Stay Healthy with Cancer by Eating Right

The following article has been written by Jillian Mckee, a fellow blogger and complementary medicine advocate at the Mesothelioma Cancer Alliance. It is about the benefits of eating healthy during and after a diagnosis of any kind of cancer. Ms. Mckee believes that although each different cancer has its limitations, if one can keep a healthy body, they can have a better chance to overcome this awful disease. I certainly agree with her and am glad to share with you her article on the subject. So without further ado, here is the article...

Stay Healthy with Cancer by Eating Right
by Jillian Mckee

The phrase “you are what you eat” has always dominated in the nutrition field.  What happens when you can’t stomach the foods that you normally eat or you are too sick to eat because of cancer? Now it is especially important to take notice of nutrition and plan to eat a well-balanced diet. Eating well will help improve your quality of life and increase your energy levels.  

It is important to approach your illness in a holistic way. Besides taking your medication, you should also take time for yourself and eat well. There are several benefits to good nutrition.  Eating nutritious foods can change your energy levels and improve your overall health.  

It is very important to consider your nutritional intake at every stage. Whether an active stage or remission, the diet of a patient is very important to their recovery. Appetite may change or have an experience where their former diet is unaffected.  

No matter what happens, it is important to eat a well-balanced diet that includes all food groups.  Eating well is not just important for your body, it is also important for your mood.  If the items that the patient would normally eat are no longer appetizing, then try something new. Exotic fruits, vegetables, and new flavor combinations can sometimes revive the palate. Seasonal fruits will taste the best and be sweeter than items that are out of season. Exploring different spices can also make a common food new and exciting.

When going through treatments, you may have to change what and how much you eat during a day. One way to ingest food easier is to plan smaller meals. Small, more frequent meals give you the chance to have more selection in your diet.  

Whether a person is adjusting to their nutritional plans because of a mesothelioma diagnosis or in order to stay in remission, it is important to plan for a balanced diet.  Having a balanced diet will help keep your body running and make you more happy. Eating a well-balanced diet can make your body perform better than you ever thought it could.

Healthy Eating Tips for Travelers

Recently I have been travelling and staying away from home often.  I should admit that eating healthy while away from home is not easy. Here are few tips I learned from experience. Hopefully you will find them useful during your trips.

1) Drink more water than the usual on flights. Circulated air in airplanes, especially during longer flights, gets drier.

2) Also on flights, drinking too much coffee and tea causes more dehydration. Packaged juice products include too much simple sugars, therefore sticking with water would be the healthiest.

3) Try to find hotel rooms with kitchenettes. Even a small kitchen would help you prepare snacks and sandwiches yourself, which can be healthier than those you buy from supermarkets. Plus the more home-made foods you consume, the less you dine out, which is good not only for your health but for your pocket too!

4) Some residences rent out their condo units on nightly basis. These units come with fully-equipped kitchens where you can cook comfortably. These residences offer fully-equipped gyms which most hotels do not (or offer at lower quality). Extended Stay hotels are also available for travels in the U.S. and Canada.

5) Keep healthy snacks like granola bars in your bag. When hunger attacks while visiting an unknown area, you would not have to eat at the first restaurant you come across.

6) The first day you arrive in your hotel room, get bottled water and healthy snacks from a grocer and store them in your room. Some hotel rooms provide them as extras, however they overcharge.

7) Choosing a hotel that offers full breakfast (rather than continental breakfast) can help you find healthy foods early in the day when we usually are the hungriest. Speaking of breakfasts, if you eat a big breakfast, you can skip lunch unless the breakfast is very early. I tend to feel healthier when I eat big breakfast, small afternoon snack and then decent (not big enough to make me sleepy) amount of dinner.

8) Investigate not only the travelled area`s cuisine but also the restaurants nearby the area you will stay before travelling. Sites like Travel Advisor, Yelp and Zagat are very helpful. I personally use their mobile apps more as I tend to do more search while travelling instead of before.

9) Take your stomach and digestion medicines with you.

10) Avoid tap water at all times.

11) Order your meat cooked at least one grade higher than the usual.

12) Get smoothies and vitamin juices at every opportunity (from a clean store!). I tend to consume less vitamins and vegetables while I am travelling and unfortunately most restaurant meals are meat (rather than vegetable) based especially in English and Spanish speaking countries.

13) At the first day of your trip, avoid eating too much or adventuring into new tastes. New spices and condiments may upset your stomach. Try to get yourself accustomed to foreign cuisines slowly.

Please feel free to add other useful tips you know in the comments section. Let`s help fellow travelers eat healthier :-)

Thank you,

Umit

Meniere's: Is there a good illness?

This is not a moment to celebrate, but I was diagnosed with Meniere's five years ago. After struggling with its symptoms, of which vertigo was the worst, I am now healthy. What a simple but great thing to say!

With Meniere's, I guess one can never say he has overcome it completely. Even if you don't experience its symptoms for years, you wonder if the root-cause is still there, hiding in the tiny canals of your inner ear. Regardless of being sure or not, thank God I am now symptom-less!

Looking back I wonder now if I am happy that I lived what I lived! Frankly, I experienced more positives than negatives. Yes, the negatives were real bad. Being dizzy until vomiting then passing out to wake up with no appetite and power to stand up was hell. Living this intermittently, not knowing when you will get hit by the attack again was neurotic! Yet I still believe MY positives were more than MY negatives. For instance:

1) I now have a constant reminder that I have to take care of myself well. Otherwise, vertigo may show its ugly head anytime! Taking care of myself involves eating healthier foods and staying away from stressful situations and people as much as possible.

2) I now know that when things get worse in life, you can get stronger by managing shorter spans of life. If a week is hard to manage, you go for managing a day. When a day is hard to manage, you go for managing an hour. When an hour... You got the point :-)

3) I now know who and what matters to me more. I also know better than I AM the most important person to me! Not in a selfish way. I am my own doctor, care-giver and care-taker, so I should treat myself even better than my loved ones. In this regard, the Meniere's experience made me more independent, realistic and mature.

4) This one does not apply to all Meniere's patients but I hope one day it does. Due to Meniere's I designed my first website, learned (and still learning) how to promote it, reached and assisted many people who want to be healthier and helped few improve their eating habits. If I had not suffered from Meniere's, I believe I wouldn't have shared a health-conscious message with others at the current level.

In summary, my five year experience with Meniere's made me wonder if there is good illness. Well, my short answer is no, BUT it can be turned into a positive experience as much as possible. It depends on your approach to life. Let me conclude by repeating a cliche "often you can't control what life throws at you, but you can control your reaction to it".

To healthier lives and more positive attitudes! Cheers :-)

Umit