Boot Camp and Challenging myself

This is me, after this mornings boot camp.  She really worked us hard today.  You know you’ve really worked your body out when your arms hurt right away.  When your quads are on fire  every time you walk up the stairs Oh but it is just such a great feeling to know that your really challenged your body.

After the session I realized I like challenging myself.  And it is through challenges that we change and grow as a person.  So I decided I want to start challenging myself in more than just one way.  I want to keep on challenging myself physically. 

I also want to challenge or change the way I eat and think about food.  I cannot believe I am saying this, but I want to, trying and eliminate sugar from my diet (scary).  I also want to challenge myself emotionally, start facing my fears. 

 Facing my fears would be the first challenge.  And one of my biggest fears is that someday I may be diagnosed with ovarian cancer.  My mother was 45 when she was diagnosed, and 49 when she died from this cancer.  The scary part is that I am almost 42 , BRAC postive, which increases that risk.  I probably inherited the gene mutation from my mother.  So the reality is that I need to do something about it no matter how scary it is.

I think the scariest part of having your ovaries removed (oophorectomy) is that you put your body through surgical menopause.  I have never met a postmenopausal woman, who have fond memories of going through this phase of their life.  The side effects can be brutal from hot flashes to mood swings to changes in metabolism, etc.  That has always terrified me, but the reality is that I will have to go through menopause at some point anyway, I am just speeding up the process. So with a shaky hand I called up a gynecological oncologist, that I had a consultation with last month, and scheduled the surgery.  I will be having an oophorectomy on August 27^th.