I was living abroad in Hong Kong from 2006 to 2012 with a newborn and had no close family or friends nearby.  I had my second child in 2008.  I was diagnosed with breast cancer at the end of 2009 and had a mastectomy and breast reconstruction a couple of months later.  It was the most difficult and painful experience I have ever had.  After recovering physically, I couldn’t get over why I had breast cancer.  There was no family history of breast cancer and no one in my family smoked and I have never smoked. Why me? So, I did a lot of research.

I was reading all the books and online materials that I could get my hands on about causes of breast cancer.  That was when I became interested in nutrition and holistic health.  They resonated with me and gave me some answers I was looking for. I realized that I was out of balance in body, mind, and spirit.  Physically, I was overweight and tired all the time, and mentally I was depressed.

Soon after my operation, I changed my diet drastically.  For the next few years, I continued to read books on nutrition and often found contradictory information.  Although I lost weight after changing my diet, I was still unsure of what I was doing and I continued to live in fear of my cancer coming back.  I was never sure if I was eating or doing the right things, or if I had done enough to keep the cancer away.  I felt anxious every time I had to do a mammogram and then waited nervously for my results.  I knew then this was not how I wanted to live.  I wanted to be able to take control of my own health.