Welcome to 2016! First post of the new year and it is already February 10th.
It’s odd. Now that the worst of everything is behind me I find that I’m not using the blog as much to work through everything. I feel like my life is back to a new normal now. Hair is slowly growing back and my strength at the gym is coming back.
The winds of change did come. I applied for and got a new job at the company where I’m employed. Lateral move into a new position. Didn’t realize how 4 years in my old role had taken its toll on me and now I’m very much enjoying my new job, new responsibilities, and being creative again. I just had to put everything for 2015 behind me and I began my new job as of 1/4/2016 – first day back to work in January.
Was a bit nervous with my first trip in January for work – back on a plane. Don’t have to wear a compression sleeve since I didn’t lose any lymph nodes, but still, I did end up telling one TSA that I did have a medical implant and he moved me into some other line. No troubles though and all went well. Many more trips to come in 2016.
As far as my health I am happy to report that I have only 3 more treatments to go – the next treatment being tomorrow, 2/11/2016. The treatments left are immunotherapy and I’m very happy to say that they are more an inconvenience than anything – no side effects ever noted! Very happy about that.
At the gym I’ve continued with Crossfit. Winds of change also hit there, too and I’m now a big fan of the Crossfit Football program which I’m following along with my 5 am class of less than 5. I’m very happy to announce that in the last month I’ve PR’d my back squat at 90 lbs, I did a workout with a 1 pood KB, and PR’d my double unders hitting 30 in a row just today! My back/arm strength is still low – but I’m continuing to work on my pull ups (only doing strict, no kipping pull ups for me!) and my strength is improving but it’s much slower. I continue to keep working and my friends in class are an amazing support. Working on getting my bench press back up and that is coming, too. Overall I’m now more dedicated to working out and eating healthy. FYI – now that I’ve had the port for what seems like forever, I will do all lifts with it that I was afraid to do before. I’ve learned that the lifts don’t hit where the port is and I’ve never had a problem.
My big change was starting in Jan 2016 I decided to begin making smoothies to get more vitamins in my diet. I’m not a big fan of vegetables and felt I should try smoothies. I can now say that I’m a convert. Each morning I have a smoothie – usually Power Greens with apple and sometimes lemon or orange juice added in to help with absorption of the iron. Alternatively I like orange smoothies (golden beets and carrots with apple) or red smoothies (beets with carrots and apples). All are great and as the seasons change I’ll likely throw in additional fruits to change things up a bit. I can honestly say that as I have decreased the amount of carbs I eat each day and focus on drinking lots of water and eat well, that I truly do feel amazingly well.
Another part of the new year was a resolution to take care of myself. I now have a list of things I write out each day and then check off as I do them. I don’t get them all done all days but that’s ok. I just leave them unchecked and write notes if I ate a cookie (or cookies) or enjoyed an unhealthy meal. That’s fine – funny thing is I usually don’t feel as well when I do these things – which helps reinforce the healthier diet. What I have on my little list per day: plank in the morning(currently trying to do 2 x 1 min), stretch in the morning (ideally 10 min, sometimes as little as 5), crossfit (3 times a week though I’m seriously considering bumping to 4 days a week), drinking 32 oz of water in the morning, eating yogurt with breakfast, having smoothie at breakfast (veggie/apple-fruit one), having a healthy breakfast, multi vitamin, vitamin D, probiotics, tamoxifen, drinking 32 oz of water in the afternoon, healthy lunch, healthy dinner, fish oil, stretch (10 min again ideally), plank again (2 x 1 min or at one point I was going 1 x 1 min 45 sec), good sleep. Writing the list each day and crossing it off keeps me honest. I’m no where near perfect but at least I get back on the horse day in and day out.
I’ll continue to be strong physically and mentally. The new job has helped me take all of the lessons from the past and apply them in a new setting. Sometimes you can’t make the changes you know you need to make where you are. You simply need to change things up a bit and then, amazingly, you can spread your wings in new directions and take flight.