Regret – What I Wish I Learned The First Time

Regret. It’s something that we are all likely going to face at some point in our lives, if not many times. Hard to avoid really.

But I guess it depends on what you are regretting, why you are regretting it and how you plan to move forward past the regret.

Easier to talk about than it is to do, as I am sure that most of us could attest to, right?

I am going to mention some regrets of mine, but really try to use them as teaching opportunities instead of staying stuck in the frustration of it all.

At age 16, there are a lot of things you don’t know. There were a lot of things that I didn’t know, or had yet to be forced to think through. In the summer when I was 16, I was given my first cancer diagnosis.

In so many ways as soon as that news hits you, your world grinds to a complete halt. And your brain just freezes or maybe starts running a mile (or kilometre for my Canadian readers) a minute. No matter where you live friend, that is fast! So fast.

So what do I regret about that experience that I went through. I regret the fact that I wasn’t given basic, and what I consider necessary, foundational health information, from my medical professionals. I wasn’t given any information or direction on what I should be eating or what diet and nutritional choices would really help me get through the treatment I was about to face.

I was really only given what you would expect, the traditional hospital treatment and pharmaceutical options.

I wasn’t taught about healthy food choices, like what would compliment the treatment I was about to enter into and what food and nutrition would help me get through the upcoming assault on my body and my whole system.

After it was all over I didn’t receive support to rebuild my body or fend off any return of the cancer. I was told that there was a much higher probability of cancer returning but there were no real tools given to me to give me greater chances of future success with that looming prognosis.

Now friend, while this is something that I could just get so angry about, I don’t. I won’t. That wouldn’t be helpful. But I want to use my experience to make it better. The more I learn, the more I want to make it better for others.

You may remember that 10 years after that first diagnosis, I was confronted with a similar scenario. Diagnosis number 2. Cancer again.

Now since I wasn’t a newbie this go around, I came in to it this time with a much clearer head. Make no mistake, it wasn’t easy or I had it all figured out but I began to ask more questions and think about things I hadn’t had the head space or capacity to consider before.

I was introduced to the idea of just how what I put into my body could dramatically affect my health. Now years later, I take that idea for granted but as a teenager and someone in my 20’s, that wasn’t a given. It was a more radical idea.

Once again my doctors didn’t help me learn about nutrition while going through medical treatment or for prevention of these health issues.

Nutrition and food choices don’t need to replace medical treatment, they can go hand in hand for a very successful result. There doesn’t need to be a competition.

I was very quickly thrown in to a rapid learning opportunity. I learned about the value of the necessary nutrition our bodies need. With this new realization, I made changes. Many changes about what I put into my body.

I still moved forward with medical treatment but I made the decision that I would partner the two ways to move forward together to increase my chances of success. And now on the other side I think it was successful.

So friend, I had some regrets, but I have been able to flip them around for some good. Well that is my hope anyway.

One regret I carry is that I wish I would have learned this from my doctors the first time I went through treatment. But I didn’t. Ugghh. Frustrating. BUT, I don’t want anyone else to be in the same situation that I was in. So I work hard to talk about this. Nutrition is critical for preventative health and also for health while going through medical treatment. Any kind of medical care, not just cancer.

I don’t want anyone else to have the same regrets that I do. If you aren’t very familiar with what great nutrition and healthy food you can get inside your body to give you the head start you need, it isn’t too late. It’s never too late to begin. There is so much information out there, If you want help to point you in the right direction, friend, I am here to help! Just let me know.

Friend, wherever you are on your health journey, your nutrition journey or just the journey of life, I am praying that you will seek more answers, find more information and ask more questions about which good foods you can get inside of you today.

Comment below with your thoughts about any questions you have about nutrition, healing with food or anything else. I would really like to hear your thoughts or your questions. Shoot me a personal message through the contact form on the site. I would love it if you like this enough to share it with others. Please SUBSCRIBE in the box above, it helps you know more of what’s going on.