So Halloween was always a big holiday for me as a kid. I love all the decorations and just the fun, creative vibe associated with it. I haven’t really made a plan to dress up or do anything this week but my mom pulled out some old decorations from my childhood to put in the hallway for the trick or treators on Thursday. I think I even have a vague memory of buying these guys at State News across the street!

I’ve had terrible fatigue and body aches since Sunday and have been in a little bit of a brain fog too. I know Halloween isn’t a holiday that one typically makes wishes on but I’m going to do it anyway! My wish for this spooky week is to set concrete goals for creative projects, health coaching, self-care, and general organization!

One goal this week is to create a few resources pages for the blog so as a preview for that, I want to share a few of links/resources for you out there that I’ve been enjoying this week. Here goes!

-My friend Stina commented on a post last week with a link to the author Rebecca Katz who wrote this amazing book called the Cancer Fighting Kitchen. Rachel got a copy too so we are definitely going to make some healthy, delicious recipes I was really impressed with all the useful information the book was filled with in terms of cancer-related information. For example, if you don’t eat enough protein while on chemo you can get dehydrated which leads to fatigue and cramps! Which explains why I have been feeling better since I’ve been eating more fish and chicken! It’s definitely a must-get book for anyone on chemo! For reals!

-I’ve also picked up the Anti Cancer book again and have learned some really amazing facts. This book is an unbelievable resource for anyone with cancer. I got freaked out when I was reading it back in July just because I was scared to read about some of the mechanisms of how cancer works. But now I am more comfortable with the subject and am excited to read more in this book! My diet feels close to what he prescribes for cancer-fighting but I want to understand it even more.

-Last night as I laid in bed with super bad fatigue, I started watching the IIN videos for the week. Andrew Weill is in this week’s module and I was BLOWN AWAY by how amazing his lecture was. I wish you could all watch it! One of my favorite things he spoke about was the body’s innate ability to heal itself. He even wrote a book about it that I want to buy! Everything that I am trying to do in my self-care is to create a healing environment in my body and so far it seems to be working. One thing he said last night that was really interesting was how antibiotics are effective in killing bacteria and many people think that it’s the antibiotics that did all the work. But instead, the antibiotics just started the mechanisms that allowed the immune system to do what it couldn’t do before because it was overwhelmed. I like to think of chemotherapy in a similar way.

Man, I just got riled up with ideas and things I want to write about but I am off to acupuncture now! Time to kick this fatigue in the butt and have a productive week. I hope you have one too! xoxo Lauren