Determined to Fight Cancer

Have you ever seen the movie Julie & Julia? It's about a woman who starts a blog as she cooks through the Julia Child cookbook. Brian and I felt, as I'm sure just about everyone else did, invigorated after watching the film and felt determined to start a blog that would hook thousands of readers and end in a book and movie contract based on the blog. Of course, those dreams were abandoned within a few hours and probably never spoken of since. While I'm not starting a blog about this adventure, recent events have sparked my interest in blogging about something meaningful to me. Let me explain.

As many of you probably know (because I'm pretty sure only immediate family even read this blog :) ) my darling, sweet, kind, loving sister Kim was diagnosed with breast cancer. The fact that within a little over a year of my mom dying of non-smoking lung cancer after a 5 year battle with it, my dad, aunt, and sister were all diagnosed with some kind of cancer. This could almost be comical if it wasn't so devastating and crippling to my family. This extremely rare hereditary disorder called Li Fraumeni that resides in my family's gene pool has been ever present in my life, and I think I have become almost indifferent to it. Li Fraumeni is basically just a gene that some people in my family have that makes us more susceptible to cancer, to put it simply. So you can understand how in my mind it seemed that "You get old and you get cancer, and that's that." I don't want to sound like I am complaining, and the last thing that I want is people's pity, but all I'm trying to say is that this looming threat that seems to have always been in my future has finally made an appearance in my generation. My sister Kim was the first to find out she had cancer out of all our siblings and cousins, and it was a wake-up call to someone totally apathetic to the idea of cancer. The fact that someone so wonderful as Kim could get diagnosed at such a young age of 31, with 2 kids ages 4 and 9 months, just chills me to the bone with fear and pessimism. So my solution? To start eating healthier, and this is where the blog comes into play.

My goal is to start eating healthier. Of course, I know myself and my usual plans to "start exercising everyday" or "stop drinking soda" usually end before they've even started. That's why I'm putting some accountability on myself so that when friends or family ask me how my little "project" is going, I won't be able to say, "That journey ran its course." Instead I'll be encouraged to tell people that I'm eating healthier and loving it. I got 2 cookbooks in the mail today and I can't wait to dive in. My goal is to have at least one of those meals a day (again, I know myself and I know that I won't be able to go cold turkey on potato chips and corn dogs, so I'm pacing myself). If I like a recipe, I'll post it on this blog. If I don't, I'll just skip it.

Let me make a few disclaimers. I don't think that eating organic or more fruits and vegetables will stop me from getting cancer, I'm not that naive. If I'm supposed to get cancer, I'll get it, but at least I'll feel that I didn't do anything to help it, and I'll feel prepared. Also, I don't think that anybody who doesn't eat this way should be doing it or they'll get some life-threatening disease, or that those who have been diagnosed with cancer could have done anything to stop it. Once again, in our family if you're gonna get it, you're gonna get it. I'm just excited to start learning about superfoods that help me fight it and to hopefully start starving cancer early.

So... Who's with me to fight cancer? ; )