Was using my salt and pepper grinders today and realized that they BOTH have plastic grinding gears … yet another way for microplastics (or not-so-micro-plastics) to break off, get into our food, and then be consumed.
I’m throwing them out!!
A few years ago, my son wanted to get me a Mother’s Day gift I would use… so he asked what I wanted, and I said an egg pan that was not Teflon coated but didn’t take all day to clean.
Tall order, I thought.
He got me two non-stick granite pans made by Michaelangelo. They looked good and worked great and I was really pleased.
Time has passed, and the surfaces have gotten fuzzy from repeated cleaning… and they’ve been pushed to the back of the cabinet as we have used the cast irons more and more.
But I wonder… what are granite pans made of anyway?
I Googled around and found that they are “not actually made of granite stone, but named for its resemblance to the texture.”
Okay, but what are the pans made of?
Seems there are 2 kinds: Teflon (PTFE) and vitreous enamel.
For both types, it is recommended that you use soft utensils when cooking and wash them carefully to avoid scratches or pitting.
The Michaelangelo website sells these pans labelled as “100% Toxic-Free — Free of PFAS, PFOA, lead and cadmium.” I sure hope that is true!
Anyway, these are too scratched up. Throwing them away!
One of the first posts on this blog, Get Ye a Morning Ritual, shared a great morning workout by Master Shi Heng Yi.
I’ve been doing this for over a year now and have recently upped my reps to 36. Master Yi uses the Ayurvedic numbers, so I’ve followed this pattern.
Really feeling it in my arms/shoulders and tops of my thighs. But yeah, it’s all good and I’m happy and thankful that I can do it and of course I feel better after I do.
Here’s the original workout:
The only problem with the 36 reps is that it takes a while, and I often lose count. My husband asks me a question, or the dog sees me standing still and gives me his signals for backyard, walkie time, or breakfast time… and so I pause, forget where I’m at in my count ….
So today, I did an 18-rep workout, and then I did it again for a total of 36 reps. I think this is gonna stick.
Whatever your health situation, this is a great way to get moving in the morning, and move that lymphatic system!
I hate to be a Debbie Downer, but apparently tea bags are coated in a type of plastic or teflon, which is then heated in the boiling tea water and then goes into our bodies and stays, for years. Ugh. 😵💫😵
This is one more source of microplastics that are unfortunately accumulating in our bodies and especially our brains. 🧠 So last week, I started doing things a little differently.
I do have a couple of mesh tea balls, which can hold the contents of a tea bag or loose tea. Generally, the holes are a little too big, and the tea particles go rogue. And to be honest, I have no idea what metal they are made of…
I used a French press to make tea last week, and it worked pretty well. However, some little bits of tea found their way into my mug and then my teeth. Not a big deal… I did like putting lime slices into the press along with my hibiscus tea and pressing them together.
Then my husband found this cool little gadget on Amazon. The holes are crazy tiny and its made from stainless steel:
You empty the tea bag or put loose tea into the cup, put the little cup inside an empty mug, and pour the hot water into/through it. Then, put on the little cap on while your tea steeps.
After a minute or two of steep time, you can use the cap as a coaster when you take it out of the mug.
P.S. Doctor Li talks about microplastics in the video interview I posted recently.
Here’s more research on it: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31552738/
I watched TV with my husband last night, and every commercial break was for things we would never buy, knowing what we know now. Mainstream things that carry hidden harms and toxins, which most people don’t realize…
Time to put the roast on.
Sorry for the snark, but it’s as a “buyer beware” sort of world. Don’t let yourself be persuaded, fooled, or robbed of your money and health. XO.
When I first got diagnosed, my sweetheart of a husband started baking bread for me. Eventually, I found a brand that’s really good, has omega 3s, and gets a high score on Yuka.
There are a couple of varieties — seedtastic, graintastic, thin slices, thicker slices, etc.
I don’t eat a lot of bread, but when I do, it’s this brand.
100 out of 100 … that’s a rare thing. Thanks, Aldi!
If you are thinking of baking your own bread, I recommend One Mighty Mill flour. Expensive but really pure. Here’s their information:
Over the past year and a half, I started keeping a food diary that grew into a scorecard of sorts.
I had been dealing with an unhappy gut for a long time and, as previously shared, got AMAZING results from simply drinking a shot of kombucha daily. Things got better FAST, and I felt so much healthier, but I knew I could still improve.
I had read that for optimal gut health, we should try to eat 30 different plant foods per week. That seemed like a good and achievable goal. So, I started keeping track in a notebook.
It was a way for me to put gut health in a spotlight. At the bottom of 30 numbered lines, I put a question: Did I achieve the goal? Yes or No.
So that was the start. I’ve been adding more tasks and check-offs along the way… some proved useful, others have been phased out…
Any notebook or journal will do, but if you pick up a planner (they’re really inexpensive in May), you’ll be able to see the calendar, too.
Some people like keeping lists, some people like crossing stuff off a list, and some people get a little charge out of hitting their goals. I like all of that! So, in a way, this is a game. I’ve gamified my health.
If I hit all my goals, I reward myself in a healthy way. 🧶
Feel free to print one out and try it for a week. Or, make your own… I find that the time it takes to create a page each week is kind of a nice ‘zen’ task. Get some markers and get creative!
Ooh… one thing that’s missing is the daily step count from my dumb watch. Gotta add that.
I’ve learned a lot about diet and nutrition since being diagnosed, but I hadn’t looked at the brain health/mental health aspect until recently.
Side note: A few weeks ago, I came across a mention, from a researcher I very much admire, that the ketogenic diet didn’t seem to have much of an effect on cancers of the immune system. So, briefly, I have “normalized my relationship with carbs,” and while it sure tastes good, I can feel a sluggishness taking over. Gotta get back on track.
The almighty algorithm put this video in my path today, and I am glad to see it. I’m amazed to find so much overlap with what I have learned about eating for cancer management and physical health.
Georgia Ede has a book and a website if you want to learn more: https://www.diagnosisdiet.com/
You need to sweat. Every day. Sweat cleans out your systems and allows toxins to leave your body.
I live in a cold place, and sweat is hard to come by for about half the year. So once a month or so, I treat myself to a 30-minute sauna.
It feels wonderful.
I usually have to take a break halfway through, just open the door and let some heat out and room-temp air in.
The place I go to has private rooms, some quite large to accommodate multiple people or a wheelchair or walker.
There are also rooms with cold plunge tubs. I haven’t tried that yet. 🥶
A really nice feature of this sauna studio is that they give you a cold towel with a menthol/camphor oil in it to wipe down as you sweat. So refreshing!
The first time I went to the sauna, my daughter came with me, and we couldn’t get over how similar it was to driving in our old Subaru.
When we lived in Florida, we would sweat every day, whether we wanted to or not.
The Subaru had black leather interior. It would bake in the driveway or a parking lot… we’d need to drive somewhere, open the door and see heat and humidity rising visibly like vapors off a barbecue grill.
Good times, good times. 😉🚗
I recently spoke with an old friend who had heard of my diagnosis through the grapevine. He asked if I was doing all the things… all the things a person does when they get a diagnosis like this. Yes, I replied.
But what are the things? Well, there’s a lot of ’em, so I’m breaking them down by the phase of a typical day.
Here’s Part 1: Morning Routine.
I’ve wavered in consistency lately in terms of my morning routine. Months of extra-snowy and cold winter, plus traveling & staying with family are just a couple of the reasons why. There’s also “couch inertia,” aka “warm blanket in front of the fire,” inertia.
Yeah, its a thing.
Here’s the morning routine I strive for (and often achieve):
Ok, that’s it for the wake-up routine. Tune in next time… 📻
The Cancer Canary 