Celebrate Breast Cancer Awareness Month by Incorporating Healthy Habits into Your Daily Routine

Experts throughout the fitness community have long encouraged everyone to exercise more in order to live a healthy and fit lifestyle. Recently, the medical community has further supported the importance of encouraging adults to be more physically active, especially for individuals who have or are at high risk for life-threatening diseases such as hypertension, cardiovascular disease, cancer and diabetes.1

In honor and recognition of October being National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, it’s imporant to revisit the importance of being active and eating healthy in order to reduce the risk of diseases such as cancer, increase fitness levels, and promote healthy living and longevity.

According to the American Cancer Society (ACS), more than 572,000 Americans die of cancer each year, with 1/3 of the deaths linked to poor diet, physical inactivity and being overweight.2 The most important things you can do to help reduce cancer risk for you and your family include:

• Establishing and maintaining a healthy weight.
• Incorporating regular, consistent physical activity into your lifestyle.
• Making healthy food choices with a focus on plant-based foods.

The latest recommendations from the ACS in regard to healthy physical activity levels for adults include 150 minutes of moderate intensity or 75 minutes of vigorous intensity activities each week. Moderate activity would be equivalent to prolonged brisk walking, biking and hiking, while vigorous activiites include sweat drenching, muscle pumping workouts like Fitness Together’s PACK Small Group Personal Training sessions.

In addition to adding regular workout sessions into your daily schedule that motivate, encourage and support living a healthy lifestyle, you also can begin incorporating more active habits into your normal daily routine. Starting today, try incorporating as many of the following approaches (suggested by ACS) as possible to support an active and healthy lifestyle.

• Use the stairs instead of the elevator.
• Walk or bike to your destination.
• Be active at lunch with your co-workers, family, or friends.
• Take a 20-minute activity break at work to stretch, or take a quick walk.
• Walk to visit co-workers instead of sending an e-mail message.
• Go dancing with your spouse or friends.
• Plan active vacations, rather than driving trips.
• Wear a pedometer every day to increase your number of daily steps.
• Join a sports or recreation team.
• Use a stationary bicycle or treadmill while watching TV.
• Plan your activity routine to slowly increase the days per week and minutes per session. 2

Breast cancer is a deadly disease that continues to take the lives of too many mothers, sisters, wives, grandmothers, aunts and best friends in our community every year. Our local Fitness Together studio is dedicated to helping you incorporate healthy habits into your daily routine to support an active and fit lifestyle that can help to reduce the risk of this life-threatening disease. Call Fitness Together today 631-473-8200.

1Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, www.cdc.gov. 

2American Cancer Society, www.cancer.org.