A Change of Pace

With the thrill of Covid-19, lots of things have changed while some remain the same... (Now, I have The Song Remains the Same going through my head!)

Today, two days earlier than expected, I received my recent order from Amazon: a case of Bai Puna Coconut Pineapple, Organic Chia Seeds, and Organic Stevia Powder. While I have consumed both the Bai Puna and the chia seeds, this will be my first attempt to use stevia powder. Sure, I hve consumed several things with stevia as a sweetener all ready included on the list or ingredients. The difference is that I don't add sugar/sweetener to anything. For instance, the tea I drink is always unsweetened.
One of the things that I like to drink, though, is Kevita's Lemon Cayenne water kefir. That uses stevia as the sweetener and it delivers only 5 calories per 8 oz. serving. I really like the limit in sugars, the taste, and the probitic effect that the kefir provides. I don't really like the price that one bottle costs, though. The best price that I can find it for is about $3. Not really expensive, but...

So, here's my plan! I'll brew some tea - either green tea or Bigelow's Lemon Ginger tea - and add some lemon juice, cayenne, and the stevia powder. I'll be lacking the benefit of the kefir but I'll gain the benefit of the lemon/cayenne. Bigelow's Lemon Ginger IS marketed as probiotic. It includes the ingredient of Ganeden BC30 probiotic (follow the link to learn more about that).
The RIGHT thing for me to do would be to squeeze my own lemons (and use grade B maple syrup) for the Master Cleanse, but that's not my current goal. I simply want to add the benefits of the lemon/cayenne beverage to my consumption without the price.
For dinner tonight, I'll be consuming about 5g of net carbs for the whole meal... chicken, cauliflower, cheese, and lemon ginger tea with the said added ingredients.

I definitely plan on increasing my lemon/cayenne tea over the next, couple of days. So, we'll see how well the added stevia powder works for me - I may just not like it...

What Is This All About?

Wow - a LOT ha occurred since my last trip on my journey... On January 29, 2018, I experienced brain surgery on what turned out to be a TUMOR IN MY BRAIN!

While the long-time-ago-diagnosis of Multiple Sclerosis has not been ruled out, what was diagnosed as a MS lesion in my brain was changed to a LOW GRADE GLIOMA tumor! It's kind of amazing what a relatively-new-to-me neurologist will discover after 10 years - and rather upsetting that three other neurologists will just stay with the original diagnosis AND try to prescribe a different MS drug. Although I am still trying to find a local primary care physician, all of my other doctors are located at the Yale-New Haven Hospital - not too far from home, but not too local, either.

So, why am I actually writing this - or, as the title says, what is this all about? Mainly, my focus that I want to share is what I have been trying to do that would only help the matters of my health.

A not-so-long time ago in a galaxy - well, this one... I have found something that is supposedly beneficially to healing cancer. Pau d'arco tea is that thing! Check out this link for the information that is already spelled out - no need for me to copy it here. I've started using the tea daily - 2-3 servings each day. It's how I start my day every day. Recently - well, today before writing this post - I made a 64 oz. bottle of tea to refrigerate. This was actuality a mix of 3 different teas... I used the pau d'arco, added Bigelow's Lemon Ginger tea that gives me the benefit of probiotics, and some green tea that is just all-around beneficial in so many ways.

Another step on my journey is to stick to a low/no carb diet. Sugar is a cancer fertilizer! There are so many recommendations out there that say low/no carb is the way to go. This isn't new to me, but certainly a diet that I haven't done in a while. I had great success with it in the past and actually like where it can take me again - in addition to what it can/might do for me in the tumor situation. Both the positive and negative of the low/no carb diet is the tie to the Atkin's diet. Almost all Atikn's products are poisoned by sucralose - something that I WILL NOT CONSUME IN ANY WAY, SHAPE, OR FORM. It's not like I can't eat what I want to, though. There are plenty of better options than Atkin's products.

What's coming up for me is my journey through chemotherapy. In this case, I'm looking forward (sarcasm, intended) to the course of PCV chemotherapy. From what I've read, it could be a lot worse. This particular series involves 29 days of my life with a 'time-off' of 6-8 weeks between each session. During 2 weeks of that 29 days, my diet will be restricted due to the drug that is used during that time. I won't be able to eat most cheeses, anything fermented, and a number of other things that contain tyramine.
On the positive side is the fact that the doctors do not recommend any radiation treatment!

So, that's where my journey is currently. We'll see how things progress...