Rebuilding Strength: Fitness After Breast Cancer Surgery

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Hi Friends!

I hope all has been going well for you this year…literally it has raced by! We are almost at Thanksgiving. Where did 2024 go?

I thought I would give an update of where I am currently with my fitness journey. And what my future goals look like.

On-Going Staged Reconstruction after breast cancer

October 2024. I still have one more surgery to go for the other implant, but all is good and I am back to working out, not as heavy lifting but each week I get stronger. Pic by Alexandra Ghisays.

As you may know if you read my posts, read the first one here – the second one here, & the final one here – I was diagnosed with breast cancer last year, in April 2023. Thankfully I caught it early (I have always been very on top of getting mammograms every year) and it was diagnosed as hormone receptor positive, node negative (the node negative part was not known until after my double mastectomy that it had not traveled to my lymph nodes) & so I had initially decided right away after finding out, that I wanted to have a double mastectomy after reading up about the possibility of the “return rate” in the other breast. That was my own action. My surgeon thought that was the best recourse, and he also suggested staged reconstruction which would involve ‘tissue expanders’ at first, and then the final step would be the implant exchange surgery. We had some setbacks for this plan throughout 2023 as the right side (side where lump was) gave continuous skin healing problems, showing signs of “necrosis” with the tissue expander there. However after a long back and forth we chose to take it out altogether at the end of October and start back on the right side in 2024.

Implant Exchange Surgery – June 2024

After my surgeon who was my plastic surgeon for the implant surgery was confident that both sides were ready to “go” and fully healed – we set a date for June 11th, 2024 to exchange the expander for an implant on the left side, and put back the expander in the right side (which was now fully healed – meaning the skin.) – All went well!

Choosing a smaller, rather than larger implant at 225 CC’s

I now have a little more than a B+ cup size which is what I had many years ago before I lost some weight over the years. We discussed a larger sized implant but Doc thought due to my small stature ( 5 ft 1 1/2 inches, 102-105 pounds usually) it may not be a good match…he would see what worked during the surgery. Right after I was wheeled into the recovery room I immediately noticed that there was literally NO pain on the the implant side, but alot on the side where the expander was put in on the right side…so I literally started all over again in terms of my own physio exercises to raise my right arm up and down, and so forth! This I am still doing, each day. To even lift a dumbbell on that side is still hard, but I am pushing through!

Doc gave me the “green light” to start walking around my neighborhood again two weeks after as at my check ups all was going very well. And then a month after he gave me the ultimate green light – to get back to the gym, starting back slowly with the weights! He asked me to focus on legs at first, then lower weight dumbbells, and to stay away from doing exercises involving the chest for a little longer – albeit I decided to do over the muscle implants and I can explain all of this and why I did in the next post!

Getting back to the Gym, August 2024

Slowly, but surely getting back to the physique I had before my breast cancer diagnosis in 2023. It takes time to build back the muscle – sometimes years, but I will have muscle memory as I have been lifting for ten years now.

Finally, after annoying my very patient Doctor literally via regular whatsapp messages about the possibility of lifting heavier (as my upper body had lost some muscle, which was bound to happen in the past year and a half!) he gave me permission to lift heavier but not too heavy. As a Fitness Professional of course I knew exactly what this meant and followed his guidance. I was anxious to get back to working out my shoulders, delts, biceps and triceps. Being a past bikini competitor these are areas that the judges look at for upper body, and also help to create & sculpt the type of physique for competing in this category. It is a known fact that I have spoken about my dream about wanting to compete overseas in the masters bikini category again, and really hoping to do this next year (2025.)

My workouts have not been anywhere near what they used to be before having had the double mastectomy. The stops and starts have not helped after each surgery and procedure I have had since June 2023. It has been hectic, but one thing that has kept me going is exercise. Both for my own mental health and physical well being. I will soon be recording my workouts and linking them here and on instagram, if you do not follow me there, here is the link!

The Future

My future goals for health and wellness are the same ones I had before:

  • To teach women especially women who have gone through menopause, how to stay lean via healthy eating and working out in an effective way that does not involve crazy boot camp style regimes!
  • Balance, and moderation helps in general, so you still enjoy the things you love! My plan keeps those things in place, so you do not feel a sense of loss, yet it is also a plan that realistically sets boundaries for very unhealthy foods.
  • The correct knowledge of macro-nutrients and what “macros” will work for you day to day, is also a HUGE game changer. Do you know how much Protein you need per day for your body weight in terms of grams? This is part of what I will teach.
  • What works to build muscle. What works to lose body fat %? I have been lifting weights now for ten years and have not looked back. I have never had to be on a diet and do not starve, or miss meals. In fact some people may even see me as eating on the healthy side…yet I know what works for my physique in trying to obtain a leaner muscle mass and healthy body fat % when not in training.

Coaching!

My goal in 2025 is to become a licensed health and wellness Coach so that I can help with viable programs of workouts and meal prep. I have been certified in fitness and that of course helps, but the more I know, the better I can be to help my clients. Stay tuned for this. Despite the setbacks, I look forward to the new way forward and that will mean that days are spent managing my new Company (that is another post!) which is a digital marketing company in partnership with a marketing company, and putting together my fitness coaching programs. I want to show women especially that a life of health is not hard to achieve, and a daily balance of good food, macro friendly, with fabulous workouts in the gym or out of the gym (my programs will cover both.)

My Special Message for October as Breast Cancer Awareness Month

My special message to all the ladies I know, and do not know – is to please get your annual mammograms. If you feel something is “off” then make sure no matter what, your Doctor gets you an appointment for a mammogram. This saved me.

STAY TUNED!

Love,

Neenie xo

A year of hope and health

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Hi Friends,

I am writing this post on the first day of 2024! I felt it would be raw and real to do so….and as I do not even have the slightest semblance of a hangover it is easy. This year we decided to have a lovely, at home, date night for NYE rather than attend a party. It was the type of year that I felt this was needed to end it – in a gentle, lovely manner with my dogs and hubby, having a delicious dinner, wine and watching Oppenheimer (3 hours long!) – until midnight. I enjoyed it so much.

Goals, hopes and dreams this year…

This year I have a long list of things I would like to accomplish. Some have been on lists for years, like writing my book. I have started writing it, and then I get distracted by work, and life events. Last year of course it was breast cancer and that journey I had to go through which did not make me feel very creative at all. My goal each week was to get to Kingston to see my Doctors and get through six surgeries. As well as to work as hard as ever, which I continued to do, even just before being wheeled into the operating theatre – the Doctors had to ask me to put my laptop away! I was busy answering emails and managing the 16 social media accounts.

My Book project

I call it a project as that is what it has become, albeit if I had done nothing else but write the book, it would have been long finished. I have written ten chapters already and will now let discipline click in like I do for my fitness. Two chapters per week is my minimum. I hope to be complete by the end of April, and to publishers by June. I have always wanted to write a book ever since high school days. And it is all in my head waiting to come alive on paper.

The Fitness Journey

The fitness journey continues! I am in the smack middle of getting my fitness level back that I had before I found out I had breast cancer in April 2023. I then hardly exercised from June (time of major surgery – a double mastectomy) to October. Then I started walking around the neighborhood again, and after that I was given the “green light” to lift weights, but not heavy. I am now up to ten pounds for upper body – but still not doing chest exercises until after the final surgery, and I am not doing machines for shoulders, which is my fave upper body muscle group to exercise so it has been hard…but I am giving thanks that I can do bicep curls, shoulder presses with a low weight, triceps with 5 pound dumbbells, and all the leg exercises I am almost back to. A few days ago I actually did an uphill treadmill workout which was amazing, and so the fitness level is almost back. They say it takes HALF the time of not exercising to get back to where you were! Okay so that is like six more weeks I have to work hard to get back to pre-fitness state.

Fitness Coaching

And so the time will come this year that I intend to start coaching in person and online. Once I am back to a place that I am confident to teach, I will slowly take on clients. This is very exciting to me as my passion besides writing, is fitness! And to teach women of all ages that you can get fit and it does not have to be extreme – this has always been my message. For a complete package I will also teach how to understand macro-nutrients and meal prep.

Vision Board “Get together’s”

Last year I hosted a “Vision Board Brunch” at my house which actually lasted all day to after 7:00 p.m.! I invited a group of ladies who I know to partake in creating a vision board for the year, using all the magazines I collect and keep collecting over the years. It ended up being a blast! Not only that, but many of us had our pictures (goals/ dreams) manifested and quickly. It will be time again to do a new board, but also to give thanks for all we have and that we have a new clean board to start over. This does not mean old pictures that were not manifested cannot be re-done again on the new board. I would like to host a few of these sessions this year and I am hoping I can collaborate with a hotel to do vision boarding manifestation, and add meditation, a food element and create a real “girl’s getaway” to market….let’s see how this pans out!

My New Company

This year I will be officially launching my new Company! So excited to share that a partner and I have created a social media / digital marketing Company that we hope to attract new clients across the Caribbean to showcase the work we love to do….with special Photographers and stylists, it will be something that we will kick off in early 2024. More to come!

On that note, I want to wish you all a very happy, peaceful, blessed New Year.

May you make new wonderful friends and connect back with old ones.

May you have your dreams manifested.

May you be the healthiest you have ever been.

With love,

Neenie xo