Better Than Before Breast Cancer with The Breast Cancer Recovery Coach

Laura Lummer
  • 4.8 (163)
  • Medicine
  • Updated Weekly

Laura is a Certified Life, Health, Nutrition Coach, and Wellness professional. She's a two-time breast cancer survivor living with metastatic disease. Laura supports women in dropping their warrior shield after a diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer so they can release the pressure to go back to normal and create a life that's even better than before breast cancer. These twice-weekly episodes give you tools you can apply to your life today, to support your body and your mind as you manage life after breast cancer.

  1. 6d ago

    #468 Breast Cancer and Self-Awareness - The Outside Signs of Your Inner Health

    Your body has been talking to you your whole life. The question is whether anyone ever taught you to listen. In this episode, I want to widen the lens on how you read your own body. We have lost so much of the generational knowledge our mothers and grandmothers once passed down, and now we tend to wait until something hurts before we pay attention. But your body speaks in subtleties long before that. I share one of my great loves, Ayurveda, the 5,000-year-old healing system I studied for three years, and its practice of observation called the eightfold examination. What fascinates me most is how closely it aligns with modern functional nutrition's Nutrition Focused Physical Exam. We walk through what your tongue, skin, hair, nails, and eyes may be reflecting about your gut health, your nutrient status, your oxidative stress, and even your blood sugar, backed by research going back nearly 80 years. Here is what matters most. This is not about self-diagnosis. None of these signs are proof of anything on their own. They are invitations to pay attention, not verdicts to fear. My hope is that noticing your body builds confidence instead of anxiety, the quiet confidence of a woman in a loving conversation with her body rather than at war with it. If you take one small thing from this episode, try this. Tomorrow morning, look at your tongue and just notice. Do it for a week. That is the practice.   Resources Mentioned: Work with Laura: https://www.thebreastcancerrecoverycoach.com/health  Download for iPhone:  https://apps.apple.com/us/app/kajabi/id1485646310 Download for Android:  https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=kajabi.kajabiapp&hl=en_US Here is the link to the FREE Ayurveda Mini-Course that I talked about in this episode: https://www.thebreastcancerrecoverycoach.com/mybody   Here are the references: Foundational Asif T, Mohiuddin A, Hasan B, Pauly RR. Importance of Thorough Physical Examination: A Lost Art. Cureus. 2017;9(5):e1212. Newton C. The Functional Nutrition-Focused Physical Exam. IFNA Track 3 Module 2. Tongue Jeghers H. Nutrition: the appearance of the tongue as an index of nutritional deficiency. New England Journal of Medicine. 1942;227:221-8. Khayamzadeh M, Najafi S, Sadrolodabaei P, Vakili F, Kharrazi Fard MJ. Determining salivary and serum levels of iron, zinc and vitamin B12 in patients with geographic tongue. J Dent Res Dent Clin Dent Prospects. 2019;13(3):221-226. Chiang CP, Chang JY, Wang YP, Wu YH, Wu YC, Sun A. Atrophic glossitis: Etiology, serum autoantibodies, anemia, hematinic deficiencies, hyperhomocysteinemia, and management. J Formos Med Assoc. 2020;119(4):774-780. Skin Salem I, Ramser A, Isham N, Ghannoum MA. The Gut Microbiome as a Major Regulator of the Gut-Skin Axis. Front Microbiol. 2018;9:1459. Wang X, Li Y, Wu L, et al. Dysregulation of the gut-brain-skin axis and key overlapping inflammatory and immune mechanisms of psoriasis and depression. Biomed Pharmacother. 2021;137:111065. Jafferany M, Franca K. Psychodermatology: Basics Concepts. Acta Derm Venereol. 2016;96(217):35-7. Reunala T, Salmi TT, Hervonen K, Kaukinen K, Collin P. Dermatitis Herpetiformis: A Common Extraintestinal Manifestation of Coeliac Disease. Nutrients. 2018;10(5):602. Stefanadi EC, Dimitrakakis G, Antoniou CK, et al. Metabolic syndrome and the skin: a more than superficial association. Diabetol Metab Syndr. 2018;10:9. Hair O'Connor K, Goldberg LJ. Nutrition and hair. Clin Dermatol. 2021;39(5):809-818. Arck PC, Overall R, Spatz K, et al. Towards a "free radical theory of graying": melanocyte apoptosis in the aging human hair follicle is an indicator of oxidative stress induced tissue damage. FASEB J. 2006;20(9):1567-9. Zhang B, Ma S, Rachmin I, et al. Hyperactivation of sympathetic nerves drives depletion of melanocyte stem cells. Nature. 2020;577(7792):676-681. Poonia K, Bhalla M. Premature Graying of Hair: A Comprehensive Review and Recent Insights. Indian Dermatol Online J. 2024;15(5):721-731. Nails Singal A, Arora R. Nail as a window of systemic diseases. Indian Dermatol Online J. 2015;6(2):67-74. Cashman MW, Sloan SB. Nutrition and nail disease. Clin Dermatol. 2010;28(4):420-5. Eyes Knapp A. The Eye as a Guide to Latent Nutritional Deficiency Diseases. Bull N Y Acad Med. 1946. Wakamatsu TH, Dogru M, Tsubota K. Tearful relations: oxidative stress, inflammation and eye diseases. Arq Bras Oftalmol. 2008;71(6 Suppl):72-9. Seydou A, Arnould L, Gabrielle PH, et al. Plasma Fatty Acids Pattern and Dry Eye Disease in the Elderly: The Montrachet Population-Based Study. Nutrients. 2022;14(11):2290. Bu Y, Shih KC, Tong L. The ocular surface and diabetes, the other 21st Century epidemic. Exp Eye Res. 2022;220:109099. Rahman A, Yahya K, Ahmed T, Sharif-Ul-Hasan K. Diagnostic value of tear films tests in type 2 diabetes. J Pak Med Assoc. 2007;57(12):577-81. Seifart U, Strempel I. Trockenes Auge und Diabetes mellitus [The dry eye and diabetes mellitus]. Ophthalmologe. 1994;91(2):235-9. Campagnoli LIM, Varesi A, Barbieri A, Marchesi N, Pascale A. Targeting the Gut-Eye Axis: An Emerging Strategy to Face Ocular Diseases. Int J Mol Sci. 2023;24(17):13338. Let's Connect! If this episode helped you breathe a little easier, please share it with a friend or leave a review. Every share helps spread this message of hope, healing, and whole-person wellness. 💌 Join my email list for weekly wellness tips & podcast updates → The Breast Cancer Recovery Coach 💌 Join the Better Than Before Breast Cancer Life Coaching Membership → Life Coaching 💌 Join the Living Well After Breast Cancer Community → The Living Well After Breast Cancer Community 👩‍💻 Follow me on Instagram for daily inspiration → @thebreastcancerrecoverycoach 👩‍💻 Follow me on Facebook → The Breast Cancer Recovery Coach 🎙 Subscribe & leave a review on Apple Podcasts → Better Than Before Breast Cancer with The Breast Cancer Recovery Coach 🎥 Watch on YouTube → @BetterThanBeforeBreastCancer

    40 min

  2. Jun 19

    Male Breast Cancer - What You Need to Know with Jake Messier

    This Father's Day episode is personal for me. I lost my brother to testicular cancer in 1993, and that loss taught me how dangerous it is when we do not talk about the cancers that catch our loved ones off guard. So I am honored to share this conversation with Jake Messier, a stage four metastatic male breast cancer advocate known on social media as The Guy With Stage Four Breast Cancer. Jake found a lump while putting on deodorant in early 2023 and, like most men, never imagined it could be breast cancer. That delay may have shaped his stage four diagnosis. In our conversation, he opens up about the isolation of being one man in a pink world, the support groups that turned him away, and the harder truth that almost no research exists on how this disease behaves differently in men, which is part of why it is roughly 30 percent more fatal in men than in women. We also talk about the work he is building now, including the Male Breast Cancer Research Foundation, the male mouse project, and a male cell line registry, plus the men's health questions so many of us carry for the people we love. His closing advice is simple. Be aware of your partner's normal, so you can recognize the abnormal. Please share this episode with the men in your life. It could be the reason one of them does not wait.   Resources Mentioned: Work with Laura: https://www.thebreastcancerrecoverycoach.com/health  Download for iPhone:  https://apps.apple.com/us/app/kajabi/id1485646310 Download for Android:  https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=kajabi.kajabiapp&hl=en_US   Connect with Jake Messier, MBA: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theguywithstage4breastcancer/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@stage4breastcancerguy Website: https://www.theguywithstage4breastcancer.com/   Let's Connect! If this episode helped you breathe a little easier, please share it with a friend or leave a review. Every share helps spread this message of hope, healing, and whole-person wellness. 💌 Join my email list for weekly wellness tips & podcast updates → The Breast Cancer Recovery Coach 💌 Join the Better Than Before Breast Cancer Life Coaching Membership → Life Coaching 💌 Join the Living Well After Breast Cancer Community → The Living Well After Breast Cancer Community 👩‍💻 Follow me on Instagram for daily inspiration → @thebreastcancerrecoverycoach 👩‍💻 Follow me on Facebook → The Breast Cancer Recovery Coach 🎙 Subscribe & leave a review on Apple Podcasts → Better Than Before Breast Cancer with The Breast Cancer Recovery Coach 🎥 Watch on YouTube → @BetterThanBeforeBreastCancer

    1h 4m

  3. Jun 12

    Breast Cancer and Mental Health - You Deserve Support

    June is Mental Health Month, and in this episode, I want you to hear something clearly. Your mental and emotional health is not a side note to breast cancer or to life after it. It deserves to be a priority, right alongside your physical health. I share a recent stretch of unrelenting pain that pulled me away from my walks and workouts, and how quickly that started to weigh on me mentally, because I want you to know you are not alone in that heaviness. We look at what the research actually shows about how long anxiety and depression can linger after a diagnosis, why isolation makes it harder, and how support changes everything. I also talk honestly about both lifestyle and medication. Nourishing your body and moving it genuinely support your brain, but they do not replace medical care, and reaching for medication when you need it is an act of love, not a failure. I close with a simple reframe. When "what is wrong with me" shows up, try asking "what do I need right now?" instead. You deserve support, friend. Come join us in the Living Well After Breast Cancer Community on the Breast Cancer Recovery Coach app.   Resources Mentioned: Work with Laura: https://www.thebreastcancerrecoverycoach.com/health  Download for iPhone:  https://apps.apple.com/us/app/kajabi/id1485646310 Download for Android:  https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=kajabi.kajabiapp&hl=en_US   Let's Connect! If this episode helped you breathe a little easier, please share it with a friend or leave a review. Every share helps spread this message of hope, healing, and whole-person wellness. 💌 Join my email list for weekly wellness tips & podcast updates → The Breast Cancer Recovery Coach 💌 Join the Better Than Before Breast Cancer Life Coaching Membership → Life Coaching 💌 Join the Living Well After Breast Cancer Community → The Living Well After Breast Cancer Community 👩‍💻 Follow me on Instagram for daily inspiration → @thebreastcancerrecoverycoach 👩‍💻 Follow me on Facebook → The Breast Cancer Recovery Coach 🎙 Subscribe & leave a review on Apple Podcasts → Better Than Before Breast Cancer with The Breast Cancer Recovery Coach 🎥 Watch on YouTube → @BetterThanBeforeBreastCancer

    31 min

  4. Jun 5

    The Spice Rack - A Simple Way to Support Your Health After Breast Cancer

    What do I even eat? If that question has ever stopped you in your tracks, this episode is for you. So many of us cycle through the same handful of foods week after week, then feel guilty for not eating more variety. And when we try to fix that, it often turns into more recipes, more shopping, and more pressure to find the perfect anti-cancer diet. In this episode, I want to take that pressure off. The easiest way to add more plants to your plate is probably already in your kitchen. Your spice rack. Herbs and spices are not just flavor; they are plants and parts of plants, and they bring a whole range of beneficial compounds to your meals in just a couple of teaspoons. We talk about: Why variety matters more than any single super food How one pot of chili can deliver 25 different plant foods Turning one chicken into five meals by changing the seasoning How to know if a spice is still good and how long they really last How to buy and store spices so you actually use them Bringing in new flavors through teas and spice blends This is not a new diet or a new set of rules. It is one simple, enjoyable way to nourish your body using what you already have.   Resources Mentioned: Work with Laura: https://www.thebreastcancerrecoverycoach.com/health  Download for iPhone:  https://apps.apple.com/us/app/kajabi/id1485646310 Download for Android:  https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=kajabi.kajabiapp&hl=en_US Grab the free guide: https://www.thebreastcancerrecoverycoach.com/spices   Let's Connect! If this episode helped you breathe a little easier, please share it with a friend or leave a review. Every share helps spread this message of hope, healing, and whole-person wellness. 💌 Join my email list for weekly wellness tips & podcast updates → The Breast Cancer Recovery Coach 💌 Join the Better Than Before Breast Cancer Life Coaching Membership → Life Coaching 💌 Join the Living Well After Breast Cancer Community → The Living Well After Breast Cancer Community 👩‍💻 Follow me on Instagram for daily inspiration → @thebreastcancerrecoverycoach 👩‍💻 Follow me on Facebook → The Breast Cancer Recovery Coach 🎙 Subscribe & leave a review on Apple Podcasts → Better Than Before Breast Cancer with The Breast Cancer Recovery Coach 🎥 Watch on YouTube → @BetterThanBeforeBreastCancer

    20 min

  5. May 29

    Acceptance After Breast Cancer - Letting Go of the Timeline

    Last week there was no podcast episode. For the first time in a long time, I simply didn't have the physical or emotional energy to show up behind the microphone. After navigating one of the most challenging health seasons I've experienced since my stage 4 diagnosis, I realized I couldn't just move on without talking about what this experience taught me. The lesson was acceptance. Not giving up. Not settling. Not pretending difficult things aren't difficult. Acceptance means acknowledging reality instead of exhausting yourself fighting against it. In this episode, I share what I've been going through, how self-imposed timelines create unnecessary suffering, and why so many of us judge ourselves for not being where we think we should be by now. We discuss: • Acceptance versus resistance • Healing after breast cancer • Letting go of unrealistic timelines • Self-compassion during difficult seasons • The psychology of "should" thinking • Living with uncertainty • Finding peace during setbacks • Why healing is rarely linear If you've been frustrated with where you are in your healing, your health, your relationships, your career, or your life, this conversation is for you.   Resources Mentioned: Work with Laura: https://www.thebreastcancerrecoverycoach.com/health  Download for iPhone:  https://apps.apple.com/us/app/kajabi/id1485646310 Download for Android:  https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=kajabi.kajabiapp&hl=en_US   Let's Connect! If this episode helped you breathe a little easier, please share it with a friend or leave a review. Every share helps spread this message of hope, healing, and whole-person wellness. 💌 Join my email list for weekly wellness tips & podcast updates → The Breast Cancer Recovery Coach 💌 Join the Better Than Before Breast Cancer Life Coaching Membership → Life Coaching 💌 Join the Living Well After Breast Cancer Community → The Living Well After Breast Cancer Community 👩‍💻 Follow me on Instagram for daily inspiration → @thebreastcancerrecoverycoach 👩‍💻 Follow me on Facebook → The Breast Cancer Recovery Coach 🎙 Subscribe & leave a review on Apple Podcasts → Better Than Before Breast Cancer with The Breast Cancer Recovery Coach 🎥 Watch on YouTube → @BetterThanBeforeBreastCancer

    18 min

  6. May 15

    The Most Important Thing I've Done to Heal From Breast Cancer Isn't What You Think

    What is the most important thing I've done to support healing after breast cancer? Mindset work. Not positive thinking. Not pretending things are fine when they're not. Not forcing affirmations I didn't believe. I'm talking about the work of examining what I believed was possible for my body and my future and learning how to update those beliefs. In this episode, I share why mindset work became the foundation of my healing journey after a stage 4 breast cancer diagnosis and how neuroscience shows that our brains constantly predict what's possible based on past experiences, conditioning, fear, and environment. We talk about: • Why belief systems impact behavior and healing • The brain as a predictive machine • How fear and conditioning shape health decisions • The connection between self-compassion and consistency • Why changing habits starts with changing beliefs • How small actions help create new evidence for the brain This conversation is about learning to believe that healing, peace, health, and change may actually be available to you.   References Barrett, L.F. & Simmons, W.K. (2015). Interoceptive predictions in the brain. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 16(7), 419-429. Hutchinson, J.B. & Barrett, L.F. (2019). The power of predictions: An emerging paradigm for psychological research. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 28(3), 280-291. Bandura, A. (1977). Self-efficacy: Toward a unifying theory of behavioral change. Psychological Review, 84(2), 191-215. Bandura, A. (1997). Self-Efficacy: The Exercise of Control. New York: Freeman. Neff, K.D. (2023). Self-Compassion: Theory, Method, Research, and Intervention. Annual Review of Psychology, 74, 193-218.   Resources Mentioned: Work with Laura: https://www.thebreastcancerrecoverycoach.com/health  Download for iPhone:  https://apps.apple.com/us/app/kajabi/id1485646310 Download for Android:  https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=kajabi.kajabiapp&hl=en_US   Let's Connect! If this episode helped you breathe a little easier, please share it with a friend or leave a review. Every share helps spread this message of hope, healing, and whole-person wellness. 💌 Join my email list for weekly wellness tips & podcast updates → The Breast Cancer Recovery Coach 💌 Join the Better Than Before Breast Cancer Life Coaching Membership → Life Coaching 💌 Join the Living Well After Breast Cancer Community → The Living Well After Breast Cancer Community 👩‍💻 Follow me on Instagram for daily inspiration → @thebreastcancerrecoverycoach 👩‍💻 Follow me on Facebook → The Breast Cancer Recovery Coach 🎙 Subscribe & leave a review on Apple Podcasts → Better Than Before Breast Cancer with The Breast Cancer Recovery Coach 🎥 Watch on YouTube → @BetterThanBeforeBreastCancer

    31 min

  7. May 8

    Breast Cancer and Metabolic Health - Learning Your Body's Love Language

    In this week's episode, I want to invite you to think about your body differently. What if your cravings, fatigue, bloating, brain fog, and energy shifts are not signs that your body is failing you… but signs that it's trying to communicate with you? After years of working with metabolic health, blood work, and nutrition genomics, I've realized something important. The problem is not the information itself. The problem is the lens we hear it through. So many women hear lab results and genetic information as proof that something is wrong with them. But your body is not broken. Your genetics are your body's blueprint. Your labs are your body's feedback. Your symptoms may be your body asking for support. In this episode, I share a powerful mindset shift that came from a coaching conversation with a client and I read a personal "love letter" written from my own body to me based on my labs, genetics, and healing journey. This episode is about learning to listen instead of judge. Because your body has been talking to you all along.   Resources Mentioned: Work with Laura: https://www.thebreastcancerrecoverycoach.com/health  Download for iPhone:  https://apps.apple.com/us/app/kajabi/id1485646310 Download for Android:  https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=kajabi.kajabiapp&hl=en_US   Let's Connect! If this episode helped you breathe a little easier, please share it with a friend or leave a review. Every share helps spread this message of hope, healing, and whole-person wellness. 💌 Join my email list for weekly wellness tips & podcast updates → The Breast Cancer Recovery Coach 💌 Join the Better Than Before Breast Cancer Life Coaching Membership → Life Coaching 💌 Join the Living Well After Breast Cancer Community → The Living Well After Breast Cancer Community 👩‍💻 Follow me on Instagram for daily inspiration → @thebreastcancerrecoverycoach 👩‍💻 Follow me on Facebook → The Breast Cancer Recovery Coach 🎙 Subscribe & leave a review on Apple Podcasts → Better Than Before Breast Cancer with The Breast Cancer Recovery Coach 🎥 Watch on YouTube → @BetterThanBeforeBreastCancer

    28 min

  8. May 1

    Personal Growth After Breast Cancer — Without The Drama

    What if you didn't have to wait for something to go wrong to grow? In this episode, I'm sharing why so many women stop reaching for support once life starts to feel stable and how that pattern quietly keeps you stuck. We talk about the difference between the discomfort of crisis and the discomfort of growth, and why choosing growth creates a completely different life experience. I also walk through the connection between your emotional state and your physical health, including how stress, joy, and connection influence inflammation and immune function. This is about continuing to show up for yourself, not because something is broken, but because you want more out of your life.   Resources Mentioned: Work with Laura: https://www.thebreastcancerrecoverycoach.com/health  Download for iPhone:  https://apps.apple.com/us/app/kajabi/id1485646310 Download for Android:  https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=kajabi.kajabiapp&hl=en_US   Let's Connect! If this episode helped you breathe a little easier, please share it with a friend or leave a review. Every share helps spread this message of hope, healing, and whole-person wellness. 💌 Join my email list for weekly wellness tips & podcast updates → The Breast Cancer Recovery Coach 💌 Join the Better Than Before Breast Cancer Life Coaching Membership → Life Coaching 💌 Join the Living Well After Breast Cancer Community → The Living Well After Breast Cancer Community 👩‍💻 Follow me on Instagram for daily inspiration → @thebreastcancerrecoverycoach 👩‍💻 Follow me on Facebook → The Breast Cancer Recovery Coach 🎙 Subscribe & leave a review on Apple Podcasts → Better Than Before Breast Cancer with The Breast Cancer Recovery Coach 🎥 Watch on YouTube → @BetterThanBeforeBreastCancer

    23 min
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About

Laura is a Certified Life, Health, Nutrition Coach, and Wellness professional. She's a two-time breast cancer survivor living with metastatic disease. Laura supports women in dropping their warrior shield after a diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer so they can release the pressure to go back to normal and create a life that's even better than before breast cancer. These twice-weekly episodes give you tools you can apply to your life today, to support your body and your mind as you manage life after breast cancer.

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