Tag Archive for 'weight gain'

My Post-Chemotherapy “Diet”

January 24

I started a diet. I gained 40 lbs during chemotherapy, and although people keep telling me I look good, I believe that what they mean by “good” is “alive,” and “alive” would look “good” in any shape. Even fat-shaped.

I bought a Men’s Health magazine at the train station the other day and tore out the pages that had “healthy” recipes, or any recipes, and I drove to the store. It was midnight, the time of night when lonely people come 24-hour supermarkets. When I had parked and was about to go in, I realized that I had forgotten my wallet at home. So I drove home from the store at midnight-plus-five-minutes and decided never to go on a diet again.

Until today. I went to the store again today, with my wallet, but forgetting the torn out page of the stupid Men’s Health magazine that I bought at the stupid train station on my stupid way home. Stupid chemo brain. I remembered something about whole wheat and fiber, so I bought a wide variety of things I don’t believe raccoons would even eat and brought them home.

I thought I’d try out this “soy milk,” since the world seems to be so excited about soy these days. I couldn’t bring myself to try the regular soy milk, though, because it looks like that which comes from a lactating bovine, but is not, and for some backwards reason that disgusts me. So, instead, I bought the chocolate soy milk, which, although looking much more attractive than the regular, probably has no place in anything called a “diet.” When I came home my mother told me that recent studies have shown that soy milk isn’t all that great, and the world isn’t that excited about it anymore.

I really gotta move out.

But I digress. When I got home I found that the Men’s Health called for cream cheese on its “Whole Wheat Turkey Wrap.” And salsa. And green onions. Of which I had none. So I put on Miracle Whip instead, and chopped up cucumbers, and this slimy turkey that was on sale at the store. It looked nothing like the turkey, salsa, cream cheese wrap on the torn out page. And I don’t think the Miracle Whip plays any role in my “diet,” either.

I also added dill weed, because my mother told me that “dill weed” wasn’t just a nickname for some unfortunate playground kid, that it was actually a spice used in cooking.

Did I mention I’m 25? Pathetic.

But by then I had already offered to make dinner this evening, so it was too late to back out of this “diet” idea. I planned on making the recipe from the torn out page that was directly below the now-annoying picture of the fancy Turkey Salsa Cream Cheese You-Can’t-Even-Make-a-Friggin’ Wrap (or whatever it was called), which was a Broccoli and Rice Casserole.

Which reminds me. We need to find a better word for “Casserole.” Making a “Casserole” for dinner is lame and makes me feel old. Say it: “Casserole.” If you stare at it long enough it even starts to look weird: “Casserole.”

I’ll spare you the dreary details of the Broccoli and Rice Casserole. In the end, it was good, but could’ve used a thick layer of melted cheese all over the top of it.

Somewhere between the slimy, no-salsa, Salsa Turkey Whole Wheat Wrap and the “Casserole,” I found the granola bars. Not the ones that taste like dirt and are good for you, but the ones with chocolate and sugar and peanut butter. I figured I shouldn’t eat them while on my “diet”…but, I mean…there were, like, four boxes of these things, and I figured that I should probably try to get rid of them as quick as I can, so as not to ruin the “diet.”

So, like I said, I started a diet. It’s going about as well as expected.

Update, or No, That’s My Natural Hair Color

February 2

I have found that it is very difficult to explain to people that I won second place in a english-speaking cancer blog contest in Chennai, India. Somehow that is a little too random for normal conversation. If I repeat it three-or-so times it starts to make sense. (I mean “make sense” in a relative way. Relative to “making absolutely no sense at all.”)

I e-mailed with the nice man, Muralikrishnan, in charge of the contest, and we worked out what to do with my free pizza. (They don’t deliver.) On Monday Muralikrishnan met with Dr. Rajkumar of the Adayar Cancer Institute and gave the good doctor my gift certificate for free pizza, as well as my free entrance card to the local cineplex. Dr. Rajkumar is going to give these gifts to one of his cancer patients on my behalf.

Muralikrishnan also told me that his wife would be saying prayers for me at the Tirmala-Tirupathi temple, which I’m told is the richest and most visited temple in the world.

Also, a condensed version of one of the posts from this blog, specifically, Happy Birthday To Me, will be published in the coming newsletter of The Wellness Place, which is a cancer support institute in Palatine, IL that I frequented during therapy.

My diet is going very poorly, thank you for asking. I’ve started walking daily, though, so maybe that’ll make some difference. (By “daily,” I mean “yesterday” and “once last week.”) I figure as long as I don’t give up altogether it’s not all bad, although I would like to fit back into my old clothes sooner rather than later.

I’d like to give some support to my new friend Marta, a Hodgkins patient who is having her 11th treatment on Friday. She has 12 treatments to complete. Hold on, Marta.

People keep asking me when my hair will start growing back. Ha. Except some of them aren’t joking, and are actually, seriously wondering. In those cases there tends to be an awkward moment or two where I have to explain to them that they have a foot in their mouth. People, I don’t have anymore hair than this. Leave the poor bald guy alone.

Also, there has been a lot of spam in the comments lately, you may or may not have noticed that. Again, I would ask the spammers that, if they are going to spam, at least use the right syntax for your links. Don’t be an idiot. You’ll sell your ViAgRa and synthetic pheremones much easier if the link to your online casino actually shows up.

I’m mostly back to work now. I’m accompanying 4 days a week. Next week I start teaching piano lessons with a handful of students. I find that I’m feeling stronger and not tiring as easily as before.

And now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to go take me “daily” walk. Maybe.