DAY NINE

Pounds lost: 12.8 ounces (0.8)

Total pounds lost: 9

Dysplasic tumour: visibly smaller

The weight loss has slowed to just over half a pound a day, on average, which is a healthy rate of loss, I think and because I feel like a teenager, I've been doing a ton of research. It has made me realize how ignorant I am in regard to nutrition.

Over the past eight days, I've eaten yucca, kale, portobello mushroom caps, rainbow chard, red chard, jicama, collared greens, parsnips and arugula. They're delicious (except for the collared greens) and I am ashamed to admit that I avoided them like the plague for YEARS.

Why?

Well, mostly because they were never introduced into my childhood home and I never tasted them. I've always been pedestrian in my food preferences; sticking with those items, week after week, that were safe choices like carrots, peas and broccoli. Traveling the globe forced me to expand my palate somewhat but at the end of the day, I still bought the same things and served the same meals week after week.

That has changed forever.

I took a look in my pantry where massive containers of protein powders, vinegars laced with high fructose corn syrup, flour, refined sugar and processed coconut sat accusing me on the shelves. This weekend, I plan to purge my kitchen. I haven't gone off the deep end or anything. I will still drink wine. I will still indulge every now and again. I will still bake for holidays but I'm going to try my best to find healthier alternatives or fixes for our favourite recipes because I owe it to my children.

Used to be that I thought my cigarette habit was the worst thing I had ever done to myself for a prolonged period of time. As it turns out, smoking for 25 years doesn't hold a candle to the assault my body has suffered as a result of my eating and drinking habits. The good news is that it isn't too late. The body will heal itself.

"Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food"
— Hippocrates