Category: General

General Category

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It’s National Breast Cancer Awareness Month

Statistics state that 1 in 8 women in the United States will get breast cancer at some point in her life. After skin cancer, it is the most common cancer among women. But that’s not to say this disease only affects the ladies – although rare, “in 2013, more than 2,200 American men will learn they have breast cancer.”1 

This month is all about bringing awareness to the disease, which also means knowing how to reduce your risk and detecting the early stages. It’s also important to talk to your doctor about your risk factors, especially if a close family member has had breast or ovarian cancer.

So what can you do to reduce your risk right now? Here are five healthy habits to get you started: 2

  1. Maintain a healthy weight
  2. Stay physically active
  3. Eat fruits and vegetables
  4. Do not smoke or quit smoking
  5. Limit alcohol consumption

Detecting the early signs of breast cancer is also one of the best ways to fight the disease. According to the National Cancer Institute, “when breast cancer is detected early, in the localized stage, the five-year survival rate is 98%.” Every person should know the symptoms and signs. It’s also important to perform monthly self-breast exams. The more familiar you are with your breasts, the more likely you are to detect any abnormalities.

Here are the three signs to be aware of and talk to your doctor about:

  1. A change in how the breast or nipple feels
  2. A change in the breast or nipple appearance
  3. Any nipple discharge – particularly clear discharge or bloody discharge 

For more information about these symptoms and signs or to learn how to perform a self-breast exam, please visit nationalbreastcancer.org/breast-cancer-symptoms-and-signs. Remember, the best way to fight breast cancer or any cancer for that matter, is to have a plan that helps you reduce your risk factors and detect the early stages of the disease. If you need help creating your plan, sign up here. You’ll receive reminders to do breast self-exams, and schedule appointments and mammograms based on your age and health history. 

Resources:

1http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/wyntk/breast

2http://www.nationalbreastcancer.org/healthy-habits

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8-Week Challenge

Week 1 is in the books. There were some great weigh ins. Food logs are starting to come, which are important so we can plan the following week. It looks like a 2% weight loss is the greatest loss for the week.

Keys to success are:

  1.         Food log
  2.         Workout consistency
  3.         Water intake

It’s still very early in the challenge and still very open for anyone to win. Consistency and perseverance!!

 

Stay Strong!!!

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Training Under Stress

Now I’m the first to advocate working out to help manage the stress in your life. But you will want to look at the environment and conditions of the stress.

When a client or athlete comes into the gym, obviously dealing with some level of stress, it is important to take a deeper look. Is the stress due to the daily grind, some burn-out and fatigue is setting in? Or has this a long term source of stress caused a disruption of the lifestyle? In the case of the daily grind wearing you down, I’ll taper back on the workout intensity of the workout and monitor the energy level closely. In some cases a good focused workout in just what is needed to help manage the stress level.

When you’re under a great amount of stress for a significant amount of time, you are dealing with something quite a bit different. Many factors come into play when your lifestyle is altered due to stress. Sleep patterns and eating habits are compromised the most. When that happens the body is not the same machine. Even the advanced athletes lose some functionality, or ability to complete the more technical movements properly. Then we need to worry about that athlete/ client getting injured during the workout. In those situations stay with the dynamic warm-up and movement prep phase of the workout, just add a  couple sets. This allows for a deep, inclusive warm-up. That also allows me the extra time to evaluate just how functional the body is and how I might need to alter the workout. In some cases the warm-up and movement prep is the workout. In others, we’ll proceed on into the workout which will be  less technical and more machine based.

That way the client will get a great workout/ stress management, as well as stay safe.  In either situation, keep that body moving. Feed and hydrate it as well as possible and your body won’t let you down in the stressful times.