A few days before Christmas, I was chuffing away on the treadmill, my mind on something else, when I noticed I’d gone through the first five minute part of the pre-set program at the top speed of 4 mph, instead of adjusting it downwards, as is my custom. I felt pretty good, so I thought I’d try maintaining that speed through the next five minute section. That worked fine too, so I did it again for the third and last leg.
Wow! Completed the whole program at top speed. Perhaps though, I was just having a particularly good day, so I tried it the next day, and wow again! And now I’ve done it every day since then…except for Sundays (day of rest, yo!)
This may not sound like a big deal to the more athletic among you, but for me it borders on the miraculous. This past January, I suffered a flare-up of what my doctor calls, for lack of a better term, chronic fatigue. It’s a condition I manage extremely well, unless I get over-extended, and then I’m in trouble. It takes months to fully recover, and of course my work-out routine had to be discontinued altogether for awhile, and then slooooowly reconstructed one tiny bit at a time. It took eleven months to get back to this level, so you can understand why I’m so excited about this.
I’ve been reading some of the posts of my athletic friends listing their fitness goals for 2013, and I so admire them, even maybe a little jealous of them, maybe more than a little. I can never aspire to such goals, but as I stand on the cusp of a New Year, I find my aspirations are not so much for new fitness records, but for health – that I might do whatever I can to achieve and maintain the best health of my life. Diet and exercise, sure, but CF has taught me to watch my energy expenditures, pull back when necessary, and get the rest I need. And then there’s the mental work too – letting go of the past, forgiving those who harmed me, cultivating positive thoughts and conversations, and developing hope-filled attitudes.
Maintaining my health means I can be there for others, and be a positive influence in a world that is sometimes so dark. Jim Palmer said, “The world is in too big a mess for us not to be at the top of our game.” So I have taken that to be my new mantra as I’m chuffing away on the treadmill: Fear not world! Help is on the way! Help is on the way! Help is on the way!”
