Heal

In 2018, I prevented an operation that would cut precancerous cells from my cervix by starving these cells of sugar through fasting and a strict calorie-restricted ketogenic diet.1

It was the most uncertain period of my life. But it was also empowering and significant because it set both G and me on a path of deep self-research on nutrition, health, and disease.

Yet, I'm not particularly eager to talk about food much since discussing nutrition nowadays feels like discussing God's existence a decade ago. With all parties unwilling to budge from their standpoint, it becomes exhausting and useless.

At the same time, I find myself in a lonely spot with all the knowledge I gathered.2 It's tough to see people I care about suffer from allergies, digestion problems, diabetes, migraines, hormonal issues, skin problems, mood swings, and whatnot and witness the crap they eat and not make the connection.

Make the connection. Help your body heal.

Hey, All! 🌲 How are you?

As I finish this letter, we're a few days from hearing that G's dad has lung cancer. The days are odd, and reality a blur. I find it hard to think. And the only thing that makes sense is to embrace the present.

Quote I'm Pondering

It's a self-help cliché that most of us need to get better at learning to say no. But as the writer Elizabeth Gilbert points out, it's all too easy to assume that this merely entails finding the courage to decline various tedious things you never wanted to do in the first place. In fact, she explains, "it's much harder than that. You need to learn how to start saying no to things you do want to do, with the recognition that you have only one life. –Elizabeth Gilbert via Oliver Burkeman, Four Thousand Weeks

Retreating into December,
And wishing you slow afternoon gatherings that unexpectedly turn into long evenings with friends and family,
With love,
Mirha
🌱

Notes

  1. During three months, I stayed under 20-25 net carbs and 50-55 grams of protein while the rest of my calories came from fat (a total of 1550 kcal per day when not doing any extreme sports). These tight restrictions forced me to weigh each ingredient and enter it in an app to ensure I wasn't taking in more carbs than I wanted. The process was tedious. Had I known about the carnivore or ancestral diet back then, I would've cut out all apparent carbs, even vegetables. It would've made the diet much simpler. ↩

  2. Following is the current state of my diet in descending order of what I eat most. What I'd like you to take away most from this list are not the exact food items but the absence of refined grains, sugar, and highly processed foods.
    👉🏽 Meat, organs, and animal fat (grass-fed), milk (raw), butter (grass-fed), eggs (pasture-fed), cheese (raw and min. 30% fat), seasonal fruits, olives, avocado, pumpkin, sweet potato (organic), fish and shellfish (wild, local and small), honey - (raw, unfiltered, unheated), coffee (black), and wine (red). ↩