This is a guest post from Melanie Bowen.  Melanie is currently a Master’s student with a passion that stems from her grandmother’s cancer diagnosis. She often highlights the great benefits of alternative nutritional, emotional, and physical treatments on those diagnosed with cancer or other serious illness.  To read more from Melanie, visit her blog for the Mesothelioma Cancer Alliance. In her spare time, you can find Melanie trying new vegan recipes, on her yoga mat, or spending time with her family.

Engaging in an exercise plan that is consistent can be vastly rewarding to a cancer patient on many different levels.  Studies have shown that exercise has been proven to improve a person’s life quality and to help increase bodily function and energy.  Because cancer patients vary in stages of health, it is recommended to choose exercises from intensity categories that are most appropriate for an individual’s health condition.

Light Exercise Option

Light exercise options are ideal for people who have very little physical strength.  A simple exercise such as mild stretching routines each morning and evening is a great way to tone muscles, make the body more limber and to support healthy blood flow without risking injuries associated with more strenuous exercises.  This type of activity is especially recommended for patients who have difficult breathing, such as those undergoing treatment for mesothelioma, or to a person who has very limited mobility.

A helpful tip to make sure a stretching exercise remains light in nature is to watch the breathing pattern.  A person doing light stretching should easily be able to speak and move without breathing difficulty during the activity.  Reduced fatigue is one of the best results of committing to regular light exercise activities.

A Moderate Exercise Option

A moderate exercise activity is not full-on strenuous, but it also can challenge the person physically in a healthy manner.  A perfect example of a healthy, moderate exercise activity is water aerobics.  Water aerobics provides a mild cardio workout, muscle strengthening and all-around movement of the limbs.  These activities are often easy to participate in and help to improve balance, confidence and physical strength.

Exercising underwater itself has many benefits. For example, water has a unique ability to disperse body heat, which will prevent the body from overheating while exercising. In addition, resistance plays a factor because water creates 12-14 times more resistance, as oppose to training on land. Water aerobics classes may be found at local family fitness centers and community health and wellness clinics.

Options for Advanced Exercise

Advanced exercise options are ideal for patients who do not have breathing difficulties and who are entering into the remission stage.  In many cases, advanced exercises will also work for patients who are going through cancer treatments.  If a physician approves of high-impact exercises for a cancer patient, advanced aerobics is a great place to start.

Group aerobic classes are great for cancer patients who desire social support and interaction with others.  Advanced activities, such as aerobics are a great exercise routine for developing stronger heart health and improving overall physical strength and coordination.  

Another great thing about this type of activity is it may be started at a mild level and then increased over time in intensity and in workout time.  Many boot camp aerobics classes are perfect for people who have reached a fitness peak and want to continue to grow even stronger and healthier to improve their bodies after being weakened from treatments and the toll cancer takes on a body.

Set Exercise Goals

No matter which type of exercise you choose, setting reasonable goals and working to increase the exercises as your health allows will be beneficial.  Speaking to your primary care provider will also be helpful in determining which level of exercise you are ready for.  Marking your progress on a fitness goal chart will help you to keep track of which exercises are most beneficial. Prepare a healthy body in the fight against cancer.

Even the nuttiest of fitness nuts lose motivation every now and then.

As much as I like to call myself a health and fitness nut, the truth is, there’s plenty of days where I’m not quite “feeling it” if you know what I mean.

Hey, it happens to the best of us…

The trick though, is to find a way to fight through it and get yourself motivated to get out and stay fit.

I’m writing this post today for a couple of reasons.

One reason is because a week or so ago I found myself slacking a wee bit and not feeling motivated and the other reason is because I’ve been experimenting with a new way of staying motivated… Something that I will introduce you all to in my next blog post later this week…

Anyway… here are 6 ways that I’ve found have been extremely helpful for me to stay motivated and get my butt in the gym!

1) Define a Very Specific Goal For the longest time  

I would just go to the gym and do my workouts without any real goal in mind.  I mean, I always wanted to be fit but I didn’t define exactly what I wanted.  What I mean is, while I may have said that I wanted to “lose weight” or “get in shape”, that wasn’t specific enough.What does that even really mean anyway?

For me, once I became clear in what I wanted, I started to get it.

So, instead of saying that you want to “lose weight” – say that you want to “lose 10 pounds in 3 months”.  That’s much more specific and is very definite.

You know exactly what you want to accomplish and when!

2) Plan Out Your Workouts For The Week

This was really important for me.  Adding to defining a clear goal, creating a real plan to get there was crucial.

Think about when you go on a road trip, do you just get in the car and drive hoping that you’ll get to your destination at some point?  Well, maybe sometimes…but generally speaking, you need a map, you need directions, you need to know how to get to a place that you’ve never been before.

So, to do that, find a workout routine to follow and then schedule your week accordingly.  That way it’s already in your schedule and you’ve mentally prepared for it.  You don’t have to think about what you’re going to do when you go to the gym anymore.  You already have your workout ready to go once you get there!

3) Pack Your Stuff The Night Before 

Something else that helped me immensely was to make sure that I was all prepared the night before.  I do the same thing with my work…

Before I leave or go to bed, I make sure that I have my following day planned out and ready.  My desk is clean and I’m ready to just get to work and well, work.

Same thing with my workouts and workout clothes.Before I go to bed at night, I literally have my clothes for the next day out and ready to go.  Both my workout clothes and work clothes are ready so that when I wake up, I don’t have to waste time thinking about what I’m going to wear.  I just get up and go!

4) Find Inspiration From Others

I love a good, inspiring story, image, video or whatever…I really find motivation in knowing that other people have been where I’ve been and have succeeded.  Knowing that someone has accomplished something that I want to accomplish is incredibly inspiring.

So, take some time to look through your favorite websites, magazines or wherever else you like to look to get inspired and cut out those images.  Cut them out of magazines, download them from the web and find some inspiring YouTube vids so you can go back to them and get inspired and motivated to take massive action.

I often find that seeing other people look good motivates me to do the same and start working!

5) Post Your Goal Somewhere You Can See It – Regularly

Whether you’ve found a handful of images online or simply have a sentence that motivates you, print them out and post them in a place that you will see it every day.  This helps reinforce your goals and your desire to reach those goals.

This could be a vision board or just a few simple words but whatever it is, post it clearly in a place that you will see it all the time.

6) Smash Negative Thoughts and Replace Them With New, Positive Beliefs

To be honest, this is easier said than done and I get it… but it’s important.

First things first, take a few days merely to recognize when you have limiting or negative thoughts.  Something like “This is killing me” or “there’s no way I can do that” is a limiting and negative thought that is really responsible for your slump in the first place.  It’s setting you up for failure.  These are the types of thoughts that you should just acknowledge the first few times that you have them as negative thoughts.

Then, take the next few days and literally imagine yourself smashing those thoughts when you have them and replace them with new, empowering thoughts and beliefs.

Now “This is killing me” turns into “I’m loving this!  I’m getting stronger”!

7) Get a Workout Buddy

Probably the most impactful thing you can do to stay motivated and on track is to find someone with a similar goal as you and work together toward the same goal.

During this past year, my roommate and I decided to compete against eachother up until April 1st and that’s when I saw the most drastic changes to my body and when I stayed most consistent.

Finding someone I  could work with toward a common goal with and create a friendly competition with not only increased my motivation for working out but also made sure that I was working hard to achieve my goal.

These are the things that I’ve used to help achieve my goals and keep me on track to achieve my next ones.  Hope they help you take massive action and achieve whatever it is that you want to accomplish!

Till next time,

Curt