Early next month, it will be one year since my breast cancer diagnosis. It has been a whirlwind year that has forever changed my life and the lives of those around me.
After the surgery, chemo, and radiation, I’m now living the “new normal” life after cancer treatments. Every day, I realize that although I had led a healthy lifestyle pre-cancer, there is a lot of room for improvement.
After meeting with a breast cancer nutritionist and two physiotherapists earlier this week,
I learned that my diet and taking care of my body both needed more work. Life and cancer treatments have not been kind to my body.
The encounters with medical professionals raised two truths for me—I have to take much better care of my body post cancer every day for the rest of my life. Each medical professional in my cancer rehab regime has made me realize what “hell” my body has been through these past 10 months of treatment.
I’ve been told that getting my body back into a state of overall health will take several months of persistent daily action and activity. The medical caregivers reiterated that an hour of exercise is now to be part of my daily “new normal” in living with a breast cancer history.
Living this “new normal” to get healthy has seen me drop a clothing size in a month. Weighing and measuring food intake is a now a mainstay to monitor caloric intake against exercise output. There is still more work to be done.
I have many more pounds to lose to get to a very low fat content in my body in order to block estrogen production, and thus lessen the risk of a breast cancer recurrence. This loss of weight is harder to achieve than in the past—there are the forces of middle age, menopause, and chemo cargo to overcome (cancer treatments added 20 pounds).
The more difficult challenge is maintaining the daily exercise regime of 60 minutes a day to get my body healthy and strong, maintain it, and ward off potential cancer. An hour of daily exercise is my new “physical prescription” for a healthy body. It is now part of my ”new normal” in living with a cancer history.
With this new daily commitment, I have gained a much greater appreciation for the gym “die-hards” that faithfully commit to their daily exercise. The commitment to a healthier me is difficult to uphold—I’ve come close as I’ve been at the gym 5-6 times per week since January 1. I think I’m doing quite well—given that I started this commitment to exercise only two days after my final radiation treatment.
Very slowly my physical body is starting to return to its “new normal.” It will be some time before I can handle a regular daily routine as lived pre-cancer, as my energy levels are not what they were before I got sick. Time will tell if I will return to the old energy levels of the past, or if the “new norm” equates to lower energy levels as a permanent way of life.
As I live this “new normal” life, I have to keep reminding myself to be patient and gentle about my cancer treatment recovery. It wasn’t so long ago that my body lived through hell daily just to survive chemo and its horrid complications. I am lucky and grateful to be alive.
Daily I remind myself that my life has been blessed with a second chance. I continue to keep adjusting to a “new normal” life with Strength, Courage, and Determination.