Food Cravings

With summer in full swing, I started craving fresh fruits such as watermelon, melon, pineapple, strawberries and apples therefore I started making myself fruit cocktails and other types of delicious treats.  The feeling of craving this refreshing type of fruits reminded me of when I was going through my cancer battle.  You see, while I was undergoing the chemo treatments, my sense of taste was completely gone most of the time so craving any particular type of food was out of the question. This was devasting to me because before my cancer battle, I had a love affair with food. I mean honestly who does not love food? Unfortunately, for me, my cancer battle had taken away something else that I cherished besides my health, my love of food. Given that I was fighting to stay alive I was willing to accept any side effects that came my way. No matter how excruciating or devasting they were. I mean with everything I had to endure loss of taste was one of the milder side effects.  Actually, the lost of taste would not last forever. During the course of my chemo treatments there was a brief pause in my loss of taste cycle. Out of a three-week timeframe, it usually was only about 1 or 2 days that I could taste certain types of food; therefore, I would crave that particular food(s) during those times.  

Most of the time, chemo made me very nauseous and the 24-hour nausea medicine was extremely effective for about 1-2 hours.  As we all know a day is composed of 24 hours so having a medicine only work for 2 hours was not very helpful at all. It got so bad that I was willing to try anything to help me with the nausea. Some people would offer different advice that I would try to follow. For example, eating crackers or drinking ginger. While the eating of the crackers seemed to help a little, drinking ginger was horrible for me, and it did not help me at all.  This went on for days, weeks and months. Ironically it was during one of my many chemo treatments that I received advise from a fellow cancer warrior that changed my nausea torture from that day on. The advice was so simple I couldn’t believe it. One of my fellow cancer warriors told me to try a popsicle.  He said try a popsicle that does not have any milk like ice cream, just a popsicle that contains water and flavor doesn’t matter, your preference.  I was desperate for some relief from the nausea and I asked the hospital staff if they had any popsicles that I could have. Thank God they did and they brought me one. I tried the popsicle, and the result was instantaneous, finally something that helped me settle my stomach for a couple of hours. This was a small victory I was willing to take. As long as I could have a popsicle every couple of hours, I could make it through the worst day(s).

During my cancer battle, popsicles helped my nausea and now they are a refreshing treat during these hot summer days.  I know, summer barely started but, in my area, the temperature has reached over 100 degrees Fahrenheit.  Now, that I can actually taste food again my love affair with food is back. I can eat ice cream and taste the flavor which means ice cream is another treat I enjoy having during these hot summer days.  I am trying different ways to stay refreshed for example I am utilizing the fresh fruit together with coconut water or coconut cream to make homemade ice cream therefore I control the sugar and it tastes divine.  Next on the list, I will also use the fresh fruit to make homemade pineapple or watermelon water and so forth. The possibilities are endless with these great tasting fresh fruits. Try making some of your own refreshing treats or at least a fruit cocktail.  Stay hydrated and cool while you enjoy the sun rays this summer.  Remember try to make the best of a bad situation, like the saying goes, when life gives you lemons, make lemonade (literally). 

#Lemons