WFPBD

Photo by NiQui Chatfield

WFPBD….. What does that mean? It’s an acronym – we see them everywhere nowadays – and we usually have to ask our kids what they mean! Like “WTF” – I know what that acronym means – it’s not nice all spelled out 🙂 This one I know – because I’m on a “WFPBD” – what are you on? As an omnivore we have many choices ( “Omnivore’s Dilemma” by Michael Pollan )  – it’s all about diet and I’m on a Whole Food Plant Based Diet or “WFPBD”. Sound complicated? Not really, it’s just fruits, vegetables, grains, nuts, and seeds – you know, plants. Or as some people put it – I don’t eat anything that comes from an animal – meat, dairy, eggs. Is it really healthy to be on a WFPBD? Well, when faced with the diagnosis of stage 3 cancer and possible death – you get pretty serious about living. And the biggest factor as a mammal is fuel – diet, nutrition. What am I putting in and what am I getting out. It’s all about control when faced with life threatening diagnosis. A human needs food, water, sleep, air, sunshine, shelter, and love to live. My cancer has been cut out and so far no trace. So, why was it there and how can I keep it from returning? Healthy living and fuel my body with the best possible diet. I can control what goes in, and I do. Many of you are already questioning if I am getting enough protein – well, as someone who gets blood work done every month, I can assure you my protein levels are perfect every time! I feel that I have rescued myself from future disease.

Recipes are Like IKEA Instructions

Photo by NiQui Chatfield

Recipes are Like IKEA Instructions

Photo by NiQui Chatfield

A recipe is nothing more than a jumble of ideas on what to do with specific measurements of ingredients resulting in some facsimile of the title: Sugar Cookies. How many times have you tried a recipe and failed? I can tell you I have done this hundreds of times and I owned a bakery!!

Logistics are everything and kitchen smarts are grossly underrated when it comes to food preparation. I was a passenger in my parents car for 16 years – when I was 17 I totaled their car. Observing the act of driving did not teach me to a) drive b) navigate c) pump gas or most importantly d) react with wisdom when something went wrong. A person had to intentionally instruct me and impart their knowledge on all the instructions I had observed thousands of times. And then, I had to take that knowledge and begin storing up references by driving myself – making mistakes, correcting myself – practical knowledge.

And so it is with cooking and baking – or generally food preparation. Once in a camp kitchen my mother, the head cook, gave a helper in the kitchen a box mix of gingerbread cake. Mom did not provide any know how and assumed the helper would produce excellent gingerbread with the directions on the mix. When dessert time came, the cake was sliced to reveal perfectly intact yellow egg yolks throughout, giving the cake a yellow polkadot appearance. There are so many observations to be made from this story – rather than writing it out – I encourage your imagination to run wild. The point is preparing food is not a born in skill, it is not even a required skill, and finally it is not always a desired skill. If you are someone who wants to venture into the kitchen – arm yourself with knowledge, personal instruction and then reach for the recipe.

 

Hunger is the Best Sauce

Photo by NiQui Chatfield

Photo by NiQui Chatfield

Photo by NiQui Chatfield

Hunger is the Best Sauce

Walking through the woods the other day I spied ripening raspberries – ooooh, black raspberries at that, a rare find. My mind tried to recall the last time I had eaten, it is a foggy place indeed. I have even caught my children saying, mom, when did you eat last? To say I am pre-occupied would be an understatement. I seized the moment, plucked the black raspberries and gobbled them up as only you can in the summer heat.

Now to a chillier venue – but all the same – SEASONAL! Cherries are on sale in every grocery store in Ohio. My kids know that once cherries are in season, we are devouring them for $1.50 a pound – and when they go back up to $3.99 a pound, we are done. Eating food in season is the best time to eat it. I can actually recall the term “hot-house” tomatoes – it was a dirty phrase in our house – how dare they, try to grow tomatoes in a hot-house!! My childhood was joyfully lined with a lush garden at grandmas farm. We picked, we ate, and when we were full, we canned, jammed, and froze.

If you don’t grow your own, find a local farmers market for supplies. Each week will bring a new bounty. Strawberries will come in one week and cucumbers the next. Eating in season produce is the best and most cost effective way to eat. Eating out of season produce is quite spoiled you know. Do what you must. Take advantage of the harvest coming in – eat all you can and preserve the rest! You say – how can I eat that many zucchini?? Well, when you wake and don’t eat until well into the afternoon – anything will taste good:

“Hunger and thirst are our best sauce” Reverend Nathaniel Ingelo, 1660

“Saving the Season” Nature’s Bounty is Abundant but Fleeting” by Kevin West is an excellent education to get started preserving what you find! Happy Hunting!

 

The “F” bomb of Self Reliance

The “F” Bomb of Self-Reliance

What does it mean to be “Self Reliant”? In this day of convenience, cars that drive themselves and pre-packaged everything? One of the first steps that anyone can take is to be more Frugal – yes, I have dropped the “F” bomb. Why would you want to be frugal? It probably sounds like a bad word to many people. I believe being frugal is a conscious choice to not be wasteful which leads to self-reliance.

Merriam-Webster Definition of Frugal

When I was growing up we did not have paper towels or paper napkins in the house. We used cloth towels and cloth napkins at the table. I realized it was different when I went to other peoples houses. And still to this day I have trouble using paper towels because I was raised that it was wasteful. This “save a tree” mentality dates me 🙂

I also believe being frugal means efficiency. Efficiency with your time, money and property. Here are a few ways to achieve efficiency or drop the “F” bomb in your own life:

1. Plan Menus, create a concise grocery list for fewer trips to the store
2. Start Composting, less trash, more free fertilizer/soil for your landscaping
3. Cancel Subscriptions/memberships, read free magazines at the library*
4. Hand Wash Dishes, conserve & run the dishwasher less
5. Don’t Buy Coffee, make your own coffee at home*

*From the book “Cold Hard Truth on Men, Women & Money” by Kevin O’Leary

 

You Ate What??

Photo by NiQui Chatfield

YOU ATE WHAT??

What you put in is important…. Everyone can agree. Effort is directly related to success. What you put into your car is important – do you just pour water in the tank? It is cheaper than gas. Or maybe kerosene? NO, you put gasoline in your car every time because that is what the engine requires. What about your dog? Do you feed your dog any old thing you can find? Do you feed your dog food from China? NO, you probably buy the best dog food you can afford and stick with it for your dog’s health. How about you? Do you find the best possible food/fuel for yourself? The highest quality food – or do you just eat any old junk you can find quickly? Do you go for convenience, the drive through, packaged snacks and processed foods? Don’t you think you have more value than your car or your dog? Don’t you want to get the best fuel so you can perform your best? Just like your car or your dog – humans have a true need for a specific diet. At the risk of your boredom, please read the below quick list and see if you even need to read anymore:

In the past 3 years have you:

1. experienced constipation
2. experienced diarrhea
3. been sick for more than 10 days in a year
4. been overweight or underweight
5. received an adverse health diagnosis

If you answered yes to any of these items, you may want to reconsider the fuel you are putting into your body. Casein, which is animal protein, has been linked to many diseases such as heart disease, diabetes and cancer. (Studies found in the books written by T. Colin Campbell, “The China Study” and “Whole”) http://nutritionstudies.org/

http://nutritionstudies.org/provocations-casein-carcinogen-really/

http://nakedfoodmagazine.com/casein-and-cancer/

Do you have high cholesterol? Do you know that cholesterol only exists in animal products (meat, eggs, milk, cheese), doesn’t it make sense to lessen your intake of those products? What could it hurt to try?

I am not here to advocate any certain diet, what I would like to encourage is people thinking before they put something in their mouth. You wouldn’t give your dog a piece of chocolate, because chocolate is poisonous for dogs. You wouldn’t put water in your gas tank – it would ruin your car. So, what are you putting into your body? Is it hurting you? Read your labels – if you can’t recognize the word, pronounce it or understand it – DON’T EAT IT!!

I also believe in moderation – don’t shock your system. Start slowly if you would like to improve your health and nutrition. Here are a few ways to start:

1. Replace some of your snacks during the day with a fruit or vegetable – a whole fruit and/or a whole vegetable from the produce section. (1 ingredient = whole food)
2. Limit your fast food drive throughs in some way – if you are going 5 times a week, reduce it to 1 time per week.
3. Do not drink your calories – pop with high fructose corn syrup is the worst thing you can drink. Drinking juice is not at all the same as eating fruit. Consider that the average woman should only take in 25 grams of sugar a day……

We will return to this subject many times – this is only the beginning. And I will be interested to see people’s comments and progress on this one. As a person with Cancer, I am very tuned into diet, nutrition and basically staying alive however I can.

 

 

Grandma’s Jewelry

Sweet memories sitting on the flecked linoleum floor in my Grandma Bolen’s kitchen – Irene was her name, plump, vivacious, red lipstick encircling a jovial, laughing mouth. Grandma was making homemade pies, and she would give my sister Debbi and I scraps of dough so we could roll them out and make cinnamon & sugar pinwheels to bake and eat. It was about 1970.

A few years later I was sitting on my yellow shag carpeted floor in Lakewood, OH going through a box of Grandma’s jewelry, she didn’t need it anymore…  because she was gone. I turned over each piece remembering her. Losing Grandma at 5 was sad and hard to understand, but the last few times I saw her, Grandma was thin, pale and set up on the couch clothed in a pink bathrobe in the living room. I knew something was wrong and was not getting better. She was so frail and no make up. Irene was 56 and it was ovarian cancer that spread to colon cancer. I don’t know if it’s true, but I believed Grandma hadn’t been to the doctor since her last child was born…. So, at least 15 years.

That’s not going to be me, that’s not going to be me – I’m not going to leave my husband and kids. I WILL be a Grandma, I will live to be 110; all these things I said. But what did I do?

Memories of what Grandma went through faded over the years as I got busy getting married, having kids, starting businesses, and living. The introduction of the big “C” word “Cancer” faded away like a dissipating mist and was almost gone until I received a robotic letter in 2008 from her son, my dad telling me that he had Cancer at the age of 65. He said he was writing because his doctor urged him to notify his closest relatives because it was a hereditary Cancer. My anger over the cold, distant letter clouded my judgment – I was indignant at the way he treated me. I was not able to focus on the reality of what he was telling me. Besides, I was only 41, the letter was shoved away in a huff. People who knew all of us would ask how my father was doing – I honestly said I had no idea – all I had was a computer typed letter on a torn in half sheet of copy paper – presumably so that he could cut and paste the paragraph for my sister’s notification. Doctors orders…. Still anger, never a call, or handwritten letter. The most hurtful part I think was that other people knew more about my own father than I did, he didn’t want to share, commiserate or express his life at all with me.

I had my last child in 2002 – and did not go to the doctor for 11 years. You tend to be like your parents, grandparents even when you don’t want to. Having our own business meant no insurance for us – could have, but so expensive we decided to handle our bills on our own. It was cost effective even through Tim’s back surgeries. I was so proud of myself when I finally got to the OBGYN in January of 2013 and got a clean bill of health. However, my digestive and constipation issues had already started awhile before, lurking. It was a shallow victory at best.

“Take the first step in faith. You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.”

• Martin Luther King Jr.

Since I was young I did not want to waste away and die too soon as my Grandmother did, but I did not take the steps to make sure of it. My health issues started and I took my “do it yourself attitude” and tried to heal myself. So many diets, remedies, changes and then doctor appointments, ER visits, new doctors. Nothing worked to resolve my pain, my issues were looming larger with each passing day. So often I find myself not making that call, not starting that project, not taking that first step-or the difficult step I know I have to fight to make.

Eat, Drink and Be Merry!

“Today while the blossoms still cling to the vine, I’ll taste your strawberries, I’ll drink your sweet wine. A million tomorrows shall all pass away, ‘ere I forget all the joys that are mine, Today!” the song “Today” written by Randy Sparks

Spring brings new life, beauty, warmth and hope. It is all a matter of perspective. Those blossoms are achingly beautiful to me because I have a new inner sense of their fleeting nature and purpose. Their shock of intoxicating fragrance and vibrancy, only to wither away and fall off the vine. “Such is life” my mom would say.

“Eat, drink and be merry” Ecclesiastes 9:7

“For man does not know his time” Ecclesiastes 9:12

Singing the song “Today” at Camp Christian back in the ‘70’s when I was very young always made me cry. I was full of the love and emotions of spending time with my camp friends knowing we would all be missing each other very soon. Getting in touch with real love – the love of a community that is beginning to know the real worth of life. To be in each others lives briefly, to really see each other, to touch, grasp what really matters, forming bonds with others in such a short time, yearning and searching for our purpose together. To begin to imagine living – truly, intentionally being our best, most gratifying children of this place. In this world we are sojourners for a time before we die. What will we do on our adventure here?

Something in my soul way back then would sing that song “Today” feeling that all would pass away, life would end. At Camp Christian we lived up every moment – a lifetime in one week – playing, learning, eating, laughing, and loving. Keeping this lesson in my heart and living it out has been the challenge – it is easy to forget and think life will just unfold naturally and be good.

On January 25, 2015 I was reminded of my mortality – I was snapped back into Today! Being diagnosed with colorectal cancer will do that to you – especially when your Grandma died of it at age 56 ( I am now 47). My amazing husband and 5 wonderful children cried, hugged, worried, questioned, and huddled together as a family. And then we got to the business of fighting.

“I’ll be a dandy, and I’ll be a rover, you’ll know who I am by the song that I sing…Who cares what tomorrow shall bring.” The song “Today” written by Randy Sparks

“In the day of prosperity be joyful, and in the day of adversity consider; God has made the one as well as the other, so that man may not find out anything that will be after him.” Ecclesiastes 7:14

I am learning to live out loud. I was already made a being who does not worry or for that matter plan. I am a wanderer who now sees my potential – or believes in my ability to explore. This life I was given is not to exist – for what gift am I giving? How am I producing? How will I propel the master’s vision by sitting still?

Again, I am reminded. Much as a flower bud unfolds – it does not unfold in a vacuum. The timing has to be right, conditions have to be right; Spring comes, the soil provides proper nutrition, the warmth initiates the production, the rain encourages vitality and the flower bursts open – it can’t help itself! All the elements come together and the flower explodes with life, beauty, and fragrance.

What comes after the flower – hopefully fruit, a gift, if properly cared for. Fruit that nourishes empowers and furthers the recipient. And seeds, tiny powerhouses of their own new universe yet to be.

As I write this, I see how ridiculous I am – I realize we all have a story, this is just mine.