Photo provided by Tom Curtis

Do you feel like a sitting duck in terms of your health?

In Part 1 of Breast Health vs. Breast Cancer I shared about how at one point in my life I was scared and felt like a sitting duck in terms of my health until I determined to become proactive.  That’s when my holistic health and wellness journey began.

With October being breast cancer awareness month I am focusing on breast health rather than breast cancer.  Let’s move away from what I call the sitting duck syndrome and be proactive no matter what your health is like at this moment.

So what can we do to be proactive in terms of healthy breasts?

1. Breast Lymph Massage: discussed in part 1 … click here => Breast Health vs. Breast Cancer

2. Maintaining a healthy weight & exercise

Please don’t brush off number 2 with a defeated yea yea I know.  The research that I found on how this proactive activity can impact our breast health is pretty amazing and I hope to offer you encouragement in this area.  Please keep reading!

“Dr. Walter Willet, Head of the Nutrition Department at the Harvard School of Public Health, concludes, “Probably the single most important thing women can do to reduce their risk of breast cancer is to avoid weight gain in adult life.”

Researchers from the National Cancer Institute state that women who are overweight are two to three times more likely to develop breast cancer. And don’t think this only applies to women that are obese. The risk increases at a BMI of 27, which is just slightly overweight. BMI is a function of height and weight, so for example woman who is 5’6″ and weighs 170 pounds has a BMI of 27.

Getting to and maintaining a healthy body weight is key to the prevention of many diseases, so make this a top health priority.” By Nadia Rodman, RD

Did you catch that last statement?  “Getting to and maintaining a healthy body weight is key to the prevention of many diseases …”.  So, if we want to be proactive in achieving and maintaining healthy breasts ladies, then we need to include being at a healthy weight as part of our plan.

That takes work doesn’t it?!  Sometimes it just seems easier if we can pop a pill whether it’s medicine or even supplements, but we are cheating ourselves with that kind of attitude.  The truth is there is so much that we can do for ourselves in terms of being proactive that doesn’t cost us a thing AND that will ultimately make our hearts sing with joy, but it does take a little effort.

You CAN do it!!  I know that you can!!

It’s the same thing with exercise.  Exercise is so healthy … we all know that.  And it makes us feel so much better.  (Side note: dieting without strength training leads to muscle loss which makes it harder to lose weight!)

Let’s tie this to breast health.

“According to a five-year study of more than 70,000 women conducted bythe American Cancer Society, the most active women had a 29% lower breast cancer risk compared to those that exercised the least.

Several studies have also validated the importance of exercise after diagnosis. One study of 900 women diagnosed with breast cancer found that those who did two to three hours of physical activity each week were 70% less likely to die over the next six years compared to those who were inactive” ~ Nadia Rodman, RD

Do you see that we don’t have to be sitting ducks?  We can be proactive in the area of breast health and, of course, these things impact more than our breasts. These things impact everything about our health!

What do you need to do right now to become proactive with your health?  What do you need to do right now to begin loving you!

Yes, when we take care of our health we are loving ourselves!

Achieving and maintaining a healthy weight along with exercise is a beautiful way to self-nurture.  And when you begin to look at it that way your attitude changes making it more of a pleasure rather than a chore.

Do you need help getting started?

Do you need help changing your mindset around weight loss & fitness?  Do you need a jumpstart?

There is so much emotional “stuff” in our physical conditions.  Just watch Biggest Loser and you’ll see all the “stuff”.

I am just an email away if you need help and support.

Here’s to healthy breasts!!

Love to all!!

Related Posts:  Breast Health vs. Breast Cancer

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I was scared!  Every time I turned around someone near and dear to me was either being diagnosed with cancer, fighting cancer, or dying from cancer.  I felt surrounded by it and I was living in fear that either someone in my immediate family or even myself would be next.

I seriously felt like a sitting duck! …

… until one morning I woke up and decided no more!  I can’t live in fear for the rest of my life.  That is no life at all!  There has to be something that I can do to fight back, to be pro-active …

… and that it when my holistic health journey began over 15 years ago.

So many of us women live in fear every day of breast cancer to the point that we are afraid of our own breasts and for good reason.  Many reading this article are either fighting breast cancer or are breast cancer survivors.  {{HUGS}}  Most of us have been touched in one way or another by this dis-ease.  It is, without a doubt, scary especially with statistics like 1 in 8 women will develop breast cancer in her lifetime!

Do I hear sitting duck?  I mean really?!  Doesn’t that make you feel like a sitting duck??  It certainly does me.  That is why I have chosen to become pro-active in my own breast health.

I am choosing to focus on breath health rather than breast cancer and I invite you to join me.  As I go along in this breast health series this month, you will learn the importance of embracing your breasts and even your other girly parts.  You will see how doing so is an imperative part of your self-nurture discipline.

“To truly love yourself, you must love all of you.” ~ Lissa Rankin, author of “What’s Up Down There?”

More about that next time, but for today, I would like to introduce you to the Lymphatic Breast Massage.  This massage cleanses tissue and strengthens the immune system. Below is a video demonstrating how to do the massage.  You can also go to Breast Health Project for more information.

I encourage you to give it a try and notice what this massage may provoke inside of you … thoughts, emotions, etc.  Listen & notice!

Are you afraid of your own breasts?  How does it feel to you to focus on breast health rather than breast cancer?  Have you been impacted in some way by breast cancer?  I invite you to express your feelings, thoughts, experiences in the comment section below the video.

Related Post:  Honor Your Breasts

In honor of breast cancer awareness month, I encourage you to honor your breasts.

I am forever encouraging people to listen to their bodies and honor their bodies by giving them what they need.  Well what about our breasts?  I know. You get your yearly breast exam by your doctor.  You give yourself a monthly breast self-exam, right?  More than likely you do not because not many women do.  Why?

Dr. Christiane Northrup in “Women’s Bodies, Women’s Wisdom” says the following:

“Women’s reluctance (even female nurses and doctors who are supposed to know better) to do breast self-exams is rooted in two things:

1. Fear about what you’re going to find

2. Innate inner guidance that knows that making a breast exam into a ‘search and destroy’ mission is not only counterproductive, it may even be harmful.

By the law of attraction, that which we focus on tends to expand.  So who in their right mind would consciously approach their breasts every month thinking, ‘cancer’?”

Ok, let’s have an honest moment.  Seriously, are you afraid to touch your breasts for fear of what you might find? Some women don’t even want to look at their breasts.  And for some it’s possible to carry emotionally charged issues, like shame, that contributes to ignoring this part of the body.  With that, it’s time to let go!

Ladies, I encourage you to honor your breasts and by doing so you will set into motion a sense of freedom and promote healthy breasts.

Below are a few steps you can take to begin to honor your breasts:

1. Give your breasts positive energy.  Notice what your self-talk is around this area of your body.  Is it negative, berating, neglect?  Notice and if it’s anything but positive, stop, and then change the negative into something positive.

2. Look at your breasts.  It’s ok! And be kind to them.

3. Touch them!  Again, it’s ok!  In a loving way become familiar with your own breasts.

4. I highly encourage you to understand your breasts and learn a lymphatic massage that will promote healthy breasts.  It will send  healing and positive energy to them.  Click on the following link:

Self Care For Your Breasts

As Christiane Northrup said, “By the Law of attraction, that which we focus on tends to expand.”  Because of that I prefer to focus on breast health rather than breast cancer.  I don’t check my breasts each month for cancer rather each time I shower I honor my breasts by performing a self-care breast massage described at the above website.

Because of this massage technique, I am very familiar with my breasts and I’m able to notice if there are any kind of changes.  I also send positive energy, thoughts, and love to that area of my body, which promotes healthy breasts.  You can too!

Beautiful woman, I encourage you to honor your breasts!

Please leave your thoughts and comments below.