If you have your health …

I have close friends and family who are in varying states of getting their butts kicked by illness and the uncertainties that ill-health can bring.   Whether life-threatening as in some cases or debilitating to the point of being life-altering, the old adage that goes, “if you have your health you have everything,” rings truer than I can say.

Watching formally healthy and robust people impaired by illness — even for the shorter term is difficult to reconcile.  And yet those of my friends and family who find themselves at that place where the fight for a modicum of normalcy equates to a lot of wishful thinking puts me in mind to how grateful I am  to be able to choose or *not* choose to haul myself to the gym to work out, or to fight my way from dreamland on to the mat for morning Yoga.  Which of course reminds me of the fact that I’ve blown it off of late — and in working through how to get back into the habit of pre-dawn downward-facing-dog poses I am not only thinking of it as a matter of will power, but of something deeper:  taking responsibility for my health, frankly, while I still have it.

As every boxer knows, the dedication to workouts, healthy eating, making weight safely, and importantly, a training routine that works with one’s body not against it are what’s needed before ever stepping into the ring.  And why not with life too — and with the everyday fun of work and play with minds and bodies free of the stresses that too many late nights, fast-foods loaded with fats and sugars and not enough time spent attending to the prevention of illness can bring.

Goodness knows I am not one to talk having just eaten the delicious slice of Mother’s Day cake my daughter lovingly bought me, but … that’s not to say that one can’t have one’s cake and “eat it too.” One can put some thought into eating and living healthily with the occasional cake and ice cream carved in to it — and no, not a pint of chocolate chocolate chip at one sitting, but a hearty scoopful.

I guess the point is to mind what your mother always told you, stuff like, “a good breakfast is the most important meal of the day,” or “take your vitamins,” or “don’t watch too much TV, it’ll rot your brain.”

Well you get the drift.  Doing what you can to stay healthy really does count for something, so please, for your Mom, try to remember yours.