Getting back to "some shape" after breast cancer tx. ...reconstruction pending.

Shakka14

A while ago the only way I was able lose some weight was using this platform
plus exercises reason why I decided to start again.
After cancer tx. (Chemo, double mastectomy and radiation) an induced menopause and now tamoxifen.... and still chemo brain , I decided to lose some weight until my next surgery.
Anybody recommends any other type of exercise routine besides walking???

AnnPT77

Hi, and welcome!

I have a similar story: Stage III breast cancer, bilateral mastectomies (one simple, one modified radical), chemo, radiation on the side with the highest tumor burden, 2.5 years of Tamoxifen, 5 years of Arimidex. In my case, no reconstruction. (Yes, some women choose that, but it's not for everyone.) The big difference is that for me, it started almost 23 years ago.

I usually tell people that cancer treatment was the worst hobby I ever had: Worse than extreme sports, worse than adventure travel. (Not that I ever did those! ). Honestly, I do still have some sub-ideal after-effects, but nothing I can't live with . . . and "alive" seems like a really great start on the rest of my day, every single day, y'know?

I wasn't as smart as you: I stayed overweight/obese for around 15 years after treatment. What I did do soon post treatment was get much more active. I figured I needed to, in order to ever feel strong, energetic, and even happy ever again. (Treatment was really depleting for me, and I wasn't in great shape before diagnosis, plus was in my mid-40s by then.)

For me, that activity did what I wanted it to do. It was a really big quality of life improvement. I started slowly, with some yoga classes, then added/changed things as I got stronger. I took other group classes, including strength training. A year or two in, I was lucky to have the opportunity to join a breast cancer survivor's rowing team - those long skinny boats like in the Olympics (only ours was slower! ).

I fell love with rowing. It transformed my life. I enjoyed it, and it made me want to do other things to become a stronger, better rower. I took swimming lessons to be a better swimmer (safety thing), took spin classes and did rowing machine workouts in Winter, etc.

Nowadays, I row on water 4 days a week in season (in our local club, because the local breast cancer team sadly disbanded), plus bike on the trail system another couple of days a week. In Winter, I machine row, stationary bike (at home, stopped group spin classes during the pandemic), and try to add some weight lifting (about which I'm less disciplined, TBH).

The right exercise for me won't be the right exercise for you. Walking is a great start. What else sounds fun to you? Anything that you enjoy that involves movement is fair game, not just gym-type stuff (which is also fine if you enjoy it).

Activity we find fun, so want to do, is 100% more beneficial for fitness improvement than some miserable thing that we procrastinate and put off, maybe even give up, at the slightest excuse.

Sure, gym things and group classes can be fun, but there are also things like dancing, biking, skating, swimming, active VR or video games, games like ping-pong/tennis/frisbee golf/whatever, and much more. People who are getting started often like pool exercise, since some of the body weight is supported by water. (I'm not a fan, would rather have my boat supported by water!) Even trying new things can be fun. (Try to give them a fair chance, a few sessions to get past the "newbie blues" where things seem impossibly hard. Other people learn to do them, so you can, too.)

If the activity you enjoy creates a mild, manageable challenge to your current capabilities - strength or cardiovascular ability, ideally both - it will improve your fitness. If you try to find the fun, and the challenge, whatever you're doing will gradually get easier (because you're getting fitter).

When that happens, increase duration, frequency, intensity or even try new types of activity to always keep that manageable challenge in the picture. Your fitness will keep improving, and - I predict - you'll surprise yourself with where you end up, with what you can achieve, in the medium to long term.

I wish I'd been smarter about the weight loss, like you. I let it slide for a dozen years, when it became clear that being active was a great life-enhancer, but it wasn't the full story for good health. Back in 2015-16, I finally lost down to a healthy-for-me weight, and have been there since, now age 67.

Being at a healthy weight was also an unexpectedly big quality of life improvement, and being both active and at a healthy weight is really, really good.

Wishing you success with your weight management and fitness plans, and excellent outcomes with your upcoming surgery and rehab!

P.S. Apologies for the essay. Sadly, I'm like that.

Sinisterbarbie1

I was treated 6 years ago in May. The one exercise I wish I did waaaay more of are mobility for my right arm n particular (where I also had lymphnodes removed), chest openers, shoulder strengtheners, and exercises to maintain the strength of the muscles along the side of my ribcage and under my shoulder blades to maintain and improve my posture. I did a decent amount of physical therapy and yoga and then got lost in various other health issues and never made my way back to it. My posture has become progressively worse (both as an instinctive protective hunching forward move) and because those muscles got weak and lost range of motion (shoulders and arms especially) at a point where I could have built them back better.
I do a lot of Pilates now (and did some, but not enough then). Swimming (esp backstroke) and aquafit classes of various types (not just splashing around and gossiping, though that is fine too!) are excellent as well IMHO. All this happened to me before I was 50, so it came with early menopause and all that brings with it — I did gain a bunch of weight but I attribute it to the depression and other negatives/emotions/etc of menopause and post chemo life shock I experienced after holding it together so long so as not to be a burden on anyone while actually sick. Not so much hormonal effects since my lack of hormones is still an issue and yet I have lost 80 lbs now - 2x what I had gained.
Good luck with the rest of what stands ahead, but know that you have come through the worst part — physically at least.
Watch out for your emotional needs now and in the coming years too. People don’t talk or think about that enough, but it can be a real issue when everyone expects that you are now miraculously “cured” and thinks you will go on with life unchanged, yet among other things (and this might be the one they can actually understand if you explain to them) you walk around wondering whether you need to have every little twinge or pain of normal life investigated as a potential recurrence. On the other hand, its so unbelievable that you are alive and in the world and everything you have gone through quickly starts fading into blurry indistinct memories. I at least really live my life as yin/yang