Diet, exercise, lifestyle to decrease the risk of BC recurrence
Options
Comments
-
Karen_C, you are an inspiration! You make me want to get off my butt right now!1
-
I think it may not matter so much what you do as long as you do it regularly. I'm a night owl and walking at 6am is about as likely to happen as flying to the moon. But I can walk and cycle at the gym any time and lift weights. I can do yoga. I can commit to a gym membership so I don't backslide. I can walk as much as possible during the day. I can stop 80 hour weeks (in my late 60s) and go to 4 days a week without wrecking myself financially. I can stop talking about joining a choir or taking philosophy classes and do it. Mens sana is as important to me as corpore sano! I didn't do this so much to avoid cancer (be wonderful if it did) but to make the most of my life. We none of us know how long our lives may be and cancer is a powerful reminder that it may not last for ever.4
-
We just got back from the beach - school holidays up here - thank you!!!!
Karen-C - I am speechless and humbled. You show us how it's done - thank you so much for taking the time to post.
Thank you for so eloquently pointing out that if exercise matters women should have support - both financial and in terms of classses in achieving their goals. We have no trouble (well almost no trouble...the meandering a of PBS approvals and PBAC committees are for another time) writing out thousands of dollars in cancer drugs but only a few women are actively taught ( with more than a multi page pamphlet) as part of their recovery plan what to do about exercise in a broad all inclusive programme.
When supported women do better and are more likely to stick with it.
As for me, I am 50 and of average weight. I know my BMI, recently I took the active step of calculating not only my BMI and but my fat something ( it came as a percentage ... and it involved waist, hip, arm measurements). I also looked up what my heart rate should be for moderate intensity exercise and my jaw dropped. Yes there is a formula for that as well. I have joined a gym twice in the last twenty years and I went twice. I walk - at night, on a threadmill and watch Prowalks on YouTube ( Paris, Pompei etc ) a girl can dream. I can run a little. I swim. I play table tennis. I would like to do more yoga - or some yoga to be honest.
Afrazer please jump in one this, but apparently it is as good as resistance training for maintaining bone density. That is my short term goal - two yoga sessions a week. I keep a pair of weights in the kitchen (1 -
Weights in the kitchen - like that! My partner has an annoying habit of interfering with my cooking (he is a very good cook and cooks frequently) by adjusting heat, putting lids on/off, that sort of stuff. Maybe I need a bit more muscle evidence in the kitchen! Not to put him off, just put him in his box. Nicely.1
-
Primek - Yes, thank you Anne is great - if only my lunch boxes would look like that!!
What is it about having ALL the colours of the rainbow on your plate that immediately assures you have balance??
Ohhh yes and her banana chocolate chip muffins are on special request...☺️ Maybe on Thursday.0 -
Fitting exercise into your life will be different for everyone but here is my basic routine now (over 4 years from end of treatment).
1. An hour’s walk up and down a hilly bushtrack near my home 3-4 times a week in the early morning before breakfast.
2. 2 x 45 min sessions with weights also including core strength and balance exercises each week.
3. Walking briskly for 30 minutes on the days I don’t bushwalk.
But I did not start this straight after treatment ended. I built myself up to this slowly.
Again, do what YOU enjoy.
I also find wearing a Fitbit helpful for knowing how active I am generally each day. No good going for that walk and then sitting for the rest of the day
Also helpful for knowing the intensity I am exercising at. As I got fitter, I needed to adjust my intensity/walking speed/incline etc. 4 -
Following an email from Giovanna I will ask for this thread to be closed if BCNA agrees.
I have placed this thread ON Health and well being and NOT ON Treamenst and side effects nor on the Metastatic Forum.
To those who have selflessly posted thank you!!
You are right GIovanna I should have not tried to get over the hump of what went on during the week/end by making a quick whip - rude and delusory as it has been described - at not repeating things and adding positive YOUR LIFE comments rather then forming a "high five virtual group" - that was wrong of me.
To the 1500 visitors that came to this site to find support for health and wellbeing, I apologise I could not do better for you.
I should have said this:
It is wrong to respond to Kmakm message ( Page 1) on her journey that ends with " there is a lot of stress in my life and it helps" with Patty J " wow it would be good if we could believe everything we read ....There is nothing you can do to prevent recurrence. I am so angry! I am shaking!"
It is wrong and irresponsible to state on a public forum
" There is nothing you can do to prevent BC recurrence" unless you prefix it with " for me I feel "
or end it with " in everyone".
It is particularly poor to then highlighted, repeated and support it.
It is immature to laugh at data that gives moderate intensity exercise ( which is tough to achieve!) a 30% reduction out of the 20-30 recurrence pool - those numbers are frighteningly close to the benefit we get from AIs.
It is immature and delusory to consider your contribution more significant because you are of age or have more badges.
It is not ok to use an elite marathon athletes horrendous cancer battle after being diagnosed LATE during pregnancy because of confusion over what she felt in her breast as an example of being healthy, you can still get cancer.
It is not ok to banish someone for posting on green tea - the data from Japan supports that.
But mostly I put this on the Moderators.
It is NOT OK for the women who want to exchange freely on exercise, diet and stress reduction to be made feel bad by those who do not believe it is of benefit to them.
The victim argument goes both ways.
In BCNA there should be a place for those who want to talk freely about this topic without being admonished.
( Romla-1 -
Can I ask everyone to take a deep breath?? This is a place to assist each other - we may all have different views, but we usually try and focus on what brings us together not what divides us. We are survivors not victims. Life is full of challenges, let's not create any more for each other. And while I value the role of the BCNA moderators, we are all adults on this site. Let's live and let live, and be thoughtful with our advice - remembering that no-one has to do anything they don't want to do.6
-
I for one, do not envy our hard working and dedicated moderators. They must sometimes feel as if they are trying to herd cats, or nail jelly to the wall...so difficult. In a group as diverse as ours, our only common ground being this wretched disease, opinions and personalities differ greatly. There has been discussion and difference of opinion on a number of matters, one of which is language. There are a number of us who are not averse to using very ripe language as a stress reducing tool, it is part of our normal vernacular. However, there are some, of a more delicate nature who are deeply offended by this. Balance has to be achieved. There are some who feel that more or less support in the way of separate groups for different demographics should be catered for...but where does it end? A group for younger folks (how about one for the oldies), those who feel there should be one for the childless, as they feel unincluded. One for Christians...how about the Muslims, Jewish, Hindu, Buddhist, Agnostics etc... There has been discussion about costs of tests, treatments and drugs...who gets what at what price. Some rather iffy comments there too. Sometimes a person can get very enthusiastic and keen to share on something in particular, but it can come across as being somewhat zealous, and this can offend. I have, over the years, been doorknocked by groups of very nice, very zealous groups of people of a particular religious persuasion. They are deeply sure that if I would only read what they have to offer, I will gain Eternal Life. They are convinced that they are right and that my ignorance will be a death sentence to me. I make my choice and they make theirs. I feel as a group, we are all probably more informed than Joe Public on various matters relating to breast cancer and all it entails. We can indeed all read, and are (for good and bad), fully able to access all sorts of information via google. I found this group by googling "support groups online...breast cancer..Australia". So, one score in the positive for the Big G. Others have conferred with Dr Google to their detriment. They have looked up side effects of every drug recommended to them by their oncologists, to then go on and cherry pick what they will and won't have. Some have declined treatment and have chosen to eat kale and hop on the treadmill (so to speak). Some are happy with their decision, others have regretted it. There is no 100% right for everybody and no 100% wrong. We are all intelligent beings, and we each have to find our own path through this nightmare. We should feel free to express our individual opinions, but sometimes it's not what is said, but how it is done. and the old adage of "You catch more flies with honey than with vinegar" can apply. Thank goodness we are all so very different...it makes for a diverse and dynamic group.
10 -
Afrazer0
-
It did not post - that is ok.0
-
Hmmm interesting, gee am stunned by that rant actually...I agree @Afraser but seems from that rant quite the opposite.0
This discussion has been closed.