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Your Social Life
My Best Life-Changing Move
More women share their stories that changed their lives
“I quit smoking.”For 44 years, Janet Keshl’s life revolved around smoking. “I started smoked when I was 14, and it’s hard to remember my life without cigarettes,” the Allentown woman says. “I needed to make sure restaurants and hotels were friendly to smokers, and at parties I would wait for the smokers to go outside so I could join them.”
All that changed on Sept. 27, 2003—the day asthmatic bronchitis propelled Keshl into quitting for good. Six months later, she’s never been healthier. “I now walk up stairs more easily and breathe more comfortably,” she says. “I even started working out at the gym, which I never would have done as a smoker.”
Life as an ex-smoker isn’t always easy. Keshl still gets cravings, but she doesn’t use pills, a patch or hypnosis to beat them. Instead, she found a new way to keep her hands busy: her hobbies of soap- and paper-making.
These activities have not only helped her stay away from smoking (and the nibbling and weight gain that went with it). They’re also given her new opportunities to contribute to her community. Keshl donates her soaps to the residents of the Good Shepherd Raker Center, where she’s a volunteer, and crafts her own greeting cards for friends and relatives.
Best of all, cigarettes don’t control Keshl’s life anymore. “I haven’t had a respiratory illness since I quit smoking,” she says. “I’m in control and healthy enough to finally explore what life has to offer.”
“I made exercise a priority.”Four years ago, Donna Henry had major health problems. Diagnosed with insulin-dependent diabetes and congestive heart failure, the 60-year-old Easton woman spent a week in the hospital and went home with seven prescriptions.
Henry knew she had to turn her life around—so she adopted healthier eating habits and made exercise an integral part of her routine. Since fitness had never been a priority before, she began slowly with daily walks. Then she remembered how much she had loved swimming as a child. Henry now heads for the YMCA at 5 a.m. five days a week for a two-mile swim. She also walks 2.5 to five miles daily.
Henry’s cardiologist calls her a “miracle patient” because she reversed her diabetes and heart disease, and needs only a blood pressure medication and baby aspirin. “The miracle is that I took control over my life and health,” she says. “Exercise is as important as eating, even for healthy people.”
Henry says she feels better and has more energy. Her husband, who has a family history of heart disease, has adopted her new, healthy lifestyle as well.
It’s a success story she shares with everyone. “I didn’t talk about my health problems for two years because I didn’t want people harping on me,” she says. “I wanted to get better in my own way. Now I realize my story can help others, and I tell people, ‘Don’t think about it—just do it.’”
“I gained my independence”Arlene Vicari just wasn't happy. She was in a failing marriage with no job, raising three children. "I never finished college and I felt stuck," she says. "I had no self-esteem, no identity.”
Then at age 41, she decided to reclaim herself and “rediscovered Arlene.” “I got divorced, sold my home and found a career at a woman's prison in Clinton, New Jersey,” Vicari says. “There, I adopted a mentor, learned about computers and became a technical assistant working in telecommunications. And I love it.”
One of her biggest cheerleaders through it all was her gynecologist, Helene Leonetti, M.D., of Lehigh Valley Hospital and Health Network. “I felt comfortable confiding in her, and she'd give me advice about my situation,” Vicari says. “She empowered me to take care of myself.”
As a result, Vicari has gone through a mental and physical transformation. “When I started to feel free, I began taking vitamins and exercising,” she says. Vicari and her two daughters, Danielle and Ashley, work out at the gym together, lifting weights and doing the treadmill.
Vicari's life change has brought her closer to her children and teaches them independence, too. In fact Danielle recently bought a home, where Vicari lives. “Today I walk differently, more confidently,” Vicari says, “and so do my children.”
This page last updated 2/12/08 04:08 PM
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