Going Green

No, it's not Earth Day. In preparation for our first round of IVF this fall, I'm shaking things up. A few years ago I saw Kris Carr on Oprah. Kris was diagnosed with inoperable Stage IV cancer in her liver and lungs; there is no Stage V. The doctors were preparing her for her own demise. Rather than lay down and die, Kris changed her diet and her lifestyle. She traded out venti lattes for wheatgrass smoothies and nightclubs for yoga. And miraculously, she put her cancer into remission.

Her lifestyle change was sparked by this article in the New York Times. Here are the basic premises of that article:

1. Don’t eat anything your great-great-grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food.
2. Avoid even those food products that come bearing health claims.
3. Especially avoid food products containing ingredients that are a) unfamiliar, b) unpronounceable c) more than five in number — or that contain high-fructose corn syrup.
4. Get out of the supermarket whenever possible.
5. Pay more, eat less.
6. Eat mostly plants, especially leaves.
7. Eat more like the French. Or the Japanese. Or the Italians. Or the Greeks.
8. Cook. And if you can, plant a garden.
9. Eat like an omnivore. Try to add new species, not just new foods, to your diet.
I'm not trying to put Lupron on the same playing field as Chemotherapy (or even pit cancer against IVF, for that matter), but I can't help but feel as though I'm getting ready to partially poison my body. If I can get myself as healthy as possible in the next 40 days then why not?

The moral of the article is to "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." and according to Kris, while you're at it, throw in yoga, daily exercise and nix the stress.

I'm all over this one. I'll let you know how it goes.