Mary’s Survivor Strategy

Happy Holidays to you all!!  Today I bring you a guest post that I know you will like.  You may have noticed that, as of my last post, I have created a category to the left to give readers easy access to the concrete strategies that I have used to reclaim my joy.  I very much desire for this blog to give us all an open, safe forum to share emotional struggles/ traumatic events and ways that we’ve dealt with them.  As a result, I have asked my friend, Mary, to be a guest poster.  Mary is an inspiration for me in really making improvements in the way I eat and fighting cancer with healthy foods.  I have made progress in this area, but have a long way to go.  Mary’s encouragement and willingness to share with me has been such a blessing.  So, today I’m sharing this blessing with you as Mary writes about her most recent experience.  Enjoy!

“I recently attended a health retreat to become a patient of Dr. Nasha Winters, a Naturopath with Namaste Health Center located in Durango, Colorado. It was totally amazing to be in the company of people living the life that I have been striving to achieve for the last 15 months after experiencing my first recurrence of ovarian cancer only 7 months out from initial first line treatment. They have started doing week-end retreats at various locations across the country, which made it easier for me to attend in Burnsville, NC!

We have all heard that sugar is bad if you have cancer, but really that is just a part of the big picture. Dr. Winters is careful to point out that she is not trying to cure cancer, but to build up your body terrain to such a level to fight off disease in general naturally. She is a twenty-two year survivor of ovarian cancer and has over 4000 hours studying nutrition. The big take aways from the week-end are as follows:

–        Limit sugar to 15-25 grams per day total

–        Limit fruit, natural sugar

–        All carbs turn to sugar; bread, chips, legumes, etc.

–        No gluten, wheat or grains

–        No potatoes, rice, pasta

–        Drink ½ of your body weight in ounces of water daily

–        Eat 9 cups of veggies per day

–        Use coconut oil, milk & flour

–        Eat organic veggies and grass-fed hormone free protein

–        Get extra vitamin D3, especially in the winter

–        Remove any stresses in your life, to the point of removing yourself from the situation

–        Exercise, especially yoga and relaxation therapies

–        No more mammograms-do thermography instead

There was plenty more, trust me it was overwhelming! But we sat in hard chairs for hours at a time totally engrossed in the information being presented. Everyone there was in some stage of a cancer diagnosis and prepared to make changes to improve our chances of beating this disease.Before arriving at the retreat we all submitted a health & personal history plus 15 different blood tests. She focuses on treating the entire body through mind, body and spirit.Nasha will then provide a treatment plan specific to your needs, including diet and supplements to improve your overall terrain. She does stress that eventually your food should be all of the supplements you need. She also will work closely with your oncologist to combine traditional as well as alternative medicines and will help prepare your body for any upcoming procedures.

They basically follow a paleo style diet and you can google any recipe and add “paleo” and a recipe will pop up. Also “paleonewbie.com” is another good resource. They prepared all of our meals on site and they were delicious, and we had dessert every night! Although they did stress that dessert is for special occasions. This lifestyle requires cleaning out your pantry and restocking with some new supplies but I have been amazed that I am accumulating the ingredients required for more and more recipes. Thankfully my husband is on board and we have had fun trying new recipes. We laugh that the recipes are similar to our usual fair but just “a little off”. I’m working out the kinks, frankly some are better than others.

Whether or not this is the cure for living with cancer only time will tell. This is one phase of my journey that I am embracing totally and I feel fantastic! I can tell you that I have had chronic pain in my right shoulder& hip for over a year and it is practically gone and I do attribute that to eating this way for only two weeks! Sugar and gluten cause inflammation in your body and I am convinced that everyone, not just cancer patients, should try this lifestyle. Also, go to IntuitiveTerrain.com for more information on Namaste Health Center and other great resources.

As the retreat came to an end, I noticed that no one wanted to leave this bubble full of hope and inspiration and the thought that we could actually have some control over our health. In our world  that is huge! But come to an end it did and we all left feeling more empowered and excited to get started with our new lifestyle changes.  Namaste! (The spirit within me acknowledges the spirit within you!)

Mary and Charlie at the Lydia’s Legacy Teal Tea Party

• Posted in: Patsy's strategies for joy ♦ Uncategorized