Want to know what life is like without alcohol, soda, or processed sugar?

Well, you’ve come to the right place! Having back-to-back cancer diagnoses makes a person look back and re-evaluate their lifestyle. I know I sure did. As I previously mentioned in my past posts, I went Paleo during my second pregnancy/during my breast cancer treatment.

Once I was officially Cancer-free, I decided that I needed to improve my overall health to avoid a third round of this ridiculous illness. This involved:

• Healthy diet

• Better exercise

• Vitamins

• Mental discipline

We all know about the experimental stages of my diet with Paleo,

but I went through many dietary excursions before I settled to where I am today. I liked many things about the Paleo diet, such as the food variety, flavors, and general health benefits (more energy, excellent intestinal behavior, mental positivity). It is a diet that I highly recommend; on the other hand, I was not fond of my limitations, and I still have a sweet tooth that Paleo did not satisfy.

At the time of my final round of chemo, I delivered my son not but two weeks later and chose to breastfeed him. This played havoc on my appetite more than pregnancy. I needed just as many calories as I was burning while nursing Rowan. I am proud to report that I went a whole three months on one boob (the other was lost due to the necessary mastectomy), and I stored enough milk to last another month. I had to quit because of the radiation treatments.

Needless to say, this was the time that I began to slack off on my health and focus on eating what I wanted. I mean, I just beat cancer, and I deserved a treat...or 100. Between my returning dietary bad choices and all of the steroids that I had from chemo, my body began to bloat. Then came the hysterectomy five months after Rowan was born/post-chemo.

I hit 200 pounds, I’ve never weighed more than 140, and I was 200 pounds.

This was a new low for me. Before everything, I was super athletic, and life threw me another bodily change that I was not happy with. I knew I needed to get my life back on track, but it was hard. My energy was gone; I felt worse post-chemo than during chemo. This was also when I became thoroughly depressed (which I will talk about at a later date). If you don’t know, depression causes weight gain or loss, depending on the individual. I was a blimp, and that only made things worse.

I was taking my vitamins and prescription medications, but my diet was terrible. The lack of exercise didn’t help matters.

Now, I don’t want to discourage you because every journey is different, but I stayed this way for a solid four years.

Four years of hating myself and doing nothing about it.

Then, this past year, I finally did something about it. I decided to make better eating habits and physical activity choices. I decided to cut off unhealthy things like alcohol and soda because they do nothing to help me, and my oncologist said alcohol is a great way to get cancer again. Frankly, I don’t need that negativity in my life. I still treat myself to the occasional slice of cheesecake because I deserve it, but I have severely curbed my poor dietary choices.

• I switched from cow’s milk to almond and oat;

• I choose the whole veggie instead of the canned,

• I make my own bread with almond flour instead of white (sometimes I get whole wheat bread when I don’t have time to wait for the dough to rise),

• I choose water with every meal

• I treat myself to a cup of tea instead of hot chocolate

• I eat when I am hungry, but I am more considerate about portions

• I avoid processed foods

• I avoid red meats 80% of the time

• But most importantly, I do not starve myself.

Another thing I have changed about myself is my physical activity.

I still do not have the energy of my younger, more ambitious self, but I do make myself walk the literal extra mile every day. I have even gotten my husband, Randy, to join me. Due to our conflicting work schedules, we don’t walk together simultaneously, but we do have competitions to see who can out-walk the other by utilizing step-trackers on our watches.

I won’t lie, until we started this competition, I honestly thought diesel mechanics didn’t walk much. When one assUmes...regardless, he kicks my butt most days. It is to the point that, between classes, I take a jog around my classroom to sneak in a few extra steps to try to keep up with him. Competition is a fantastic motivator.

In the evenings, I will try to sneak in a walk down my neighborhood road (about 1.5 miles), but most of my long walks happen on the weekends when my husband is home to stay with the kids.

My favorite time to walk is when it rains. I love the rain. I just pop in my headphones and go. It is the most freeing experience in the world to run in the rain; all thoughts of your life disappear, and it’s just you and the pavement.

An interesting fact you should know is that people with high vitamin D levels are less likely to have cancer.

My vitamin D is always low, so I take supplements daily to help. I am proud to report that my levels came back normal for the first time...ever at my last check-up in December 2020. Another way to increase vitamin D levels is to enjoy the natural sunlight, but wear sunscreen!

I am currently down to 171 pounds as of today.

This would not have been possible without learning self-discipline and positive affirmations. I have stuck to my healthy eating and exercise and am steadily shedding the post-chemo/depression weight.

There are days that I really want to eat an extra snack that is terrible for me or stay in bed instead of taking that walk, and I have to remind myself why I am doing this. I remind myself that I do not need the junk food and choose something better for me but equally as delicious, and I decide to go another mile because I have some very important people in my life that I promised to watch grow up, and someone that I plan to grow old with.

My babies are still babies, and they need me to teach them how to be healthy, so they never

have to go through what I went through.

My husband has been amazing through everything and didn’t leave me when I was big, fat, bald, and pregnant.

I am also fighting for myself.

At the end of the day, I need to be happy with me, and that needs to be enough. I am happy with myself for how far I have come. I will be happy with myself when I also reach my goal. I plan to be happy with myself, even if it takes forever to reach my goal. As long as I don’t give up, I am proud of myself, I am proud of you, too.