Fighting Breast Cancer With Healthy Lifestyle Choices

[Paula O]

As 2013 approaches, I was wondering if there is any interest in a thread for whoever wants to check in periodically as desired about how they are doing with any health promoting goals they set for themselves. Some things about cancer are totally out of our control but there are lots and lots of proactive choices we can make that can make a real difference in our health and how we feel. Even small positive changes can add up and writing down a healthy lifestyle goal that you want to achieve and how you are going to do it can be a great first step.

Being overweight is known to increase risks for breast cancer reoccurrence and poorer outcomes. I've gained a bunch of weight I want to take off so getting down to my ideal weight in the coming year is one of my personal goals. My initial aim is to lose the first five pounds with healthy eating and exercise and then build on that foundation.

Today is the first day of the rest of our lives and we don't have to wait for New Year Resolutions to start making some small, simple changes that promote health. Some may want to wait til the holidays and it's extra culinary temptations to be over to start major dietary changes if that's on your agenda but taking the stairs instead of an elevator or parking a bit further from the store in a parking lot when doing Christmas shopping this week can mean more weight bearing exercise which promotes strong bones.

Here are a few healthy lifestyle ideas below that are known to improve health that I can think of off the top of my head. Maybe others have more they'd like to add.

-Adding more fruit, veggies, and whole, unprocessed foods to our diet. When we eat a "rainbow of colors" (and I'm not talking Fruit Loops here , we are loading up on cancer-fighting nutrients
-Taking a walk every day. Even a short one does a body good to get moving
-Losing excess weight
-When in treatment and appetite is nill, choosing to eat health promoting foods and staying well hydrated whether one feels like it or not
-Cutting down or eliminating smoking
-Going to bed earlier/getting more sleep
-Drinking plenty of water (Some people recommend drinking half your weight in ounces of water--ie; someone 150 pounds would aim for 75 oz of water/day)
-Stretch when watching the news
-Getting daily fresh air and sunshine
-Reducing junk food/sugar
-Nipping defeated, negative thinking in the bud
-Getting in more fiber
-Taking time to relax and de-stress
-Making sure that you get in at least one enjoyable activity every day
-Laugh and sing more
-pump light weights or use a resistence band for strength training three times a week while being careful with extremities which have had lymph nodes removed
-Juicing
-Adding nutritional supplements
--Flossing our teeth every day is a healthy heart choice (It lowers the risk of stroke!) in addition to our gums and teeth loving it
etc

The possibilities for making progress is limitless!

It can be motivating to work on healthy lifestyle goals together with others. Accountability as desired and mutual support and encouragement can also be powerful tools in making progress. Is there any interest here in a thread for folks sharing the progress they are making with their own healthy lifestyle changes they are working on?

Here's to our health!

Paula