Racing Toward Your Passion: A Healthy Cancer Comeback

Ep. 103

If you’ve been through cancer or a chronic illness, you may be wondering about the importance and the effects of fitness on your body. In this episode, we discuss how to safely integrate fitness into your life and what benefits it can have on your physical and mental health with my guest, Fitz Koehler, a prominent fitness expert and professional race announcer. 

After being diagnosed with aggressive breast cancer, Fitz found that her experience proved to be a valuable learning opportunity, and from that she wrote her memoir, “My Noisy Cancer Comeback” Today we talk about how health and fitness impacts cancer. Fitz will provide tips on how to start exercising and she offers resources for finding motivation and support along your cancer comeback journey.

If you are in the middle of figuring things out with your own journey, you will be inspired by her story and insight through her books. Fitz created these wonderful blueprints for cancer patients and survivors to go from sick to strong. Encouraging us that we too “can do hard things”. 

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That distraction, that passion overwhelmed the sick feelings. They negated those sick feelings. And, you know, I think other people can learn from that because too many people especially now after COVID are like, Oh, you’re sick, hide out, isolate, never see a person, don’t look at smiles, you know, turn the lights off and duck for cover. And I am completely not of that subscription. What I say is live your life to the fullest. And for me, it worked magic, because if I wasn’t doing the thing I love to do, I wouldn’t have had those moments of feeling good, I wouldn’t have had those moments of feeling free and healthy. And all I would have been was sick. 

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You can follow Fitz and her “Fitzness” journey at: Fitzness.com  

Instagram @fitzness and @healthycancercomeback 

LinkedIn @fitz-koehler Facebook @Fitzness YouTube @fitzness 

Her Books: “My Noisy Cancer Comeback” and  “Healthy Cancer Comeback”

How does Fitz Sail Through Life?

Her words of advice…

“Passion and perspective. purely the passions. The thing that I love is my North Star and I have chosen so wisely with my people and my passions. that I always have something to look forward to and that goes a long way. And then perspective. I was born with a sunshiny personality and I think that’s a great gift but it’s also a learned skill. You know nobody gets out unscathed and so we’re all going to face some sort of hardship and for me I always I just can’t stop thinking about how it could be worse you know when it was cancer. I couldn’t stop thinking about how lucky I was being an adult with cancer and it wasn’t it wasn’t a kid on TV. Oh Lord, I’m so lucky it that’s not me and also that it wasn’t my kid. And you know just yesterday Cell phone was stolen here in London pickpocket, which is, you know,  frustrating but instantly I thought okay I’m a victim of a crime but not a violent crime so this is my phone’s replaceable big deal frustrating, sure.  But perspective, perspective makes every situation brighter and I hope everybody can start working on that because life’s good! Life is short! we only get one chance that I know of and you have so much control over making not only every day, but every hour and every minute better if you choose it to be. So, yeah perspective and passions.”

ARE YOU FIT? Here are Fitz’s 4 Pillars of Fitness–

Now, the nuts and bolts of it are you must pursue those four pillars of fitness.

I’m adamant that you have to go in all four directions, because without all four, you do not qualify as fit.

So the four pillars of fitness are:

1. Strength. That’s physical strength that helps you press pull, lift things against resistance,

2. Cardio, respiratory fitness, which is the power of your heart and lungs. That’s done with exercises that make you huff and puff.

3. Flexibility. That is the range of motion your muscles your limbs can go through and your torso without sprains, strains and tears.

And then of course, 4. Balanced training. Balanced training is your ability to or balanced is your ability to stay upright, even when you meet an imbalance. And so, doing exercises that help you improve your balance are really important.

So it’s cardio, strength, flexibility and balance. And so we’ll I’ll use an marathoner, for example, because marathon runners tend to just run if you run marathons, but you can’t even do five push ups, do you really qualify as fit? No! If you are one of those bendy yoga instructors who can stand with your leg wrapped around your head three times, but you can’t climb three flights of stairs without huffing and puffing? Are you fit? The answer is no! And so I don’t expect everybody to be a bodybuilder and a marathon runner and a yoga person and a, you know, a karate master with great balance.

What I’m telling you is if you put a little bit of effort in each direction, most days of the week, you will a not get worse, right, you will not get weaker, but be you will slowly improve. And when you constantly do just a little more than you were capable of doing last time, eventually you get fitter and fitter and fitter. And those principles still apply. Even if you have cancer. Even if you have MS. I mean whatever it is. These fitness practices working to get better will prevent a decline and help you make progress.

Listen to this important episode to hear more.

How do you sail through life? Join me on this endeavor!

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** Sailing Through Life Podcast is intended to educate, inspire and support you on your personal journey and is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. All content is for general informational purposes only. If you are suffering from any psychological or medical conditions, please seek help from a qualified health professional.

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