If you have been diagnosed with cancer, and are receiving chemotherapy and/or radiation exposures, where you start to build yourself up again depends on what's the most bothersome to you. Do you want to gain weight or fight fatigue? Actually, they are connected and what you eat, how and when you exercise and your stress level all are important to a wellness view.

If you smoke or drink, no matter what you do, you won't make much headway. So no matter what your goals are, I'd suggest you get help with those first.

I don't know what you eating or exercise habits are, but whatever you're doing, two processes are important for you:

1. cleansing and
2. rebuilding

Start with the cleansing, then gradually work yourself into the building process.

Cleansing are things like

• drinking 8-10 glasses of distilled water a day (with or without fresh lemon juice squeezed in and the darkest colored honey you can find.
• taking 2-4 capsules of silymarin (milk thistle) 300 mg (this is not only a cleanser, it also helps with sleep, pain, energy and more
• eating 8-10 servings (1/2 cup each) of fresh or frozen fruits
• avoiding meat, sugar, and highly processed foods, fried foods, sodas, all dairy products
• taking 1 teaspoon of psyllium husks daily in a glass of water; mix well and drink it down before it gels; find this and other products at health food stores or Online

Rebuilding are things like

• eating 8-10 servings (1/2 cups each) of fresh or frozen vegetables
• taking acidophilus or multidophilus via capsules or Dannon plain yogurt
• taking astragalus

 Here are some ideas for meals:

• baked potato, a huge green salad with several different raw greens  (spinach, dandelion, arugala, kale, chickory, escarole, etc. with olive oil and cider vinegar and garlic powder), 4 ounces of baked or broiled fish, tofu or tempeh, lightly steam 1 cup broccoli and/or cauliflower hearts for 5 minutes, sprinkle garlic powder over, and dribble plenty of olive oil over that
• Brown rice and any kind of beans you like (black, kidney, pinto, or whatever) (You can find this at Mexican restaurants if you don’t want to cook)
• Stir fried vegetables and rice (you can find this at a Chinese restaurant if you don’t want to cook)

For snacks between meals: 

(1) eat bananas with organic peanut butter and dark honey (buckwheat is best) and add unsalted nuts and seeds that don't have oil added, if you like. That will help you gain weight as well as provide plenty of minerals and vitamins

(2) Try 1 or 2 containers of plain (not with fruit and sugar in it) yogurt with live cultures, and add fresh or frozen strawberries or blueberries and mix in a blender. Add honey and eat as a snack between meals. Get some lecithin granules and add a couple of tablespoons to your drink. If you don't like the taste, get some gel capsules of lecithin and take 1200 3x a day with meals to enhance energy and build brain connections.

Exercise: This is both cleansing and rebuilding and will help strengthen you.

Walk everyday if you can, especially in the noontime sun. That will help your body detoxify and the vitamin D from the sun will strengthen you. Exercise also makes it easier to sleep.

Evaluate the results:

I ask my clients to keep a food/mood diary. Everyone is an individual and may benefit from one or more approaches. If you write down everything you put into your mouth and how you feel for up to an hour or so afterward, you will soon begin to notice patterns of how foods and medicines affect you.