PUBLISHED: 24th November 2025
by Meg Cadoux
When I was treated for my first breast cancer recurrence, I kept asking my providers the same question many of you in the FORCE community wonder about: What can I do today to lower my risk and feel better? My medical care was excellent. What I couldn’t find was clear, practical guidance on everyday choices about making improvements in my diet, physical activity, stress level and home environment. That information gap is why we created the Anticancer Lifestyle Program (ACLP): free, doctor-recommended resources that enable patients to turn vetted evidence into daily practices.
Learn your way with ACLP’s free resources
Online Course: Our free self-paced course offers about nine hours of short, friendly lessons across five modules: Change, Diet, Mindset, Fitness and Healthy Environment. You can take it on any device, and our mobile app makes phone access easy.
eBooks: Prefer quick reads you can save and share? Our free eBooks cover anti-inflammatory eating, room-by-room home detox, stress basics, ways to stay active and more. Spanish versions are available for many titles.
Webinars: If listening works best for you, explore our on-demand webinars with clinicians and researchers. Popular choices for the FORCE community include Dr. Dean Ornish’s “The Power of Lifestyle: How Everyday Choices Can Transform Your Health" and “Creating a Body Cancer Doesn’t Like,” presented by Dr. Lise Alschuler and Karolyn Gazella.
7-Day Kickstarts: These short and friendly email-guided programs in Mindset, Diet, Fitness and Healthy Environment require only 15 minutes a day. One simple action at a time. Great when your bandwidth is low, or you want a quick reset.
Lifestyle Toolkit, Blog and Recipes: Our searchable Toolkit gathers apps, checklists, tip sheets and shopping guides, organized by topic. The blog breaks down everyday questions, and our recipes come from a culinary-trained registered dietitian.
Everything lives on our “Learn Your Way” hub, where you can see it all at a glance and pick what fits your day.
Why this matters for the FORCE community
A diagnosis, or the possibility of one, can make life feel chaotic and out of control. I have been there. While we cannot control scan results, we can influence daily choices. Lifestyle is the part of the story you get to write. Small steps in behavior change can steady the ground under your feet and support your body’s capacity to heal. In my “Rules of the Road” blog post, I often remind people that a diagnosis is a snapshot in time. It helps to look ahead and focus on what you can control, one step at a time.
Here are a few guideposts that have helped me and many others:
- Focus on what you can change, not what you can blame. Looking back rarely helps. Looking forward often does.
- Use trustworthy information. No gimmicks or miracle cures. Clear evidence, explained plainly.
- Start small. A ten-minute walk. One pantry swap. A few minutes of breathing before bed. Small wins add up.
- Progress over perfection. You don’t need a full life overhaul to make a difference.
- Ask for help. Community lightens the load. Seek help from the ACLP, FORCE, family, friends, peers...No one has to do this alone.
We design our resources for real life. The course is broken into short segments you can manage on a tired day. eBooks offer checklists you can review in a waiting room. Webinars can play while you fold laundry. Kickstarts give you seven days of tiny actions that restore momentum. None of this replaces medical care. It complements it and gives you ways to participate in your own well-being when so much else feels uncertain.
Most of all, remember this. Your diagnosis is not the whole story. With clear information, simple structure and some self-compassion, you can move from “I’m overwhelmed” to “I have a plan for today.” That shift may feel small, yet it can change how you meet the day. Every day.
We’re proud to partner with FORCE. Our shared goal is to empower you with reliable information and practical tools you can use now. If you want to try one thing, start where it feels easiest. Every small step counts.
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Meg Cadoux is a four-time breast cancer survivor and co-founder of the Anticancer Lifestyle Program, a nonprofit offering free, evidence-based tools to help people make healthier choices in diet, fitness, mindset and home environment. A longtime writer and speaker, Meg is the author of For Better or For Work and a former Inc. magazine columnist. She lives in New Hampshire with her husband, Gary Hirshberg, co-founder of Stonyfield Yogurt.