The Holidays Approach

Job 22:21 “Acquaint now thyself with him, and be at peace: thereby good shall come unto thee.”

The Holidays Approach

I can hear the kitchen utensils clanging, I can envision the family get-togethers, I can almost inhale the food cooking in the ovens across America as we hurriedly prepare the holiday feast for the family. Yes, many prepare a week in advance!

As much as we’re a nation addicted to Big Pharma drugs we’re also an overweight nation addicted to food. As the holiday nears, this is the season where people overeat without guilt. They stuff their faces in the name of ‘it was there’ and as Christmas strolls around the twenty added pounds are already seen in the tighter belt and jeans. The guilt won’t be felt until January first when people make a haphazardly New Year resolution to lose all that was gained setting themselves up for a letdown when they fail.

I am one week away from my eleven-month mark. It’s the time of the month I mark another successful notch in my belt and sticking to my protocol that changed the shape, literally, of my future. The holidays will be more challenging than all eleven months together have been. It will be where his mom pushes ham balls and fudge brownies in his face for his upcoming birthday, and where the family gets together to celebrate the Christmas day meal. 

Since they put a halt to exchanging gifts, that is all Christmas day is anymore, a day of food and family gathering. It’s not like we haven’t spent MANY occasions with the family this year (funeral, wedding, visits) So, the only reason I see celebrating Christmas this year is that I’m alive! And I am ever so grateful for having been allowed these eleven months to change me! I have a lifetime of gratitude, to confine my gratefulness to thirty-days seems menial to me after finding I have a disease that would’ve shattered many.

Please don’t rag on me how December 25th is Jesus’ birthday and a just cause to celebrate the day. Christmas is a pagan holiday set in stone by man. Factually, Jesus’ birthday has been somewhat proven that it didn’t take place in December and hence the reason I don’t celebrate Christmas as Jesus’ birthday. It’s a day not much unlike Thanksgiving, a day of family, food, and gratitude. To each his own. 

While I see my husband trying to change also with his toxic soda consumption, and him wanting to take his own vitamin supplements, we as a family here are embracing change; that is until the family get-together. My hubby will be weak against the wiles of his family as they intimidate him with delicious food. I can’t expect him to be as strong as I am and seriously, I don’t think there are many people who could hold out on sugar consumption (among other things) for eleven months. I’ve been quite impressed with my willpower this year. Where was I hiding all of these years?

I will need all of my armor to face these next thirty-five days and beyond. Instead of stressing over the visit with family, I’m preparing what meal I will take with me on Christmas day like a mega salad with all the fixins and I’m sure the hosts will understand that I had to bring my own dish if they want us there. I’m also preparing what I’ll make for the carnivores of my family and for me on Thanksgiving! I’ll have a rainbow of vegetables and they’ll have meat and potatoes, easy peasy.

I might even try to attempt a modified pumpkin pie with coconut milk and stevia. My only cheat of the year just might be the flour crust. I won’t have the added cool-whip but there is no reason the guys can’t, that’s if they even attempt to eat a modified pie.

Another challenge I’ll face is having a stress free holiday. I sometimes let the smallest of things bother me but this year I am selfishly focusing on ME and my continued healing, in this scenario there is no room for stress. As the month unfolds there seems to be a lot of stress-less events taking place already; it’s as if God knows me so well he’s already set in place the good things that need to happen to keep me stress-free. I’ll elaborate at a later date but for now…I’m off to have me a screen less stress-free day! 

God bless one and all! 

Pss. 4:8 “I will both lay me down in peace, and sleep: for thou, LORD, only makest me dwell in safety.”

The Challenge

Pss.46:1 “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.”

The Challenge

When I was first diagnosed back in January, the first couple of days were filled with tears, sifting through junk, tossing unnecessary things out, feeling sorry for myself and accepting my impending demise. There’s nothing like a wake-up call when facing our own mortality.

I knew what the diagnosis was going to call for and pardon the pun but I was dead set against chemotherapy. My gut instinct told me that this was not my route, I had an even more challenging route to take.

The question was, am I up for the challenge? I had questions and needed to sort through the tangled mess. I needed to pray, meditate and trust. Trust all that God was going to tell me and be strong with whatever He told me. This is where discernment comes into play. Knowing what is from God and what is not!

I said to myself, if the oncologist is willing to work with me, I’ll go the chemo route. I have no idea about these matters or doctors in general so I seriously had no idea what I was thinking. I’ll say brain fog but the confusion was more than that, it was the stigma surrounding the diagnosis, inevitable doom.

The first oncologist flat out would not work with me or tell me anything I could do to help the chemo not have such extremely bad side effects. So I basically had my answer. Then I chose a second oncologists opinion just to be sure my alternative route was not something made up in my mind and that this is really the route God had planned for me. 

I prayed flat out, if this is the route to be set before me, let this oncologist be the one who will work with me. Again, the doctor threw his arms up and declared a stance of no there is no alternative, chemo can give you ten years of life. SAY WHAT? Ten years? Suppose I want twenty? Well, he assured me chemo could not guarantee me that far of a lifespan. From my research, I found that most assuredly the Big C would invade my body again somewhere else or some other illness would attack and take me out. Yes, dire prognosis to say the least.

I knew when I was first diagnosed the treatment *I* wanted to take and that was the health treatment. The oncologists cemented my decision. I wanted a treatment that will keep me feeling good every waking day until a doctor comes along and says, the disease has invaded your entire body and we can do nothing for you. I don’t see that happening because health over drugs is the way I NEED to go. God told me quite bluntly that it would be the challenge of my lifetime. 

My husband said something the other night, he asked, “Do you think more people choose chemo because it’s just easier than changing their diet?” I had to say, “It might be that and the fear and that they’re not offered any other option.” People, even at stage one are given a dire prognosis. They’re told that chemo is the only way to go, mainly because they [the doctors] themselves are NOT informed of any other way to go. They’re taught to push chemo and that is what they do to keep food on their plate and money in their pockets. 

I in no way think chemo is the ‘easier’ route. I think that is one of the most difficult things to do in your life, basically give yourself over to the medical profession, trust them, and they use you as a lab rat and with fingers crossed, hope you’re their success story. And we all know what happens when you’re not their success story right? You become a statistic. 

I think changing my diet is my only way out since I don’t see any other option. I told God I was up for the challenge and that is when He said, “I GOT THIS!” All the way, not a portion of the way down the road he’ll drop me like a potato sack on the side of the road and leave me for dead. Nope, we’re in this together, ALL THE WAY! 

My first step? See what other survivors who chose the alternative route have done! That is when I fell into the Chris Beat Cancer modules, for FREE mind you, right when I needed them! Also, that is when The Truth About Cancer modules fell into my lap, again, for FREE!!! Coincidence? I do not believe in coincidence! There is no such thing! 

Guide to clean and dirty fruits and veggies -  A great link with many more than the dirty dozen fruits and veggies. I've learned a lot in these past three months.

Here are some healthy recipes - An excellent link to eating healthy!  

After that my research was being dropped in my lap daily, I didn’t have to dig through articles and recipes, I rarely hit google search for anything because everything was either finding me or I fell upon it like finding a diamond in the coal mines. I don’t believe in luck either so what could this path be guiding me to or whom is the guide? GOD! Plain and simple, GOD! 

Everything happened in His time and in His way from the diagnosis to the healing, so I know it is He that is leading me down this path. Why? Because I need to show the unsuspecting, unknowing victims that there IS another choice! Don't let fear run your healing race. Take CONTROL of your destiny and stand firmly with God.

I’ve come across people who’ve said, “I live a vegan lifestyle and was still diagnosed!” 
I’m going to tell you all, it is NOT just about eating healthy! It is about balance, eating the right kind of meats sparingly, balancing the what and whens of eating.
It’s about healing past pains!
It’s about DETOXING your organs, because if you’re fighting this illness, then your organs are damaged and need mending.
It’s about finding the right vitamins, nutrients, herbs, fruits and vegetables and allow them to work WITH you. 
It’s about looking at the labels on foods and STOP eating processed food!
Stop feeding the disease and it will stop killing you.
It’s about being one with God and giving Him full control and trusting Him. A lot of people falter on this one for fear of giving up control of their illness. I hate to burst your bubble but God has been in control since conception!

 The Body Proves a Creator

No doctor will EVER tell you that nutrition will help you, you need a nutritionist for that and if you’re on a tight budget, you’re on your own, because nutritionists are far and few between.

Here’s a reasonable supplement store but again, read the labels, you want the purest possible:
I find my soaps and deodorants here also as well as Frankincense, Myrrh, Epsom Salt and Magnesium oil.

Pss. 45:8 “All thy garments smell of myrrh, and aloes, and cassia, out of the ivory palaces, whereby they have made thee glad.”

Here are some more added links you might find useful even if you’re not fighting the BigC. Changing your diet will help many illnesses including high blood pressure, heart disease, type2Diabetes and more!

The Health Benefits of Onions

My eight wonders of the world; yes all are a part of my daily new lifestyle

Is this path my easy way out? I think you’ll agree, it is a challenging route, to say the least, and no weaker person could be up to the challenge. Like fighting any illness, it is a challenge every day and one we must all take, on our own, if we are ever to live a normal, vibrant, pain-free life again.

1 Cor. 9:24 "Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain."

Embracing My New Life

Prov. 16:24 “Pleasant words are as an honeycomb, sweet to the soul, and health to the bones.”

Embracing My New Life

First, let me just say that I have some of the most amazing friends! When I’m in a venting mood they sense me knowing me so well and knowing I’m doing my best and being so strong in this illness, they surround me to lift me up and give me strength! THAT’s what friends are for! Thank you! You’re precious to me!

I think I touched a nerve in my post about what I eat and how I miss food. Don’t misunderstand me. I never really ate that much food before my illness and I’ve always really deep down wanted to eat this way but when you have a kid and a hubby who likes unhealthy food, I comply. I think I’m the kind of person that always takes care of everyone else before I take care of myself. As you can see, that is not always the best line of defense.

With this illness, I’ve found friends who already eat this veggie way, or are willing to change their diet to make themselves more healthy. If one person changes the way they look at food and all its ingredients after reading my post, then praise be to God! 

You see, as much as I want this new lifestyle to be about me, this diagnosis has hit my husband and son pretty hard. My son, who is twenty-one fears losing his mother and my husband, who lost his dad to lung cancer, lost a young cousin (thirty-three) to colon cancer and has an aunt in hospice now with cancer, doesn’t know what to make of me and this decision to go alternative. 

Do you see? All of these losses and all chose chemo. The doctors never gave them alternatives or even suggested current clinical studies, they threw them into the chemo chair and now they are deceased. I am not saying chemo didn’t help YOU if you are a current survivor, I’m saying chemo didn’t help members of MY family, too many to list, and I want to see if an alternative treatment works, for my husband, for my son, nieces or nephews. I NEED to see if there are alternative routes. I’m willing to do this instead of becoming another statistic in the family.

I’m trying to be strong for hubby, son and my family and they’re trying to be strong for me. But I hope you realize the thing about me again is, I always think of others before I think of myself. When I post about my food shopping excursions, it's really about me hurting to see hubby digging and digging looking for one thing that isn’t there for me. He is trying so hard and this is his way of dealing with what I’m going through.

My husband is the non-communicative type. He’s so much like my father it is eerie at times. When I ask him if he’s okay with me doing the alternative treatment he says, yeah, and goes on with his day. I thank God every day for giving me more than five senses because I can sense what hubby’s thinking and feeling and I sense that he’s afraid, afraid of losing me.

I know my husband doesn’t have the strong faith and devotion to God that I have but then again, not many people do. I don’t think myself a diamond, many people can find a diamond or pearl, I think myself a rarer gem like the elusive Black Opal. I don’t say that from an ego standpoint, I say it from an observational standpoint. I also think my friends would agree, I’m a rare gem among the crowd. Let me just note, I have many friends who are rare gems also! We are a rare breed slowly going into extinction but we are out here fighting to stay ALIVE! 

As I pray and meditate day and night to heal myself, I have a family back home that I have released; I had to, to heal. A friend had said to make amends but I have nothing to mend back there, I reached out and only my sister and her daughter have reached out to show support. My mother still does not know of my diagnosis, she is not well and still grieving heavily for her husband of sixty years and my sister and I agree, she’s just not well enough to know.

I need to heal! If I stress over what is back home, I won’t heal. Luckily over the past thirteen years, I’ve written so much that has aided in my emotional healing, I believe it was strengthening me for the here and now.

Since my friends are so supportive and understanding, I now have them seeking out recipe’s for me whether from online or their own. They’re the ones going to get me through this! They’re the ones on this journey WITH me and doing everything within their power to help; monetarily or otherwise THEY are here for me! My friends along with my Lord are my strength!

Alkaline Foods I CAN eat: 

ALKALIZING VEGETABLES (preferably organic) 
Alfalfa
Beets
Broccoli
Cabbage
Carrot
Cauliflower
Celery
Chard Greens
Chlorella
Collard Greens
Cucumber
Eggplant
Fermented Veggies
Garlic
Green Beans
Green Peas
Kale
Lettuce
Mushrooms
Mustard Greens
Nightshade Veggies
Onions
Parsnips (high glycemic)
Peas
Peppers
Pumpkin
Radishes
Sea Veggies (not a fan of kelp, but hey, I’d give it a try)
Spinach, green
Sprouts
Sweet Potatoes
Tomatoes
Watercress
Wheat Grass
Wild Greens

So you can see, there is a lot I CAN eat! My list of no eats is on the list of Acidifying side of the list. I cannot have acidifying elements! The cancer cells love toxins and acid is the home of toxins. Recipes with the above ingredients will be greatly appreciated and may even wind up in the book I’m writing, with your permission of course. 

My friends, we can do this! With your support and encouragement, I KNOW I can do this! Onward Christian Soldiers…let’s go to battle! 

God bless each and every one of you! 

My Realization

Some see an electric pole, I see a cross

2 Sam. 22:40 “For thou hast girded me with strength to battle: them that rose up against me hast thou subdued under me.”

The Realization

Well, I think I’ve discovered the reason for my ‘grumbles’ as some call it. It’s the realization that this is my new life and it isn’t going anywhere soon. Let me ask you, when you walk into a food store what’s the first thing you see? Food, right?  Now look at the food, all of it and think, I can’t have any. That is my new life. This is the source of my grumbles.

My new life consists of expensive foods that I probably shouldn’t even be eating. I’m cautious with every bite and every single purchase and hubby is always on the lookout for something I ‘might’ be able to eat. If it’s a fruit or vegetable, yippee, that’s me, but I’m human, I don’t like every fruit and vegetable on the market. But I'm willing to try those once disliked veggies.

I can’t eat processed food so the majority of boxed, canned and frozen foods are out of the question. The brown eggs hubby buys me are four dollars a dozen (sometimes on sale) and I go through a dozen a week. I go through two bags of seven-dollars-a bag of grapes a week, and strawberries I eat a lot of whether in season or out of season.

This is my reality. This is the realization that if I want to live, I cannot visit a fast food restaurant ever again. I can’t go to the new Dunkin Donuts that just opened up. Visiting a movie house would be as torturous as going food shopping, the aroma alone will eat me alive. Not that we visited any of these places often, but we had a choice. Now, my only choice is live or die. I look at every item on the shelf and painstakingly have to look at the ingredients. No soy, no wheat, that just about leaves me meat and dairy which is not allowed either, so yeah, that leaves cruciferous veggies, fruit (not all), and berries.

If you’re on a diet, you have a choice. You can cheat, you can go off your diet at any time, and honestly, you can look forward to your diet ending and going back to eating all the food you want. I myself, don’t have that choice. Again, my only choice in the matter is live or die! If I cheat, I am cheating myself of life and my willpower is too strong for that. I choose life, plain and simple.

I am not complaining, I am not grumbling, I’m letting you in on the realization that THIS is my new way of life. I do have a choice, I could live or I could die, quite simple choice, no? I choose life. Why grumble, why whine? Because the realization hits you in the face, that THIS is your new way of life! Let’s say you’re driving down the road and a Mack truck is heading straight for you, in that instant, you swerve to miss the head on collision. You chose to live, you chose to live with the realization of what plummeting into the ditch will cause.

I’m out here in the middle of nowhere building my strength. I go to the food store to see just how strong I am and I’m getting better! The first time I went food shopping, I left bawling my eyes out, the second and third time were a little better, but last time we left the food store we had to stop and get gas. Tears overflowed my eyes in silence. The pictures on the outside of the gas station were images of donuts. We sat next to a Buffalo Wild Wings, another new business I never had the chance to try. 

Surrounding me was a Burger King, an Applebee's restaurant where we had our wedding day meal, and then there was Wendy’s where I had my last meal from the outside world. The images and memories just poured in and my eyes reacted, my heart hurt and I cried. This is all a part of my healing too as I see how strong I am each day and just how much this little lady can take. 

Then there were the people hurrying out of the surrounding places with either a drink or food in their hand or lighting a cigarette. There were big people and little people, short people and tall people all with the same choice as me, to live or die, and my crazy mind is thinking that they are choosing a slow death over life. I can sit here and say it’s their life and I don’t care what they do but in all honesty, I DO care. I care very much whether people live or die. I can’t change their choices but I can hear their voices, and not one of them are saying, I WANT TO LIVE! 

You can say that this is me judging people but I say it is me observing people. I do care whether people live or die but it is not my CHOICE on what they choose in life. I, a little late in life, choose to live and this is the realization of my new way of living. 

2 Sam. 22:33  “God is my strength and power: and he maketh my way perfect.” 

Where Do The Funds Go?

Ecc.3:3 “A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;”

Where Do The Funds Go

I’m sure you’re wondering, why donate? Well, let me tell you. Any money you send me is going directly to food that I can’t afford on an income of Social Security. I myself cannot get SS disability because the only jobs I’ve ever had were taking care of the elderly, cleaning houses for meager pennies, so I have zero put into SS so I can receive nothing! Hubby is disabled and yes, he's worked all of his life to be able to receive the meager S.S. payment and few hours a week allowed by our lovely government. So where does that leave penniless cancer patients? In the cold, that's where!

Here’s the thing, when I was younger I gave my life over to God. I didn’t go halfway in I went all in. I always walked differently than any fellow walkers of God that I knew. When He says own nothing, I basically took that literal and to this day I own NOTHING. I always said that God will provide and sustain me and at times it has been hard driving that into people but God has NEVER let me down. God has and will continue to provide for me even now, whether you donate or not. 

Just like now, I have no money to beat cancer. I don’t have a savings account, fancy cars, I don’t own a home, we rent this little house out here on a rundown Turkey Ranch. Am I ashamed or embarrassed? Not at all, this was provided by God so why would I be ashamed? I wrote about it a few years ago. 

I totally get that people work hard all of their life for nice fancy stuff, big fancy house, top of the line vehicles, all the best of clothing, but that is who you are not who I am. I own nothing but own everything, to me. I have a roof over my head, I have all I need and have never lived to own all the things that I might someday WANT. I’m content on living, NOW!

So why beg for money if God can provide everything for me? Sometimes God uses people and their illness to bring out the true colors in people. We’re living in times where we don’t have time to hoard all of our riches and stow away our valuables, they ARE NOT GOING WITH YOU. Point blank, your materials will be dust in the earth.

When you see a homeless man on the corner and you drop him a dollar, that is a million bucks to him! To you, it is chump change but to him it is sustenance. That’s why I’m out here begging for money, so I can add a couple more years to my life to do God’s work. 

I need to be on this no carb, no sugar, no dairy diet for at least two years for it to beat the cancerous cells lurking inside of me. Add to that my dietary supplements and it’s going to be a costly journey. One that I’m taking you on with me and hopefully changing some peoples lives along the way. I’m a pioneer of sorts, showing you the way to adding years to your life. I’m going to take what I’m learning and pass it on to you and it will be a much cheaper solution than all that is offered out there because let's face it, you don’t have the money either.

A fruit and vegetable diet is costly especially if you go organic to keep all of the chemicals out of your system that feeds the cancer cells. When you help me, you’re helping every single person who is changed by what I’m writing. Just like when you hand a homeless person money, that money goes to a proprietor, who pays his employees, who has that job to feed THEIR families. So when you help one, you’re really helping many. Think about that.

Just like me, the vitamins I’m buying are not from the mega stores such as WalMart, or GNC, they’re from a health and nutrition supplement store that just opened and are trying to get their leg up on the market. I realize Nebraska is not the health state of the nation. They’re all about GMO’s, pesticides, processed food and unhealthy eating. Maybe that’s why this is the only supplement store around for forty miles. (a GNC store opened recently and is quite close but I haven’t checked them out yet.) 

Don’t get me wrong, I love Nebraska and the moral compass that I don’t see in other states I've been to, but the moral compass isn’t going to free me of cancer, only healthy eating will do that and healthy eating cost money, money I don’t have. Where do the funds go? To food and supplements! You’re allowing me to live. 

I bought a head of cauliflower, a bag of baby carrots, and a handful of brussel sprouts. I made up SEVEN baggies, and that fed me for SEVEN days! As this journey progresses I’m going to give you my recipes I've found, modified because of money, but still good to eat and filling. All this to add years to my life and possibly yours. You can modify my recipe to suit your taste if you want. 

Right now I’m on: turmeric, selenium, Cureamed (that’s a curcumin supplement), Vit. C (1000 mg powder) Iodine, and my B12 stress tablets. It’s a lot to take and in two months I’ll run out UNLESS I get more help and I’m positive God will provide! I’ll only give out my mailing address if asked. My email address is jonismuse@yahoo.com. I’m here and I am alive with God!

I’m going to put together a book called Beating Cancer on a Budget and in two years when I’ve beat this, I will seek a publisher for it! I have goals, I have a plan but most of all I have a wonderfully AWESOME and most AMAZING God who thought enough of me to tap me on the shoulder and say, “Wake up girl!” And now I’m awake and LIVING! God Bless you all! Thank you for your support. 

Pss. 30:2 “O LORD my God, I cried unto thee, and thou hast healed me.”