I Didnt Let Cancer Stop Me From Getting to a Healthy Weight

The Lifestyle
After I gave birth to my son in April 2013, I weighed 155 pounds, and I just didn't feel like myself. I decided I needed to get back to my pre-baby weight and began slowly working out at the gym. Then, my whole world was turned upside down when I was diagnosed with breast cancer almost six months later.

I had to put weight loss on the back burner, but I started researching the healthiest way to eat so that my body could be at its best during the mastectomy and chemo treatments I needed. Even though my revamped eating habits didn't impact my weight, I felt ready to conquer the disease.

By my son's first birthday, I had finished chemo, recovered from my surgery, and was in full remission. At that moment, I decided it was time to take another shot at getting back to the weight I was when I got married five years earlier.

The Change
After telling my sister I wanted to lose weight, she introduced me to the doctor she worked for, Will Aguila, M.D., who had created an eating plan called The Baseball Diet. To be honest, I know nothing about baseball, so I was a little worried that I wouldn't understand what was going on. But I decided to give it a try anyways. For the diet, Aguila gives you a list of recipes to make for breakfast, lunch, snacks, and dinner. A typical breakfast was half of an avocado, an egg (cooked however you want), and a slice of whole-wheat toast. Lunch was usually a piece of fish with some greens, and dinner would include some kind of protein, veggies, and a carbohydrate. The "baseball" aspect of the  diet is that when you incorporate the healthy foods into your meals, you get to "move" around the bases. First base might be a serving or protein, second base could be a serving of veggies, and third base could servings of fruit or grains. Since I was already eating so healthy during my cancer treatments, it wasn't too difficult to transition into this diet. Plus, if I did slip up one day by having more carbs than I supposed to at one meal, I could subtract them from my next meal. And as it turns out, you don't need to know anything about baseball to do the diet. 

When I finally got clearance to go to the gym, I started doing circuit training three times a week, which I loved because it has a little bit of strength training and cardio. It felt great to start working out again.  

Nine weeks after setting out to lose weight, I had lost 20 pounds. Since then, I've gone on to lose five more pounds by continuing with the diet for lunch and dinner and subbing a protein shake in for breakfast. I now weigh 130 pounds. I'm so proud!

Eating healthy has really become a way of life for me—though I do sometimes have a cookie, cereal, or ice cream (I am human). If I treat myself, I know the next day I can just eat lighter to balance it out. My ultimate goal is to hit 120 pounds, the weight I was when I got married. And I'm well on my way!

The Reward
I love knowing that the lifestyle that I'm living now is going to help me be here longer for my son. When you go through something like cancer at a young age, your whole mindset changes and you just want to be alive. What I've learned by going through cancer and starting a weight-loss plan is that eating healthy can help me live a longer and more fulfilling life. 

Julie's Tips:
Make easy meals: Keeping my meals simple kept me from getting overwhelmed with cooking. That's great because when I get overwhelmed, I just want to give up.
Try to keep your stress levels down: Even though I was eating very healthy foods while going through cancer treatments, I think the stress of dealing with the disease kept me from sleeping and totally killed my metabolism. Stress made it so much harder to lose weight. I learned that if you don't take a step back and relax by having some "me time," your weight loss might not progress as much as it could.
Exercise however you can: Even when I couldn't go to the gym because of the surgery or chemo, I was walking. Staying active made it easier to get back into working out when I got the all-clear.

More from Women's Health:
How I Lost 30 Pounds—and Then Gained it All Back
5 Ways to Lose 5 Pounds—From the Guy Who Gets A-Listers in Shape
8 Ways to Mix Up Your Weight-Loss Routine When You Hit a Wall

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