By: Amy Adamson
I’ve always been interested in nutrition, so much so that I studied it in college. But sadly, I’ve always been a “do as I say and not as I do” kind of nutritionist. I was raised in a family of junk food junkies! My dad would give my brother and me $20 and tell us to go buy as many candy bars as we could. Back then we would literally come home with about 50 candy bars! Our family could easily polish them off in a couple of days. My mom was an excellent baker. We had delicious cakes, pies and cookies for dessert daily. Every meal revolved around meat and milk. Our family did have one healthy habit going though! We all loved physical activity. Tennis, skiing, running, hiking and sports filled up a lot of our family time.
By using many physical activities to “make up” for my poor dietary choices, I was able to remain slim and trim. To me that meant “healthy.” Then in the fall of 2017, I began having some bowel issues. I felt sheepish about the problem so I put off seeking treatment. Finally, in the May of 2018 a colonoscopy revealed a tubulovillous adenoma. I ended up having surgery a few weeks later to remove the tumor. The surgeon told me that the pathology revealed it was in the process of changing to cancer. At only 48 years old, I had dodged the cancer bullet.
This set me on the path of change. I knew I needed to change my dietary habits. But nutrition today had become so confusing! The more I learned, the more confused I became. Everyone believed and touted something different. One day, while searching online, I came across a sample of a book that I quickly began reading. It was called Discovering the Word of Wisdom. I read and read, until the sample ended. I immediately ordered a hard copy on Amazon and could not wait for the book to arrive so I could finish it. As I read, the spirit testified to me of the truth of what I was reading. While at the same time, the ideas seemed very radical to me. It was very different from my current lifestyle. But, based on my brush with cancer, I knew I did not need more of the same.
