I couldn’t avoid writing about this, it is such an important subject that I needed to write something about it.
Over the years, I have read many studies about the correlation between lack of exercise and women who contract breast cancer. The most recent study was published on WebMD on October 4, 2010 which indicates that vigorous exercise for two hours per week may reduce the risk of breast cancer among African American women by 64%.
A study conducted in Spain indicates that one in every 3 cases of breast cancer in women could be avoided by eating less and exercising more.
We are used to ignoring these studies, many times we read about studies saying “caffeine is bad for you” followed by another study “caffeine is good for you.” But I have to be truthful about this, the one study that keeps coming back with confirmations on the benefits of exercising in regards to breast cancer ALL say the same thing “exercising lowers your risk of contracting breast cancer.”
This week I’ve been reading the book “The Slight Edge” by Jeff Olson and I am amazed at how much it is changing my view point. One of the things that this book says is that everything, EVERYTHING we do, as little as it is, has a huge impact in our life overtime. Eating a hamburger one day will not give you an automatic heart attack. The problem is that over time a life of poor choices in nutrition and no exercise will eventually clog your arteries, cause obesity and kill you, however, we live our lives as if those things won’t affect us.
We are a society deeply influenced by technology. Heck, I’m even using technology to write this blog. Technology has made us a lazy-button-pushing-give-it-to-me-now-or-else society. That’s where our problems start. We know that exercising helps, however, exercising will not change our bodies from one day to another, yet we expect it to, so what do we do? We work out one day, we wake up the next day, we get on the scale, don’t see a change and we give up. We want a soup or diet that promises us to lose weight in a week, if it requires us to even move a little and actually sweat, forget it. This makes me angry. It upsets me that many of my friends prefer to use a “cabbage soup diet” or any other diet to yo-yo themselves into losing weight, not realizing that those small decisions are affecting them. I know, I sound like I’m preaching but seriously, if I have been able to lose weight in 4 months then anyone can as well. It upsets me that other people are unwilling to work out even just a little bit, why? Because I fucking care, because I don’t want to lose any of my friends due to complications from obesity, cancer, high blood pressure, heart disease or anything else. It pisses me off that we are a lazy society who thinks it’s okay to sit back with a huge bag of popcorn, chips and salsa and eat ourselves to death, literally, and please know that this is something that I was doing, the pizza, the popcorn loaded with butter, the chips and salsa oh and let’s not forget Chunky Monkey.
Yes there are posts all over Facebook about breast cancer awareness and it’s great, now truly tell me, what have you done TODAY to not become another statistic? Be truthful, because if you are pretending that you just care about breast cancer but you think that you will never be a statistic and you are not doing anything to take charge of your health, well… you better wake up and see the reality of breast cancer, the threat is real, and if you’re not exercising and eating right, well… I hate to say it, but you are on your way to becoming another statistic. Now what may I ask, are YOU going to do about it?
I challenge you to do ONE thing this week and dedicate it to any woman in your life that you personally know who is a breast cancer victim or survivor, ANYTHING. Remember, every single thing you do will count, take the stairs to get to your office instead of the elevator, park your car a couple of blocks away from where you normally do it, YES, do something that WILL actually make a difference in your life for a change, instead of just changing your status on Facebook, change your status in real life.
Here are the links to the studies:
http://www.webmd.com/breast-cancer/news/20101004/exercise-fights-breast-cancer