Find a regimen that works for you
24Life: What do your workout routine and diet look like to stay healthy and cancer-free?
LY: I’ve slightly changed my workout routine to focus more developing my performance for snowboarding. Three days of resistance training and two days of strength and conditioning. My two days of recovery and rest are spent meal prepping, skate boarding or riding bikes with my son. I haven’t really cut any types of workouts from my routine. I feel a little tightness in my surgery area when I do certain workouts for pectorals or even shoulder workouts, but I still do it with a proper warm-up and banded stretches.
Every morning, I start my day with a detox juice that my mother-in-law makes for me, and then have probably four to five meals spaced out every three hours. I try to keep my weekdays full of clean, lean protein including tofu, turkey, chicken breast, hummus and eggs, with a certain amount of good fats and high GI grains. I am not too strict about my diet. Instead I’m trying to listen to my body to feed myself. When my body craves some chocolate for example, I have a piece of dark chocolate or cacao nibs.
I try to avoid having red meat often—once or twice in a week max. As a nutritionist I’ve been researching the relationship between meat products and cancer. The antibiotics and the food additives that are used to produce or even process meat products have higher levels of carcinogens. So when I pick meat, poultry and dairy products, I always try to get organic certified products.
I don’t drink strong coffee or pre-workouts with high doses of caffeine. My body is super sensitive with caffeine. Lastly, no distilled alcohol! I only have one or two glasses of wine or beer here and there on a special occasion.
24Life: How often do you visit the doctor for a checkup?
LY: I do a checkup every six months, which I’ll continue to do until 2021, and then I will be doing annual checkups.
24Life: How important is mindset as someone battling cancer, and as a cancer survivor?
LY: Mindset is the first thing that has to come with battle mode. When we’re scared, we have to tell our mind, “It will be OK. We are dealing with some stuff that will make us stronger and we will be fine.” Positive mindset is the key to who I have become.