I was diagnosed with breast cancer in June 2017 at the age of 57. Following chemotherapy and radiotherapy I was very weak and had considerable muscle wastage. I knew I had to something to regain my strength.  I had never been very keen on the gym or exercise although did walk every day. A very good friend of mine referred me to Kirsten at the end of 2017. I started the program in January 2018. The difference this made to my body was astounding. I had previously weighed myself every day but I stopped doing this and instead was inspired by the progress photos, measurements, my gains in strength and wellbeing. The eating program is very sensible, easy and nothing is restricted. Over the following two years I learnt so much about nutrition and grew to love the gym. 

I am now 61 years old and four years cancer free! I attend gym sessions three to four times a week at 6.00am. I do weights as well as HIIT and body tone classes and absolutely love it.  For anyone who is undergoing treatment for cancer or has completed their treatment, I cannot recommend this program highly enough.  Exercise helps with so many things but most importantly it decreases the chances of the recurrence of cancer.  I owe all I am today to the program and to Kirsten who literally changed my life.

Undertaking strength training while going through Chemotherapy and Radiotherapy

 

Late last year I was diagnosed with an aggressive, metastatic breast cancer. I had a tumour in my left breast that was nearly 5cm on the day of discovery, and over 6 cm when I began chemotherapy three weeks later. A lesion (a low-grade version of the one in my breast) was also found on my sacrum. I  was also in the worst physical shape, and at the heaviest weight, I have ever been.  Everything felt out of control. Enough wise friends and family kept telling me to focus on learning to ‘control the controllable’, and I knew I had to learn how to do that. I had, somewhere in life, come to believe that my weight was beyond my control. Navigating the multiple and competing (and often contradictory) social narratives about women’s bodies, and how to achieve health, was completely overwhelming to me. In the past – until I had children – I had been able to control my body. I had somehow lost that skill. And I had thought that control was the special key that I lacked.  I’m not pretending it has been easy to undertake strength training whilst undergoing chemotherapy and radiation (and chemotherapy again). There are exercises that I found so challenging I couldn’t even lift with weights. I started by rehearsing the ‘shapes’ and the movements without weights, complete with my arm-fat and boob-fat sagging and hanging  out. But, at every point, Kirsten and Corinne were there, using their expert knowledge to support, guide, and teach me that small bits of progress, every day, matter. This has included the particularities of my diet and its constantly evolving and drug-affected impact on my energy, strength, stamina. It is an extraordinary feeling to know that they’ve got my back. Literally. My sessions provide a psychological ‘squaring’  in preparation and response to my chemotherapy and radiation regime, and has been fundamental for my emotional resilience. And, in the journey of strength training, and healing my body of cancer, I have also invested in my family. I needed my children to see that caring for your body – and how to care for your body – really matters.   

The thing is, I actually really trust my body. I believe it is a miraculous thing and it has seen me through incredible feats, even in its obesity. But I had completely dislocated myself from it and I needed daily activities that re-connected me with it, and its potential, so I could heal. Having cancer is expensive: financially, psychologically, and emotionally. For me there have been lots of things that simply had to stop so I can focus on healing: Work. A salary.  Professional and personal investment in my career. Pride. The illusion of keeping it altogether. The benign happiness of complacency. Of being okay; and, of being okay in my body. It would be easy to adopt a perception of poverty as a result of all these losses. While the cancer diagnosis was horrific and devastating, I have also learned that ‘the breast cancer journey’ has many silver linings. One of those is the generosity of people. With the loving support of some much loved family, I have been able to pursue training at Legacy. Strength training is something I can control. I can control showing up. I can control my focus. I can shut out the white noise of all those social messages about what a ‘good’ female body looks like, and I can funnel Kirsten’s and Corinne’s messaging: Each journey is individual. Your willingness to show up – not just in person on training days, but with all your flaws and vulnerability – takes guts. Don’t compare yourself to anyone else. Your transformation belongs to you. You set the pace. Don’t try and do everything at once. One. Step. At. A. Time.  

I was approaching my 40^th birthday and thought I had my life totally sorted. Amazing husband, two gorgeous kids, lovely home. Life was good. We were on a family holiday in Thailand when I found a lump in my breast and things started to unravel. I had thought most cancers were a hereditary thing and we had zero family history, surely I was safe? Wrong. Over 75% of people who get breast cancer have no family history. It’s been quite a journey, surgeries, chemo, radio. It was exhausting and at the end of it I wondered who I really was? It took years of searching. One day I looked in the mirror and knew something had to change. I was “enjoying life” ie food and drink, just a little too much and not taking care of myself. I reached out to Kirsten and made a commitment to myself.  

Being a member of the Legacy community is exactly what I needed. It’s not just about exercise or weight training. It’s working out with people I can call my friends. It’s listening to my body and making the right choices for my health. It’s about showing up when I’d rather sit at home on the couch. The physical and mental growth has been beyond what I could ever imagine. I’m so glad to belong to this awesome and inspiring group.