A few days ago, a friend of mine who is a smoker was telling me how someone he knew that was into the health and fitness lifestyle was diagnosed with cancer. Of course he was quick to point out that being healthy is no guarantee that you won’t get sick. Unhealthy people who live on junk food or smoke like to think that their lifestyle doesn’t come with consequences that other people escape from. It allows them to avoid the guilt of what they’re doing to their body.
The fact is however that even though it’s true that anyone can get sick at any time, regardless of how well they look after themselves, being fit and healthy does make your chances of getting sick much lower.
But it’s not just that.
If you do your best to take care of your body but you get sick anyhow, then so be it – you did your best and you can take comfort from that, and you will have the strength and the resolve to fight. If you treated your body like a garbage tip on the other hand and you get sick, then the pain of regret will be a very heavy burden to carry, especially when you have to tell your loved ones that you’re sick. On top of that, it will be a tough fight for a weak, unhealthy person to face.
It’s the same with life in general. You can work hard and do your best to achieve something in life, and the truth is you may or may not succeed. But if you gave it your all and you dreamed big then the journey will have been great and you can be proud that you made the most of it. How great a life will it have been if when you’re near the end you look back and realize that you never achieved anything because you were too lazy or too undisciplined to even try?
We all have to face pain in our life at one time or another. The question is, do we face it on our own terms and grow from it and feel proud of ourselves for it, or do we live our life running from it until it finally catches up with us and cripples us?
5 Comments
Hi! I like this post. I work for a hospice company, and I see people at end of life, every day. Some of these people were fit or still are pretty fit despite their illness.
What I have learned from sitting with these individuals is this; You have only one chance to live. You can live the best you can, or skate through life. If you live a life of health, your days may be better then they would be if you hadn’t. *Live today how you want to be remembered tomorrow*
Also, you want to be a good looking corpse. Think about it. Do you want to be the person that people talk about “did you see the size of the casket they had to get?! or He was such a smoker”
One patient told me, “I think it’s becuase of running and being active that I could do so much for so long, you are too young to be that heavy, change yourself.” At that point, I was over 200 pounds and pretty unhealthy.
We never know what cards are in store for us. When my cards are handed to me, I want to be fit enough to accept the challenge with a fight.
Thanks Courtney, great insight!
Everybody can name the exception to the rules (like Jim Fixx for example, a famous runner who died in his early 50s while running).
However, as an EMT, I pulled numerous people off of couches and began CPR… I NEVER pulled anyone off of a treadmill and began CPR!
I could not agree more. I run marathons, work out daily, and eat very healthy. I was shocked to be diagnosed with breast cancer at age 33. I knew there was nothing I did to cause this and if I was not in great physical condition then it may have been worse. I was able to recover so much faster from the double mastectomy and was back in spin class after 3 weeks. Being fit definitely helps the fight!
Wow that’s amazing Lane, I’m glad to hear you got through it OK!