Motivation

Lisasayers- What is Zumba????? 

Ps-you don't look like you could have a daughter old enough to teach a class!! You look very fit! I am definately going to follow your advice.

Marian

Oh Deanna, I loved the bit about taking a walking route of your driving route! Fascinating! I've also noticed if I walk a route the opposite way (backwards) I notice all sorts of different things!!!  

The world is so beautiful. Spring is coming here too!!!! The birds are so busy!!

I think we all need to gather for a health weekend. Lisa can teach Zumba, I can give some golf lessons and we can all take some great walks together.

Lisa, you do look 18! That's okay, I love ya anyway!

Spring, I got to take pills before the colonoscopy. I could never have done it if I had to drink gunk. Ask for the pills. The hardest part was the 24 hour fasting. I am use to eating every 2 hours, so I was really feeling jittery all day. They told me I could eat jello or drink koolaid, but I hate the stuff! I can't believe they tell you to have all that sugar. So I drank a LOT of green tea. My doc said I won the prize for having the cleanest colon she had ever seen! There is a link to colon cancer and bc, so when the rest of you are done with treatments, make sure you get a colonoscopy.

Dani, I know how you feel about your coworker who eats all that crap. I was so furious when I was dx and looked at all the people in my family, and obese strangers who did not have cancer. It took me a long long time to get over those feelings. Last summer, at a family picnic, I just looked at all my over weight ItalianAmerican relatives and felt sorry for them. Their day of reckoning will come, sadly. I could tell a lot of my cousins were jealous of my new physique because they did not mention it to me. Only a couple of them even acknowleged my BC. Now I just feel very sad for people who do not get it. I feel sad that they are going to suffer, maybe not cancer, but heart disease or diabetes. I am one of the oldest cousins, and I feel younger than any of them. While they sat around, eating and drinking, I got on the trampoline and jumped with the kids. Eating right is a better way of life. I no longer fear the return of bc, and I do not take any hormone therapy. This is actually another motivator for me. Since I do not have a pill to rely on, I am more compelled to keep to this new health regime because I have a lot at stake if I don't.

Vivre- Is it that you choose not to take hormone therapy personally or is it because you would not benefit from it?  Just curious.  I am having a really hard time getting ready for the Tamoxifen. Mostly I am scared about all the side effects and staying on something for 5 years with all the risks it poses. But I did have a long discussion with my Onc. about it and for me the benefits far outweigh the risks.  I feel comfortable enough with my Onc. to take his advice and go on the Tamoxifen, but it still doesn't ease the anxiety.  I know that anything I can do within reason to keep breast cancer from coming back I will do. 

Tonight I did the Biggest Loser workout.  It is pretty tough, but not as hard as I remember it being when I first started working out. Must mean I am getting conditioned.  Another tip I learned by reading information on-line is not only to eat 6 small meals a day but to also vary the amount of food you eat from day to day so your body never gets use to one steady caloric amount.  Keep it guessing so it stays proficient in burning calories.  Also do the same with an exercise plan. Keep changing it up every 4 weeks or so, so the body doesn't get use to the same exercise and it quits working for you.  Just some information for thought.

Hope you all have a great evening, and if you haven't already done your workout you better get busy, it's getting late!

Marian

Hi Ladies,

May I be honest?

I have worked out hard from the age of 16 until 40. Then I was DX with BC.

I feel like it made no difference. Now, I am having to force myself to get back to it. I feel like everything I did.. most all my life.. did not do a DARN thing to keep me safe. Why in the world should I continue doing what I did.. it did no good for 14 yrs..

Anyone want to pipe in here???? I need to change my mind. I feel like... if I continue... I am just doing it to look good.. because it will not help my health....

I feel like I am in a fight here....

Laura, I felt the same way at first. I was a PE teacher. I have been active all my life and I got bc. Do you know that too much exercise puts as much stress on our bodies as living in a pressure cooker? Look at Lance Armstrong. And look where he got cancer-in the most stressed part of his body. One thing that I do believe is that all the exercise I got, helped to keep my bc from spreading. I also lost a cousin to bc two months before I found my lump, so having her in mind, got me to the doctor right away. I was lucky I caught it early and I was not about to look a gift horse in the mouth and neglect myself anymore. It is proven that women who exercise have a 50% less chance of recurrance, so I do believe it is important not to forget this. There are so many other causes of bc. All we can do is try to minimize our exposure to all of them. We cannot do anything about a lot of the cancerous poisons in this world, but we can make sure we build up our immunes systems to fight them off. We also need to learn to ignore the toxic people in our lives, and we need to go out every day and be thankful for the gift of life. As I said, I was so furious that I got bc. I never smoked ( but I lived with parents who did) so I was mad at them. I had to let go of all the anger, and when I did, I felt reborn. It is really important to believe that all the changes we make are our prevention, for the power of the mind is immeasurable. When I was first dx, I thought I would worry about getting again it for the rest of my life, even though I knew I would get through treatments okay. Then I talked to a 10 year survivor. I asked her if you ever stop worrying about it. She said she never does because she knows she is healthier, both physically and emotionally,  now than when she got bc. Her words were a Godsend, and I decided I would follow the same path she took. Now here I am, and I can honestly say, I do not worry that it will come back. I truly hope that you will all have faith and find your inner peace too.

As far as declining the hormone therapy, I just was so freaked out by the whole thing, I just could not go there. I read everything I could on alternatives and decided against arimidex after a lot of soul searching. Again, I say, everyone needs to feel that their choices will work, or they will not. Taking arimidex would statistically only give me a 5% edge.  I just did not think it was worth the expense and side effects for such a small difference in my case.

Marian-you are really on track! Keep up the good work.

Yep, Laura, Vivre, Lisa, Deanna

I had a period following my diagnosis where I looked at overweight people, old people, people smoking, eating bad food, drinking, etc, and I HAD CANCER? I couldn't believe it. No, it is not fair. But, I realized recently, I have moved on from being "taken in" by those thoughts. I am now focusing on me, a stronger me, a healthier me, a leaner me, a more fit me, a stronger me. For whatever reason I got cancer. I grew up in NJ and my husband and I wonder, maybe it was chemicals, etc. Who knows. Maybe I am genetically "weaker" though nobody else in my family has ever had cancer (we generally have heart issues, until me!) Anyway. I am also trying to get to the point where I can say, fee, and believe: I HAD cancer, that I don't HAVE it anymore...

I also feel like I handled chemo well, I worked throughout part time. My body was strong, it kept bouncing back. I healed fast from surgery, people said it was amazing. Rads: I burned and healed, again. I am more committed now to health - foods, exercise, and serenity than EVER. I had a large tumor that was not found with mammo and ultrasound. (I am still mad about that and the stupidness of how they deal with dense breast tissue, but...)  But the cancer was not in my nodes, even with this large tumor! I wonder if my body somehow managed that too?

For a bit, I felt my body betrayed me. But now, I am amazed, totaly blown away, at my body and it's ability to heal. IT WANTS TO BE WELL!!! I am going to help it. 

Laura, don't give up. I know you are a spiritual person. Pray about this. This is the body God gave you and it is designed to thrive and be well. See if you can get to the place where you can still help it!!! The journey you are going through with this sounds like many of us have been through. Believe you can get to the other side. I believe you can!!  Love you girl...

Spring.

Lisa, yes, I think, "Things are not always as they seem". The longer I live, the more I see this is true....

Laura- as crappy as things are now, perhaps your healthy lifestyle has prevented it from being worse, if you can imagine that. 

My husbands mother died of breast cancer when she was 27 years old.  They didn't take her lump seriously because she was in her early 20's and it was the 1960's.  So even though we can't see the reason we are on this road, perhaps there is one.  Maybe my husbands mothers death and my choice for a prohylactic mastectomy may benefit my daughter someday because she is going to have knowledge that we did not have, because of our experiences.  

My daughter will be 18 in June and I am wondering if I should have her tested for the gene.  I don't want to put fear into her at such a young age but she is not far from the age of her grandmother when she developed cancer.  I have been told that they don't look at the paternal side as a risk factor but I find that hard to believe.            

Isn't it amazing how we have all had such similar thoughts. When I see young girls out jogging these days, I want to stop them and hug them and say, keep taking care of yourself, protect those beautiful breasts all you can. I did stop and give a beautiful young girl who was sitting by the river smoking a little lecture. I told her I had just been to cance hell and back and I wish she would stop giving her body cancer injections. I then apologized to her, but she actually said that I was right and that I was giving her something to think about. Now we cannot approach people who are obese and not expect to be slapped, but I hope we can set an example by our actions that it is never to late to take one's health seriously. Maybe everyone should spend a day at a Cancer treatment center? I figure getting bc probably saved me from diabetes, which does run in my family, even though cancer does not. I just continue to try to find the silver lining in this cloud. As I have said many times before, my favorite mantra is "Don't look back, except to learn."

Lisa

If you tested negative and still got it then there is no point to the test.  We have to be proactive.

I loved reading all this. Deanna, I especially liked the visual about putting all the problems in the center of the room, and maybe you'd be glad for the one you have. LOL!!!

When I was getting chemotherapy in, there were sometimes children in the chemo suite. That made me think in a different way than "oh my life is so unfair". I am 50!! They were kids!!! Also, as horrible as BC is, my husband has a relative, she is 51 and was diagnosed with pancriatic cancer.  I don't even know what to say about that. It's so tragic. It is not at all the prognosis we get with BC...

Virve, I like your mantra, "Don't look back, expect to learn". 

I have two daughters, 16 and 19. Their aunt (my husband's sister) was diagnosed at 27 and died at 35 when my youngest was just born. I don't have the gene, but I worry about them. I wonder too when they should be tested. And given my dense breasts and the uselessness of mammograms and ultrasound for me, I wonder I wonder I wonder....

Spring...

Oh dear: Two Springs! and it is Spring!

Spring-2 I often wonder what I am doing wrong - I am 10 lbs heavier than I want to be but I am still in the "normal" ranges.  I want to blame Tamoxifen also but I don't really know if I can because maybe it is just because I am now mid-40s and post-menopause.  I work out almost every day and I still have my meno-pot.  That is why I started the kickboxing.  If I can't lose the spare tire with all those sit ups, push ups and core strengthening then I guess I am just meant to have it.

I also had many of the same thoughts as everyone else.  Prior to bc I exercised at a strenous level regularly.  I didn't smoke.  I ate fairly healthy.  I did imbibe in alcohol in moderation.  After I was diagnosed I thought "Whats' the point?".  But then I realized that being in good shape helped me bounce back from all of my surgeries easily.  Now that I am post-menopause I am at higher risk for heart disease so I feel exercise and eating right are important to prevent cardiac problems.  I have to admit though, it still annoys me if I walk past someone who is smoking outside the doors to the hospital or someone who is very overweight piling on grotesque amounts of food at a buffet style restaurant.  I think "wheres the justice?"  But I know that in life there is a reason for everything.

Welcome Spring II!!!!!!

 I just got back from teaching about 80 5th grade students a mini Zumba class.  We did half an hour and they were tired! LOL  I always tease the kids and say, "You are going to let this 45 year old lady out do you?"  That gets them going.

Tonight I teach my regulars...so now I'm having my protein/lunch!

I know I added about 5 pounds throughout chemo, but it is slowly coming off.  Some of it may be muscle, as I've been doing a lot more squats in my classes and I have noticed a huge difference in my leg muscles!  Clothes still fit the same....so that is all that matters to me!

Deanna...when it comes to moving your body...3.1 miles is not measly!  Thanks for the reminder...I need to finish taxes too!

Hi ladies,

May I join you?  I finished chemo 3 weeks ago and now I'm on day 2 of rads.  I'm up 18 LBS since Dx and it needs to come off.  I walk 7 miles 2 days a week with a friend next to a beautiful river here in Oregon. We have mild weather so I was able to walk during chemo with the exception of a few days that I could only make it halfway.  This was the one thing I did that made me feel better.

I was already 40 LBS overweight so I really need to make some changes.  I'd like to put together a list of food that I always have on hand.  I need to start slow or I'll never make the changes I have to make. 

Any suggestions on food to add to my list?  I'm also interested in eliminating sugar.  I've seen several recommendations.  What's the best one to use? 

Hugs to all.