This past week was pink week at my gym to support breast cancer. During a workout this week, my trainer said something that has stuck with me all week and has helped me not only through workouts but tough days at school and long nights in meetings.
“Fight because you can. Fight for those who can’t.”
While there are people everywhere who are choosing to be unhealthy, unactive and obese, there are others that are struggling each and everyday, plagued by something they can’t control. We are so lucky to be who we are and have what we have. I now know how lucky I am to have a healthy lifestyle and to have adopted it so completely. Sometimes when I look back at this last year, I realize I could have just done nothing. I could have stayed exactly the same and continued to make the same choices I’d always made. But I chose not to.
There are others out there that have no choice what life has given them. I have been very lucky and thankful not to have breast cancer, or much cancer at all, within my family tree. What I can’t believe is how long I was choosing to be unhealthy when there are so many others who don’t get to choose.
A lot of people think what I’ve done is amazing. While I believe that’s true, I don’t think it’s anything close to what some of these women go through. Sure, I cut back on calories and went without candy and chocolate for months at a time. But really? How can that compare to the Big C? Right now I’m sitting at Starbucks and filling time before my Saturday morning workout. During my workout today, I will push myself a little harder, run a little faster and lift a little more. Why? Because I CAN. Do it for those that CAN’T. 