Cleansing Diet

The 28 Day Cleansing Diet that I have been on for 30 days today is another wonderful structural piece for my healing from breast cancer. I'm eating lots of veggies and whole grains, with beans, nuts, and tempeh for protein. Now I know that sounds like a pretty standard healthy diet recommendation, but I have not been eating sugar, butter, dairy (not even yogurt), or bread made from flour. Every day about 4 o'clock, I make and drink 12 oz of vegetable juice. I also drink about 80 oz. (10 cups) of water per day including one quart with a pinch of sea salt during the first hour that I am awake. For Mothers' Day, I requested and received a special fermenting pot; I've got 10#s of cabbage on hand to make sauerkraut soon.

I just love the recipes and suggestions in this book. One of my favorite new ideas is grain bowls. Put some cooked whole grain, hot or cold, into a bowl. Add other yummy stuff that you have on hand to go with it. Last week we had Mexican grain bowls with brown rice, Cuban black beans, avocado, tomato, salsa, the works! It was so good! So I love the food and I love the way I feel. I'm up and at 'em; blogging, working in the garden, seeing friends. The cooking takes a bit of time, but we're worth it. My husband does a very modified version with all the meat that he wants and is noticing an improvement in less acid reflux. I 'm cooking whole oats and sprouting adzuki beans. All kinds of new tasks and routines for this Virgo rising girl.

Interestingly enough, I strayed from this nourishing, healthy diet last Friday. I was sorely tempted at a birthday party and had chocolate cake and ice cream for lunch. I then came home and worked in the garden for several hours, working past juice time into a virtual stupor. I did not juice or cook the healthy meal I had planned. I scrounged something out of the freezer. The result--I felt crappy all day on Saturday and Sunday until I made my juice. So now I am really a believer!

What am I cleansing? My liver and my kidneys. Chemo is hard on both those organs and this diet provides foods that promote healing. Digestive troubles and skin problems are also often cleared up. For me, a lack of mental clarity and physical sluggishness were symptoms that I needed cleansing.

So what do you think? Is it this way of eating the least bit tempting for you? Do you even think that cancer and diet are connected? Have you had a healing experience connected to food? Let us know with a comment.

Keep the Home Fires Burning

In Goddesses for Older Women, JeanShinoda Bolen suggests that when women are younger their goddesses are a committee with ego as the strong chairman. As a crone, my goddesses sit around the fire, speaking when so moved and waiting for consensus. This brings me to Hestia, a goddess who is not really personified but is represented by the fire in the hearth. I was so yearning for that after years of hotel living. It seems so synchronous to me that we started a major remodel that included a wood stove last summer. We lit the beautiful red wood stove on a green stone hearth the same week my chemotherapy started. Dave worked hard to keep it going, starting a new fire everyday, working up a huge woodpile for next year, hauling all the wood inside. I could barely keep up with it when he got sick for a few days. So our home fire was burning this year; I needed it, hungered for it. A Hestian tradition is for the first fire in the newlyweds' house to be started from the embers of the parents.
Hestia is also the goddess of women sitting in circles. My cancer provided me with that opportunity as well this year as I joined a circle of women on a common journey of cancer that meets twice a month. Here we can speak our truth to those who really understand, other cancer survivors.
Another Hestian impulse I have had is to become a nun, to live a spiritual life among women, forsaking worldly things. I did look like a nun with my shaved head, but as a happily married woman, that is an impulse I am unlikely to act upon. For me that impulse is a signal that I want to deepen my spiritual practice. Currently my practice consists of Jin Shin Jyutsu almost every day, sitting in meditation many days, yoga sporadically, mindful housework and cooking sporadically. Doing my pages every morning is another very important practice as is an artist walk and artist date every week.
So yes, Hestia is definitely an archetype for me as I enter my crone years. Hestia is currently guiding me toward more home comfort and a more centered life. How about you? Do you long for a space of your own or more solitude? Do you long to tend mindfully to your household chores? Hestia might be calling to you.