That's Fit

It's important for everyone to have an active, healthy lifestyle. For those who have beat cancer, it's possibly even more important. More than 10 million Americans have survived the disease -- but the impact it had on their health puts them at higher risk for conditions such as heart disease, osteoporosis, diabetes, and a reduced quality of life... not to mention the risk of cancer recurrence.

Exercise, eating healthfully, and not smoking can help counteract that increased risk. But, according to the American Cancer Society (ACS), too few cancer survivors adopt a healthier lifestyle. Though approximately 75% of cancer survivors do stop smoking, the ACS isn't seeing as good of an improvement with healthy eating and physical activity.

The ACS recommends a minimum of 30 minutes of exercise a day (at least five days a week) and a diet that includes at least five servings of fruits and vegetables a day. Less than 48% of survivors are meeting the exercise requirements and less than 20% are eating the recommended amount of fruits and vegetables.

As if having a stroke isn't bad enough, living with the effects of it can often be more devastating than the stroke itself. And according to this article, after-effects of a stroke are more prominent in men than women. Recent studies show that women have a poorer quality of life after a stroke than men do, and often have more problems with day-to-day life.

The reason? One suggestion is that men recovering from a stroke often have a spouse to help out, whereas women tend to be widowed. As a result, women were more likely to be put in a nursing home within six months of the stroke, while men tend to stay at home.

Why do you think women have a harder time recovering?

Does your fitness or dieting plan need a jumpstart? Why? Obviously you've stalled, or hit a wall, or fallen into a rut, or whatever, but what is it that makes you want to break free and get moving again? What are you trying to achieve?

Considering your goal and refocusing yourself is one way to get motivated again, but if that isn't doing the trick try this slight variation: name 5 things your current weight or fitness level is preventing you from doing. Your goal may be to lose 25 pounds, but a list of things you'd like to do may have goals on it like wearing a certain size jeans, looking great for a specific event, or doing something physical like rock climbing or kayaking. By naming specific things that you want to do when you're thinner/healthier you can rejuvenate your spirit and inspiration, and get the focus shifted off the scale and more onto your life. So what are 5 things that you can (and will!) do when you reach your goal that you can't do now? And just how bad do you want those things?

As a general rule, self-employment is supposed to be good for you, but for some reason farmers aren't getting the benefit. In a new report published in Occupational and Environmental Medicine, farmers come out scoring low on every measure of health and quality of life.

This news strikes me as really sad because it's such a natural and honest way to make a living, and we need farmers! But if it's such an unpleasant way of life then why will anyone choose it in the future? And unfortunately the article doesn't give much in the way of what to do, other than suggesting farmers need more emotional and social support.