Why can't I get fit?

I was 53 when diagnosed, and 62 now. I did chemo, rads and 5 years of Arimidex. I can truthfully say that I am more fit now than when I went into treatment.....and I was in pretty good shape then.

Jennie, I was 49 when I was diagnosed as well, and had a bilateral mastectomy, but didn't have radiation or chemo, so that might differentiate our results. I have had a hard time getting back in shape as well. I mostly do exercise videos and walk my dog every day. I've tried getting back into jogging, but it's difficult to regain my cardio endurance. At this point,I just want to MOVE and feel good. I have a lot of aches and pains from using the Letrozole, but once I take my short walk in the morning, I loosen up quite a bit. I think you should just be kind to yourself...maybe try switching up your videos. Maybe working the same body parts every day is preventing your muscles from recovering. Maybe try doing it every other day?

Not sure what else to say, but hang in there!

Jennie, I felt frustrated but mostly I felt mad, "I am not going to let this #$%& (put in a bad swear word) disease ruin my life!"

As far as exercise goes, treatment puts your body through some tough stuff. With chemo & rads, you are actually KILLING cells (hopefully any that contain cancer & not too many of the others, and so OF COURSE, it takes a long time to get things back to anywhere near normal. I once read that you should take the time you were in 'active treatment' and plan it will take that long again to recover. I, myself, would say to double the amount of time for the physical, and much longer than that for the emotional. As far as anti-hormonals go.....lots of ladies have trouble with energy level, weight gain etc. when they reach natural menopause. With the anti-hormonals the whole process is accentuated because, what would happen gradually, is BOOM, all at once.......no wonder it is tough!!!!

So, what worked for me? Well, I ramped things up and have been totally consistent about exercise. I once read that a person should get 4 hours of aerobic and 4 hours of toning in a week (a lot, I know, but you still have 161 hours left in the week to do whatever else you want). For aerobics anything moving would 'count'.....walking, zumba, biking, swimming, running (after surgery & during chemo, walking around & around in my living room 'counted' to me). Toning for me is everything else, weights, pilates, yoga, ab work, yardwork whatever. I have a notebook where I keep track, and go Monday-Sunday, that way if I don't get my time in.....I know what I'll be doing all weekend!

A couple other things that helped; I used to do DVDs all the time. Joining the YMCA and taking classes has mixed things up, made me work harder, and it has been more fun too (I still supplement with the DVDs). Also, I have some friends I walk with once or twice a week, also more fun than on my own. And, I post daily on the Lets Post Our Daily Exercise thread on the fitness forum here on BCO, and that has been GREAT accountability and lots of fun too. Come join us!!!! And the other thing I did is I got a Fitbit......that keeps me totally honest. I can't lie to myself about how many steps I got during the day because I can look right on my wrist and find out (which reminds me that I have to get up and walk around for awhile to get in the last 400 of the 10,000 recommended steps for today ).

Hope this makes sense and some of it helps!