Let’s Start at the Very Beginning…

Disclaimer: The beginning of this post is a bit of a downer, but you have to know where someone is coming from to understand where they’re going. Most of my content will be much more upbeat and positive so check back. On a lighter note, you will now have that song stuck in your head for the rest of the day muahaha (maniacal laughter).

They say that a journey starts with a single step. I put my first foot forward ten years ago today. After a three year battle, my mom and I lost my dad to cancer. It’s one of those days that changes you. I was only 22 years old and set to graduate from college in two months. Even though he had been sick for a while, he passed pretty quickly which is a blessing but also rattling. Going through the stages of grief was unlike anything I had ever experienced. The roller coaster of emotion is no joke: sadness, shock, anger, relief, more sadness, numbness, really angry, even more sadness. There were moments that I cried until I literally had no tears left. My professors advised me to take the rest of the semester off and graduate that summer. I knew that’s not what my dad would’ve wanted, so I pushed through and was grateful to have the distraction.

Day by day the tears fell less and less, but a seed of anger had been planted. Why did this happen to me? Why isn’t there a cure? Why did the treatment fail? Where does all of the donated fund money go? How can I keep this from happening to me? I became bitter towards the entire medical community as well as the cancer research associations. I felt duped and skeptical. I wanted an answer that didn’t exist so I did the only thing I knew to do. I solicited Google. I poured myself into researching where cancer comes from and natural ways to prevent it. While genetics (and luck) are certainly at play, environmental and lifestyle aspects were mentioned over and over as well. I decided that I can’t control my biological makeup, but I can control how I treat my body. I started paying attention to what was in my food and cutting back on heavily processed options. The next step was looking at household and beauty products and attempting to avoid unnecessary toxins there.

Fast forward to now and my resentment has subsided, but my journey continues. After going through breast cancer with my mom (she’s in remission now) and having a breast biopsy recently myself (luckily benign), I decided it’s time to share my “knowledge” with others. Expert, I am not, but I have a passion for this lifestyle and love sharing it in a non-judgmental or pushy way. I believe that modern medicine is a wonderful blessing, but can definitely be used in conjunction with proper nutrition and self-care. I’m learning new things constantly and would love to hear about your discovery and what brings health, happiness and fulfillment to your day to day.

This blog is dedicated to my family. To my dad for being the driving force, my mom for being my editor and number one fan, my husband for supporting his wife’s sometimes odd antics, and my daughter for making me want to be the best person I can.

(top photo by NY Post)