100 Perks of Having Cancer: Plus 100 Health Tips for Surviving It (39 page)

hat and pajamas.

Of course the aftereffects of chemo would leave me bedridden for sev-

eral days, and during that time I allowed myself a break from my beauty

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rituals. However, even when I did not make a special effort with my appear-

ance, I still got showered with compliments everywhere I went in my small

town. Now come on folks, I know deep inside that when people said, “You

look great,” they meant “For someone with cancer,” but hey, at forty-four,

I was happy to take what I could get. Yeah, I kind of miss those compli-

ments since my recovery.

If you have cancer, get used to people commenting

on how good you look, and learn to graciously accept

a compliment. A simple “thank you” will suffice.

HEALTH TIP #40

How to Build a Good-Looking Salad

Y
ou’re trying to eat healthy so you decide to make a salad for lunch. You

start with iceberg lettuce, and add tomatoes, croutons, and shredded

cheese. Then you cover it with bottled ranch dressing and devour it. You sit

back and say to yourself,
Self, you ate a healthy lunch, so go ahead and have

that cupcake for dessert.

Does this sound familiar?

Salads are your golden opportunity to eat a meal that contains all the

ingredients that will provide you with extra protein and cancer-fighting vita-

mins, minerals, and phytochemicals as well as fiber and energy-producing

carbs. While the salad above technically is “a salad,” it could use a bit of

fine-tuning. Let’s give it a tune up, shall we?

Subtract:
Let’s start with the lettuce. Poor, pale iceberg lettuce has the lowest

nutritional value of all the greens. Even celery beats it for vitamins and fiber!

Just remember, the darker the leaf, the more minerals and vitamins the leaf

contains. Compare the color of iceberg lettuce to spinach, Boston, or red-

tip lettuce. It’s not hard to spot the dud. (If only it was this easy on the sin-

gles scene, eh?)

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100 Perks of Having Cancer

Add:
The abundance of different greens that you can use to form the base

of your salad boggles the mind. Markets make it easy to take home a variety

of mixed greens as they often come all together in one bag. Look for “mixed

baby greens,” which can contain tender crisp leaves of green leaf, red-tip,

baby spinach, and arugula. Also consider other greens like watercress, dan-

delion, Swiss chard, kale, and French sorrel. (I know I’m leaving some out,

but there are too many to list!) I also love to add fresh herb leaves like basil

leaves, parsley, and cilantro to the salad, too, as it gives a little surprise to

my taste buds and boosts the salad’s nutritional benefits.

Subtract:
While you don’t necessarily have to subtract the tomatoes

(although there are some who believe acidic foods like tomatoes promote

cancer growth), you shouldn’t stop at just one vegetable.

Add:
Your tomatoes need company! Add veggies like diced raw zucchini,

cucumbers, red peppers, summer squash, avocado, or red onion. Adding

more colorful vegetables adds a good dose of fiber and antioxidant vitamins

while “feeding” your eyes, too. To keep the tomatoes on the low acid side,

choose varieties like yellow and purple, which are less acidic.

Subtract:
Croutons don’t add any nutritional value, but they do add

unwanted fat and sodium. Processed croutons also contain preservatives

and flavor enhancers like yeast extract, which is another name for unhealthy

MSG (monosodium glutamate).

Add:
Instead of croutons, get some plant-based protein into your salad by

adding nuts and/or seeds. Walnuts and chia seeds provide disease-fighting

omega-3 fatty acids. The Pepitas Brittle recipe found in Health Tip #39 is

wonderful on salads. There are dozens of other nuts and seeds like sesame

seeds and sliced almonds that provide protein, healthy fats, useful minerals,

and an exotic flavor. Nuts and seeds are high in fat, so 1–2 servings is plenty.

Subtract:
Shredded cheese provides protein and calcium, but like all dairy,

it also can promote unwanted intestinal issues and slash your immune func-

tion. Dairy is also an “inflammatory-promoting” food and can lead to poor

general health, and dairy protein, casein, may promote cancer growth.

Perk #40: Being Told How Great I Look

159

Add:
Here’s your chance to power up the cancer fighting in your salad and

add delicious sweetness, too. Throw in some dried cranberries, raisins, or

dried cherries. Fresh fruit provides pleasure for your mouth and medicine

for your immune system. The brighter the color, the stronger the health

benefits. Fresh blueberries, strawberries, apples, or pears turn boring into

badda-bing!
(That’s slang for “Yeah, baby!”) You get extra health points if

you have every color of the rainbow in that bowl. (Color-blind folks, please

ask for help.)

Subtract:
Now about that bottled ranch. Out of the twenty or so ingredients

in most bottled ranch dressings, I could only find two that I wouldn’t wince

at: dried garlic and water. The rest of the ingredients came

from dairy sources, food thickeners, and chemical flavor

With a little tweaking,

enhancers.

your salad can become

Add:
Little-known fact: Salad dressings don’t have to come

the most powerful

from a bottle. Here’s where you can be creative! Mix your

cancer-fighting meal

own dressings using plant-based ingredients like extra-virgin

of the day!

olive oil, lemon, lime or apple juice, fresh garlic, chopped

fresh herbs, sea salt, or whipped avocado. Fresh salsa makes a great salad

dressing, too! Try the blueberry dressing recipe found in Health Tip #20.

Mix up some extra to have on hand for tomorrow’s salad.

Build a better salad and your salad will build a better you!

Perk #41

Cancer Shook Up My

New Year’s Resolutions

B
efore getting cancer, my New Year’s resolutions were pretty much

predictable:

A. Exercise more/get in shape

B. Eat healthier

C. Drink less

D. All of the above

Boooorrrring! Even though I don’t actu-

ally smoke, sometimes I would add “quit

smoking” to my list, just because I’m pretty

sure that is one resolution I can really stick

to. Come February, when all of the other

ideals have fallen to the wayside, and my

friends are moaning about breaking their

New Year’s resolutions, at least I can hold

my head high and say, “I haven’t had a

smoke so far this year!”

In 2012, for the first time in my life, I

was starting a new year with cancer. The

perk was, after twenty or more years of bro-

ken resolutions, I knew that THIS was the

year I would honor them. Here was my list: A. Stay alive (which encom-

passes all of the old resolutions regarding eating, drinking, and exercising).

That was pretty much all I was going to commit to that year. How could

I be sure that I would really do it? Well, just imagine that your resolution

is to be able to run a mile. But it is hard to train for that because, you know,

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you get your period, your knees hurt, it rains, and so on, rendering it impos-

sible to stick to your goal. Then one day, you are walking in the woods and

suddenly a bear pops up behind you. Voila! The adrenaline kicks in and

you run a mile back to your car. Well, cancer is that bear, and I was running

for my life, so I was pretty sure that was all the motivation I needed. But

just in case the healthy living thing didn’t pan out that year however, I

added:

B. Quit smoking

I am very happy to report that the healthy living thing did pan out, and

I no longer have to fake quitting smoking.

Cancer is a great wake-up call. Even if you are like

me and have been living a “healthy-ish” lifestyle,

there is always room for improvement.

HEALTH TIP #41

Three Quick and Easy Resolutions to

Shake Up Your Life

W
e all want fast and easy, right? Well it doesn’t get any easier than this.