post-poned blues

So today I was supposed to go have blood drawn to measure my cholesterol, triglyceride, and homocysteine levels. For an accurate reading, this requires that one fasts (no food, liquids, or medications) for 9-12 hours prior to the blood draw. And what do I do first thing when I wake up this morning? I ate breakfast!!! So it looks like I'll have to wait and post-pone part of my initial assessment to next Wednesday. Today, does however mark the end of my first four-day win, which involved drinking 64 oz. of water everyday, keeping a day map for each day, and having an eating curfew of 11pm. Sadly, I did not successfully complete this four-day win, since I forgot and ate something after 11 last night as I watched the Duke/UNC men's basketball game. But I did pretty well other than that, and am confident that I will achieve this next four-day win: my eating curfew moves up to 10:30pm, I will be exercising for 30 or more, and I will begin the four weeks of using Judith Beck's the Beck Diet Solution Weight loss Workbook.

Making My Day Map

Today I began taking an inventory of where I am at any given point in the day. I will do this for 4 days in a row in attempt to get a baseline idea of where my circadian rhythms are calibrated, so that I can begin to slowly and gradually change them to be more conducive to long-term, healthy, cancer-reducing living.

This was a suggested activity from Martha Beck's The Four-Day Win. As I suspected, I eat pretty healthy during the first 3/4 of my day when I'm busy with scheduled activities. I get home and have less structure and immediately begin to feed myself. A big key to making the changes I am wanting to make more permanent will be to replace the food splurges that usually occur at certain points of the day with other nourishing activities at that same part of the day. For me, such activities will include things like reading a magazine for 15 minutes or watching a TED talk online or going for a leisurely bike ride around a neighborhood or writing a letter on nice stationary.

In addition to the day maps I will be making for the next four days, I have also chosen to strive to get my water intake to be consistently at at least 64 oz. per day. Today while I was at clinical, I didn't drink near enough water, so I found myself playing catch-up the rest of the day, which was not ideal, since being dehydrated during the main part of the day left me with diminished energy levels.

You will be seeing this concept of 4-day increments for implementing changes since Martha Beck's book The Four-Day Win explains that four days is usually what it takes for your body/mind to get used to something. Then linking 5 four-day wins together for a total of 20 days makes something a habit. (and habits are hard to break!!)

so here's my disclaimer....this blog is in no way attempting to be giving others medical advice, nor is it endorsed by any of the authors or experts that may be mentioned in the text. it simply is an amateur's chronicling of a personal journey to make lifestyle changes to increase the amount of quality years of living using a variety of suggestions and techniques I have stumbled upon in one way or another.


Today I also went in and had a clinical breast exam performed. The results were negative for any worrisome masses/bumps. I took a baseline resting heart rate, bp, weight, and circumference measurements as well. I will be going in on Wednesday to have necessary labs drawn and a fitness assessment and body composition performed to complete my initial baseline assessment.

The beginning...

As a female in my mid-twenties, I have been hearing the message of the importance of administering self breast exams and early detection of tumors (aka "lumps") for the past 10-15 years via women's magazines, the gynecologist office, breast cancer campaigns, etc. This topic particularly grabs my attention since breast cancer has been a significant part of my own life. My mother has been diagnosed and successfully treated for two separate occurrences of breast cancer. When I was 21, my gynecologist detected a lump in my left breast during a clinical breast exam, which I then had an ultrasound performed to reveal that the lump was benign and due to hormonal fluctuations in my menstrual cycle. Nevertheless, that experience was a scary one, and one that has kept me awake some nights when I feel changes in my breast tissue or allow the thought of developing a malignant tumor take over.

The already high incidence rate of breast cancer in women all over the world and in the U.S. is enough to keep me on high alert. Add to that the genetic component often associated with breast cancer and the fact that my own mother has had it twice in the past 11 years, and I feel down-right frightened by the whole prospect of being directly affected by the disease. And while over the years I have done some reading on the topic and tried to implement lifestyle changes here and there to help reduce my risk of developing breast cancer, I am now choosing to go a few steps further and get a more organized, action-oriented, systematic approach to reducing my risk. The breast cancer worry will haunt me no longer, because I'll know and trust that I'm doing what I can.

This blog will chronicle my process as I work in 2008 to implement the life-long lifestyle changes that will help me live a quality life that is cancer free. :)