THROUGH HIS EYES

Yesterday I had this experience that I want to share with you guys. It’s not fitness related but, it has made an impact on my life just like fitness has. This is going to take a second so please bear with me. Saturday, I decided to make my dog an appointment to get his monthly grooming. Yes, I groom my dog, and yes he needed it :-). My groomer lives next to me and I see her all the time, but when I went into her shop there was an older white gentleman sitting behind the desk. He looked up and said hello and came from around the desk. He was in a wheelchair. He called my dog over and started petting him, while my silly dog started licking him all over the face. He looked at me and grabbed my hand really tight. He was acting like I was the only person he had seen since he was born. Then he told me I was handsome and started rubbing my arm. At this point I was like “What the hell?”.  I tried to get my hand back but he wouldn’t let me go. He said come with me, I want to show you something. He takes me by my hand to the front of the shop to look out the windows. He said “Isn’t the sky just beautiful?” It was really big puffy white and black storm clouds, with just small hints of blue sky showing. To me it wasn’t pretty at all. It was about to be a mess out there. My groomer comes from the back of her shop and tells the man that I am one of the neighbors. She then tells me that the man is her father. I told him that it was nice to meet him and that he is one of the nicest people that I have ever met and he is welcome at my place anytime. I said to him that when he sees me out in the neighborhood to please say hello. He said that would be great, but he doesn’t know how much longer on this earth he has. He then pulls this cord up from his side and sticks this thing up under his nose. He then proceeds to tell me that he has terminal lung cancer and he’s not going to be here too much longer. I looked up at his daughter and her eye’s start to tear up and her face started to get a little red. She told her dad to let me go so I could go on about my day. He smiled with the biggest smile and said it was it nice meeting me. As I was heading out the door I heard him say to his daughter how beautiful it was outside today.

There are lots of lessons to be learned in life but human beings seem not to get them at all. This man taught me one. Sitting in my car I started to think about how I would feel if I knew that I was not going to be on this earth much longer.  Imagine what it would be like if you knew you would never see another sunrise or sunset. If you’d never get another chance to eat your favorite food, hug or kiss the person you love the most, talk to your parents or parents talk to your children. If you’d never play your favorite sport, have a glass of wine, go shopping at your favorite place, read a book, see a movie, smell the air, see another black person, see another white person, see another Latino, see another Asian, SEE ANOTHER DOG, SEE ANOTHER STORM CLOUD, SHAKE ANOTHER PERSONS HAND, etc. This list goes on. If we knew the end was near, we would appreciate everything we came across and that’s exactly what this gentleman was doing. In our society today we have so many things that are separating us as a people. Things like money, poverty, race, religion, politics, gender, social status, etc. It’s just plain stupid and we can’t seem to figure it out. I’m telling all of us this because it would be a waste of life to get all the way to your last days on this earth and realize that what I am saying is true and then finally start to live for once. This man, in that quick interaction taught me that. I just wish that I had the ability to let every human being experience what I did and be able to view the world through his eyes. Until next time…..

What kind of student are you?

One day this past week I was working out with a client of mine and she spoke about a lady in her weight loss support group that had started at the same time as she did and has lost more weight than she has. She seemed disappointed. I asked her one simple question. “Are you doing your homework?” She asked what I meant and I shared this little story with her. When I was in high school I had this history class that I did not like at all. I felt it was repetitive. Besides, I had heard all that stuff before. For a whole semester the teacher would give us assignments and I would not do them. I would just wait until I got in class and do whatever work I had there. If we had a test during class I would take it and do really well on it, but other than I wouldn’t do any other work. At the end of the semester I got a failing grade. I went to the teacher and said it didn’t make any sense because I passed all the tests I had taken in class. The teacher laughed and asked me how in the world did I think that those few A’s I had gotten on the tests would make up for all the bad grades I had gotten on my assignments for not turning in my homework. It was at that moment I realized he had a point. Haha!  We had homework every night and tests once a week. I had to bust my butt for the rest of the school year to get that grade up.

As a personal trainer I look at my job as if I am A teacher. When you come to work out you’re in my classroom. I’m going to give you a lesson every time that you show up. You’ll work hard and feel accomplished when you leave. The only thing is that when you leave, you do the assignment that I give you. Now, the assignment will consist of very simple things for you to do. You need to eat healthy meals, drink plenty of water, and exercise. I know that if you do these things you’ll have success. It’s great that you do well when you are in class with me, but just like me not doing my assignments outside of class, you are destined to fail if you don’t complete your homework. 4,5, or 6 hours a week of exercise will not make up for eating bad unhealthy food and not drinking enough water all week. You will never be able to “out train” a bad diet. I wish that I could follow every one of my clients around and make sure they eat healthy and exercise all the time, but we all know that’s not possible. Since it’s not, an individual most take personal responsibility and be diligent about doing what they are supposed to do outside of the gym to reach their goals. You get out of your program what you put into your program. If you do the bare minimum, then you will get the bare minimum results. If you find yourself not making as much progress as you want, you may have to ask yourself this question. “What kind of student am I?”