A couple of months ago Az. gave me a hard fact:
exercise for one hour six days a week and you can reduce your risk of cancer by 40%. This is based on new
research that has finally come out last year. Me being sneaky, I wondered if six hours of uphill hiking on a Saturday would do it. She must have read my mind as she told me the answer is
no. Something about elevating your heart rate for that long every day and the release of
(???). I started out by doing three days, then built up from there. As I've been out in Canmore a lot, this also meant I could avoid the curling club stairs and finding steep portions was easy. I'd go for a power walk around a part of the golf course, which starts with a steep uphill. 50 minutes for 3.8km. It's nice to get out (and lush to walk on that grass hours after the golfers have gone home!). While previously I'd focus on other things that needed to get done first (like running errands, cleaning, etc.), this now comes first for me. If we can be healthier, why aren't we? If we can prevent heart disease and a plethora of other things simply by having a normal BMI, why don't we take steps to achieve that? It's within our control, yet most of us never think to change anything until we come down with something. I had lost close to 20 pounds since May, but have been happy to be gaining a bit back again over the last couple of weeks (to get rid of
boney ribs). This morning I was at my highest weight in months, and I now fall right in the middle of normal on the BMI chart.
Food, I believe, has also made me feel healthier and having more
energy overall. I ate home-cooked stuff virtually all summer, controlling portion sizes and eating when I'm hungry. Now I just have to stay on the wagon and keep taking my lunches to work. I ate one lunch out this week and the portion felt massive. Then it must have some extraordinary amount of carbs or whatever in it that half an hour later you feel like you're ready for a nap, and then you crave sweets. Bad (and I love my sweets!). I drink
green tea or
cranberry juice every day now to get more
polyphenols, a type of antioxidant offering anti-cancer properties. And I also buy
organic versions of some foods.
So, I figure that between the exercise, healthy food, and being on a different pill now (which also decreases ovarian cancer risk by about 50%), I'm living as healthy as I can. There's always more that can be done, but we also need to be realistic in what we can achieve. Baby steps will do it.
Here's one of my 'new' breakfasts:
Cucumber/tomato/carrot salad, cranberry juice, green tea, and bun
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