November 2005 was one of the
worst months of my life. I was
diagnosed with a form of cancer
called Hodgkin’s Lymphoma.
After many months of
chemotherapy and dozens of other
medicine-related treatments I was
cancer free, but left physically
altered.
At the time it didn’t matter what
the effects of treatment were in
order to live, but now two years
after my initial diagnosis and
another clean bill of health from
my doctor, I am still left trying to
regain the physical identity I had
when this all began.
Re-growing my hair was an
obviously long, painstaking
process in regards to time. I finished
chemo in May 2005 and
since then I have been waiting for
my normal hair length to be met. It
has taken more than a year and a
half to once again have shoulderlength
hair. Finally, a part of me
that had been lost, has returned.
I have two visible scars; one on
my neck and the other across my
chest. They will never go away.
They are permanent reminders of
the battle for my life.
And finally, the heartbreak of it
all for me is that I gained a lot of
weight while I was on steroids for
nausea, among other medicines.
In total, I increased 10 dress
sizes. After discontinuing use of
the medications I was on, I went
down four sizes.
But it isn’t good enough for me,
I have six to go.
Which brings me to my main
point-how to do it.
I have always been a picky eater
and an athlete, and my normal diet
and exercise wasn’t enough. I had
to do something more drastic.
Then I read about veganism.
I work part-time at a bookstore
and picked up the book “Skinny
Bitch.”
After reading the first chapter, I
realized it could just be the thing I
could do to assist in losing the extra
pounds. I was never a diet-fad person,
but I could relate to the diet the
book was suggesting, vegan.
I already love soy milk, and I
never ate fast food or drank soda. I
rarely ate meat, because I just didn’t
have the time to marinade and
cook a steak. So, eliminating all
meat and other animal-byproduct
foods wouldn’t be difficult for me
to wrap my head around.
I bought the book and got reading.
No dairy, no eggs, no chicken,
pork, cow, honey, as well as white
flour, rice and sugar.
There were a lot of restrictions,
but all it really takes is careful
reading as to what ingredients are
in the foods I was eating. The day
after Thanksgiving, to allow
myself one last hurrah as far as
meat-eating, I went veg.
My first trip to Whole Foods was
an amazing experience. I could
buy just about any food in its vegan
alternative. I got soy “butter,”
“yogurt” and “ice cream.” I
bought vegan bread and hummus
and organic vegetables and fruits.
It was too perfect. And like all
things considered too perfect,
there was a catch. I nearly doubled
the amount of money I spend on
food for the same, if not less
amount of food.
If it’s marked organic or vegan, I
guarantee you it costs double what
it’s substituting.
However, I think it is worth it for
my cause. I would do just about
anything to look like I had before I
got sick. I wouldn’t expect many to
be able to empathize with me, but I
am sure that most of us out there
can have a consensus that it is difficult
to balance a diet with all the
yummy, tempting foods that line
the supermarket shelves.
I never even had an interest in
eating the stigmatized “junk
foods.” But when I started to look
at the labels of the food I was eating,
I was shocked. I bought 12-
grain bread that included highfructose
corn syrup in the ingredients!
I was eating 8 oz. cups of
yogurt with 14 grams of sugar!
I was eating and drinking hidden
fats and sugars and otherwise
unhealthy foods, while thinking I
was eating well, I nearly lost it.
How could this have happened?
What I am learning is it’s all in
the ingredients. Not the water,
wheat and citric acid kind of ingredients,
but the ingredients people
can’t pronounce. Never mind I
don’t over eat or indulge in bowls
of ice cream if what I am eating is
in healthy foods has the equivalent
calorie intake of a bowl of pudding
because of high fructose corn
syrup, hydrogenated oils, artificial
colors and monosodium glutamate
(MSG).
I can’t lie, I felt like an idiot for
all this. I knew that these common
ingredients have been linked to
cancer and diabetes and other
health problems, but I never paid
enough attention to what was in
my supposedly good for me oatmeal
to notice.
Maybe my digestion of these
ingredients is what made me sick
in the first place.
This is why I became a vegan,
and it’s going well so far. I’m not
starving or eating rabbit food. And
yes, a part of me does feel better for
not promoting the abuse of animals,
I’ll admit it.
I even had a slight smile on my
face on my way back home from
Whole Foods that I was no longer
going to harm animals.
Then, I ran over a bird.