I’m trying to write my part 3 of cancer. I realized I had too much to say for one blog post. Part of the issue is that in this part 3 there are so many pieces that really need their own blog.
Many of the things that I have been lead to that are arguable super super good choices. Things I should have been doing my entire 46 years, that have helped me be a better, stronger person, and have allowed me to fight cancer, to learn about cancer and overall have improved my health.
In no particular order, I’m going to blog about each of these things, by defining them first as a good choice. I am not at all saying that the order is the importance for me or for my life. I am also not saying that they are the order I would give to someone else, anyone else.
They are just ordered as they felt important to share.
This is the first of the good choices. I am not going to try and argue for anyone else to make this good choice. I would like to define 2 things that make something a good choice.
One, something I have chosen to define as a good choice. Does not seem to have negatives for me or for anyone that are large enough to prevent a person from making this decision.
Not necessarily calling them a no brainer, because good choices are hard. They require dedication, discipline, and alot of help from outside resources often. However, that being said, the choice, once made and implemented has such wildly positive impacts as to make me, of all people wonder how I could possible have avoided or steered away from this choice for so long. They are things that have literally made my head spin with my own ignorance. I am not one to call myself ignorant lightly. I have spent the entirety of my 46 years trying to snuff out this dragon of ignorance and have found not many things that have made me question my sanity and state of mine.
Good Choice things, are one of those things where in hindsight they are so good that not doing them seems fundamentally lacking in knowledge.
Two, something else about good choices. Every one of the ones I will blog about individually, is that they are overall, relatively simple. They have alot of fundamental parts, and a bit to learn much like reading, was originally. Letters and the concept of these things is a little hard, but once you grasp this, the basics are so easy as to take you to mystical lands thru books and other worlds.
Good choices are simple, and fundamental and are good for all people, whether they are implementable or right for an individual is totally subjective, and I do not claim to know what is best for anyone other than myself.
That is enough preamble about what makes something a good choice. I will refer back to this multiple times, for now, on to what I consider a number one of my “good choice things”. Things I need to document, in order to continue documenting my cancer journey.
Good Choice #1 – Keto.
Lets talk for just a moment about Keto.
its called a diet, and by nature of the fact that everything we put into our mouths is a diet, by that factor alone it is a diet.
I would more call keto a way of thinking about eating.
Our bodies have this miraculous ability to either burn Sugar or to burn Fat, to fuel cells in our body. . The later we burn with so much more efficiency than the former, its actually a significantly healthier state to be fat burning than sugar burning. Cancer cells do NOT share this multi-pronged ability to burn both food sources, they are only efficient at burning Sugar, they are extremely efficient at burning sugar, in fact, they are 10 times more efficient at burning sugar than any other cell in our bodies. So effectively when you supply sugar, or any sugar to our bodies, cancer cells get fed first. They take the bulk of the sugar, and make new roads to feed cancer cells, multiple, grow and spread harm. They do not have a way to utilize ketosis. When you bring your body into a state of ketosis, and allow the rest of our cells to burn using fat, you are effectively helping starve cancer cells.
Keto is about removing sugar and carbs from your diet. This is a hard hard step. Its not really hard physically. the Keto diet feels so good, that its actually extremely long term sustainable. after the initial transition 1-2 weeks into it. You become less hungry, and your body will automatically cannibalize all that extra fat you have storied making it ridiculously fast and easy to lose weight. Its also super formulaic to follow, just don’t eat anything with sugar and limit the amount of carb you are having to lower than the amount of fat you are consuming. The bulk of your food should come from vegetables, and you should not be eating carbs as we traditionally know them. You will be getting plenty of carbs, veggies have carbs. This food plan is not about avoiding carbs, its about avoiding those processed grainy carbs that we all have known for years are not good for us, but we continued to make bad choices and eat them anyway.
Couple of things I will say from personal experience about Keto. The keto “flu” as they call it, the first week or two of transitioning your body into a state of ketosis, where you are not having carbs. It feels precisely like going thru chemo treatments. Exactly like chemo. Having had a lot of different chemo treatments in my life at this point, and having started a very mild chemo the first week I decided to try Keto, I have to tell you that the keto flu for me, was as bad as some of the worst chemo treatments I have had. I felt miserable. There is alot of emotional and psychological attachment to carb in our diet and lifestyle. We feed ourselves carb because it “feels good” or that is what we tell ourselves. We have developed bacteria and fungi in our gut that “enjoy” that feeling of carb, they are not necessarily good bacteria or good fungi. They are just strong at eliciting a brain response that releases chemicals when we eat carbs and other rawer sugars. Thinking of carbs as sugars is how I personally made it alot easier to transition more onto keto. Anything that turned into a raw sugar within a short period of time in my gut, was on the “no list” for what I was eating. This pretty much meant that when I first did Keto, the first few months, I avoided almost every fruit. There are alot of safe keto fruits, and I’m not recommending that everyone do this, its not for everyone. What I will tell you is that anytime you are trying to transition to something that is harder than where you are at, when you are trying to form new brain and body patterns. Doing things the hardest possible way for the first period of time – for me its 4-6 weeks will make it so much easier to adhere later. Basically have to stick to the guns until you have a routine of “no thats wrong” that pops up from your own mind, that you don’t have to think about.
The keto flu – the 1-2 weeks of feeling like you are going thru chemo is a deterent that prevents alot of people from going on this path, from changing over to this keto diet. I will tell you, that if you take my comments about it “being” like chemo, and you realize that basically your body is revolting because much like having cancer, you have been feeding it all incorrectly for too long, and this Dis-ease of feeling like you have been given chemo. Of feeling like you are having the flu, is a last ditch effort of those fungi and bacteria to try and prevent you from doing this good choice. Don’t worry. there will be a point somewhere along the 10 day mark, where you will suddenly be fine. The good bacteria will take over, and suddenly you will wake and have THE BEST day of your life.
When the body transitions into ketosis. When you stop fighting yourself for feeding yourself things that you need, healthy fats, no sugar no carbs. Lots of veggies. Your body will respond with a “thank you” Things will feel great.
Your brain will work better. You will be smarter. You will have rose colored glasses on, because things that seemed impossible will not seem possible. You will have alot more energy than you expected, and suddenly almost too much. You will want to move your body. I’m not necessarily talking about workouts or exercise routines. But suddenly sitting still, all the things we know are “not good choices” become alot more clear, and they just seem alot easier to give up. There isn’t a gold star or a plan needed. Fun movement things just suddenly pop into your head of better ways to take care of your body, that don’t require really much effort at all, because you have energy for this effort.
Alot of people call this diet the “bacon diet”. I laugh at this, because I know where my journey eventually took me, and I will tell you that the coolest most fun part of starting this diet is that “yes, you can pretty much have as much bacon as you want. That isn’t to say that Keto is the bacon diet, just that sometimes when you are moving to something overall more healthy for you, giving yourself something you want is a necessary trade out. So have alot of bacon if that makes you happy. I will say, I didnt’ eat alot of bacon, however I did buy good quality bacon and I used the fat for cooking alot of things. Bacon itself has always been one of those things that smells and tastes so yummy, but my body is like “meh its food” type of things when I eat it. it was Part of my initial Keto diet, but the bacon grease, the fat from cooking the bacon that was part of my world. It was stored in mason jars, and alot of times I’d cook veggies in it. It made a good source of fat, that wasn’t super bad and had a really good taste.
My personal journey took a left turn at albacourkey a long while after starting keto. I will say that there are people that still utilize bacon alot and good for them. The best thing about this diet is, its not about avoiding lean meats, its more about eating a lot of fat. You get to make friends with some oils, olives, avocados. I was morbidly obese, so for me, this fat introduction took a little longer, because I honestly had so much fat on my body that staying in ketosis was more about reducing the carb count than anything else.
There are alot of sources of good macro information about Keto. I can tell you that the fundamentals are more important than the macros.,- at least from my personal experience. I will say understanding the macros is a good idea, and maybe following for those first 4-6 weeks a “plan” where someone has done all the macros for you, so that you ensure that you known what keto feels like, so that you know what to avoid, and what to ensure you get plenty of, would probably be super helpful.
That isn’t and wasn’t me, but that is alot of people. There are alot of people in this world that feel the need for knowing “this data number is right where it is at. This diet – Keto, is known for producing some of the best body builder results hands down in the world. There are alot of very knowledgeable and smart people that follow keto, and they have gold star advice, My goal with this blog is not to at all replace, or even try and replicate that knowledge. My goal is to share only why Keto is a good choice. One of the best choices for me.
Some resources, for people curious that want more information:
There are a few blogs I follow regularly, and people that do videos I find inspiring and engaging. About this topic I’ll give you an army.
My hands down favorite, Thomas Delauer. This guy is living the dream. His blogs are always uplifting, always spot on, and he has very relevant information about Keto from his own personal experience and struggles. He publishes multiple times a week, and his videos always seem timely.
Another great source, that is reliable usually amusing, and chock full of great sugar information, as well as a woman following keto that happens to cook like its going out of style – making alot of replacement things that you “want” but know you shouldn’t have, that now she provides you with “keto” alternatives. Keto Connect with Matt & Megha.
This third one, I don’t really list down for Keto, but he has alot of good information about health in general, and is one I follow. He has spoken about keto and has alot of good information, he covers much ore broad topics, and covers some interesting topics about cancer. Dr. Berg
I will say, in my personal journey I was very very blessed, that the local farmers market “happened” to have a keto bakery, that filled my kitchen with a few “fake things” that helped me during the first few months of transitioning to Keto. The transition is only hard mentally. I wanted those carbs back. I wanted those sugars back. I had made poor choices for 46 years, and those poor choices were defining a lot of my choosing ability at this time. Utilizing some of her quick recipes for fat bombs and using her yummy baked fake out deserts helped me get through my routine, and move on to making my own plan with less replacement things, and more real foods that suddenly tasted alot better. But I will say, having her recipes for chocolate chip cookies, that were keto approved did help make the transition alot less painful.
I will say, this is alot more than I intended, for this first “good choice” Keto is a good choice. Enough said.
