The light at the end of the tunnel

Tis the season to try new recipes and keep warm, and carry on my crusade to improve my cookery and reduce the sugar intake and pretty much ban the evil ultra-processed food. I feel passionately about this because it helps to control my rheumatoid arthritis and my husband’s stage 4 cancer. He was discharged from the hospital today (I write this on a Tuesday) as one of the longest-lived patients with stage 4 lung and liver cancer. He was in the first batch of patients to have immunotherapy, and they call him their little miracle.

They’ve learned a lot since then, so the things that were dismissed as cranky but harmless when we did them on the principle that we know what stops the immune system working well, so it couldn’t hurt to do the opposite. That means regular walks and exercise, minimum sugar, cooking from scratch with ingredients that don’t look as if you’ve emptied out a bag of Scrabble letters are now the stuff that the room full of student nurses and doctors were being taught about as a massive weapon in the fight against cancer.

So while there are special offers this week, I’m not pushing them. I’m too grateful that the man I’ve loved for 42 years and who was told wouldn’t live to see Christmas 2015 has been discharged from the hospital, And I really, really, really want to say.

-use sunscreen

-eat a healthy diet

sugar is a treat

Cheap pre-prepared food is only cheap if you don’t value your life, and it isn’t cheap compared to good ingredients simply cooked, and they’re just as fast as fast food

If you love your children, teach them to cook from scratch.

I enjoy cooking, so today’s picture is a bit of a shameless gloat. They’re cinnamon swirl buns, with hardly any sugar at all. They’ve got ground almonds instead, and oat bran in them. They just don’t taste healthy, so I get the best of both worlds.

I’ll be back on Sunday, when my feet may well be touching the ground, but I’m never going to forget this moment and the light at the end of what’s been a very long tunnel. I hope you all find it too.