Why your health needs you to get back into the kitchen post-cancer

After life returns to some kind of normalcy, you will no doubt find yourself back in the kitchen. Even if your pre-cancer diet was ‘healthy’, or so you thought, you are now keener than ever to eat well.

You’ve researched a lot since your diagnosis, and you know that diet and lifestyle are responsible for over 90% of your health outcomes. Yep, genes are over-rated as is family history.

You have accepted that ‘if’ (yes it’s still an ‘if’) you contributed to your cancer, then you can contribute to your healing.

You feel empowered… but back to the kitchen.

Meal planning and being organised in the kitchen had never been your forte. Last minute packaged meals and take-aways had featured a bit too often for your liking.

But not anymore! You are determined to be the home-cooking queen!

Research shows that cancer fighting foods like vegetables, legumes (beans & lentils), and whole grains need to be a priority.

The first step you take is to make a list of ALL the home-cooked meals you make and assess if they fit the health promoting foods that you now want to eat. Some of them fit the criteria and others just need a bit of tweaking.

You add beans and extra vegetables to your favourite casseroles.
To reduce your meat consumption you add some easy vegan meals like dahl and vegetable curries on brown rice.
You Google low fat plant-based whole foods and realise this is not going to be as difficult as you thought.

Before you know it you have nearly 3 weeks’ worth of meals.

You check out online shopping and realise this will save you heaps of time. That time that you used to be wandering around trying to decide what to eat this week, will be done in a few clicks and can now be spent meal prepping.

Washing and chopping vegetables before they get to the fridge is saving you time AND means you are more likely to use them because they are washed and chopped and ready to go!

You have set aside a couple of times a week (or maybe just one!) where you meal prep. Doubling or even tripling meals has become the norm. You now eat for lunch what you had for dinner the night before AND still have leftovers for the freezer.

On the second time round of your 3 week menu plan you realise that this is a LOT easier than you thought.

You feel better, have saved money and your jeans are looser.

But the icing on the cake is that you now feel confident, empowered even, that your food choices are supporting your health, giving you the best outcomes for a long and healthy life.

I believe this is why so many diets fail.

We commit to a 6 week challenge - pay for a coach or announce it to the world and off we go!

But then the coaching ends OR the 6 weeks are up!

When I work with clients at some point they’ll say...I almost ate XXX on the weekend, but I knew I had to tell you so I resisted.

I am acutely aware that I will not be in my clients' lives forever.

So I never pass quickly over these revelations because I want to make sure they have the tools to deal with these situations when I’m not around.