Yesterday at church, the pastor informed the congregation that one of the worship leaders has cancer, and we prayed for him and the other people present facing cancer and illness. Cancer is all around us. It is all too prevalent, and it seems that I’m a bit desensitized about it. But something really struck me about yesterday’s announcement about the worship leader.
He’s around my age. Mid-twenties. Young. Full of passion and talent, with a lot of life left to live.
And he has twenty tumors in is lungs.
I started crying in church, and cried more later when I got home. I don’t know this young man, and I don’t know his prognosis, but seeing someone so young with a destructive illness like that was devastating. Cancer should not be a part of our lives. Our bodies were designed to function beautifully, without developing diseases like cancer. We were not made to suffer, but rather to thrive. I am 100% convinced that modern diseases such as cancer, MS, diabetes, etc. are products of our modern lifestyles, nutrition, and habits. Would lifestyle interventions have changed the course of this young man’s life? Maybe. Or maybe not. But I have to believe that something can be done to prevent more young and old people from developing these fatal illnesses, myself included.
Which brings be back to my goal to be healthy. There was a definite shift in my mentality yesterday. I am usually thinking something like “I’m not eating crap food today because I’m supposed to be eating healthy food and I want to be skinny” (despite my work to remove the body image portion from my motivation, it still sneaks in there.) Instead, yesterday I thought “I don’t want to have to go to an awful doctor’s appointment where they tell me cancer has spread throughout my body.” I want to have children. See them grow up. I want to travel. I want to have the opportunity and capacity to help other improve their lives. I want to hold grandbabies, and grow old with my man. This may all sound so selfish, but isn’t it true for all of us? I don’t want my life, either in a young stage or an older stage, to be disrupted and destroyed by a disease that I can prevent.
As so, I have renewed motivation to chase health relentlessly. Obviously, I am documenting the strides I’m taking to improve my own personal health, but I want to help others too. That’s why I’m blogging. I am terrified that no one will ever read a blog I write, mostly because that would be really humiliating. But maybe something I write will help someone make a change in their life that will prevent them from similar news. Or maybe not, and this will just continue to be my online, public diary. But I think it’s worth a shot.
Hi! I stumbled upon your blog after reading a comment you left over at MDA…just wanted to compliment you on this post. It’s well written and articulates something that I think of often since I work in a hospital and see people from all walks of life dealing with things like cancer (which scares the heck out of me). In the past, I’ve been motivated by similar reasoning to stay healthy (although as you mentioned, I also sometimes struggle not to let body image weigh in as a motivator). I’ve fallen off the Primal wagon since the holidays and now am preparing to try and undo a solid 2 months of un-clean eating poor fitness. Reading your post helped give me an extra push to get back into a healthy lifestlye. I just wanted to let you know you had a reader since you mentioned that you were worried no one would ever read your blog
Take care and good luck with your health & fitness journey!
Hi Chase! Thank you SO much for reading and commenting. It makes me just ecstatic to know this post helped you out – that’s the only reason I’m writing to begin with! It’s so easy to get off the wagon, and so hard to get back on. As I mentioned, December was rough for me too. And since I personally am not experiencing health problems at this time (thank God) it is hard to not be able to justify crap food and being lazy. But I’ve been getting little signs all month that remind me that my long-term health is worth the short-term effort. I hope you get some reinforcing signs too! I’d love to hear how you’re doing!
Is your detox the “Whole30″ program?
Hey King – I’m not doing a Whole30 right now, although I have done 5 over the past couple of years. They’re a great tool! For now, I am pretty much Whole30 6 days out of the week. One meal a week I kick up my heels and have something delicious that won’t totally wreck me (last weekend it was sushi and red wine). For my detox I am doing mostly Whole30 foods, a CRAP TON of green veggies, lots of water, green tea, and an estrogen detox I’ll post about in a couple of days. I checked out your site – good luck with your Whole30!