Oh What a Year It’s Been

It’s hard to believe that it’s been a year. A year since I made a personal commitment and choice to reset my health by first losing some weight. A year since I rediscovered the enjoyment of an active lifestyle simply because I could again. It’s been a good year of sharing my efforts for good health and fitness.

A year ago I underwent a challenge with a company called Organo trying out their new product called OGX FENIX. A simple-to-use but quality nutritional shake that I made a big part of weight loss efforts. I was fortunate to see amazing results, and they invited me to join their Expo in Tampa to share my story and results. It was an amazing experience and affirmation of all my efforts and drive to make a change.

The funny thing about my weight loss is for me it was about self-determination. Once I had my reasons for making the change, there was no looking back. I had my WHY and I relied on it every day to overcome any inclination to give up. My WHY at the time involved rediscovering a better version of me and change the physical, mental and emotional state I was in. Later that WHY has shifted and evolved during my transformation.

Once I had found my initial success and lost some significant pounds, I shared a bit more with the world what I had done. It’s always fun to get the accolades from friends, but what was surprising was the number of people that said “oh, you’ll just gain it all back.” Really? People are funny sometimes. But I can say thank you to those that said that, because my immediate reaction was “Oh, yeah? Watch me.” I took it as a personal challenge and it motivated me to stay in shape.

Most of you know it’s also been a tough year since I also discovered I have cancer.

What’s most amazing though is how my initial health transformation has supported me in this fight against cancer. First, by making such a big change in my body actually enabled my cancer diagnosis. Shrinking and strengthening my core actually caused me to feel the tumor and related pain, leading to its discovery. I can truly say losing that weight has very likely saved my life. This cancer has been growing in my body for several years, and while very large and progressed, it would have kept on growing undetected had I not made this change in my health.

When I decided to cut out some of the weight I had gained in recent years, I felt a strong compelling draw to make the change. Sure I had tried to get fit again several times in the years previous, but this time it was different. What I realize now was that my body was telling me I needed to get ready for a big fight. I needed to have the health and diet to push back against this disease within me. I can see now that I needed to get ready, and I did.

I’ve been undergoing cancer treatments since January, and I can say without reservation it’s been tough. It’s a daily drug I take that is hopefully interfering with the growth and shrinking the tumor each day. It’s essentially a daily chemo with all the associated side effects of extreme fatigue, digestive problems, and more. And, while it is difficult in every respect, my good health and fitness is giving me a foundation far better than most in a similar situation. I work out 6 days a week, continue eating healthy including daily FENIX shakes, whole foods, and skipping unnecessary desserts or junk foods. I take pride in having athlete type numbers like my heart rate when I visit the doc for my monthly checkups on treatment. It’s a personal quirk perhaps, but it keeps me motivated and working hard to stay in the fight.

As I mentioned before, my purpose behind what I’m doing has evolved along with my efforts. My WHY has become not only survival, but an enhancement of the desire to live. Live each day to its fullest and get the most out of whatever days remain as well as try to live as many of those days as I can. Everyday I fight, because I choose to live. I choose to do more than just be a cancer patient. I’m in this to live.

I’m happy to report I’ll be returning this weekend to the Organo Expo 2017 this year in Las Vegas. I’ve been invited to share my continuing efforts in healthy living and how it’s supported my journey this last year. I’m grateful to this amazing company and their support both through my initial weight loss and my ongoing health adventure. I’m excited to visit again with their members and share in the excitement of what healthy living choices can do, and what they have done for me personally.

Most of all, I’m happy to say it’s been a year, and I’m still here. I’m still realizing the benefits of good health and will continue to choose to live like this every day.