Cancer survivors

Nobody wants to hear they have cancer. It stops you in your tracks. It alters the way you look at yourself and the world around you. It fosters an appreciation for life that wasn’t obvious before. It forces us to face a new reality. Your body is now at war with an invader, and you have two choices – give in, or join the fight. 

​

The point is that you need to get your mind in the game to fight and fight effectively.

A diagnosis of cancer will often cause significant psychological distress that feels incapacitating. Making decisions about treatment options and the treatment itself is incapacitating both physically and mentally. It’s a time when you rely on your doctors to advocate for you and lead you through the ordeal.

​

Once in remission, you’re entering a new phase. Your doctors will tell you the short and long-term approaches to nutrition and exercise that you need to put in place to maximize your ability to stay healthy and maintain a good quality of life – for you and everyone else in your life.

​But here’s the catch – the doctors just handed you the ball - YOU need to be your own advocate to make this happen.

​

One thing should be perfectly clear – regardless of how you may reassess your goals in life, the health of mind and body needs to be the priority. Without the latter, you cannot realize the former. One key to success – recognizing that mind and body are not distinct. They are codependent. If you are determined to give long term nutrition and exercise a chance, your body will respond in remarkable ways – and that in turn will reinforce your determination to keep going. You’ll see improvement in not just physical health but mental health as you feel better about yourself and see that you DO have the ability to effect positive change. It’s a recipe for ‘wellness’ that ought to be a lifelong commitment moving forward.