it's the only long term goal that I have because I'm always afraid to plan too far out. It's also the only thing on my calendar that's a year away. I can train for it too, which keeps it easy to use as a long term goal. It's concrete, and I like that. Anyway, here's the fabulous crew......

Operation Grab-A-Stein III