Gratitude For A Gift

I'm pretty bummed out these days. My poor kitty is totally blind now, since his left eye went bad 10 weeks after we took out the right one due to glaucoma. For that and some minor personal medical stuff, I've been wallowing in self-pity, guilt, and general depression. 

But tonight I reconnected with a client I haven't seen in over 4 years, who has since developed a brutal, rare autoimmune disease. It has turned her life upside down. Not that I derive pleasure from the suffering of others, but while she sat there telling me all the things she had planned and now cannot do, I started feeling kind of small.

 Who am I to be sad and blue when I still have my health? Without that, everything is harder. Some things are no longer achievable.

It helped to remind me that I'm supposed to be thankful every day that I'm healthy. I was taking my health for granted, forgetting what a gift it is, and I'm ashamed of myself for that. It could change in the blink of an eye and then I'd be sorry I wasn't grateful before. Lesson learned.

Pick-up Line

I've been riding in the city for over 20 years, and in that time, I have noticed that certain drivers can usually be counted on to behave like cretins, especially around cyclists. 

Taxi drivers are the worst. Bus drivers also appear to resent those of us who prefer 2 wheels. I've been hit by 2 cabs and shoved into traffic and cut off by buses too many times to count.  I'm not saying all cab drivers or all bus drivers are out to get me, but I take extra care around them and I'm never surprised when they refuse to share the road.

The latest group is drivers of pick-up trucks. Again, not everyone who owns that type of vehicle is dangerous driver, but all that towing power and hemi-this and that seems to appeal to the kind of man who takes very stupid risks and it is only because I am such a good cyclist that I haven't been taken out by one of these morons yet. 

What is it? I don't know, but I can't help thinking, 'Big truck, small dick'. Maybe that's why they're so angry?

No Limits

I was working on the squat press yesterday when a member came over and asked me "What's the highest number of plates you've done?" (45 lb plates)

I answered, truthfully, twenty. Yes, 900 pounds, plus an estimated 50 - 60 pounds for the weight of the apparatus. 

She was blown away. Her trainer had her up to 270 and she thought that was extreme. I assured her it was not.

What I learned from my trainer and my own journey, is that women underestimate our strengths, as does society at large.

 I have been accused of using steroids in the past to achieve some of my heaviest weights and my physique. (I have not, and would not EVER cheat like that and destroy my body in the process.)

I told the woman "Don't let yourself be limited by conventional wisdom or 'science'. 

The human body is capable of feats previously thought impossible, and now that it is common for women to weight train, we're killing it and proving a lot of people wrong.

For example, a new client asked me, "is it true that women can't do chin-ups?" To answer I did a chin-up right then and said      "No."

I'm not saying every woman should go out today and try for chin-ups and 900-pound squat presses, especially without proper progression, but don't let anyone convince you that you can't do something because you're a woman. 

The weaker sex? I think not.

Never Too Late

One of the cleaners at my gym started working out recently. She comes in half an hour early and exercises during her break. Now she also does yoga. And she loves it!

This woman is 64, a breast cancer survivor, and besides her day job, spends her afternoons caring for two young grandchildren. 

She's a perfect example of 'never too late'. She's also proof that exercise can strengthen and tone at any age. The best part, though, is her excitement - she's doing something new and positive and it's just for her. 

I love it!

Hope I Die Before I Get Old

I train a diverse group of clients - men, women, and even a 12 year old girl. My oldest client is 66. This woman is the youngest senior if have ever known, and I want to be like her when I grow up! 

Some people get old long before they should. Why? Certainly there may be factors beyond their control - disease, life circumstance, or injury, but the number one reason I think people get old (and I'm not talking about age) is that they slow down.

Our society has this warped idea that past a certain age, you just don't do certain things. People let the number attached to their life limit them, and that, to me, is crazy. 

Signs on some rides at amusement parks say 'You must be this tall to ride', and sometimes they warn you not to ride if you're pregnant or have back issues. But never have I seen a sign that says 'You must be this young to ride'.

So keep moving. Keep having fun, and going on adventures and trying new things. That is truly the answer to staying young.

Shame

I don't watch TV, so it was news to me that Dove has changed their campaign to apparently insinuate that any body shape is fine. Even, so I'm told, to make thin unpopular.

Don't get me wrong - I am all for accepting that most women are size 14 or larger, and debunking the myth that thin thighs and large breasts is the only look going.

BUT. 

But this backlash is going too far. Instead of finding ways to clean up our health, we are instead working around our fat, making it okay. We build bigger seats, use vanity sizing (calling a size 16 a size 12), and now I hear that there is such a thing as 'skinny shaming'. Girls and women with normal bodies are being attacked for NOT being fat!

Besides the backwardness of this, my concern is about the health of our young women. Type 2 diabetes is no longer called adult-onset because 10 year olds are developing it. Obesity in youth is a huge issue, and I know from experience that they are setting themselves up for either a lifetime of fighting the fat, like myself, or a miserable, unhealthy existence topped off by a horrible, painful death.

I don't know how to get an entire continent off sugar. But I do know this - we have to do something soon or we will certainly start to see children dying before their parents. And it's preventable!

Water Babies

I went for my first outdoor swim on Monday night, and it was fabulous. The water was warm, it was sunny and I could watch my shadow swimming on the bottom of the pool. 

I never understand people who say they don't like to swim. The way I figure it, we crawled out of the ocean eons ago, but I feel drawn to water because something about it is comforting. 

We spend the 9 months after conception in amniotic fluid, which is basically sea water. An infant dropped in a pool not only knows how to swim, but how to hold it's breath. Our tears are also like sea water. 

So, as much as I believe we are meant to walk since we evolved to be bipedal, I also believe we still have the innate ability to swim. And what could be better? A refreshing, zero impact workout that works the whole body and the cardiovascular system.

So go and get wet!