Texas Lap Band Surgeons Talk With You

My 5 year old daughter’s best friend was diagnosed with a terrible cancer back in February.  She’s been an absolute trooper through her (fairly rough) chemotherapy and we all wish we could do something to support her through this terrible crisis. This past Friday, her mom told me that there would be a team running in the Little Rock half and full marathon in honor of her daughter.  I love this child like one of my own, so (admittedly after a margarita) I agreed to run on the half marathon team.  This despite the fact that I am not a runner, that I have never run/jogged that amount of distance in my life and that it’s a bajillion degrees outside for the next few months making me have to run on a treadmill during the summer which I find really booooorrrrriing.

So why am I telling you this story? 

First, because it’s good to remember sometimes that no matter how bad things are for you right now, there is always somebody who has it worse.  In one of my favorite exercise videos (Chalean Extreme, if anybody’s interested) there is a long stretch of these awful/painful/mind-numbing push-ups.  During these, the instructor tells you that while she knows it’s hard, she knows you can get through it.  She says her method for getting through it is to think of somebody who is going through something mentally tough and to realize that a minute and a half of push-ups is not nearly as hard as whatever that person is facing. 

The truth is we are much tougher than we think and we can get through things that may seem tough at that exact moment, but are trivial in the grand scheme of things.  Does it stink to be the only person at the table not eating the chips and queso? Yes. Is it tough to pass up unlimited sausage at a breakfast bar and eat cottage cheese and fruit instead? Yes.  But these are small, transient “hurts” that pale in comparison to the real hurts that many of us have experienced: death of a loved one, prolonged illness of our own or somebody close to us, the constant physical ache of a destroyed joint.  Change your thinking: don’t think, “I don’t like making these sacrifices, I want things to make me feel good”, do think, “this is a nothing little wrinkle in my life and if I do this strong thing now, I’ll be even more fabulous and even tougher in the future.”  Change your internal dialogue.  Frame your choices in your own mind in positive terms, that way you won’t resent what you’re doing, you’ll celebrate it.

So when I’m “slogging” (that’s my term for slow jogging) on the treadmill for the umpteenth day and feeling sorry for myself and I’m angry at my margarita for saying I’d do this (cause I know it wasn’t my idea) I’m going to remember that sweet little girl with only a few wisps of hair left and her ribs showing because it’s too painful to eat and she’s lost a ton of weight. I’m gonna remember her mother who faces the horrific prospect of losing a child before her tenth birthday and who also has to care for a 6 month old baby at the same time. I’m gonna think of them, wipe the sweat off my face and keep running.

In my next post I’ll tell you about the second thing to learn from this story: setting goals.