Control

The main focus of Fitness In The Balance, beyond the technical information about diet and exercise, is to motivate people to take charge of their lives. To make healthy choices that will benefit them today and tomorrow, and for years to come. Essentially, to take control of their lives.

But are we ever really in control?

Or is all of our effort in fact aimed at simply maximizing the chances of a positive outcome, while acknowledging that we really don't control anything?

Here's what I mean: we can exercise, eat well, and adopt healthy habits. In turn, these choices will improve our bodies and minds, make us more resistant to disease and injury, and help us lead healthier and longer lives. None of which will make any difference should we find ourselves in the path of a runaway truck. Or on an airplane about to crash. Or facing a cancer diagnosis brought on by environmental toxins we couldn't do anything about. Do the choices we make actually put us in control of how long and well we'll live, or do they just put us on the soundest footing possible? If it's the latter, should we even bother?

This was brought home to me in stark detail last week. I was on vacation from work and at the grocery store one day. I was looking at tins of sardines. Sardines are a good source of protein, calcium and good fat, so they're usually a worthwhile addition to your diet. After going back and forth among the different varieties (water or oil packed, with mustard or with tomato sauce) I bought two tins of water-packed as they were the healthiest choice. I had them for lunch that day. I then came down with debilitating food poisoning that night. For the rest of the week I was either in bed or on the couch, barely eating toast and yogurt. I'm fairly sure the sardines were the culprits as my wife had a small bite and felt sick for about a day as well.

As I laid in bed, I thought how it was ironic that a choice I'd made, ostensibly to improve my health, had put me in this position. I realized that I needed to look at the reasons why I do what I do. Why do I get up at 6:15 seven days a week to exercise? Why do I consider every piece of food I put in my body before choosing to eat it? Why do I do any of this when I can end up sick regardless?

I began to understand that the "control" I thought I had over my body was an illusion. My choices affect my health, no question. But they don't ultimately determine it completely. To put it another way, I realized I can't control the outcome; I can only try to load the dice. My fitness regimen puts me in the best possible position to weather future storms, but it doesn't mean those storms won't come. I still get sick once or twice a year, but where that used to mean a week of sneezing and coughing, it now means about 24 hours with a scratchy throat. Who knows how sick I would have been from the sardines if my immune system wasn't as strong as it is?

If you're thinking about starting down the path to fitness, this is an important point to understand. You might think that it isn't worth the effort to get in better shape. You might think that you're too far gone already. But the fact is, if you improve your health today, you strengthen your entire being for tomorrow. No, getting in shape won't mean you'll never have health issues. Accidents happen, people get sick, there's contaminated food out there. But having a fit body and mind is like wearing a suit of armor. When the attacks come, you'll fend them off easily instead of losing the battle entirely. Or, maybe you won't fend them off. Maybe your armor will extend the fight, and give you years of life you wouldn't have otherwise had. Still sounds worth it to me.

It's kind of surprising that something like food poisoning ended up providing a valuable lesson. It made me re-think my own personal "why". And far from making me think the whole thing isn't worth it since the outcome isn't in my control, it's made me want to double my efforts to build the strongest possible body and mind I can.

So, like I asked at the beginning: if all this work only puts us on the soundest possible footing, but doesn't guarantee success, should we even bother? Absolutely, positively, without a shadow of a doubt, YES.

Contact me at scott@fitnessinthebalance.com.