CANCER's Common CONNECTION to us ALL

       Of course I'm not a doctor, but after a chat tonight with a young woman at a local bank, with her telling me her mom is dying, stage four cancer which has traveled throughout her body, I, well, we shared stories of all kinds. I gave her two funny stories which lifted her up for just a little while. Imagine have to be nice to the public when your mom is dying. Her mom is eighty-two and many might say, well she lived a good long life. Hey! When it's your mom or dad or someone you love, it's never long enough.
       While we talked she made me promise to get my cough checked out, saying that was how they discovered her mom had cancer. My friend told me the same thing about three years ago. I had a cold, but I will get a check-up after New Year. There is also a test called CA125-I am asking for it. CA 125 is a test to find cancer and most doctors do not tell you about it, so go, get it done.

      So who gets cancer? Anyone. We have attributed cancer to smoking, asbestos, alcohol, work environment, pollution etc. But we don't all have that in common.
   ************************This is only my point of view************

Food! Food ! Food ! WE ALL EAT!!!
     So lets start with that and see where this goes without me going on and on. Please take time and look up BLUE ZONES-I know, I know, people will say, but I can't afford to eat healthy which was my old state of mind too. When we do little in life, like watch TV, lay around on the sofa, read books on the sofa , talk on the phone, on the sofa, we are not getting out.
    Second-I bought 5 oranges the other day at 1.00 each-compare that to a stop at a local store and buying a cup off coffee or a candy bar. CANCERS love that stuff and feed on  it. Anything that is bad for your body cancer attacks it like a vacuum cleaner picks up dirt. So work a budget and plan meals.Ask for help in doing that and yes, poor, very poor people make pots of pasta, potatoes, rice and load it with expensive butter, salt, gravy etc.
   Third-while you start to plan meals and shop for those meals, remember to get out, walk, ask someone for a bike, ride, feel the wind in your face. Gyms have scholarships but get out. Do for others. There are exchange groups, free helps, some are called Time Banking-Hour World. There is help to help you do better.
   Fourth-if it isn't food, what is it that causes cancer when the one thing that everyone has in common in this world is food.  How many who die of cancer don't smoke, don't work in pollution, don't work around asbestos and don't drink, so what is it? In My opinion it has to be Food. PLEASE get a movie called FORKS OVER KNIVES, study BLUE ZONES and change what you put inside your mouth because cancer is waiting. We all have cancers in our body which lay dormant and then we feed those cancer cells. Why they explode in some and not others may just be a matter of time and maybe if we're lucky those horrible cells will pass us by, so why not play it safe now. EAT TO LIVE.
   Before you search I will tell you Blue Zones are areas in the United States and elsewhere where people live and  live very long and healthy lives. WHY. Here goes: THEY don't eat SHIT!
 
     

Dr. OZ Crapola-Supplements, True or False

       Yesterdays show threw me for a loop. Dr. Oz came on with a guest about supplements and how a person or people could adversely be affected by taking them including vitamins. This guest spoke about how we really get enough in the foods we eat and can actually overdo or overdose by taking too many. So Oz announces he is taking back his thoughts on supplements. Okay, that was pretty honest.
       In the very next segment, here we go again, he was pushing supplements with another guest. I have a big question. Is he promoting Supplements or health? Why does he direct so much to women? Does he care at all about the health of men?
      I know OZ. has had  a few segments on about the health of men, but very few. I see a same kind of thing with Phil McGraw. His latest things is to push another book and his son as the publisher owning his own publishing company. I wonder how he was able to make his own publishing company?
    Back to OZ. I do like his show and appreciate his education and advice, but what I object to is that it all appears directed to women and seems like a same message over and over again. Why? Because he knows women will buy more and that sucks ! I take from it what may benefit me, but I know for sure without OZ my life has improved because a man, Thanks Marty, introduced me to  Forks over Knives and because I have two great kids who want me to take better care of myself. Do yourself a favor too, check out Forks over knives. You don't have to go drastic. I didn't, but I did find I like it and feel so much better, including the weight loss. Every day is a new day if you keep trying;it's when you stop trying there may not be a new day.

Iron Cross Bike Race Pennsylvania

       Have you ever attended a bike race, much less been an active participant in any way at all? I haven't. I've listened to my son talk about them, watched him at his bike shop, well the one he buys his bikes from, thebikeway.com, in Omaha Nebraska and heard both he and his wife talk about the bike community. (They even bought a little bike for his one year old son's birthday last year. At eighteen months he now walk/rides it. That too was bought at thebikeway.com and little Declan gets on, tries to put his helmet on and knows dad has to fasten it and off he goes, part of an early entry into a world he will always be part of.)
        Yesterday, my understanding of the bike community changed as I saw and heard it all, from a different perspective. Now I have a new respect for all of the men and women who do this, live and aspire to enjoy a better way of life.
       It started with the family getting up early enough to watch my son Mike pack his bike gear, along with his Puglsey, a heavy bike with fat tires onto the back of his vehicle. He checked his tires, had extra co/2's in case of a flat if not for himself for anyone who might need it. In his package prep bag he had energy bars, a three different bottles, one water, one for extra electrolytes, and I just can't remember the third bottle, along with extra clothes, heavier socks and a rain jacket which appeared to be a very slim piece of shelter.
         Out the door we went stopping for coffee, a breakfast sandwich, gas, and off we rode into the hour long ride to a place I haven't been to in years,Micheaux state Park also combined with Pine Grove Furnace ( a park) and Caledonia State park .  These three parks touch one into another so you can't tell which way is in or out, as I found out later in the afternoon.
          Finally I arrived. What I was met with was a large parking lot with all kinds of men as far as sizes and ages and their bikes. There were also women too, happily for me to see. I watched just about every guy do the same as my son Mike was doing. Checking and rechecking, warming up, signing in, checking bags for wives to take to the sign-in post. These plastic bags were filled with water bottles, energy bottles and snacks that would be waiting at certain check points. There would be four altogether and my sons' wife, their baby son and myself would stop there to see the riders fly by. The bags were brought to the check points earlier by drivers to make sure to meet the riders.
        As Kelly, MIkes wife Declan and I hopped into the van, we stopped at the roadside check points and saw the riders as they rode past, hopped up a rocky incline, one with a tree so near I am surprised that no one smacked into that tree. They were coming down the gravely road and about to make an unseen hard left into the woody trail. This left turn was barley visible, only noticed by a small yellow arrow. Thank goodness someone stood out front, well a few someones yelling, hard left,and pointing with hands and arms. As we stood a few zipped past the arrow.
         As that hard left was right before me I noticed a big hole, then a tree stump sticking out, so if a rider didn't see that immediately, he or she would have hit hard and flew backwards. Some did see it and jumped, but most only saw it at the last moment and had to come only a few inches from the tree to get onto the wooded path filled with more limbs and rocks. Seeing this, I wondered about my son and did he have more protection because of his Heavy Pugsley? I hoped and prayed so.
         Back in the van and on, we were told about Larry's tavern, that people could stop and get a beer. I want to pee. This was the first of what I was to learn was part of how this bikers community, communicated. The tavern, was just a car with a cooler of beer, high up surrounded by trees and waiting for bikers to pass. During that break I noticed men and women walking off in different directions to use the outdoor restrooms. Me? No way. I was afraid if I was to squat with my bad knees, I would fall over backwards, not able to get up and, well you can imagine help with that. I waited until the end.
      After the final stop my daughter-in-law got out, baby in his pack, all snugly and warm who had been fed the natural way, was happiest of all. Arriving at the last stop, the van driver wasn't sure if restrooms were close by and drove me down to where they were. Hiking back up to the top where food was, I tasted what I haven't have before in a burrito, black beans, rice, shredded chicken and
some kind of sauce. It was delicious. We sat outside and the baby ate from Kelly's burrito enjoying it as naturally as if he ate it every day. That's the natural baby. Finishing off with Moms milk, he slept.
    All around us stood the Bike atmosphere, all for one and one for all. What a camaraderie? Everyone had something in common. It was too long before I saw Mike riding in on his Pugsley, happy, satisfied and hungry, I felt like he came in first place. It was more than happiness for me to watch him ride it, it was pride and maybe a bit of envy. His wife ran to meet him, as I inched my way down the side of a hill and watched and listened to him talk to the greeter and a few guys who were giving him congrats,  a good job and more. He was happy, his wife was proud and the baby asleep. They talked about his Pugsley, how he rode, his fat tires and the challenge. It was about the challenge, not all of it, but also about the family. A biking family of men and women who look out for each other, cheer each other on and enjoy a way of life many just don't get, but I do, now I do. I am proud of you Michael, so very proud.
   

Letting it all out, 6lbs in 7 Days

   Oh such good news. I was weighed today as is usual at the doctors office. Doing a lot of check-ups. I am over-due and over weight. So I made sure to use the terlit before weighing in, washed up, came out and anxiously got on the scale. The nurse smiled, and she is  a real nurse who has been though and survived cancer and works at this doctors office. Many times when we meet a person like she is, we wonder what right do we have to complain, but we do.
   I said, well? She smiled again, said you lost six pounds. The front desk heard me as I made a fist and air hit her arm saying, freakin kool a mundo! They asked me what was going on, now knowing I was trying and I explained the Forks over Knives movie. Thanks again and again Marty and Mike. Mike put the movie on while we were visiting. Marty told me about it the day before and it was just plain information and common sense. Even my blood pressure was down. I said uh, Thank Ya Jesus!