Confession

Hello Everyone,

Happy Wednesday. I'm Ann and this is my journey with thyroid cancer. Recently, I wrote a post about the class I was taking at Hippocrates Health Institute. The class focusses on a raw, living diet and I have been incorporating parts of this diet into my lifestyle for about the last five months. I want to let you know how I'm doing with the changes. Truthfully, I've been a bit overwhelmed with all of the changes I need to make with this lifestyle and because of that I have made some bad choices.

First, everyone makes mistakes. This is what I did. I have fallen off the 'Healty Eating Wagon'. I'm not sure exactly what the reason is, but I've been cheating a bit. What I mean by this is, I've eaten pasta, chips, chocolate and an ocassional alcoholic drink! Some of you may not consider this as being 'too bad', but I know it is. I started taking the Hippocrates class at the end of January. I was learning a lot, but the diet was very different from what I've been doing and I got a little confused with exactly how I can make this work. It's very strict and takes a lot of time and effort. As I was learning about the class, I started to slowly slip off the 'wagon' by eating noodles, then organic chips and dark chocolate, and lastly I've been drinking Madras (Titos, orange juice, cranberry juice, and to make me feel better about it, I added seltzer). I think it was a lot of things happening all at once that sparked this situation. For one, I did not like much of the food recipes that were offered in the Hippocrates Class. This is coming from someone who mostly eats a potato, vegetable medly/soup. In addition, I was a bit overwhelmed by all of the changes I would be making. I thought if I was able to go to Hippocrates to get the full experience that would be best, but circumstances didn't allow for that this year. The last reason is that what I do is very isolating. None of my friends are vegan let alone plant based. Raw sounds even crazier to them. And so, with all the emotions I was facing and feeling I started to slip off the wagon - and no one was there to stop me or enourage me. Instead, what I've heard is, 'That isn't really cheating' or 'Isn't that still vegan?'. While what they said was true, I know what I've been eating is not good if you have a cancer diagnosis. I've decided that it's time to hop back on the wagon. I have one more week until school starts (I'm a teaher) and so on September 3, I will be officially back to eating the right way.

I will give you an update in September as to how I'm doing, but for now I do want to say a bit more about the Hippocrates lifestyle. Their belief is in juicing or eating a lot of sprouts. Sprouts are living foods and because of this, they will give you the most nutrition. They also believe in juicing wheat grass - again for all of the vitamins and minerals it offers. The diet is mostly greens with nuts and seeds. I'm not sure if I'm up to a strictly raw, living foods diet as of yet, but I will be incorporating a lot of what I've learned into my dialy routine. I will post my plan and routine in September.

For now, I wish you all health and happiness!