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Category Archives: diet & nutrition

change ahead

21 Monday Jan 2013

Posted by azahar in diet & nutrition, health & happiness, home, hope, sevilla, work

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

health, life, mondays, stuff

Change-Ahead
Nothing like spending most of a week stuck in bed and feeling like crap to focus on… other things. And as 2013 is still young, it’s also a good time to think about change and goals for the year to come. My main goal, of course, is to stay cancer-free, though there’s little or (I think) nothing I can do about that. Next PET scan will be in March. Will she get another 6-month reprieve? Stay tuned folks.

In other news, I may have to move! Not because I want to but because I don’t think I can afford to stay where I am. When I first took this place with Peter two years ago the understanding was that he’d be paying half the rent and bills, but unfortunately this isn’t happening. And no, I’m not going to try sharing with a total stranger (been there, too old for that now) so finding a smaller place I can afford on my own might be necessary. It would mean “downsizing” considerably, getting rid of furniture and probably my books – at least two rooms full of “stuff” – but at this point I’m ready to do whatever I have to. My food tours are really taking off but, you know, I don’t want to work my butt off and then still end up going into debt just so Peter can have a roof over his head. And the truth is that I don’t use the upstairs room or terrace much, since I spend most of the day working in the “livingroom office”. Anyhow, I’m just getting myself psyched up for this in case I have to move. There will be no rash decisions. So again, stay tuned.

On the bright side, I discovered this morning that I lost 2.5 kilos this past week! Which more than takes care of the “Christmas excess”, and kinda inspires me to keep on with the light eating thing. I’m still not quite ready to get back to the gym but, considering I lost this weight while mostly being curled up in the foetal position, I’m beginning to think there’s something to the theory that exercise, while good for maintaining general health and fitness, really isn’t such a big factor when it comes to weight loss.

So it looks like another day mostly at home, although it’s very blue and shiny out there and I’d love to get out. But I now have The Cough (which apparently happens around Day 6) and my chest feels like a fat dwarf – or Loki – is sitting on it. And without warning I start hacking away, which I do my best to stop, and have been pleased to discover that by careful breathing I’m actually able to stop it a lot of the time. But sometimes not and it feels like I’m going to turn myself inside out. A friend told me he coughed so bad during the Coughing Stage that he pulled a muscle in his armpit! Anyhow, I have two meetings tomorrow morning and am giving a friend a blog class in the evening, so I reckon another day at home is prudent.

What’s new with you guys? Have you got any plans happening?

take three cats…

21 Monday May 2012

Posted by azahar in animals & pets, cancer, cats, diet & nutrition, health & happiness, home

≈ 12 Comments

Tags

cats, home, sick

… and call me in the morning.

What a crazy 48 hours it’s been. On Saturday evening I was suddenly not feeling well so I decided to go to bed early. A couple of hours later I woke up feeling awful and spent the next eight hours with violent vomiting and diarrhea and worried that I was going to end up back at hospital having more Surprise Surgery. But as there wasn’t any serious pain involved I just rode it out. Felt somewhat better yesterday morning but obviously couldn’t go out for my Sunday afternoon tapas tour, so Peter took that one (and they wrote back later saying they’d had a great time!). I stayed in bed ALL DAY, which is something I don’t remember doing other than when I was on chemo. Although the vomiting, etc had stopped (guess it sort of had to eventually) I was feeling very weak, feverish and achy. Have to say that Azar has been totally loving all this Extra Bed Time with me. And I finally got to use the bedroom tv that I installed last November. I knew it would come in handy some day.

Today has been a bit better. I actually got up for a few hours, but don’t feel well enough to venture outside. Which is a shame because it’s a gorgeous day out there. But I should be back to normal(ish) by tomorrow and am thinking that this might be a good time to start a diet…

How are you guys doing?

no tengo cancer

07 Monday May 2012

Posted by azahar in cancer, change, death & dying, diet & nutrition, friends, health & happiness, hospitals

≈ 14 Comments

Tags

4th cancerversary, cancer, hospitals

Four years ago today I wrote this blog post about doubling over in pain and ending up at the hospital, only to be told I had gas and be sent home again. Well, most of you know the story by now. After two more emergency hospital visits they finally admitted me for testing and then raced me over to the general hospital for a life-saving operation that involved removing an obstruction and about half my colon.

And that wasn’t the end of the story as I ended up having two more operations and being on chemo twice, finishing at the end of July 2009. Since then I have been miraculously cancer-free according to the PET scans I’ve been having twice a year. The next one is due in September. And for the most part I feel good, though I still get abdominal discomfort from time to time. Oh, and there was also that freak emergency op last summer, which thankfully didn’t end up being cancer-related.

And so I wonder why I am still okay while my friends Pat and Jed are not. And I wonder how long I’ll be okay. Four years ago I’d gone to the Feria in Jerez the weekend before all this started and saw this graffiti on a wall near the train station that said “I have cancer”. I don’t know what moved me to take a photo of it, but here it is again, slightly – but importantly – modified. I hope I never have to remove the “no”.

comfort food

01 Sunday Apr 2012

Posted by azahar in cooking, culture, diet & nutrition, food & drink, health & happiness, home

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

comfort food, cooking, huevos rotos

Today I made this very comfort-foodie dish based on having tried it a few times elsewhere. It has some of the usual comfort food ingredients (potatoes, eggs) as well as some chorizo and spicy pimentón thrown in for good measure. And most enjoyable it was too!

Here is the recipe: huevos rotos

But as comforting (and delicious) this late Sunday lunch was, when it comes to comfort food I’d probably say my favourites would include cheese. Like, mac & cheese or grilled cheese sandwiches.

What’s your favourite comfort food?

red meat kills!

14 Wednesday Mar 2012

Posted by azahar in cancer, death & dying, diet & nutrition, food & drink, health & happiness, wtf?

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

bbc, cancer, death, red meat, scare mongering, tapas, vineria san telmo

First of all, read this very silly article – supposedly Health NEWS – from the BBC:

Red meat increases death, cancer and heart risk, says study

Now I ask you… who out there with even half a brain doesn’t know that eating a balanced diet is the healthiest option? Who hasn’t heard (all their lives) that it’s best to eat red meat in moderation? Same goes for fried food, rich sauces, bacon, butter, pâté, fatty cheeses … you know, all the good stuff. And so when I read that a study of over 120,000 people over almost 30 years “suggested red meat increased the risk of death from cancer and heart problems” I clutched my head in despair. In all seriousness, there is probably more “risk of death” every time you cross the street. And, although I don’t eat much red meat myself, I still ended up with colon cancer. So go figure. I honestly don’t see how articles like these are beneficial to anyone – must’ve been an especially slow news day at the BBC.

Meanwhile, that tasty looking dish up there is a divinely decadent combination of perfectly fried eggs (with slightly runny yolks), grilled spicy chorizo Ibérico and potatoes, topped with thin slices of gorgeous jamón Ibérico. But as delicious as it is, I wouldn’t dream of eating that every day. Why? Because I’m not stupid.

I still can’t believe that after years and years of going to the Vineria San Telmo I only tried that dish for the first time during my marathon tapas tours the other day. It truly is to die for. So to speak…

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