Cancer Survivor, writing about Health and Fitness as you age

Teatime! I enjoy teas. I grew up going with my mom to various bazaars in Trinidad where one attraction was always a tent with afternoon tea for the ladies, although men could drink tea too!  In Trinidad a bazaar is usually an open air event with games, concession stands, and... tea. I get a feeling of warmth, camaraderie and friendship when I have tea and it is a throwback to times I've spent with friends and family back in Trinidad. Late last year I decided to spend my last pay cheque on a proper tea set and then kicked off a series of teas with my friends. This is a picture from March tea. I hope the afternoons of friendship, laughter have filled you with warmth and joy, as they have me.

Fire Flames from Public Domain Image We do fire drills to practice what to do in case of a fire, so we are not floundering around in the event a fire does break out. I got the idea for this post when I did the STOP blog post. In my experience many people don't have the language tools in their toolbox that they can readily pull out when the situation arises. So from my STOP post, it is easy to say, "de-personalize it" but how exactly to do that? What words to use? What does it mean to ask for data? Set boundaries? Wouldn't it be great if we had a script or sample scripts that we could pull out as the situation demands? I am sure you all are familiar with "I should have said..". I know I have done quite a bit of that "hindsight" discussion as I thought through all the possible responses I could have made to something someone said, and my actual (lacking) response. If only I had more time to think it through or a chance to practice! Scri

This year marks 5 years since I was diagnosed with Stage III breast cancer AND I have the opportunity to stay home with my kids for a bit. I am grateful to be alive and I have enjoyed making memories with my family and friends these past few years. I've decided that maybe I should get around to doing some of the things that I've been thinking about doing, and if you know me, you know it starts with a list. This year is about: Being purposeful Experimenting. Why 50? Well 100 seemed to be setting myself up for failure (I mean, there must be a reason I haven't gotten around to the list before, and now I want to put 100 of them together? In one year?), and 40 seemed to be a little wimpy. Hence, my list of 50. These are not really bucket list items. My bucket list items are bigger and longer term, but some on my 50-list represent a step towards a bucket list item. For example, writing a draft of a story this year is on my list of 50, and the bucket list item is

Before I talk about food, a quick: Vitiligo Update It still pisses me off that the hyperactive immune system that attacks my own pigment cells just let cancer sail right on through. Enough rant. Since my cancer diagnosis, my vitiligo has just exploded. It's spread from knees and elbows to legs, face and neck. It bothers me more now. Picture from 2009 Hands now  2016           The growing spread of vitiligo Treatments Topical steroids weren't working and while Latisse (the eyelash drug) worked on one spot above one eye, it does not seem to be helping with the other spot above the other eye. There is a pulsed light treatment I have yet to try, but before I go that route, I want to try the food route. Food as Medicine I've blogged previously as viewing Food as Fuel , the next step is to view food as medicine with the potential to heal some ailments. I've read a couple of books, It Starts with Food and The Paleo Approach , and re