I think all the time about how I'm treating my body. Just yesterday, while making a tuna sandwich I wondered if I was using too much light mayonnaise. I considered the fact that tuna contains mercury, that I should monitor how much of this product I consume. How much is too much anyway?
I worried that my tuna was slathered on white bakery bread, a true diet no-no, and I found solace in only two items -- my hand-picked strawberries and the water I poured in my cup.
Wait, the strawberries were pretty plump, ripe, red, and juicy -- an indication they were possibly pumped full of hormones and sprayed with pesticides before I washed and gulped them down.
How did I do overall at lunch? I think maybe not so good. I did run 2.5 miles and completed 20 push-ups, a bunch of sit-ups, and few core exercises. Maybe I come out balanced in the end. Maybe not.
I think about this sort of stuff every day because of cancer. I've already had it -- and I don't want it again. So I try to eat right. I exercise. I don't smoke. I don't drink alcohol. But here's my dilemma: I did all this before my cancer diagnosis (with the exception of an occasional drink), and the disease still lived in my body -- maybe for many years before I knew it was there. What should I do differently now when I didn't do all that bad before?
Shall I exercise all day long? Eat only the most pure and untainted of foods? Somehow that doesn't seem much like living. So I suppose I'll keep on doing what I do every day -- living in moderation -- with hopes that I've had my one and only brush with cancer and that the bout I had was caused by something other than how I treat my body.
1. You didn't mention how long ago you had cancer. Live your life as well as you can, but don't obsess. The guilt is what kills us when we think we could have done better. I have a glass of red wine a few times a week, try to eat a mediterranean diet, but fail at lots of other things, like exercising for long periods at a time. Have fun, pray a lot, and be thankful for each day you're well. It gets better after about 5 or 6 years. Good luck.
Posted at 8:50PM on Apr 14th 2007 by shirley