Wasn’t I Once “Totally Over The Top Fitness And Nutrition Guy”?
Yeah, I guess I was. Totally over the top. As far as I was concerned, being healthy boiled down to only two things — exercise and eating well. So I did that… a lot! As for the rest, well, I simply didn’t understand that there were a stack of other issues that had a direct and powerful bearing on my health.
So as “Totally Over The Top Fitness And Nutrition Guy”, was I actually healthy? It seemed so. My blood tests were always excellent, I was in good shape for my age, my cardiovascular fitness was up there, and I could shift enough weight at the gym to work both my muscles and my ego. Physically, I was pretty much able to do what I wanted, when I wanted, which was to me the very definition of rugged good health.
What about the ongoing battles with depression? Or living in a state of constant pain from old and new training injuries, and all-round muscle soreness? How about my bad back, which had been a horrible trial and torment at times? Or my iffy emotional stability and the trail of broken relationships behind me?
Oh please, who cared? That stuff didn’t matter because I was HEALTHY! Anyone could see that, and if they couldn’t, I’d be sure to let them know one way or another. So what if I had to soldier on and just deal with the various types of pain? That’s what life was all about, wasn’t it? Especially for a guy.
But as the old cliche goes — you get away with it till you don’t.
And one day, I didn’t.
And the truth about my health was brought home to me in no uncertain terms. In the space of a little over a week, I went from totally fine, to having a sore back, and then being in excruciating pain. Next thing I knew, I was unable to walk, pounding back morphine and Celebrex while bedridden in Thailand, seriously thinking about a medevac flight. Yeah, I was so damn healthy it was sickening.
I was baffled. How the hell did I end up like this? It seemed that my life was changing for the worse, but the lessons were on their way. So many lessons…
