Sana Sana

My mom actually yelled at me when I started working out during my cancer recovery. Maybe "yelled" is a strong word, but she said some very strong things to me, telling me I had to take this time to rest and recover. And while recovery is an important part of treatment, so was the need to take back control of my own body. Exercising was the only thing that helped me do that, so I want to share my story and some helpful facts from this week’s guest.

JC Rodriguez holds a Master’s degree in Clinical Exercise Physiology and is certified by the American College of Sports Medicine as a Cancer Exercise Specialist. He is the founder of Oncolofit, an online personal training program primarily for cancer survivors. He worked with thousands of survivors in the hospital setting before becoming an online coach and trainer. 

JC has also led exercise oncology research studies at Yale University and the University of Miami. JC’s professional background includes experience in cardiopulmonary rehabilitation and personal training, and he is a published author in the Journal of Metabolic Syndrome and Related Disorders. His role is to design and adjust individualized exercise programs for individuals during and after cancer treatment, using evidence-based clinical guidelines and coordinating with the healthcare team when appropriate. JC’s focus is to help patients move safely, manage treatment-related side effects, maintain physical function, and improve quality of life.

In this week’s episode, we’re talking about Oncolofit, fitness for cancer survivors, with our first guest, JC! Regular exercise did wonders for me during my cancer recovery. I felt like I was taking my body back after feeling like life was happening TO my body for so long. But not everyone knows how to get into fitness during their cancer recovery, so today we’re talking to an expert. 

Tune in to hear the benefits of exercising during cancer recovery and how you can make your exercise routine work for you!

Follow JC on:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/oncolofit 

LinkedIn: Oncolofit JC

Website: https://www.oncolofit.com/ 

Listen to his podcast, Podcast with JC, wherever you listen to podcasts!

Work with Eileen:

Book your free consultation call to find out more about Eileen’s EcoSystem of Healing Coaching Package here! 

Follow Eileen on:

Instagram: @eileen_lopez_tome_coach

LinkedIn: Eileen Lopez Tome

Watch this episode on YouTube! @EileenLopezTome 

Podcast production for this episode was provided by Siembra Podcast Co., an Afro-Latina-owned boutique podcast production and copywriting studio. 

Sacrifice is a large, and often devastating, part of Latino culture. Our parents and our grandparents have sacrificed so much to give us the life that they never had. That sacrifice includes giving up on their dreams to give us stable lives. But I think we’re finally at the point where we can take a risk rather than settle down with stability. 

My father carried around his dream in his briefcase every single day, and never worked towards it. He dreamed of opening a grocery store that catered to Latino clientele in Miami. But instead of starting that grocery store business, he worked for someone else for his entire career as an EVP of an office machine store. My father’s sacrifice is the reason I followed my dream and started my own cancer survivorship coaching business.

In this week's episode, we’re talking about how I’m making my father’s dreams come true. I loved my father, and I know for a fact that his grocery store would have been successful. But he chose a stable career, making someone else millions of dollars in order to have a reliable and steady income for his family. It’s devastating to know that my father died without ever realizing his greatest dream, knowing he definitely would have succeeded as an entrepreneur. This week, I’m going to honor him by telling his story and explain explaining why his dream of entrepreneurship fuels my own right now.

Tune in to hear a story of immigration, resilience, and the tenacity to keep moving forward.

Work with Eileen:

Book your free consultation call to find out more about Eileen’s EcoSystem of Healing Coaching Package here! 

Follow Eileen on:

Instagram: @eileen_lopez_tome_coach

LinkedIn: Eileen Lopez Tome

Watch this episode on YouTube! @EileenLopezTome 

Podcast production for this episode was provided by Siembra Podcast Co., an Afro-Latina-owned boutique podcast production and copywriting studio. 

My hermansas showed up for me during the hardest part of my life. Being diagnosed, going through chemo, and building my body back up made me sink so deeply into myself that I felt so alone. Until they made me realize that I wasn’t.

The women who showed up for me didn’t just wish me well. They held prayer circles, brought food, ran marathons with me, and so much more. They were THERE for me, making sure that I knew I was never actually alone. I want you to feel that level of community too. 

In this week’s episode, we’re talking about mis hermanas, the women who showed up for me, and how to find yours. Sometimes we get so wrapped up in being the strong one that we forget that we have people to help us when we can’t be that strong anymore. I definitely did, and thinking back to just how many people showed up for me during the toughest time of my life brought me to happy tears. 

Tune in to hear how I found my community of hermanas and how you can find yours too.

Work with Eileen:

Book your free consultation call to find out more about Eileen’s EcoSystem of Healing Coaching Package here! 

Follow Eileen on:

Instagram: @eileen_lopez_tome_coach

LinkedIn: Eileen Lopez Tome

Watch this episode on YouTube! @EileenLopezTome 

Podcast production for this episode was provided by Siembra Podcast Co., an Afro-Latina-owned boutique podcast production and copywriting studio. 

Telling your kids about your cancer diagnosis will be hard. At least, it was for me. I didn’t know what to do or what the right thing to say was. I just sat them down individually - there are five of them - with my husband and spoke from the heart. 

This conversation is not going to be easy for you. I should know; I had five different conversations for five different kids. They were all varying ages; the oldest were in their twenties, and the youngest was three at the time. And they all needed something different from this conversation and different things from their mom, too. At the time, I was so lost on what the right thing to say was, so now I’m going to share what I should have said, and what I did say at the time that actually helped. 

In this week’s episode, we’re talking about how to tell your kids you’ve been diagnosed with cancer. There is a “right” way to have this conversation with your kids. According to the experts, it’s a lot of reassurance and providing stability in an unstable time. You’ve done it before, for much smaller issues with your kids. You can do it again for this. 

Tune in to hear what I did right when telling my kids about my diagnosis, and some scripts you can use so you can get it right the first time.

Work with Eileen:

Book your free consultation call to find out more about Eileen’s EcoSystem of Healing Coaching Package here! 

Follow Eileen on:

Instagram: @eileen_lopez_tome_coach

LinkedIn: Eileen Lopez Tome

Watch this episode on YouTube! @EileenLopezTome 

Podcast production for this episode was provided by Siembra Podcast Co., an Afro-Latina-owned boutique podcast production and copywriting studio. 

Cancer and cancer treatment can take so much from you. For me, it took my ability to feel strong. I’ve always cared about my health, but after I was diagnosed, I was completely lost. I didn’t feel strong, I went through chemical menopause, and I didn’t necessarily want to prioritize losing weight. So I ended up looking for experts. And one of those experts happened to be my son!!

 Will "Billy" Holscher is an NASM-certified personal trainer and Precision Nutrition Level 1 coach. As the founder of Holscher Fit, Will has been training me since August of 2022. In three years, he's helped me lose 50 pounds and build a stronger body than I had before cancer. 

In this week’s episode, we’re talking about why you need to add strength training and exercise to your cancer treatment plan. I don’t know where I’d be in my fitness journey without my son’s help. I needed a physical trainer who could push me beyond my limits while still keeping my treatment in mind. He taught me how to feel stronger and feel in control of my body again, on top of all the other health benefits that come from lifting weights. 

Tune in to hear how you can benefit from weight lifting and hear insights into the cs vet journey through the eyes of our kids. 

Follow Will on:

Instagram: @hoelscherfit 

Work with Eileen:

Book your free consultation call to find out more about Eileen’s EcoSystem of Healing Coaching Package here! 

Follow Eileen on:

Instagram: @eileen_lopez_tome_coach

LinkedIn: Eileen Lopez Tome

Watch this episode on YouTube! @EileenLopezTome 

Podcast production for this episode was provided by CCST, an Afro-Latina-owned boutique podcast production and copywriting studio. 

I think all cancer survivors wait for the other shoe to drop. We’re not being morbid; we’ve seen it happen to our friends, family, and acquaintances. It is a possibility that the cancer could come back. And the waiting game, hoping it never happens again but terrified of the possibility that it could happen again, is a drain on the soul. 

I never got cancer again, even though we found a bump and I had a suspicious cough. I recently graduated from treatment, and it felt surreal to be declared “done with cancer.” It made me think of all that time I spent with my fear of recurrence, the fear that the cancer would come back, and I want to talk about what to do about it so that you can enjoy your life without that fear. 

In this week’s episode, we’re naming the fear of recurrence and what to do with it. This episode isn’t about toxic positivity. I don’t believe that talking about cancer will call it to you, and I don’t believe in ignoring the very real possibility that the cancer could come back. But holding that much fear in your body is painful, so I want to share with you how I let go of that fear and who helped me along the way. 

Work with Eileen:

Book your free consultation call to find out more about Eileen’s EcoSystem of Healing Coaching Package here! 

Follow Eileen on:

Instagram: @eileen_lopez_tome_coach

LinkedIn: Eileen Lopez Tome

Watch this episode on YouTube! @EileenLopezTome 

Podcast production for this episode was provided by CCST, an Afro-Latina-owned boutique podcast production and copywriting studio. 

Have you ever thought about what your caretaker must be going through? Chances are that yes, you have. But your diagnosis is so overwhelming that you both decided to fall into a new routine. You both establish a new normal to keep the faith that you'll both come out of this ok. 

But that doesn’t mean that you, as the patient, don't care about your caregiver. Whether that person is your spouse, your parent, or even a really good friend, your caregiver is carrying an immense weight on their shoulders. And today, we’re going to talk about it. 

In this week’s episode, we’re talking about the other side of the bed and what your caregiver carried while you were fighting. While you were fighting cancer, getting chemo treatments, and trying to adjust to a new normal, they were right there with you. They were also scared, and hopeful, and exhausted, but they also had to be strong for everyone else. So today, we’re going to explore and honor those feelings.

Tune in to hear about a conversation I had with my husband about being my caregiver, and how that affected him when I was diagnosed. 

Work with Eileen:

Book your free consultation call to find out more about Eileen’s EcoSystem of Healing Coaching Package here! 

Follow Eileen on:

Instagram: @eileen_lopez_tome_coach

LinkedIn: Eileen Lopez Tome

Watch this episode on YouTube! @EileenLopezTome 

Podcast production for this episode was provided by CCST, an Afro-Latina-owned boutique podcast production and copywriting studio. 

The stories we tell ourselves have the power to shape our lives. But not every story we tell ourselves, about ourselves, is true. So where did they come from? And why are we still listening to them?  

I was told that I was not a good gardener and that I can’t be an entrepreneur. The funny thing is, I don’t remember who told me this! Maybe I killed a plant, or I seemed happy being an employee, but in my heart, I didn’t feel like these things were true. So I explored these thoughts by doing the opposite of what they told me. 

In this week’s episode, we’re talking about 2 lessons on how I became my most authentic self that have nothing to do with cancer. These stories that I was telling myself, they weren’t true. I knew they weren’t true, but it can be so hard to get over that jump in your mind and actually do something about those little lies. But I did, and I want to teach all of you how I did it so that you can challenge these untrue stories and become your most authentic selves. 

Work with Eileen:

Book your free consultation call to find out more about Eileen’s EcoSystem of Healing Coaching Package here! 

Follow Eileen on: Instagram: @eileen_lopez_tome_coach

LinkedIn: Eileen Lopez Tome

Watch this episode on YouTube! @EileenLopezTome 

Podcast production for this episode was provided by CCST, an Afro-Latina-owned boutique podcast production and copywriting studio. 

I have a client who reached out to me because she knew she wasn’t feeling her feelings. At first, she felt distant from her feelings, like she couldn’t access them. Then they all bubbled up out of nowhere!

This client came to me because she wanted help processing these feelings in a healthy way. I’m glad she came to me. I have tons of experience working through repressed emotions, both as a coach and from my own experience. I once dissolved into tears at a pool party. It happens! 

In this week’s episode, we’re talking about how to work through your repressed feelings as a cancer survivor. If you’re feeling distant from yourself, if you’re having a hard time managing your emotions, or if you feel like you’re a little bit behind where you should be, this episode is for you. Cancer diagnosis and treatment are traumatic, both physically and emotionally. Your doctors are handling the physical healing; let’s work on the emotional healing together. 

Work with Eileen:

Book your free consultation call to find out more about Eileen’s EcoSystem of Healing Coaching Package here! 

Follow Eileen on:

Instagram: @eileen_lopez_tome_coach

LinkedIn: Eileen Lopez Tome

Watch this episode on YouTube! @EileenLopezTome 

Podcast production for this episode was provided by CCST, an Afro-Latina-owned boutique podcast production and copywriting studio. 

Body neutrality is a concept I bring up to my cancer recovery clients so that they have some peace during such a difficult time. Loving our bodies - as Latinas, as women, and as cancer survivors - is a hard thing to wrap our heads around. Too much has happened, and some days we feel too battered and bruised to really align with the word “love.”

But not loving our bodies doesn’t mean we have to hate our bodies. I don’t hate my body! My body fought for me, it nursed five kids for me, it ran a marathon with me. So when I discovered body neutrality, I finally felt like I had found the word I’ve been looking for all this time.

In this week’s episode, we’re talking about body neutrality and how to make peace with your body after your cancer diagnosis. If you’ve recently been diagnosed with cancer or you’re going through treatment, you might feel like this time of your life is too tumultuous to use the L word. So I’d like to offer you the concept of body neutrality and how it can bring you peace during such a rough time in your life. 

Tune in to hear what body neutrality can look like in practice for cancer survivors and how it’s helped me heal decades of trauma from impossible beauty standards. 

Work with Eileen:

Book your free consultation call to find out more about Eileen’s EcoSystem of Healing Coaching Package here! 

Follow Eileen on:

Instagram: @eileen_lopez_tome_coach

LinkedIn: Eileen Lopez Tome

Watch this episode on YouTube! @EileenLopezTome 

Podcast production for this episode was provided by CCST, an Afro-Latina-owned boutique podcast production and copywriting studio.