• carrots
• fresh dill
• spring onions
• raw broccoli
• kiwi

After chopping or pulverizing everything, I added flax oil, lemon juice, vinegar, and salt.

Yummmmmmy!!!!!!!!!!

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CARROT SALAD

• Sliced carrots
• Chopped fresh dill
• Chopped fresh garlic
• Chopped fresh mint
• Corn pieces from one cob
• Flax oil
• Balsamic vinegar
• Lemon juice
• Salt
• Black pepper
• Italian spices
• Ground garlic

THREE LEAF SALAD

• Chopped kale leaves
• Chopped red lettuce leaves
• Chopped butter lettuce leaves
• Chopped fresh garlic
• Chopped tomato
• Flax oil
• Balsamic vinegar
• Yellow mustard
• Lemon juice
• Salt
• Paprika
• Black pepper

For protein, I added a heap of sesame seeds. OMG it was totally yummy delish!

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Next I bought a French coffee press, which I have been wanting for months, since I discovered that coffee made that way is far stronger and tastier than drip coffee or even espresso. So today I made French roast coffee in my French coffee press, then added coconut milk and my new pumpkin spice blend.

OH. MY. GAWD!!!!! I have not enjoyed coffee like that since I became a vegan and ditched the mocha lattes.

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So I made a three-part dish tonight: polenta, beans and sauce. OMG it was so good I’m almost done with all three pots. Heh. Kinda like eating all the cookies in the box, but every ingredient is healthy.

POLENTA

I’m not sure how it’s technically supposed to be made, but remembering the instructions on the ground corn bin at Whole Foods in the bulk section, I boiled water, then added ground corn – 3 parts water to 1 part ground corn. I kept it on medium heat until the water was absorbed, then I put it on low until it was a kind of solid but still mushy substance.

BEANS

I boiled black eyed peas. And forgot they were on the stove. So they got really cooked. But there was tons of water, so they were A-OK. Just extra soft. Part of the charm of this dish!

SAUCE

Let’s see if I can remember what I put in there. Here goes:

• Cashews
• Sesame seeds
• Flax seeds
• Chopped yellow onion
• Quartered mushrooms
• Cut collard greens
• Chopped cilantro
• Chopped dill
• Chopped broccoli
• Leftover tomato paste
• Water
• Lots of chili spice
• Lots of turmeric
• Sea salt

Then I heated the sauce on medium.

COMBINATIONS:

First I added the sauce to a base of polenta. Yummers! Next I added the sauce to a base of black eyed peas (after, heh, I polished off the polenta). Also yummers!

Enjoy.

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As with anything, I advise taking baby steps if you are interested in implementing any or all of these options. Choose one step at a time, and you can even break it down into smaller steps. For example, if you are a junk food addict, think about eating one more produce item than usual each week. Or if you’re like me, do a 180 degree flip overnight! Yeah! Rip off that bandage!

And remember: Every body is different. What has worked for me may not work for you. Some people flourish on a vegan diet. Others wilt away. Maybe it’s because of how the diet is approached, but maybe it’s because of body type. Who knows. Just make sure you really listen to your body and your intuition, and do what makes the most for your body at this time.

1. Purify your water.
   Get a badass filter that removes the toxins. I have MultiPure. It’s an investment, and it’s worth it. I’m worth it. You’re worth it. Our health is worth it.
2. Purify your shopping.
   Purchase all-organic food. No exceptions. Every time you eat food that is not organic, you are putting chemicals into your body. If the pesticides kill little critters, what are they doing to you?
3. Purify your diet.
   Eat a plant-based, ie, vegan diet. Dairy has been linked to cancer. Meat has been linked to heart disease.
4. Avoid inflammatory and allergenic foods.
   Consider removing any and all sweeteners, gluten products, and soy products. If you are definitely allergic to other foods, get rid of them too.
5. Don’t fry food unless it’s with coconut oil.
   Vegetable oils at high temperatures release free radicals, which have been linked to cancer. Coconut oil appears to have a sturdier foundation that does release free radicals when fried.
6. Eat lots of vegetables and fruits.
   Emphasize green leafy vegetables (which are anti-inflammatory), berries (which have anti-oxidants that fight cancer), and bold colored produce. I can’t remember why, but I keep hearing from reputable sources that bold color means something rockin.
7. Emphasize raw foods.
   I’m not a proponent of eating all raw foods, but it does make sense to emphasize them. The less you boil the fuck out of produce, the more nutrients will be preserved in there, in turn transferring to and nourishing your body.
8. Drink green tea.
   Green tea has antioxidants and has been shown to help fight cancer.
9. Take vitamins and herbal supplements.
   If you are on a plant-based diet, look into prenatal vitamins. They have a lot of the nutrients that vegans need to be especially careful about getting into their system. Also look into herbal supplements like the TruGanic brand of greens, flower essences, berry essences, and so on. Talk to a certified and trustworthy nutritionist or herbalist, like my all-time fave, Anasuya Basil, to get guidance on what vitamins and herbs treat  what conditions. You can also consult with one of the staff in the body section at a natural foods store, for free.
10. Take probiotics and eat raw garlic and cilantro.
    Probiotics, raw garlic, and cilantro keep your immune system functioning in top form. You can chop up garlic and add it to salads or just about any dish. Same with cilantro. Again, I advise keeping it raw, to maximize the nutrients you get.

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Boil organic quinoa spaghetti (beats brown rice spaghetti, because the texture stays firm instead of becoming mush)

Chop a couple of leaves of your favorite organic greens. I like to use chard, kale, or collard greens.

When the spaghetti is almost done, add the greens into the pot. By putting it in at the end, you preserve the nutritional content.

Meanwhile combine the following organic ingredients, and put in a saucepan on medium heat:

• Coconut milk
• Tomato paste
• Quartered mushrooms
• Chopped fresh garlic
• Sea salt
• Black pepper
• Coriander

While the above ingredients are being heated in the saucepan, chop up fresh cilantro and fresh basil, and put into a bowl.

Once the spaghetti and greens are cooked and drained, and the sauce is heated, put all the ingredients into the bowl, then mix it all up.

I love this dish because the sauce is as creamy as a cheese sauce, and the combination of flavors is totally delish. Yum!

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My endocrinologist had recommended the conventional medical route – a biopsy, to determine whether the cells were in fact cancerous, followed by possible surgery if they were. A firm believer in the body’s power to self-heal, and therefore knowing that even in the worst-case scenario, I would not opt for thyroid removal, I immediately and radically altered my diet – getting rid of every possible toxin I had learned about over the years. Overnight, I started eating a diet that was all-organic, vegan, and unprocessed, with no fried food, soy, gluten, or sweeteners of any kind.

The first month was brutal. I had gut-wrenching cravings for steak, cheese, and chocolate, sometimes all at once. I regularly felt weak and faint, to the point that I nearly collapsed on a one-mile walk, despite being fairly athletic. And all those beans left me desperately chasing after myself with an air freshener! But then, suddenly, my body plummeted into a sense of calm and stability that I had never known before. After a lifetime of eating disorders, including anorexia, bulimia, and compulsive overeating, my food addictions vanished, and without trying, I lost nearly 15 pounds in three months. Added bonus: My skin started to glow and look about a decade younger.

Many of my dietary changes were inspired by stories I heard when I began attending vegan gatherings. I had just moved to Sacramento in the fall, and I was looking for hipster, progressive types (and of course, cute guys!) I figured vegan groups were a good place to start, especially considering that I kept kosher – meaning, unlike elsewhere, I could eat all the food at vegan meals. Through the gatherings, I met people whose bodies had self-healed and completely transformed through a vegan diet – including one man, now a “raw foodie” vegan, who had altogether eliminated a tumor by radically altering his eating habits. I met this man, in fact, just one week before receiving the ultrasound news. Had I gotten that news without these prior encounters, I would have been hysterical. Instead, I was scared, but also empowered with information and knowing where to turn for guidance and support.

Against the backdrop of our healthcare model, it is considered radical, even outright stupid, to reject surgery or chemotherapy in the face of cancer, never mind to reject a diagnostic biopsy. But my experience has been that even standard procedures can cause more harm than good. In addition, I have discovered that, at the end of the day, the power to heal comes from within my own body. That’s because back in 1997, I was catapulted into the healthcare system, following a hit-and-run, head-on car collision. I went from bad to worse over the years, injured by a melee of doctors, bodyworkers, and medical procedures – until, in 2005, I could barely walk or even pull a sheet up to my chin, because of excruciating pain.

That year, I discovered that I could use dance to heal myself. Sounds totally “woo-woo,” right? But it worked. And as I learned through interviewing leading integrative medicine doctors and scientists, the discovery placed me at the frontiers of medical research on the power of the brain to heal the body. It also brought me to where I am today – leading an overall pain-free and athletic life. Meaning, while the conventional approach to healthcare failed me miserably over the course of a decade, my own intuitive approach dramatically saved the quality of my life in less than half the time.

Which brings me to my current decision to go organic vegan instead of get a biopsy and, worst case scenario, surgery: If this growth is cancerous, it means that something in my body is out of whack. I need to figure out what it is and what I need to do, so as to bring my body back into harmonious alignment. As noted by David Simon, MD – medical director of the Chopra Center for Wellbeing – in one of our interviews, “The most powerful pharmacy is not CVS, Walgreens, or Rite-Aid. It is the human body.” I seek to activate my inner pharmacy.

True, a biopsy is a routine and relatively safe procedure. But so are taking antibiotics, getting a crown, having a wart removed, and receiving an MRI. While the bulk of my experiences with these procedures were incident-free, some of them involved complications that left me worse off than before – with weeks of cognitive dysfunction, a month of horrific headaches, half a year of my back going out completely, and years of shooting eye pain, respectively. Bad luck? Not so much. Our healthcare system routinely injures and kills scores of people, ranking medical mishaps as the third leading cause of death in America today.

Meanwhile, the incidents of cancer, heart disease, Alzheimer’s, and other chronic illnesses are skyrocketing in our country. I don’t know about your response to this data, but mine is to figure out the source of the problem and eliminate it from my life. As I have embraced the organic vegan lifestyle, I have learned that our food – my beloved dairy in particular – may be the culprit. While dairy is touted as the holy grail of calcium and therefore bone fortification, international studies have revealed that the incidents of osteoporosis are directly proportional to dairy intake in a given country – ie, the more dairy consumed on national average, the higher the incidents of the disease. The latest research is also now linking dairy to cancer.

How is it possible that I have been so duped about dairy all these years? Not only did I love the taste and texture of anything from a cow’s utter, but I also consumed inordinate quantities of milk, in the health-driven interest of strengthening my bones. “The hype about milk is basically an effective marketing campaign by the American Dairy industry,” says Walter Willet, MD, MPH, DrPH nutrition chairman at Harvard School of Public Health.

That’s scary stuff.

Fortunately, my endocrinologist is the coolest doc ever. Not only does she spend copious amounts of time patiently responding to my million plus questions about thyroid and cancer in general and my situation in particular, but she also supports my organic vegan path. Together, we are closely monitoring my progress, with the understanding that I will continue with an exclusively holistic response unless, Gd forbid, I end up in a life-and-death emergency situation. Conventional medicine, with its slice & dice approach, is awesome in those kinds of scenarios. I am deeply grateful that a hi-tech option exists. But especially considering that thyroid surgery runs the risk of cutting a vocal chord nerve, and that I am a singer (albeit a lapsed one), that option is my Plan Z.

My doc agrees that if I’m not doing surgery anyhow, there is no reason to subject myself to the invasive procedure of sticking a needle into my throat, right next to my trachea, four or five times over. Instead, I’ll be getting an ultrasound every three months — like the follow-up imaging I got last week, which showed that the size, shape, and blood flow in the nodule have remained the same since the first ultrasound in November. In other words, so far so good. Over the next three months, I plan to keep my current diet and step up my game, adding a few tricks: I’m going to start singing daily, figuring that if I can dance away pain, so can I sing away cancer – in both instances, channeling the healing power of vibrations. In addition, I’m going to blast my system with alkaline – taking “green” supplements from the land and sea and eating massive amounts of cilantro, which healed the tumor of my friend’s rabbit in three months flat.

Meanwhile, I’ve taken to sticking my nose into friends’ entrees and deeply inhaling the scent of all things meat and cheese. Once I sit up and compose my obscene expression of ecstasy, I munch on my salad and inform said friends that it’s time for them to go vegan.

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• Celery
• Fresh garlic
• Fresh basil
• Fresh dill
• Fresh cilantro
• Carrots
• Collard greens
• Kale
• Chili pepper
• Paprika
• Coriander
• Sea salt
• Spaghetti sauce: After dumping in the sauce, I realized it has olive oil, which I have been making a point of not heating up, because of that free radical thingamadoogee. But I figured I’d let myself slide tonight, and I just warmed the chili on low heat.

When it was all done, it was mmmm mmmm good!

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• Chop raw kale.
• Chop raw garlic.
• Make thin slices of a carrot.
• Chop fresh basil
• Chop fresh mint
• Chop an orange

Combine all ingredients in a bowl, then add pumpkin seeds, flax seed oil, and spices — cumin, curry, black pepper, rosemary, oregano, sea salt.

This salad goes very well with this avocado salad:

• Chop an avocado
• Chop a tomato
• Chop spring onions
• Chop fresh basil
• Chop fresh garlic

Add all ingredients into a bowl, then squeeze a little fresh orange juice into it and add spices – black pepper, oregano, rosemary, sea salt.

Enjoy!

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