A few weeks ago I did some pretend-modeling work for one of my websites. These photos are from the session. I am sharing them to give visual evidence of how much better I have been doing in recent weeks by comparison to my situation in December.

30+ days on a restricted diet has enabled me to wear things I would not have been able to wear had I not ended up in the emergency room last December. But more importantly, I’ve been having fun with my life these last few weeks. And considering where I was at the start of the year I am thankful to be where I am at this moment.

At the start of the year I was fearing the possibility of Ovarian cancer. I was also faced with what I was being told was a potentially life-threatening situation with my fibroids. They were apparently “dangerously big”. They needed to come out and they needed to come out immediately. Today my stomach doesn’t look that much different from how it looked at the start of the year. That’s because I am on my cycle. So my stomach is presently bloated. This is something I don’t think the doctors factored in when they saw me. They assumed my stomach is always in the condition that it was in when they saw it. But I was severely bloated with air in my stomach. I was looking like a blown up beach ball due to excessive gas related to my cycle. And I was on a cycle for all the doctors visits so my situation was by no means the norm at any point when I was seen by a doctor between December 2014 and mid-January 2015.

But over the previous 18 or so days, my stomach has been significantly less bloated. I haven’t been dealing with any bleeding. I haven’t had the additional stress of doctors appointments and hysterectomy talk and test result alarms and all that stuff. I’ve been relaxed. I’ve been focusing on my goals. And the benefit has been that my stomach has been co-operating for the most part. I have felt good.

The Diet

I continue to consume a limited range of foods. Still with the coconut milk, coconut water, cashew butter, chia seeds, cinnamon and kale. I switch between cashew butter and almond butter. I’ve been making my own almond butter.

It’s amazing how much different almond butter tastes when you make it yourself. It actually tastes like almonds.

I’ve also gone back to drinking turmeric and ginger tea. I was was drinking that a few years ago when I had some success with managing the fibroid situation. This time around I am using the actual turmeric root instead of powder I buy in the spice aisle at the supermarket. I’ve been including yarrow flowers and leaves in the tea mixture. A fellow fibroid sufferer recommended the yarrow as a way of hopefully getting the bleeding under control. It has worked for her. Hopefully by March I will begin to see evidence that it is working for me.

And for the occasional dessert I’ve blended chia seeds with almond or cashew butter (peanut butter if I have no almond butter or cashew butter), coconut milk, cinnamon and a sugar substitute to sweeten.

My goal is to keep to this restricted diet for as long as my body is able to handle it. So far I am not suffering pangs of hunger. I feel well enough fed and properly nourished. I’m not feeling weak. I’m not feeling weighed down with depression. I’ve been calmer and more focused. And life has been much improved. I am in fact feeling quite happy at the moment.