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

How 2023 is going, after a huge health shock – Part one

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Hi Friends,

It has been awhile since I have written here, and I thought it is time to get back to writing and keeping this platform updated.

I had high hopes for this year. I set myself up for a huge fall with that way of thinking. Not saying you should not have high hopes as each year starts…but maybe I was too caught up in the fact that I wanted to “will” the pandemic finished and to start fresh.

Oh boy was I in for a shock!

The year started out on a depressing and sad note when my beloved step-dad passed away just before New Year’s Eve. He had been diagnosed with mouth cancer about five months before he passed. When I visited him in September 2022, he was uncomfortable but getting better. He had finished his radiation and albeit, he could not eat much – he was starting to taste things and even requested I cook him some nice “beef mince and rice” on the last evening I was there. I was not able to get back to see him, and put it in my head that he was getting better. Next thing, he was in the hospital and on his way out. I will never forget him, everything he did for me and all the years I visited him in Wellington, West Palm Beach at his peaceful and welcoming home.

My Step Father, Rudi and I

He is the reason I studied hotel management, the reason I could make a really good martini, and the reason why I became a “foodie!” – he taught me so much, including the way that humility gets you far.

I realized that the year had not started out very well, and I was in mourning. I tried to get myself back to the gym, and to go out as much as possible as the more I sat around the house on the weekend is the more depressed I became.

Cut to March. I realized that there had been a strange feeling in my right breast for a few months. Not only that, but it was actually seemingly changing shape. I am someone who goes for a mammogram (and ultrasound) almost every year, and the last one in 2022 was normal. There was a lump – but it was apparently “benign.” So if I felt anything I would put it to the back of my head thinking “oh he, the Doctor said not to worry, it is benign, no sign of cancer, stop worrying.” Not only did he say that to me, but he was conducting an ultrasound on a new modern machine when he said it. The report reiterated the same…so off I went, happily living my life.

Until February and then March…when things just did not look or feel “right.” I cannot even put it fully into words, except I know something was wrong!

I went back to the mammogram lab, and jumped past going to the Doctor first, as that would be too time consuming. In my head, I kept reading about more and more young women having breast cancer, so I was not about to ignore certain warnings.

I knew instantly that was there was something not quite right when the mammogram technician started asking me if there was breast cancer in my family. I looked at her like really? She said to sit outside as the Doctor would need to see me and do an ultrasound. My mother was waiting and I said to her, I do not have a good feeling about this. Let’s be prepared.

Lying down on the table getting the ultrasound I was praying hard, but knew something was wrong. The Doctor, a younger one to my regular Mammogram Doctor – said “oh dear, this is something here that does not look right at all.” I immediately sat up and wanted to see it on the large screen. Clearly it really did not look right. I could see the jagged edges around this lump and immediately knew it was cancer. He said what was on my mind “you need a biopsy and fast – let us do it day after tomorrow.” I asked him if they got it wrong the year before. The same lump in the same place. He said NO, this is a new one, I am telling you.

This made me more perplexed. If we are told in our 50’s to do yearly checks, and all was good a year ago, what the hell is this new one? All of these thought went bolting through my head….why…where….what did they miss?

Part two will cover the Biopsy and how I found out I had breast cancer. And what I have done since April 5th when I found out.

Stay healthy!

Much Love,

Neenie