Cancer Month

I have an idea. Let’s kidnap all the nerdiest smartest people we can find, lock them in a room with absurd amounts of medical data and equipment, food (basic human right), a bathroom (no one can think with a full bladder) and not let them out until they come up with a cure for cancer. Okay? Okay. Break!

An uprising is highly unlikely..



The Canadian Cancer Society (CCS) estimates that last year approximately 171, 000 Canadians were diagnosed with cancer. That’s an average of 3300 Canadians being diagnosed a WEEK. Okay so THAT’S depressing. On the bright side treatment options are resulting in lower mortality rates, okay brightER side. Bright was a bit of a stretch.

Unfortunately there’s no way of preventing Cancer, BUT you can lower your risk. How? By living a healthy lifestyle. I love how ads and publications throw around the words “healthy lifestyle” like we all know what that means. I might think living a healthy lifestyle means eating loads of PB and chugging tea (kidding.. kind of..), while my neighbor might think walking to get his daily Big Mac means the same thing. Healthy is relative.

Let’s define and refine Healthy Lifestyle a bit. There are three main components. Maintain a healthy body weight; eat a healthy diet and be physically active. I don’t know about you but I’m beginning to see a pattern here. Living a healthy lifestyle = better odds of avoiding bad things.

Healthy Body Weight: I encourage you to check out http://www.nhlbisupport.com/bmi/ and find YOUR healthy weight by calculating your BMI (Body Mass Index). I said your healthy weight not your ideal celeb weight, which would probably be unhealthy. Your BMI is a measure of body fat based on your height and weight. This isn’t the most accurate way of finding your healthy weight since it doesn’t take muscle into account, but it’s a start and will give you an understanding. Plus you can do it from your computer RIGHT NOW.

Healthy Diet: The Canadian Cancer Society is not talking about Jared’s Subway diet, although congrats Foggle that is VERY impressing. They are talking about a diet high in veggies, fresh fruit and whole grains, and low in meat and alcohol. Reduce your meat intake a little, focus on organic meat not the genetically modified stuff, and try to limit your alcohol consumption (talk about putting a damper on the partAAy). If you’re a smoker be a quitter. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again quitting is cool, I quit things all the time.

Physical Activity:

Light Stepper - If your activity level is Light you should aim for 60 minutes of exercise every day. Activities considered light would be gardening, walking, vacuuming etc. Basically just being a Domestic Goddess.

The Moderator - If your fav exercises linger around moderate intensity, you should shoot for 30 to 60 minutes at least 4 times per week. Moderate exercises would be things like hiking, swimming, tossing a football around etc.

Hard Core - Annnnnd if vigorous activities are your thing then 20-30 minutes at least 4 times a week should be your goal. Things like aerobics (get your step on), running and spin class would be considered vigorous. I try to do vigorous activity even though it’s really not in my nature.

So have I sold you on the healthy lifestyle yet? Now you take this and sell it to your family, friends and loved ones. It's like a pyramid business.