Where it began

In July 2012, I was diagnosed with Stage IV metastatic colon cancer, and by that first Friday, I was already in surgery for a colon resection. A few weeks later—while recovering from that surgery and just before my first chemotherapy treatment began—my oncologist handed us a list of liver surgeons to consult. The cancer had already spread to my liver, lymph nodes, and stomach lining. Because it was in multiple areas, my immediate next step had to be chemotherapy to clear the disease outside the liver; any future liver surgery completely hinged on whether the chemo could first clean up those other spots.

Our first consultation at a major local medical center was discouraging. The doctor reviewed my PET scan, shook his head, and told us there was nothing more his team could do to operate. He suggested we focus simply on extending life through chemotherapy.

Refusing to give up, we sought a second opinion at a completely different institution. That is when we met Dr. Goldstein at Baylor University Medical Center. After reviewing the exact same scans, he placed his hand on my shoulder and said something I have never forgotten: “Maybe they can’t help — but we can. We’re going to reset the clock.”

He wasn’t talking about a cure. He wasn’t offering a miracle. What he meant was simple and profound: medical science does not stand still. Treatments evolve. Options emerge. And sometimes the most important goal is not curing everything today — it is staying alive long enough for the next door to open. That moment changed everything.

What “Reset the Clock” actually means

There was no guide for what came next. No one who had walked this road handed us a map. My wife Lalisa and my mother did extraordinary amounts of research — finding pieces, possibilities, options. Together we evaluated what we found, filtered it through our experience, and made deliberate decisions about how to move forward.

What we built was not a miracle plan. It was an integrative approach — combining the best of modern, Western medicine with Eastern holistic practices — designed to manage metastatic colon cancer not as a death sentence, but as a chronic disease. That distinction matters enormously.

When you reframe advanced cancer as something to be managed rather than simply survived, it changes how you think, how you act, and how you live. It gives you agency. It gives you a strategy. And it gives you a reason to stay in the game — long enough to reset the clock again.

The six practices that have guided me

These are not rules. They are not guarantees. They are the practices that — over more than a decade — have consistently mattered:

1. Second opinions: Not because doctors are wrong. Because perspective matters. The surgeon who told me we were going to reset the clock was a second opinion. Never be afraid to seek one. Multiple opinions place you in the databases of multiple organizations — each with access to different clinical trials that may match your specific cancer’s genetic makeup. That possibility alone changed my life.
2. Nutrition: Not perfection — consistency. What you put into your body matters, especially when it is fighting. Small, sustained changes over time outperform dramatic short-term efforts.
3. Movement and exercise: Within your limits. On your terms. Movement is medicine — and it does not have to be intense to be meaningful.
4. Rest: Real rest — physical and mental. This disease is exhausting in ways that others cannot fully see. Protecting your rest is not weakness. It is strategy.
5. Embracing treatment when needed: Even when it is hard. Even when you are tired. Treatment — surgery, chemotherapy, clinical trials — has been central to my journey. Approach it as a partner, not an adversary.
6. A grounded, realistic attitude: Not forced positivity. Not denial. Steady resolve. The ability to acknowledge hard truths and still choose to move forward. This, more than anything, has been the foundation.

Why I share this

There was no one ahead of me on this road who handed me their experience. That is precisely why I built Colon Cancer Real Talk.

Lalisa, my mother, and I pieced this together through research, trial, reflection, and more than a decade of living it. If what we learned can give even one patient or family a clearer path — a little less fear, a little more direction — then my time is well spent.

I do not charge for this. I do not accept donations or compensation of any kind. This is not a business. It is a calling.

If you are facing a late-stage diagnosis and someone has told you there is nothing more to be done — I want you to hear something: You may not be out of options. You may simply need to reset the clock.

— Greg Metry, Stage IV Colon Cancer Survivor since July 2012

Check out my favorite superfoods along with healthy and delicious recipes using these superfoods. Discover Superfoods