Happy Saturday, my dears.
This morning my thoughts turn to longevity. Recently, since sharing that my scans showed complete healing a whole new batch of questions have arisen. Some I do not know the answers to, in a technical or medical sense…yet I do know the answers in my heart. I will share some here and my thoughts and my personal reasons.
1. Your liver is completely healed, can you eat again? I chuckle at this one…I sense that some may assume that eating must be horrible now, bland and boring. But nay nay! I am 100% satisfied and believe in the changes made to my nutritional health and my body and pallet are very happy. I did not stop eating, I just left things with no nutritional value on the shelf. There they will remain. I believe my body desperately needed me to discover the key to it’s optimal performance nutrition and I feel better than possibly ever before. Other than continued research in spices and food prep no change here.
2. Hey, you can drink on occasion again, right? Or drink skinny drinks? As with the food…is putting alcohol back into my life going to improve my health? My thought is while I am seemingly healed, it’s quite apparent to me that my body, as with the food, was seeking a cleaner way of living to help me be at my best. When I was first diagnosed, it was very clearly shown to me that eating and drinking as I had been, had I continued down that path my life experience and expectancy would be greatly reduced. I only had 15-20% liver function a year ago. I worked my ass off to regain optimal health and function, so my answer is a resounding no, I will not be adding alcohol to the body again.
3. Someone in one of my support groups chastised me (and others, it wasn’t originally directed at me but it hit hard) for saying that cirrhosis could be healed…that by saying so I was basically disrespecting those who struggle and die from the condition because they have heard or been told that while you can reverse fatty liver or certain levels of fibrosis, once it’s cirrhosis you can’t reverse it. First of all, know that I am not here to do any such thing…the opposite, in fact. I don’t know why I was able to do what I did but I am a living, breathing real live person who made the most out of a horrible situation. Did I think I could reverse it? Hell no, I’m as shocked as the next person. Was it scary? Oh yeah, terrifying. But living in that negative space of doubt would have left me going downhill. I believe in sharing this success because we all need hope. Hope to be our very best, healthiest self even if that means just freezing the health in place or a partial recovery. Anything to live a better, longer, fulfilling life.
Quoting Blanche Scharf from my natural health 365 group here which states my philosophy very well. “When looking for what steps are the most important for changing a diet/lifestyle there are obvious ones. It ranges from the basics- giving up smoking, alcohol, all soda, and any food item with high fructose corn syrup. These are non-negotiable for just about any health condition. These are non-food items and as such are not needed for survival. They are mindless habits and with a little mindfulness can eventually be eliminated. This is a non-negotiable starting point to achieve any health goals you have.”
Making changes isn’t easy, nobody can feed you every morsel of what we require to heal, we have to be willing to put in the work and get to know our own bodies, and fight for what we believe in, advocating for ourselves. Like anything in life, you only get back what you’re willing to put in…and if you’re heart and soul have anything to say about it, you’ll get something good back. And you have to be patient, it’s a life change. Not for the faint of heart, yet so worth it in the end. Don’t short yourself.
Love, Sue

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