Changes to Lifestyle / Hayatimda degisenler

Changes to Lifestyle / Hayatimda degisenler (Turkce altta)

There has been many major changes but the most dramatic one was to move back to my hometown to live with my father. That meant a long sick leave from work, being away from my own home and friends. This was sort of out of my control and the best option I had, but there are other things that I took the initiative to change: 

-Food:

Meat: For the past ~20 years I had reduced my meat intake, I had stopped eating poultry and fish, and limited my red meat consumption to once a week. I tried to but failed in substituting the necessary ingredients from the vegetables. So instead of trying to make this work among other things I'm dealing with, I decided to remove these restrictions and maintain a balanced diet of all kinds of meat and vegetables. I am not saying you should stop being vegetarian, I just chose to do this, call it survival instinct or barbarian, honestly I don't care

Sugar: I reduced my sugar intake dramatically, I stopped eating desserts except for an occasional ice cream in the summer. I tried to stop my cravings with fruit and sugar free smoothies I made. There happens to be many recipes of sugar free cakes, cookies, chocolates etc. on the internet, I have tried those couple of times as well. I am aware that sugar does not feed the cancer cells or cutting processed sugar does not reduce tumors but processed sugar is no good, even for cancer-free people. So this is a general nutritional change that I hope to adopt for the rest of my life

Snacks: Especially during office hours, I used to consume tons of junk food-packaged crackers, cookies, wafers, chips, etc. Being away from the office helped a lot but I successfully cut all of these. I switched to healthy dried fruits and nuts.

-Alcohol: 
I used to drink ~4 nights a week. At least two nights of hard liquor. I used to justify my drinking with work stress and my social lifestyle, all my friends were drinking, all the gatherings involved alcohol, how would I not drink? I learned the hard way..actually it was an easy way since with chemotherapy I did not have the appetite for the slightest drop of alcohol but even before the chemo started, I stopped drinking and it's been 4 months ever since. I still socialize with people. Very rarely, it becomes unbearable to be the only sober person but I am still having fun,  much more than I thought I would have without a drink.

-Stress: 
This is probably the hardest one considering what I have been going through. Yes, I have been away from my daily job stress and the constant fear of being late or not being able to catch or not being able to see, do etc. among the 15 million people living in the same city. I am thankful for that, I am thanking cancer to take me out from there and put me here, on this grass -looking at the trees and the wonderful sky- where I could have chosen to be much earlier. But surely I can't say being diagnosed with cancer is a very stress free process. First you learn to let go: I have put myself into the hands of physicians I trust, I am not spending my hours on the internet or trying to figure out what is going on or if this is the best treatment or if there is another type I should have been getting etc. I also had to let go of my control freak personality: I can't even plan 2 hours ahead, let alone months and years. Chemotherapy is the hard way to learn, I don't know how I will feel rest of the day, if I will have to lay down or have the energy to go on. So I put all the plans aside, and the stress with them. I am not being chased or trying to reach anywhere, for the first time in a long time.

I think the rest of the things came together with the changes I made to the above: better sleep, a healthier state of mind, more positive thinking and higher hopes towards life.

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Hayatimda bir cok degisiklik oldu ama sanirim iclerinde en buyugu Izmir'e donup babamla yasamaya baslamakti. Tedavi suresince isten raporlu olacaktım. Evimi, arkadaslarimi birakip İzmir'e geldim. Belki bu tam olarak kontrolumde olmadan oldu ama kendi insiyatifimle degistirdigim seyler de var:

-Yemek: 

Et: Son 20 senedir et tuketimimi azaltmak icin balik ve tavuk urunleri yemiyordum. Kirmizi eti ise haftada bir ile sinirlamistim. Gerekli besin maddelerini sebze diyetimle telafi edemedigime karar verdim. Ugrastigim bunca seyin arasinda bu konuda cabalamaya gucum yoktu. Sinirlarimin hepsini kaldirip tum et turleri ve sebzelerden olusan dengeli yemek duzenine geri dondum. Vejeteryanligi birakmalisiniz demiyorum; bu benim secimimdi, ister hayatta kalma icgudusu ister barbarlık diye nitelendirin, acikcasi umrumda degil

Seker: Olabildigince azalttim. Yazin dondurma disinda tatlilara yaklasmiyorum. Canim cok istediginde meyve veya seker koymadan meyveli buzlu ya da sutlu karisik icecekler yaptim. Internette cesit cesit sekersiz kek, kurabiye, cikolata tarifi varmis megerse, onlardan da denedim. Biliyorum sanildigi gibi seker kanser hucrelerini beslemiyor veya islenmis seker tuketmeyince tumorler kuculmuyor, ama islenmis sekerin kotu oldugunu ve saglikli insanlar tarafindan da tuketilmemesi gerektigini biliyorum. Dolayısıyla bu kalan hayatimda surdurmeyi hedefledigim bir beslenme tarzi degisikligi.

Atistirma: Ozellikle de ofiste cok fazla abur cubur - paketli kraker, biskuvi, gofret, cikolata tuketiyordum. Ofise gitmemenin de buyuk etkisi var ama hepsini kesebildim. Meyve kurulari ve saglikli cerezler tuketmeye calisiyorum.

-Alkol: Haftada en az ikisi agir olmak uzere ortalama 4 gun alkol iciyordum. Tuketimimi is stresine ve sosyal cevreme bagliyordum, herkes iciyordu, yapilan tum programlar alkolluydu, ben nasil icmeyecektim?Nasil icmeyecegimi zor yoldan ogrenmis oldum..aslinda cok zor da olmadi, kemoterapiyle birlikte canim bir damla bile alkol cekmedi. Ama alkolu aslinda kemoterapi baslamadan biraktim, 4 aydir icmiyorum. Hala arkadaslarimla gorusuyorum. Cok nadiren ortamdaki tek ayik insan olmak bezdirici olabiliyor ama icmeseydim eglenemezdim diye bir sey yokmus, hala eglenebiliyorum.

-Stres: Icinde bulundugum durum dusunuldugunde en zorlu olan bu. Bir suredir is stresinden, 15 milyon insanla yasadigim sehrin stresinden, yetisememekten, yapamamaktan, gorememekten uzagim. Bunun icin de kansere tesekkur borcluyum; beni oradan alip buraya -bu cimenin ustune, bu agacin karsisina ve guzel gokyuzunun altina- daha once de gelebilecegim ama gelmedigim bu yere koydugu icin. Tabii ki kanser teshisi sonrasi stressiz bir surecin basladigini soyleyemem. Once birakmayi ogreniyorsun: Kendimi guvendigim doktorlarin eline biraktim, internette saatlerce hastaligimi veya muhtemel tedavi turlerini arastirmiyorum. Kontrol manyakligimi da bir kenara biraktim: birakin aylar yillar sonrayi, iki saat sonra ne olacagini bilemiyorum. Kemoterapi bunu insana ogretiyor, gunun kalaninda nasil hissedecegimi bilmiyorum; yatacakmiyim, enerjim olacak mi? Tum planlardan vazgectim, stresiyle birlikte.. Uzun zamandir ilk defa kovalanmiyorum, kovalamiyorum, bir yere yetismeye calismiyorum.

Sanirim diger degisiklikler biraz yukaridakilerle birlikte geldi: daha iyi uyku, daha iyi ruh sagligi, daha pozitif dusunme ve hayattan iyi beklentiler