Ordinarily, I might be inclined to cut you some slack if you weren't quite feeling like exercising. Take Nancy's Saturday--I truly don't think less of my friend because she chose staying in bed to getting in her workout. But that was three days ago when I was feeling more charitable. Today, my friends, is a no excuse day.
Feeling a little sleepy this morning? Too bad. Another stressful day at work? Tough. Got laundry to fold and dinner to fix? That can wait. I don't mean to sound harsh, but today there ARE no excuses! Simple as that. Why the tough tone you ask?
I'll tell you why. My sister, Jenny. Reader's Digest condensed version: My healthy, active younger sister went into the hospital with pneumonia and nine days later had to have both her legs amputated because an aggressive, often fatal bacteria had invaded her body. At the time doctors feared she would lose her hands as well. Fortunately, they were able to save her hands, but Jenny has limited use of them. That was over five years ago. Jenny's journey to this moment has been long and hard, and I share with you just the briefest of glimpses of a typical day in an attempt to motivate you to remain faithful to your workout plan. (Obviously, I am not adversed to using guilt as a motivator.)
Here is Jenny's day yesterday: She gets up at 6, put on her legs, gets dressed, fixes breakfast, packs up her laptop, makes sure her daughter's permission slip is signed, feeds the dogs, loads up her wheelchair and heads off to work. Jenny is a special education teacher at a Wisconsin elementary school. To get to her classroom she must unload her wheelchair, push through heavy non-handicap accessible doors, maneuver through crowded hallways, and go up the elevator that thankfully is back in working order. Jenny spends her day working with special needs kids, teaching, disciplining, nurturing, even having a special group "The Lunch Bunch" during her break time.
When her work day is done she once again packs up, pushes through crowded halls and heavy doors to load up her wheelchair and head back home. By this point Jenny is indeed feeling tired, hungry and stressed, and she is very much aware of the laundry waiting to be folded and the fact that someone (She drew the short straw) will need to fix supper for her and her daughter. She really should get home, but instead she heads to the pool for her workout.
Once she arrives she must again unload her wheelchair. She then checks in, secures a locker and begins the process of taking off her legs and putting on her swim suit. Jenny carefully locks her legs up and then realizes her concern for their safe-keeping is rather funny because she couldn't really picture anyone coveting those artificial legs for their own. But you never know I guess.
Next step is wheeling out to the pool where she make a series of transfers--from the wheelchair to the stack of towels to the edge of the pool and finally into the water. Jenny then spends 30 wonderful minutes swimming laps and doing other strengthening exercises. Then it is back out of the water repeating in reverse the series of transfers.
Once back in the locker room she begins the arduous process of putting her legs back on. This involves putting on special socks and liners and making sure each leg is lined up properly. One of her legs is titanium and attaches above the knee and the other leg is synthetic and attaches below the knee. It is not nearly as easy as slipping on a pair of dry sweats and heading out the door to go home. A-hem.
NOW Jenny will head back home, where there are still chores to be done and life continues moving forward. When I was on the phone with her at 8 she was hoping she'd stay awake long enough to see her daughter return from her tennis match.
Excuses? Yeah, Jenny has plenty. Pretty darn legitimate ones. But she chooses not to give in to them because she has learned that exercise helps her meet her daily challenges with more energy, less pain and a sense of true accomplishment. Jenny would be the first to tell you it's not easy, but it is so worth it.
Our dear friend Scarlet may proclaim that tomorrow is another day, but I am talking about today and today I want NO EXCUSES!
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