What Midlife Women Aren’t Doing To Prevent Breast Cancer

You probably know that it’s Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

You probably know that as you get older, your risk for breast cancer increases to:

1 in 42 at age 50
1 in 28 at age 60
1 in 26 at age 70

You probably know your family history of cancer.

You probably get an annual mammogram.

But… you probably didn’t know this and there’s something you can do about it.

Weight gain in midlife dramatically increases your risk of developing breast cancer, so one of the best things you can do in your midlife years is to control your weight.

Now, this doesn’t mean that you can’t carry a little extra fat on you, but overweight and obese women have a much greater chance of getting breast cancer.

What’s more, as you know, eating a healthy diet, not consuming too much alcohol, and regular physical activity all have been shown to decrease your risk of cancer.

Isn’t that some good news?

Breast Cancer Awareness Month is all about bringing the risks to light, but also the calls to action.

The motivation for maintaining a healthy weight through a healthy lifestyle goes beyond decreasing your risk for breast cancer – a healthy life just feels great.

You wake up and feel great.

Your body moves with ease.

There are few activities you have to second-guess because you don’t think you’ll be able to do it.

Taking care of your health through developing healthy sleep, food, mood, and exercise habits is an amazing way to live your life.

And IF you do end up being the 1 in 42 or 28 or 26 that do get breast cancer, at least you can say you did your best – the rest was not up to you.

It’s my mission and calling to help you live a healthy life, not just because it decreases your risk of ALL forms of cancer in women, but because a healthy life is fun and freeing.

When I was on the Fun, Feisty, Fabulous Podcast the other day, one of the hosts asked me, “Kim, how do you motivate your clients to make changes?”

I said that it’s not my job to convince anyone to make a healthy change.

If a woman needs to be convinced that her health is her greatest wealth, then she’s just not ready to work with me.

And that’s okay.

I believe everyone deserves the right to make their own decisions about their bodies, especially women.

Sometimes I feel like everyone’s always trying to tell us (women) what to do, how to act, how to feel, and how to look.

Your health is an area that you can really take ownership of if you choose to.

I work with women who have raised their hand and said that they’re ready to do that.

If that’s not you yet, that’s fine. No, really, it is!

I’ll tell you why.

If you haven’t been taking care of yourself physically, mentally, and/or emotionally, and try to start making changes before you’re READY, chances are you won’t be successful.

Now, what does “ready” mean?

First I’ll tell you what it DOESN’T mean.

It doesn’t mean you wait until everything is perfect – timing, money, circumstances, etc.

Your health is not going to wait for you to get everything in order. You’re either moving toward a healthy life right now or away from it. There is no standing still.

You’re either taking action or not. And that’s never a judgment, just a truth.

Yes, I know I’m passionate about this, but I just care too much about you to not speak the truth right now.

We women need to stop “getting ready to get started,” especially when it comes to our health.

We know what will happen if you don’t ever get started – what’s for sure is that you never get there…

But, we do know what will happen if you do start taking care of yourself – you not only decrease your risk for breast cancer, but you also increase your life expectancy and most of all your quality of life.

Because as the old saying goes,

“It’s not the years in your life that count.
It’s the life in your years.”

If you’re ready to decrease your chance of breast cancer…
If you’re ready to increase your quality of life…
If you’re ready to get some help doing this…

I hope I’m your girl.

But if I’m not, that’s okay too.

What’s more important is that you stop “getting ready to get started” and instead you make a decision about your health today.

Know that your decision about taking care of your health isn’t a daily one. It’s a ONE-TIME decision.

Once you make that decision, you get some support, accountability, and guidance to keep you on track so that you don’t continue the vicious cycle of starting and stopping over and over again.

There are just too many people in your life counting on you.

Make a decision today.

Do it for them, but more importantly, do it for you.

It’s your turn to take care of you,

Think about it:

When was the last time you asked for some help?

I’m ready to help you…

Are you ready to receive it?

Book a time to talk with me during my Office Hours here.

Sources used in blog post:

• Website – Cancer.gov
• Article in journal Cancer Causes & Control – Body mass index, height, and postmenopausal breast cancer mortality in a prospective cohort of US women
• Article in journal BMC Cancer – Weight and weight changes throughout life and postmenopausal breast cancer risk: a case-control study in France
• Article in journal Br J Cancer – Weight change in adulthood and risk of postmenopausal breast cancer: the HUNT study of Norway