About
Short Story
My name is Susan, I’m in my mid-twenties, and I hail from New Brunswick in Atlantic Canada.
I began blogging in January 2009 as a way to chronicle my first triathlon and life after a 30 lb weight loss. It has since grown into “The Great Balancing Act.” A place where I share my journey to find a healthy balance on a daily basis. I write about healthy food and not-so-healthy food. I write about exercise and fitness. I write about life. Living it, loving it, and sometimes just getting through it. I write about my life, but I hope it inspires you to live yours to the fullest too.
I have a degree in journalism and communications and worked as a radio and television reporter for many years. I’m also a certified Personal Training Specialist and Nutrition & Wellness Specialist through CanFitPro (Canada’s certifying body). I loved my job as a personal trainer in Toronto until an arm injury forced me into other work. I moved back to New Brunswick to be closer to my family and found a job doing what I do best – reading and writing.
On June 22, 2011, my life was turned upside down when I was diagnosed with Hodgkins Lymphoma – a cancer of the lymphatic system. I am currently undergoing chemotherapy and am confident I am among the 80% of people diagnosed with the disease that are completely cured through treatment.
Long Story
Growing up, I was never an active child. In other words, I was a nerd. Instead of playing soccer or basketball, I played piano and read books.
My family went through some hard times in my early teens. I acted out by doing all the bad things me and my friends could think of. I hated myself and my body, so I treated it in the worst way possible.
During that time, I was also struggling with school. I found it really difficult to go and be around people. When I was 15, I left school early one day and told my mom I was never going back. My parents immediately brought me to a psychologist who diagnosed me with a mild form of agoraphobia. In other words, a social anxiety disorder.
There was a period where social-induced panic attacks were a weekly thing. I worked hard at learning my triggers and controlling my anxiety. The diagnosis is something that will never go away, but over a decade later I can now say I have a really good handle on it.
Even though I never thought university was for me, I eventually found myself studying at a small liberal arts school in New Brunswick. I was immediately drawn to journalism and communications because of my love of writing and interacting with people on a more intimate basis. I flourished mentally in university, but physically my healthy habits just weren’t there.
My breaking point came in third year where I found myself 30 lbs overweight thanks to too many brews and nachos. I started small, vowing to give up beer and doing 30 minutes of physical activity each day.
From there it just snowballed. I started counting calories and taking a closer look at what I was eating. After eight years as a vegetarian, I discovered my body functions best when lean animal protein is involved. I educated myself on food, absorbing any book or magazine I could get my hands on.
Meanwhile, I started challenging myself more physically. I began running using the Couch To 5k program. I began swimming and eventually did a triathlon. I also ran races and completed a six month weight lifting program.
By this point I’d finished university and was working as a full-time reporter for a local radio station. I liked my job, but I lacked the fire in the belly that so many people require to be a successful journalist. I started to feel very stuck in that small city and dreamed of ways to get out.
At the beginning of 2010, several life-changing things happened. I left my job at the radio station to “pursue other things,” I left my boyfriend of four years, I started studying for my personal training certification, and I decided to move from my small New Brunswick city to Canada’s largest city.
By July 2010 I arrived on Toronto’s doorstep ready for any adventures that would follow. I immediately found work as a personal trainer, and later started working part-time at a running store.
I loved my work in Toronto, I had a great group of friends there, and the pulse of the city energized me in ways I’d never experienced. Many adventures were had.
But after nine months, I started to feel the pull of home again. I missed my family like crazy and the big city was starting to wear me down.I was ready to leave, but then something happened that would be the final kick in the arse to get me back home.
In February 2011, while visiting my sister in Ottawa, I fell skating on the Rideau Canal. I shattered the radial head in my left elbow (I’m right handed). What was supposed to be a two hour surgery turned into a five hour one as they removed my elbow and reconstructed the shattered pieces on the back table using screws and glue.
I was in a full-arm cast for four weeks and suddenly unable to do my physically demanding jobs. I moved back home in April 2011 where I continue the long process of rehabilitating my arm. After consulting with three surgeons, all said it’s one of the worst radial head fractures they’ve seen, and I decided on additional surgery in hopes of getting more range of motion back.
After all of this however, June 22, 2011 was the day that changed my life.
I’d been experiencing extreme pain in my neck for over a week and chalked it up to a torn muscle. When my mother saw that my throat was swollen and the veins protruding in my chest, her instincts told her it was something else. She forced me to a doctor who thought it might be something with my thyroid and scheduled a CT scan.
That scan showed a blood clot in my jugular vein and I was sent immediately back to the hospital. A second scan of my chest that day revealed something much, much more. A mass, taking up 40% of my chest, and enlarged lymph nodes extending into my neck and under my arms.
I spent a month in the hospital undergoing a slew of tests, including a needle biopsy and two surgeries. I was eventually diagnosed with Stage 2a Hodgkins Lymphoma, a blood cancer of the lymphatic system. My cancer considered undesirable because its most active location is around the superior vena cava, a main vein at the top of my heart.
I am currently undergoing chemotherapy and am fully confident I will be one of the 80% of people who are cured of Hodgkins with treatment.
The past three years since I started blogging have been a whirlwind, to say the least. When I named this blog “The Great Balancing Act,” I had no idea what a balancing act my life would turn out to be.
In the end, despite the changes, I find my balance in being content. I now know that being fit and healthy isn’t the whole story. My definition of health has completely changed and I realize just how valuable my life truly is. Throughout it all, it’s still possible to find joy in every day. It’s not about having to look harder, but more about appreciating it a little more. In that, the pendulum swings.
Want to get in touch? E-mail me at thegreatbalancingact @ gmail.com, follow me on Twitter, or find me on Facebook!
Love the update- congrats again, and can’t wait to see how this unfolds!
your mystery plant looks like dill to me
hooray for the update. i fully expect photos of you at the new gig!!
Hello, I just found your blog. It’s so nice to read about you doing something you truly enjoy and starting a career in fitness. Congrats and Good Luck!
Hi there, found your blog via your comment on Tina’s.
Just wanted to say well done to losing all that weight! I’ll be also qualifying in February to become an exercise to music instructor (not RPM as you, I’ll be doing Bodypump). Good luck with your training, I’ll be following you along!
Just found your blog! Nice reads!! :)
Hi Susan,
Nice to see another Canadian female blogging about health, food and fitness! Looking forward to checking back and reading what you have to say
Best of luck to you with all your goals!
Bry
http://embracefire.wordpress.com/
Love it! So well written. :)
Hey Susan!
Been reading your blog for awhile, and I have one of my own for my husband and I and wanted to do a recipe page on it…as I post recipes from time to time. However, I was wondering if you could help me with how to link the recipe to the recipe page with just the name of the recipe to click on versus having the entire link show up? Does that make sense? I would like “Apple Bran Muffins” to show rather than, http://www.hypkis.wordpress.com/apple bran muffins
Anyways, just wondering if you might have time to give me some tips on that. :)
Thanks, and I’m following your journey to do what you love, hope you find a job soon!! :)
Thanks,
Liesl Hypki
Was just showing your incredible blog to Main Squeeze and among the many things you list about yourself, we agreed you left out “Amazing Photographer” – especially the food! You really have such a talent.
Awww, thank you!! I’m still working on it – hopefully the photography will only get better :)
Hey Susan,
I’ve just recently discovered your blog- love reading about your adventures! I hope you enjoy living it up in my hometown :)
-Jess
Hi Susan!! I just found your blog… and I am loving it! You seem to have a wonderful and healthy outlook on life, and I can’t wait to read more! :)
Hi Susan, I just found your blog and looking forward to read more about it :)
Hi Susan, you have a great blog that I’ve just come upon! You have great stories and recipes and look forward to hearing more and trying some of your delicious food! Thanks
Love the update!
Hi! It’s not very often I find a fellow new brunswicker online :) I grew up in Moncton and after bouncing around all over for University, settled in Halifax (which I LOVED!). A year ago I moved to California with my husband for his job. We are looking forward to moving back to the maritimes though, which is our next step. Like you, we felt the pull back home the whole time we were here. We still love it here and are enjoying it while we can :)
Great blog!
Wow – what an inspirational – and continuing – story. I live in Ottawa – and I’ve seen many injuries from the canal that have left shoulders ruined :( So sorry to hear about your own accident.
I would love to hear more about your writing career if possible. I myself am trying to transition into one from a physical job that I can’t do anymore but it’s not easy. Not to mention – it hardly pays. I’m in no position to give up my full-time job because of it. I do some writing for Demand Studios – but honestly the content mill work is burning me out and destroys my creativity or desire to be in front of a computer…
You look great.
Wao! That’s a whole lot of commitment and dedication. You have a nice blog, quite informative. I will recommend this blog to anyone who wants to lose weight because your true life story is in itself a great lesson and quite motivating too.
Do visit my blog and let me have your opinion. It’s new though. http://www.cultureexplore.wordpress.com
Till I hear from you, i say keep up the good work
Susan,
I enjoy reading your blogs. They are very interesting, informative, and inspiring. Keep up the good work. God has blessed you with something of great value to offer the world.
I just read your “about”. Holy cow. I’m from Sackville. Did you go to MTA?
take care Susan,
ed
xx
Susan,
Yours is an inspiring story on many fronts. Thanks for sharing it!
cpb
Hi.. I just read your blog for the very first time and found it highly inspiring and moving. Your thoughts about a balanced life are so very true. Every human heart yearns for contentment and if that can be found then surely one’s life is balanced. Everything that follows or precedes that feeling of satisfaction is just a process to achieve that feeling yet again. Its the true balancing act… I am surely going to be a regular reader of your beautiful blog now.. :)
I loved your blog and especially wanted to congratulate and commend you on the wonderful achievements you have to be proud of; of living a good balanced content life. Wishing you deep and abiding peace always!
Hey Susan!
I’m new here, but already a fan!
best wishes from Brazil!
Hey Susan,
I’m also new to your blog, but I find your story so inspirational and I’m really enjoying your posts. I can’t wait to read about the rest of your journey!
Such a beautiful girl with a true knack for balancing :)
LOVE the update and loved reading your story, since I hadn’t really had a chance to read back through it all (why you started blogging, your career etc). This is a great refresher, and I know your fire will get you through this battle.
Loved reading the update. You are one brave and inspiring lady.
ps: I love that new photo of you at the very beginning of the about, I’ve never seen that one before!
This is so inspirational! Thank you thank you for sharing!
Hi!
I am also a young adult who has dealt with cancer, and just came across your story through YACC. I was diagnosed when I was 27 (I am now 30 – ugh) and even though I have finished my treatments I am only just starting to deal with this thing called cancer, all the emotions that come with it, and wanting to reach out to meet other people who are dealing with it (just like you said in your blog about 50/50). I have just since yesterday started sharing my journal entries with people on Facebook, wanting to get my story out there, make people more aware of how the disease affects young people, also because I felt very much like you – I was always in waiting rooms with people 2 to 3 times my age. I feel like I want to make a difference with my experience, and I haven’t quite figured out how yet. I wanted to let you know though that I loved reading your story, and see you as a huge inspiration too all! I will continue to read your story, and just wanted to say thanks for being such a great role model:)
Heather Bonynge
Heather, thank you for getting in touch! I am only halfway through chemo and still in the “let’s get through this” mindset. I know I still have a long ways to go even when the treatment part is all over. Also, I definitely recommend blogging! Not only has it become a way for me to express myself and communicate with my loved ones throughout this experience, but it’s put me in touch with a lot of great people in the “cancer community” such as yourself. Thanks for stopping by :)
Hi, I like your blog. I noticed comment you left on “snackface” about stress. Yes, my body has broken down becaues of my stress and anxiety and I’ve lost a lot of weight. My tummy has all the good bacteria and stuff staved off. I really almost need to eat ‘differently’ and “better”…but I just want to gain (and feel so not wanting to give up dairy or things). I’m pretty lost an confused about it all. Gaining, but needing to help my guts. So stressed (how it all started. Wish I could wake up and be healthy and feel good (cause I don’t feel good, everything i eat oesn’t feel right).
I admire your journey!
I jusr read your story and just wanted to say really quick that it is really inspiring how you try to keep positive through all of it. I wish you all the very best.
Take care & best Greetings from Austria,
Doris
Hi
I just stumbled upon your blog while looking for a good protein pancake recipe. I see that you are dealing with Hodgkins Lymphoma. Wow, you are amazing. I am a 23 year survivor of Hodgkins Lymphoma, I got it when I was 30. I have been fine since.
I just wanted to encourage you. I started running for the first time 3 years ago for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Have you heard of them? and Team in Training? It is an awesome way to give back!! They provide fund raising support and training to run marathons. I have ran the Nike Woman’s half marathon in San Francisco twice. It is so much fun!! http://www.teamintraining.org/mail
The LLS has awarded millions of dollars to advance blood cancer research and direct services to patients and their families.
I will be signing up again in April to participate and train for the Nike Womans marathon on October 14,2012
Anyway, now I am doing our local Gold’s Gym 12 week get in shape contest. Hence the search for Protein pancakes!
Best wishes for a great recovery!
Amy
Thank you for taking the time to get in touch! I lovelovelove hearing from long-term Hodgkin’s survivors. I hear a lot from short term ones who’ve had recurrence, so it gives me hope to hear from those who had it once, got rid of it, and haven’t been bothered by it for many years since. I’ve been in touch with LLS since my diagnosis. Unfortunately we don’t have an LLS chapter in my province. When I’m better, I’d really like to put some resources towards getting one here. I’d really like to get a LIght the Night fundraiser going. I’m still a faaaaar way from running any races (my lungs were affected by treatment) Hope you found some good protein pancakes!
hey susan! i stumbled across your page through janetha and i also follow you on instagram. i must say you are such an inspiration.. i think of all the things i let get me down (like a 5 lb weight gain) when it’s something so little compared to what you have gone through. i wanted to say congratulations on the news and i hope that everything works out for you. plus, buster is too too cute :)
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