Becoming Whole [Paperback]

Meg Wolff (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 20, 2006

In the fall of 1999, 41-year-old Meg Wolff was dying of breast cancer. She had fought the good fight; mastectomy, chemotherapy, and radiation but none of the treatments were expected to save her life. Meg had already proven that she was a fighter and t

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Becoming Whole: The Story of My Complete Recovery from Breast Cancer is a book written in 2 parts. The first is an inspirational, motivational and personal account of Meg's journey to health and the importance macrobiotics played in her recovery. The second part is a handbook leading the reader down the same healthful, life-affirming path. Complete with an introduction to macrobiotics, recipes for a healing macrobiotic diet, menu plans and a directory of professionals, this book not only inspires the reader, but also empowers them.

Product Details

• Paperback: 267 pages
• Publisher: Lulu.com (November 20, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 143030961X
• ISBN-13: 978-1430309611
• Product Dimensions: 11 x 8.2 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #187,570 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Natural Path to Cancer Recovery and Living Completely, March 25, 2007

By 

D. A. Leland (Coronado, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Becoming Whole (Paperback)

Becoming Whole by Meg Wolff ... if you haven't read it, you need to.

A quick summary will tell you that Meg lost a leg to bone cancer at the age of 33 and several years later was fighting for her life once again as she battled breast cancer. You will also learn of her complete recovery.

At first glance, one might conclude this is a survival story, which it is, but it is so much more. Meg tells her story of struggle in order to create context for her courageous course of recovery and the life altering benefits this offers everyone, ill or otherwise.

Before you reach the book's conclusion, you will see a life reclaimed, relationships rebuilt, and a spirit set free to send words of experience, wisdom, and hope to a world that increasingly needs to hear her words.

In the end, Meg rejects much of what modern medicine has to offer and chooses a course of alternative treatment grounded in a shift to macrobiotic foods: soups, grains, beans, vegetables, sea vegetables, and fish. Meg will tell you that her complete recovery from cancer is almost completely due to her change of diet. Meg's struggles provide a context for her message, which is one of physical healing, disease prevention, emotional solace, and spiritual growth achieved through wholesome eating.

Becoming Whole is divided into two sections. The first is Meg's story, the context that is absolutely necessary in order to understand and appreciate the extra mile she traveled to heal through traditional means and the dramatic changes achieved by choosing her own course and altering her diet--dramatic changes that are available to everyone, and are as important for those who believe they are healthy as they are for those who know they are ill. In the second section, Meg teaches you the macrobiotic alternative through a wide variety of recipes and easy-to-understand explanations of their benefit.

Meg was dying. She chose to live. Her book invites us all to live longer and better ... physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars For healthier and happier life, March 19, 2008

By 

Happy Dodson (Luling, LA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Becoming Whole (Paperback)

Could I improve my health and happiness if I changed the way of eating and living that was damaging my body? Could change to the macrobiotic diet and lifestyle protect me from breast cancer recurrence? I am grateful that my search for improved health located Meg Wolff and her book BECOMING WHOLE: THE STORY OF MY COMPLETE RECOVERY FROM BREAST CANCER. Meg Wolff saved her own life with macrobiotics by changing her body's internal environment so that her body regained health and rejected the cancer that threatened her life. She shares her experience with readers, showing that in making these changes it is sometimes possible to survive the most dire of medical expectations. In 2005 reading the chapter on cancer in T. Colin Campbell's THE CHINA STUDY turned me into a vegan that very day. Being vegan is not the same thing as following a macrobiotic lifestyle and diet, but being vegan fits very well into the greater picture of macrobiotics. In 2007 reading Meg Wolff's BECOMING WHOLE immediately put me on the path to living more of a macrobiotic lifestyle. I'm finding that macrobiotics is entertaining and truly health-restoring. Meg Wolff makes macrobiotics understandable and interesting. I recommend her book and her website/blog to everyone wanting to improve their health and happiness.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Inspiring The Best Life Possible, May 30, 2009

By 

Meghan Telpner "Certified Nutritionist, megha... (Toronto, Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Becoming Whole (Paperback)

When I was diagnosed with Crohn's, told my options and given a list of medications that could potentially, possibly, maybe help me, what I saw in my future was not free of disease. I saw my future as Meg Wolff's life unfolded for her, disease-ridden.

In her book, Becoming Whole, Meg recounts in an honest, composed, revealing manner what she went through with her near death, double brush with cancer. She was as good as gone from what her doctors could determine, but each still insisted that cutting and chemicals were her only option in prolonging her life. She was not given any options that would ensure living.

Desperate times call for desperate measures and when you are not given an option that feels right, you have to create your own. Meg had the same realization I did, that if we didn't change what was building the disease within us, the disease would continue to appear, perhaps in different ways, in different manifestations, but it would come back.

An amazing observation that Meg makes in her book is that "Health is an unknown state of being for most doctors. They don't know how to detect it, or what it really looks like, which is why they don't know when to call off the war. Illness is all that they understand. Health is a mystery".

When it comes to a health crisis, one of the scariest things we can do is to go against science and `the professionals' and instead follow our hearts and instinct. Meg transitioned to a strictly macrobiotic diet and cured her stage 3 cancer. Meg found a doctor that supported her and gave her hope.

Meg will carry with her for the rest of her life the battle scars of the war she fought, losing a leg and a breast. Aside from these reminders she is the embodiment of perfect health in body, mind and spirit. The book concludes with a delicious selection of healing macrobiotic recipes and resources and of course the reasons why they work.

I have always been reluctant to boast about the disease curing ability of the wholesome plant based foods. I stress that it can prevent disease, that bad food will build disease but have never claimed (and legally am not allowed to) that these health supportive foods like whole grains and green vegetables and best lifestyle practices are actually a cure for disease.

What if we could get people to eat and live like this from birth and that disease and degeneration is not the inevitable result of getting older? Imagine the burden that would be lifted economically, environmentally, socially, and spiritually? A healthy world is truly a different one than we are building. Eating kale and brown rice, drinking green smoothies regularly, taking walks, and sitting quietly once in a while could actually change our lives. Does it get any simpler?

I know that you know someone with cancer. We all do. Get this book. Read it yourself, share it, and spread the word.