The Case for Taking a Walk After Breast Cancer Treatment

One of the hardest things to do for many people after treatment for breast cancer is to resume or begin to exercise. While there are those who have made exercise a part of their life in the past and are immediately ready to resume activity when cleared by their doctors, such is not the case with the majority of people and there are many reasons for this as I have found in my own experiences.

“The feeling of accomplishment will automatically make you feel better about yourself and you will also see  the improvement. And this is something that you can continue to do for a lifetime.”Barbara Jacoby

Regardless of your treatment program, just about anyone with breast cancer will have a surgery. Associated with this comes pain. You find yourself doing everything possible to limit movement and this might just continue for a very long time. As a result, it quickly becomes a way of life as no one wants to do anything that is causing them physical pain when it isn’t necessary. Before long, you convince yourself that it is perfectly fine to continue your life this way and find that you are sitting more and more and limiting the movement in your arms and upper body as much as possible.

The time may come when you may continue to have pain in your chest area that is intermittent or managed with medication and although pain overrules just about anything else going on in your life, it is absolutely necessary to get up and move. Of course it is easier when the weather is nice and you can take a trip around the neighborhood or go to a park nearby in order to enjoy some scenery and take the focus off everything else.

But, it may be difficult if you have not been doing anything for a long time and you quickly find that your duration is extremely limited. Just don’t give up. If 5 minutes is all that you can do today that is fine.

Perhaps you can start setting yourself some simple goals. Promise yourself that you will walk for 5 minutes at a time but perhaps you can increase the number of times per day that you do this. As it becomes easier for you, you might want to increase the number of minutes each time you walk and set that for your goal for each trek during the day.

The most important thing to do is to have some sort of measurement for what you are doing and set goals accordingly. You might want to focus on your length of activity each time you do it or you might want to count your steps and challenge yourself in that way. In order to make your walking time more fun, you might want to put together a play list of your favorite music and listen to it while you walk.

I know that weather may keep you indoors and if you can’t get to a gym or don’t have access to a treadmill, you might want to do what I do. I have a path through my apartment that goes from the living room and down the hall to the bedroom where I circle around and come back. Walking with my music to make the time go faster or keep count of my steps helps.

You can create your own scenario as long as you keep moving. You will still have days when you don’t feel like getting up and moving but just do it anyway. The feeling of accomplishment will automatically make you feel better about yourself and you will also see  the improvement. And this is something that you can continue to do for a lifetime.