Live the PROactive life

Something you may not know about me: my mother is a breast cancer survivor.  Yay!  She was diagnosed when I was a pre-teen, and she's over 10 years in remission.  If you knew my mother, you'd know she's a fighter and her remission wouldn't surprise you at all.


I'm not yet 40, the age recommended for most women to have their first mammogram.  I hope to have mine earlier since it's in my family.  While the clock ticks towards my 30's I have decided to live the PROactive lifestyle instead of the REactive life. 

I don't smoke

 I don't drink coffee everyday

 I do drink green tea every day

 I cut back on drinking alcohol

 I've changed my diet to largely vegetables

 and very little meat

 I'm convinced it's the hormones in meat causing cancer, but who knows

  I've taken up yoga

 I walk every day with my dogs

I have plants indoors

and 

I PRAY EVERYDAY
I don't pray to not get cancer, but the silence in prayer and giving my stress and anxiety to God strongly helps my Type A personality

All of the above are very relaxing and provide a calming effect on my daily lifestyle. 

Something else I've done is begun taking vitamins as I've mentioned in previous posts


I was so happy to stumble across this article about a study in San Antonio linking Vitamin D levels to tumor size in breast cancer. 

This article shares that if you are Vitamin D deficient your tumor will be larger than those with higher levels of Vitamin D.  Remember, Vitamin D is our sunshine vitamin! It gives us energy and it's found in foods such as milk, mushrooms, and fish.  It's main role is to help us absorb calcium.
Now, there is such thing as too many vitamins, so don't go popping pills.  In most cases your body will filter out the excess, but you can still hurt your body if you over indulge.

My personal experience with Vitamin D:  Last year I had my blood tested at my General Practitioner's office and my vitamin D levels were very low.  We should each have over 30 ng/mL of Vitamin D...I had 10 ng/mL  10!!!!  My doctor prescribed these super power pills of 4,000mg of Vitamin D to be taken weekly.  It worked wonders!! 

My 60 year old father recently had a blood test and his Vitamin D levels were low as well!  He's always been overweight and if he gets a chance to sit down and watch a TV show, you'll never get him off the couch.  He's had kidney failure, hyperthyroidism (which led to having his thyroid removed) and basic lethargy.  We thought it was weight (which I'm sure it is) but it also probably has to do with vitamin deficiency. 

Moral of the story: Don't risk your future, don't suffer through illnesses that may be preventable and don't waste your money on coffee when all you need is the natural remedy of your daily vitamins.   My 84 pills cost $23.  That's $0.25 a pill!  Where can you get coffee for that price and with zero calories?!

Yes, I'm an independent associate for Usana.  But you can see my doctor turned me on to vitamins long before Usana did.  I found the need and the resources in my life to continue this journey of PROactive health and I hope to do too!  Step one:  Get a blood test from your doctor and be sure to request Vitamin D testing!

Other Sources:
Vitamin D and Rickets
Government Institute of Health - http://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/VitaminD-QuickFacts/

Vitamin D: The forgotten hormone - http://www.publichealthreviews.eu/show/f/35

Living Life to the Fullest by living a PROactive Lifestyle!

-Rachel