Cancer Prevention Awareness

Sometimes, I want to travel back in time to a period of my life when I was blissfully unaware of cancer and how it would impact my loved ones and my friends' loved ones. As I've gotten older, the number of people impacted by this disease grows and grows. And, in the last several years, some of my peers have been diagnosed with cancer which changes my view of cancer as something that could happen far down the road to something that could really happen at anytime in my life. And perhaps this is anecdotal, but it feels like the incidence of cancer among people around my age is increasing.

The way I see it, there are 2 ways to think about your risk of getting cancer:

1.  Accept the inevitability that you will potentially get cancer.
2.  Do whatever you can to reduce your risk of getting cancer.

I'm opting for #2.

So how exactly does one reduce their risk of getting cancer? The info-graphic below provides some suggestions.

Of the items listed, I'm pretty good about the first 3 (eating vegetables and superfoods, spending 15 minutes in the sun each day, exercising daily). But I haven't given as much thought to the area at the bottom related to household toxins. I feel that my risk of being exposed to asbestos is low as my condo building was built in a period of time when asbestos wasn't used, but if I lived in an older home, I would look into having an inspection done to reduce my chances of getting mesothelioma, which is a cancer caused by exposure to asbestos.

However, there are probably other toxins I am exposed to in my household, especially when it comes to cleaning products, which is something I've given more thought to lately. So going forward, I am going to really increase my focus on household toxins and try to limit my exposure as much as possible. This means doing things like changing laundry detergents and cleaning products, among other things. I've started by switching over to Seventh Generation products*. I like that they disclose the ingredients of their products on their labels. It boggles my mind that this isn't required for all cleaning products!

Perhaps these changes will be all for naught and I will someday find myself with a cancer diagnosis. But in the mean time, at least I can find comfort in knowing that I am trying to do as much as I can to limit the risk of that diagnosis.

What do you do to limit your chances of getting cancer? Is it something you give much thought to?

* This post was in no way sponsored by Seventh Generation. I just like their products!

Whole30: Week 2 Review

Greetings and happy Monday! I hope that everyone had a great Easter weekend! As of today I am half way through Whole30 - I have to say that it's gone pretty fast so far!

Here is my week 2 grocery haul. Not pictured is the ingredients in the crock pot for the carnitas pork I made. I bought more groceries than usual this week as I made an extra meal to freeze as I knew I wouldn't have much time for meal prep over Easter weekend.

As usual, my grocery haul contained a whole lot of vegetables and some fruit

What's helping me succeed:
- Finding simple meals that come together quickly. While I do most of my meal prep on the weekend, I do occasionally throw together simple meals. One simple meal I've been enjoying lately is a sweet potato hash with onions and chicken apple sausage topped with an egg cooked over easy. It's delightful!

I know this is a BIG plate of food but the Whole30 program encourages you to eat bigger meals and minimize snacking in between.

- Finding new Whole30-compliant snacks. Like I said about, Whole30 doesn't encourage snacking so I have really limited my snacks between meals. However, on days when I'm particularly hungry, I've been trying new snacks like the one below which is a banana with sunbutter (which I had to order online because I couldn't find one without sugar - even at Whole Foods!) and a grind of sea salt. The sunbutter I bought has no salt in it so I need that little grind of salt to add some flavor.

What's been the hardest:
- Program fatigue.  The program has been going pretty well for me but I did have a night last week where I just felt tired of preparing Whole30 compliant meals. The meal that night felt pretty uninteresting, too, as I made roasted chicken breast and roasted cauliflower for Phil and I and it just sort of felt "meh," not to mention monochromatic. I guess nights like that are inevitable occasionally and luckily I've rarely felt bored with my meals.

- Easter temptation. Oh boy, this weekend was a bit challenging as there were so many Easter sweets and treats around me. Phil is not doing Whole30 so I've seen him eat ice cream and salted caramel chocolates and such but this weekend was especially tough since his mom had some Easter treat bags for us. But I stayed strong!


New recipes I've tried:
- Slow cooker sweet potato chili - I actually made this in a dutch oven on my stovetop as my crockpot was already in use. I was nervous that I wouldn't like this since it has cinnamon and cocoa powder in it but it was delicious! I'll definitely be making this on a regular basis going forward. I ended up freezing most of this and will have it for dinners this week.


- Crockpot mojo pork - This recipe wasn't actually new to me as I'd made it before, but it had been about 9 months since I made it so it felt new to me. It's such an easy recipe and the results are so delicious! I've been eating it with sweet potatoes and/or brussel sprouts this week.

How I feel:
- I definitely felt less tired than last week, thank goodness! Last week I felt like a zombie some days, so I am glad that feeling has passed.

- I do feel much less bloated/gassy (sorry, that's probably TMI!) than I normally would and I think my stomach is less noisy than it normally is. It's nice to see some positive things that are happening as a result of the program.

- Besides the day where I felt bored by my options, overall it still has not seemed ridiculously hard. Sure there are days when I struggle a bit and miss non-compliant foods but overall I still feel like I have a lot of options and I try to focus on what I can have.

- I've started to have dreams about food, which is common when you do Whole30 apparently. The 2 dreams I've had involved situations where I was somewhere where there was nothing that was Whole30 compliant so I wasn't able to eat. 

Here's hoping the 2nd half of this program goes as well as the first half did!

Currently: March

Reading:  Moonlight Over Paris by Jennifer Robson. I read and enjoyed the other 2 books by this author so I think I will like this one, too!  I've read some heavier books lately so am due for a lighter, fun read like this. Thanks to Mandy to gifting this to me for my birthday!

Loving: sweet potatoes. I never thought I'd say the word love and sweet potato in the same sentence! Since starting W30, sweet potatoes have become a staple of my diet as I have them every morning with a fried egg for breakfast.  They are so tasty when prepared in a savory way.

Thinking: that I am due for a massage real soon!

Frustrated: with my body.  Big time. My MRI showed that I have a labrel tear. Labrel tears are very common but the doctor decided to refer me to a surgeon because between the bone growth on my hip joint and my lack of response to PT, he thinks surgery might be necessary.  Le sigh.  

Feeling: kind of tired. The past month has been especially busy for me. I *think* April will be quieter. I'm due for a "shouldless" day but don't think I will be able to squeeze one into March so might have to do 2 in April!

Anticipating:  our trip to San Francisco in late April! San Francisco is one of my favorite cities so I can't wait to explore it with Phil, plus it will be awesome to spend time with Kyria!

Watching: the newest season of House of Cards when I am with Phil, and getting close to finishing the 4th season of Gilmore Girls when I watch Netflix on my own.

Sad: that I won't be running Grandma's Marathon in June. Given the issues with my hip it's just completely out of the question. I'm less devastated about it than I thought I would be, mostly because I haven't invested any time in the training yet, but I'm still bummed that I won't get to experience that race, especially since marathon entry fees are not cheap!

Working: out quite a bit despite the issues with my hip. The doctor told me I can still be active as the damage has been done at this point. I have been doing lots of yoga and taking lots of long walks. My workouts look very different than they normally would (i.e. no running whatsoever) but at least I'm still able to remain active.

Grateful: for health insurance. You know, because of ALL of the doctor appointments I've had recently.

Listening: to the remake of "We Built This City" by Aron Wright and Jill Andrews. I fell in love with this song after hearing it during the savasana part of a yoga class I took last week.

 

Wishing: that spring would arrive for real.  We had a taste of it earlier this month but in the last week we've had snow twice! It melted right away but I'm just ready for winter weather to be behind us!!

What are you reading, watching, and grateful for these days?

Whole 30: Week 1 Review

As I said in my post yesterday, I'll be checking in weekly to share how Whole30 is going. Here's my week 1 check-in!

What's helping me succeed:
- Meal planning!  There's no way you can just 'wing it' and be successful at sticking to this program (unless you are the kind of person that wants to grocery shop multiple times a week and/or has time to spend making meals every day - that's so not me). I've always been a meal planner but I've had to do way more planning for this.

- Keeping it simple. This wouldn't work for everyone, but I've made my meal planning as simple as possible and pick one breakfast, one lunch, and one dinner to have for the entire week, Monday-Friday. I know that would bore many people but I value simplicity over variety and I make things that I really truly enjoy so having them every day doesn't bother me. Besides eating the same thing all week for breakfast, lunch and dinner, I have been making easy meals, like roasted chicken with a sweet potato for dinner. To offset the repetition during the week, I try to eat different things for every meal over the course of the weekend since I have more time/energy for meal prep then.

What's been the hardest:
- Grocery shopping is so time consuming. And expensive. Grocery shopping definitely takes way more time. I went through this when I went gluten free in 2009 as I had to learn just how many things have gluten in them. Now I'm going through it again and it's opening my eyes to how many things have sugar in them!  Luckily most of what I'm buying is fresh produce and meat, but I still have to buy some non-perishable goods and it's time consuming to read the labels to check for sugar or other additives I can't have. Also, since I'm buying mostly non-perishable goods and organic meats and eggs, grocery shopping is more expensive. But I'm reminding myself that it's an investment in my health.

This is most of the food that I bought for week 1. As you can see, it's mostly vegetables, meat, and fruit, hence the higher grocery bill.

- Feeling high maintenance. We are going to Phil's mom's for Easter so I sent her an email giving her a heads up about my restrictions. I felt so bad because I know she already gets anxious cooking for me as she worries something will have gluten in it so now I know she'll be extra nervous. I told her to not modify the menu and that I could supplement the meal with sides I can eat but I just feel bad that I'm potentially adding some stress to her meal planning process.  I also felt high maintenance when we went to a taco night birthday gathering with Phil's friends as I had to bring my own meal since I knew that the taco seasoning mixes people tend to use had ingredients I couldn't have, like corn starch. They were all understanding, of course, but it drew a lot of attention/questions.

- No coffee creamer. I obviously can not have vanilla creamer, so I tried almond milk, coconut milk and coconut cream (separately, not all at once!). After basically choking my coffee down on day one, I decided that I needed to switch to a caffeinated tea and give up on coffee during whole 30. I miss it so much but I am learning to like tea.

New recipes I've tried:
- Chicken Sausage and Spinach Frittata: I had this for breakfast last week.  The verdict?  Meh.  I think I'm so used to eating frittatas/egg dishes made with cheese and milk so this kind of underwhelmed me. It's not bad, it just wasn't great.

 I rarely use my broiler so I over-browned it a bit but it didn't impact the flavor.

- Healthy Breakfast Sweet Potatoes:  I had these with the frittata for breakfast last week. The verdict? YUM. Whole 30 is going to turn me into a person that likes sweet potatoes. In the past I did not care for them but I have learned that I like them when they are prepared in a savory way. I'll definitely be making these again and in the future instead of pairing them with a frittata, I'll put a fried egg on top of the potatoes.

- Overnight Banana Chia Pudding:  I had this for breakfast last Friday as I needed a meat-free breakfast since it's Lent.  The verdict?  It tasted OK but the texture was kind of "interesting" and it was not nearly filling enough. I tried it again later in the week and have decided it's just not something I look forward to eating so I won't be making this again.

- Halibut with Citrus-Ginger Glaze:  I found this recipe in the Whole30 cookbook (which I recommend). I served it with roasted fingerling potatoes and asparagus. Halibut is a bit pricey but I splurged on some from Whole Foods since it was the Friday night meal I made for Phil and I and I figured it was OK to spend a bit more since we won't be eating out while I'm doing Whole30.  The verdict? The halibut was great and so easy to make but we'd skip the citrus ginger glaze next time as the fish was great on it's own and we didn't love the glaze (probably because I don't love ginger).  I'll definitely be making fish more often as this meal reminded me how quick and easy it is to make!

How I feel:
- Overall, I would say that I felt more tired during the first week. However, it's hard to say how much is due to the Whole30 program as I also lost an hour of sleep thanks to daylight savings time and I had a very busy week with several very long days.

- I know it's early in the program but so far it hasn't felt all that hard. Sure there are things I miss like my greek yogurt, coffee creamer, and gelato, but overall I don't feel limited by this program as there are still so many things that I CAN have.  However, since this is only day 9, I expect it to feel harder as the days progress.

Starting Whole30

As I mentioned last week, I started the Whole30 program last Monday and so far it's going pretty well.  In case some of you are interested, I thought I'd share a little bit of information about the program as well as while I am doing it.

Program rules:
- no sugar of any kind, real or artificial (I can have fruit, but no honey, agave nectar, etc)
- no alcohol, not even for cooking
- no grains (includes typical glutenous grains as well as corn, rice, quinoa, etc)
- no legumes
- no dairy

There are some other rules, but these are the main ones. After reading those rules, most of you are probably thinking:  "ok, what CAN you eat?"  I've answered that many times already in the first week of being on this program.  While there are a lot of limitations for this program, there is still a lot I can have like meat, vegetables, fruit, eggs, nuts, coconut products such as coconut milk and coconut cream, and sunbutter, to name a few (fuller list can be found here).

Thoughts on the program:
Is it challenging?  Absolutely.  But is it doable?  Absolutely. It does help that I eliminated gluten from my diet 7 years ago and have eliminated dairy in the past.  The program definitely requires a high level of discipline and fortunately for me, I'm good at things that require discipline. I know it sounds 'braggy' to say that, but it's one of my core strengths (whereas flexibility is NOT!).

Why am I doing it?
While removing gluten has certainly helped with my stomach problems, I still feel like my digestive function could improve as I still have trouble with stomach pains, bloating and general discomfort. And, my stomach is abnormally loud - like so loud that Phil has commented on it multiple times. I've been meaning to try to eliminate certain foods and after reading more about Whole30, I decided this would be a good program to use to figure out if I have sensitivities or an intolerance to other foods.

Additionally, many of the foods that are prohibited in this program tend to cause inflammation. Since I have Rheumatoid Arthritis, I already have an elevated level of inflammation in my body, so it's especially important for me to eat foods that won't elevate the level of inflammation in my body.

I don't want to bore you all with updates about this program but I know there are some people that will be interested so I plan to check in on a weekly basis. Feel free to mark these posts as read if Whole30 is not your thing!

Have you ever experimented with eliminating certain foods from your diet? Would you ever try Whole30?

Catching Up

Happy Wednesday!  My friend Leigh occasionally does "catching up" posts so I thought I'd copy her and do a catching up post of my own!

- My staycation last week week was wonderful but it probably should have been called a "producation" because I was very productive. I was pretty much on my feet all day Wednesday/Thursday tackling a to do list, grocery shopping, and doing meal prep, but it was nice to get all my chores out of the way before Nora's arrival!

- Speaking of Nora's visit, we had the best time! You can go read all about it here! It was really fun to spend a whole weekend together doing things that our significant others wouldn't be interested in (e.g. art museum, flower show, musical). It was also great that she had a chance to get to know Phil (and that she gave him 2 thumbs up!).

- This week is another busy week for me as I have things going on 3 out of 5 nights this week. I have my last ESL training session tomorrow. The training has been very interesting and useful, but I'll be happy to be done as the training is from 6-9 pm Tuesdays and Thursdays so it made for some long days. I'm definitely due for a shouldless day soon!

- The issue with my hip isn't  getting better as fast as my PT thought it would/should so she referred me to a orthopedic doctor that specializes in hips. The X-rays show that I have an abnormal bone growth on the ball of my hip joint so I have to get an MRI tomorrow so he can figure out what is going on and what the course of treatment will be. Best case scenario I will need to do more PT; worse case scenario I may need surgery to repair a labral tear/re-shape the ball joint of my hip. I'm hoping PT will suffice. In the mean time I'm continuing to see my PT. I have so many doctor/therapy appointments these days, it's ridiculous.

- I ended up starting Whole30 earlier than planned to avoid having it coincide with our trip to San Francisco. Today is day 3 but so far it's been going well (although I know it will be challenging to stick to for 30 days). I'll be sharing more about it next week. I'm bummed that I'll be on Whole30 for Easter but I guess I'll just have to save my Easter candy until after Whole30 concludes!

- Speaking of the trip to San Francisco, we are booking our plane tickets this week! It will be an inexpensive trip for us as I have a free companion ticket on Delta that I need to use. It's going to be a shorter trip than we'd like as there was only one weekend in April that worked for Phil and I, and he can't leave until Thursday afternoon, and I have to fly to NJ on Monday for work but we'll make the most of the 3 full days we'll have there! Kyria is going to host us - I'm excited to see her new house and introduce her to Phil.

What's new in your world these days? For those who celebrate Easter, what are your plans? We'll be staying here and will celebrate the holiday with Phil's mom. I can't believe it's next week!!

5 Things Thursday

Happy Thursday, everyone! My staycation is flying by and I am getting lots of nagging tasks done that I've been putting off for awhile, like vacuuming out my car and ironing. While some of the tasks aren't 'fun' it feels good to get things done!

Last week Emily of The Many Thoughts of a Reader posted this 5-things survey so I thought I'd play along!


5 of my blog posts I think you should read:
- Sleep Training for Adults (Because if you struggle with sleeping and do what I did, you should sleep much better!)
- Sorry, I'm Not Sorry (On defining and owning what you consider "fun")
- On Schedules and "Shouldless" Days (On giving yourself permission to have an obligation-free day)
- Why (One of my most vulnerable posts about a break-up)
- Traveling with Pomegranates (Another vulnerable post that combines a book review with reflections on a period of my life when I struggled with depression)

5 podcasts I listen to:
- Bookriot's All the Books podcast (+ 2 other BR podcasts)
- Books on the Nightstand
- I Feel Better
- Starr Struck Radio
- Happier

5 recent books I've read:
- It Starts with Food
- In the Time of the Butterflies
- Can't We Talk about Something More Pleasant
- The Devil in the White City
- The Art Forger

5 places I want to visit (outside the U.S.):
- Croatia
- Italy
- Argentina (especially the Patagonia region)
- Thailand
- Spain (especially the Seville area as that's where Phil studied abroad!)

5 foods I could eat every day:
- Pickles
- Raspberries
- Carnitas tacos (roasted pork)
- Salted caramel gelato
- Reese's peanut butter cups

5 movies I can watch on repeat:
- You've Got Mail
- Pretty Woman
- Definitely, Maybe
- Sex and the City (the first movie)
- Sleepless in Seattle

5 books I recommend:
- Without Reservations
- City of Thieves
- Every Last One
- The Book of Unknown Americans
- The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry
 
5 books I want to read:
- The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend by Katarina Bivald
- When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi
- The Queen of the Night by Alexander Chee
- Miller's Valley by Anna Quindlen
- Evicted by Matthew Desmond

5 kids books I love:
- Corduroy
- If You Give a Mouse a Cookie
- Charlotte's Web
- Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
- Ramona Quimby, Age 8
 
5 beauty products I use every day:
- Bare Minerals make-up
- Maybelline mascara
- Arbonne Daytime Moisturizer
- Aveda Smooth Infusion Styling product
- Burt's Beeswax Chapstick

5 authors I love:
- Anna Quindlen
- Khaled Hosseini
- J.K. Rowling
- Lisa Genova
- Elizabeth Strout

Ok, your turn!  Pick a couple to answer yourself, or do it on your blog!! Have a great weekend, everyone! I'll be back with a recap of Nora's visit (she flies in tomorrow morning!!!)!

Virtual Coffee Date

Hi friends!  Happy Monday! I hope that everyone had a great weekend! The weather has turned spring-like here so I am excited for the week to come! It's been awhile since I did a virtual coffee date so thought I'd start off the week with a virtual coffee catch up session.

- If we were having coffee today I'd tell you that physical therapy is going well but it still feels like I am a ways away from being able to run again. They been working on massaging out the muscles in my hip/glute area that are crazy tight. Let me tell you, it's a painful and unpleasant process, but no pain no gain, right? I'm still able to do yoga and use the elliptical and bike but dang I miss running! And it kills me to not be out there when the weather is so beautiful and ideal for running!

- If we were having coffee today I'd tell you that I am feeling a little bit overwhelmed by my schedule over the next couple of weeks. Between the adult ESL training sessions for the non-profit I'll be volunteering with going forward and some other social plans, I have very few free week nights! I'm reminding myself that it's temporary and that life will slow down in the second half of March.

- If we were having coffee today I'd probably show you a picture of my bulb garden. I am just amazed at how fast it has grown. This was seriously such a cool gift! It brings me such joy to watch it grow and grow each day.

- If we were having coffee today I'd tell you that I decided to take three days off this week to get some things done around the house/fit in some doctor appointments. I feel a little bit guilty taking 3 days off when I'm not going anywhere, but I get 6 weeks of vacation and there's just no way I can travel for all 6 of those weeks (especially since Phil gets waaaay less vacation that I do)! Having some days off will help me feel less overwhelmed by my busy weeknight scheduled and it will allow me to prepare for Nora's visit (she arrives on Friday morning!!!). Also, my 2 colleagues are going on 1 and 2 weeks vacations at the end of March/early April so I will be on my own in the office for quite a bit so I wanted a little break before things get really crazy for me at work!

- If we were having coffee today I'd tell you what I plan to do while Nora is here this weekend! She hasn't met Phil before so I'm excited for them to get to know each other!  Nora has been here before so I wanted to come up with some different things to do so she'd see different areas of the Twin Cities.  I've got a loose agenda planned but some of the things we'll do include visiting the Minneapolis Institute of Art (which I've never been to!!), checking out the winter flower show and the zoo at the Como Park Zoo and Conservatory (I've been to the zoo but not the conservatory) which is FREE, going to a yoga sculpt class, taking in some live theater, and going for lots of walks in my favorite areas of Minneapolis! I also want to make sure we have plenty of downtime for girl talk and relaxation!

- If we were having coffee today we'd probably talk about some more serious subjects, like the metamorphosis of friendships, thoughts I've been having lately now that I'm approaching the two year mark of being back in Minneapolis, upcoming changes that I'm anticipating on the horizon, and how I'm coming to terms with the fact that I'm probably always going to be a more anxious person and what I'm doing to manage that anxiety.

If we were having coffee today, what would you tell me?

Podcast, Books, Miles and Looks of February

February was a FAR better month than January was!  I traveled to Mexico, celebrated my birthday and Valentine's Day, and spent a weekend at my parents' lake home!  Hurrah!

Podcast:

I Had a Miscarriage by Stuff Mom Never Told You:  To be clear, I have never had a miscarriage. But given the high incidence rate of miscarriages, chances are everyone either knows someone who has had a miscarriage (or multiple people, as is the case of me) or sadly it's something many women will experience themselves. In this podcast, the hosts talk to Dr. Jessica Zucker, a clinical psychologist that specializes in women's reproductive and maternal mental health. She talks about how our society is pretty terrible at dealing with "out of order losses" such as pregnancy losses, and she offers advice on how to support friends that are dealing with the loss of a pregnancy. She has also created a line of pregnancy loss greeting cards.

Books:

February was another strong reading month for me since I read so much on my vacation. I had a couple of favorites. Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant, a graphic memoir chronicling the experience of dealing with aging parents and their eventual death, was a raw and honest read that was so well done. Ella Minnow Pea was, in a word, delightful. I recommend it for other word lovers! As usual, the starred books counted toward the read harder challenge.


Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn - 4 stars
Without You, There is No Us by Suki Kim* - 3 stars
2 a.m. at the Cat's Pajamas by Marie-Helene Bertino - 3 stars
Orhan's Inheritance by Aline Ohanesian* - 3 stars
The Art Forger by Barbara Shapiro - 4 stars
The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson - 3 stars
Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant by Roz Chast - 5 stars
In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez - 3 stars


Miles:

Oh boy, February was not a great month in terms of workouts. My hip had started to bother me in January and after trying to (foolishly) run through the pain for several weeks, I finally came to the conclusion that I needed to stop running and do something about it. So my total mileage for the month was a measly 23 miles.  I did manage to go to yoga 11 times which is pretty impressive considering it's a short month and I was out of town 2 weekends. I also did 3 strength training workouts. I don't really expect to be able to run again for at least another 2-3 weeks but at least I can stay active in other ways.

Looks: 

Please excuse the horrible photo quality of my "looks" photos. The bathroom lighting at work is so terrible but I have the hardest time remembering to take photos of outfits when I am at home!  I had a harder time coming up with looks this month as we are coming to the end of the winter season (hopefully) so I'm pretty sick of my winter clothes.


In outfit #1, I am wearing the other bright-colored wool skirt that I bought from J Crew Factory during a 50% off holiday sale, paired with a Banana Republic button-down.

Outfit #2 is a oldie but a goodie. I got the skirt from Stitch Fix and the camisole and cardigan are from Target. The skirt is so comfortable and I love its tribal pattern. 

My ankles look freakishly small in this photo!