Today a very dear friend lost her dad to ALS. It was a long battle (for both of them) and on Sunday Laura had planned on running a half marathon. She still wants to run it because SHE CAN. She has a healthy body that can do glorious things – things her father can no longer do.
Remember the 5k I ran a few months ago? The race was for a young man who had cancer. At the time of the race, he was in remission and was doing very well. Not long ago, the cancer came back with a vengance and today, this young man lost his battle too.
*sigh*
But a wonderful thing also happened today. I got a call from Oklahoma Blood Institute telling me that my blood that I had donated was used at a hospital in OKC and had helped save someone’s life. That feels pretty amazing to me.
All of these things has made me realize that I have been acting like a spoiled, petulant brat. I have this gloriously wonderful body that, despite my best efforts, is still amazingly healthy. I don’t have any chronic conditions, no pain, no recurring illness, heck I don’t even have seasonal allergies. And yet, I abuse this body with food and lack of movement. I take my health for granted every. single. day. and yet it continues to hang on, hoping I will give it the proper attention it deserves.
Today, I finally gave it some attention. I had some errands to run this evening and I thought that while I was out, I would stop by the local park and walk for a bit. I knew I didn’t have long before the sun set, but I also knew that something was better than nothing. So I walked. I walked because it’s what I do best. I only had 15 minutes but those 15 minutes held a lot of meaning for me. They signified that it’s time to grow up a little bit a lot and stop playing Russian Roulette with my health.
But what does that look like? Getting serious about health? For me I think it looks like this:
- taking my calcium supplement every day (and a multivitamin)
- working my body at least 3 days a week for as long or as short amount of time as I have
- finding ways of incorporating more veggies into my meals
- continuing to work hard on overcoming my emotional eating problems
- making time for things that keep me balanced – yoga, my friends, God, books.
So that’s it. This isn’t a Rocky Balboa kind of “I’m really going to do it this time!!” kind of post, but instead it’s more of a realization that I need to stop kidding myself that this body is going to last as long as I want it to. I know that there will be times when I forget all this when faced with a decadent brownie, but maybe if I re-read this post often enough, some of it will sink in.
Hopefully sooner rather than later.
The Sassy Pear 
I’ve been thinking about this sort of issue today, and in fact I just started a 3BT (3 beautiful things) blog; http://my3bt.blogspot.com – I don’t if you have seen these but you mention three things every day you are grateful for. I have had the flu for 4 weeks and was feeling a bit down, both about feeling sick and about the fact that I haven’t been able to exercise for a month. And of course about the fact that I could have been eating healthily, that was totally under my control, but I haven’t been.
But then I thought, in reality I am so lucky! So I have a sore throat and a headache. Big deal. So many people deal with so much worse. And I work freelance, and both my kids are in childcare/vacation care today so I can just sit at home and rest, my husband earns enough that it is not a disaster if I don’t earn any money today, or this week. I am so so lucky.
Like you, I need to stop taking this body for granted and abusing it. It does its best for me and it deserves healthy fuel and exercise when I can.
I love your words as for me, too, it was NOT the ROCKY times that it all finally clicked for me. it was the smaller time.
the gentle realization that I needed to do this NOW or there might not be a later.
carla
Amen, sister.
You’ve got the whole VIM thing going on right there. (vision, intention, means.) You can totally do this.
I’m so sorry to hear about the recent loses to ALS and cancer. I had a friend who suffered from ALS for over 7 years. She couldnn’t walk, talk or do anything for herself and every time I would complain about not wanting to workout or anything else I would think about my dear friend and how she would give anything to be able to do the things I was able (but unwilling) to do. Seeing people suffer with these illnesses makes us realize how lucky we are to be healthy and able. Now we just need to take advantage of our abilities. Hope you have a great weekend and enjoy that healthy body of yours. 😉
Oh, Jill. (((hug))) I’m sorry to hear about these losses that touched you so. And that is amazing, knowing that your blood saved someone’s life. Powerful stuff going on. Count me in as someone who loves this post of quiet resolve. I know you can do this.
wow that’s great! I am O negative and give quite frequently. Although, I’ve never received a phone call like that. Very neat.