LEMONS and LIFE
When life gives you lemons suck em up… literally. Squeezing and drinking the juice of one-half of a lemon each day coincided with and during my naturopath phase. Ya, I’m one of those fickle females following whichever trend that makes me want to look and be a better person. Transcendental meditation caught my fancy as did eating grapefruit before every meal and a soup diet that made me never want to eat soup ever again.
You name it and I probably tried it. The diet ones were the worst, I always lost weight but miraculously, I had no problems gaining it all back plus more. Who knew the diet pills my doctor prescribed were full of amphetamines? Losing a ton of weight quickly and gaining twice as much back in no time at all. OMG, that one was one of my worst mistakes ever.
Becoming a vegetarian was my dumbest move. Consulting a naturopath and having a few readings on what foods I should avoid and what foods were most ‘compatible’ with my body and my birth sign… I have long forgotten most of it. I managed to stay the course for almost a year and a half. I also blame this venture for causing my type 2 diabetes. The stats are not all in on this, but there is compelling evidence in some studies to blame excessive dairy intake for T2D. I ate a LOT of cheese (it being a protein).
Unfortunately, I probably know more about food than I will ever know about men, they both test me, albeit in different ways. We need food to live, men not so much. I can live without a man, and I have a secret drawer of happy toys to keep me uhhhh… happy : ) But I digress, my blog today is about the lemons in my life. When life throws me lemons I make juice outta them and drink it.
My taste buds took an aversion to the lemon water so I needed to find another way to get it into my system. See, here is the deal, the juice of half a lemon each day keeps my body alkaline and therefore wards off all kinds of invasive illnesses. This has to be real lemon juice and not the reconstituted kind or made from concentrate. I buy the organic as well, not cheap but I figure I’m worth it. Oh, and I mix it with green tea sweetened with cane sugar so I can enjoy it : )
A little story here to back up why I do this. Six months or so into the lemon water thing I had to see a specialist. My doctor was concerned about my yearly complete physical checkup, he found some irregularities. The specialist also found something and so scheduled me for an MRI. I have never worried about my health before and this threw me for a loop. Was this ‘my time’ to start thinking about my time being up?
I believe when our number is up then we need to make peace with it. I’m not afraid to die, having a near-death experience changed my life and I live each day now. But, I had never experienced a maybe diagnosis of living or dying, does that make any sense? Would the MRI show something bad?
Thoughts of cancer and my mom dying from colorectal cancer became a part of my life during those uncertain months. It’s funny how my outlook changed completely. Although I’m not afraid to face death, it was the uncertainty during those months that hit me hardest. I wanted to live, but I needed to know if I was going to die. It’s weird, I know, but I was in the process of bringing some inventions to market and they had to go on hold because I couldn’t focus.
This was a strange time for me, I seemed to be existing on a different level. Life went on around me but I was in limbo. I took a month off to go south and wait for the call to have the MRI. I flew back home, had the MRI, and then was booked into the hospital for a procedure to remove the lining in my uterus which also involved removing some nodules growing there.
I had to wait for two weeks for the results, living in limbo still… I made another decision. I decided to drive back down south and live with whatever my results would be. Cancer was of course on my mind. My life was in a holding pattern and it was just a fact I lived with.
The call from my doctor while on my way south was one I will never forget. He called me later on in the evening, while I was in a hotel room, on my way south. The news was all good, I think I had been expecting the worst. He wanted to call me personally to let me know as soon as possible. I felt such a huge relief. My inventions which needed to be marketed, fell by the wayside.
I was free to be myself and not confined by material stuff that required my full attention. Nope… my life is a gift and it was given to me not once but twice now, and what could be more important than living your best life? This brings me back to the lemons, I still drink the juice of fresh lemons every day. I also do my best each day to be happy and flush negativity. You know that song “Be Happy, Don’t Worry” I like it a lot.
and that’s my story for today… (this all happened over five years ago, btw)
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Feb. 9th (Superbowl Day here) 2025