So here is my post for Day 1 & 2:
Day 1: Getting Started
I write for many reasons but the biggest being that hopefully someone like me will read it and know that you can change your life for the better and make healthy choices. Aside from being a cancer survivor I am also someone who for most of my life was unhealthy in so many ways. I was inactive 90% of the time, I was morbidly obese and having aches, pains and conditions that people much older than me were experiencing. I write to share my journey to help other people and hopefully show them a way that might work for them to become healthier.
Having cancer got me started. Ironically enough I did not start this blog until after I had completed my treatment but that time was the hardest. The first road to recovery is why I started writing and sharing. Reaching out to others who were going through what I was going through. I have just kept it up ever since then.
Why The Health Activist Writer's Month Challenge? Well that is simple, why not? I try to stay health conscious and I want to share what I know and learn with others as well as learn from others in the process. I also want to get more into posting to my blog and I thought this was a great way. I decided to do it now instead of previous years because I only found about it yesterday so I am definitely a NEWBIE!
Day 2: Introduction
Oh where to begin on what my condition(s) are. Well first off I was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkins Diffuse Large B-Cell Lymphoma with a c-Myc Translocation when I was 27. I went through 5 months of INTENSE chemotherapy and then five days before christmas in 2010 I found out I was cancer free!! That was probably my biggest condition.
I also have mild asthma and what I am guessing are some kind of allergies or environmental irritants. Which sometimes interfere with my physical activity but I try to work my way around it.
5 things I would like to share:
1.) My chemotherapy was one of the most intense first line treatments out there and some how I flew through it with relatively small side effects. So I feel although this was a good thing for me, it puts me at a disadvantage of helping others because I was not the norm.
2.) I try to be active in my writing but also in the cancer community in general to raise awareness of the effects cancer and treatments can have on young adult survivors, their families/friends, etc.
3.) I want to reach a wider audience then just cancer survivors. I identify with many other people just for being over weight. When I started this I weighed over 300lbs now I have lost just about 90lbs without following a new fad diet but learning and making my own choices about how you can live forever not just in the moment.
4.) I find it hard because there is no way to tell exactly how I got lymphoma so there is no way for to say that what I am doing will keep it away. However I know that living a healthy lifestyle will only help not hurt.
5.) Trying to start exercising while having asthma proved to be it's own obstacle. Although mine is mild it has always been exacerbated by exercise so that was quite the trial and error. But with my own perseverance and persistence I found a asthma cocktail that works for me.
Here are a few blog posts that either I wrote or have helped me along the way:
First is what I call Sunday Funday, This it the time I take to plan and prepare my meals for the week.
http://alysadventures1.blogspot.com/2011/08/sunday-fun-day.html
Second is about my very first 5k and about the LIVESTRONG at the YMCA program
http://alysadventures1.blogspot.com/2012/02/new-year-new-me.html
My third post to share is from my friend Allie's blog about Lymphoma Awareness day which can be very helpful to those diagnosed with, completeing treatment or living with lymphoma.
http://thegoodhodgkins.wordpress.com/2012/09/15/world-lymphoma-awareness-day-or-all-that-you-wanted-to-know-about-lymphoma-and-more/
That's all for now until Day 3...which will be posted very shortly!
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