Track near my house.

Maybe I can only be obsessed with one thing at a time.

When will I be able to kick box again?

I really need to post something on my blog.

Maybe I should just post something I’ve already written.

Maybe I should write about the reason I’m not writing. I’m focused on my diet and exercise program.

Those are some of the thoughts that occurred to me these past few weeks that i wasn’t blogging. What many of you don’t know is that I was in car accident a few months ago. I sprained my neck and my back, and I had a concussion.

A co-worker invited me to read an excerpt from Kahlil Gibran’s poem On Love  at her wedding ceremony. So on a humid Friday evening in September, I left work and headed to the church on Monroe Street in Brooklyn, New York. I sat in the pews enjoying watching the bride direct her party on where to walk, where to stand, how to step to the beat, etc. I decided to text a friend while I waited for my turn to rehearse.  “Are you driving? I’m at a wedding rehearsal over here on Monroe and Malcolm X.” He told me that he was driving, and to hit him up when it was over and he would come get me. No problem. He lives five minutes away from the church.

After I recited the love poem about ten times (perhaps a slight exaggeration) on the mic, I texted my friend. He replied, “I’m still in the barber shop. Wait for me. I’ll be there in twenty minutes.”

TWENTY MINUTES?

I accepted a ride with the flower girl’s mother instead. He could just meet me at my mother’s house. Twenty minutes seemed like a long time.

I sat in the front passenger seat of the silver Camry; the woman strapped her daughter in the booster seat in the back. We rode down several blocks, to Monroe Street and Marcy Avenue, stopped a red light, and black Lexus SUV rammed into us from behind three times.

I lurched forward against the seat belt three times. My neck snapped back and forth three times. The driver mumbled, “the devil is a liar.”

***

I spent three years working with personal trainers to get in shape after a move to the suburbs, the comforts (and discomforts) of a long-term relationship, and chronic stress led to weight gain.  By 2009, I was at my heaviest weight. I changed my eating habits, I hit the weights, and I got up at 5am to run bleachers and do calisthenics and kick boxing at the crack of dawn. I made a lifestyle change. Went from a size 14 to a size 2. All my weight-related ailments disappeared.

I love being fit. I plan to be working out well into my 60’s and 70’s. If other people can do it, why can’t I?

Always a work in progress. #NoFilter

So the past few weeks that I haven’t been posting, I’ve been focused on my diet. It’s always rough going in the beginning. And sugar is always the hardest thing for me to let go. Giving up meat for sixty days is easier than giving up hot chocolate! I went to the track near my house and ran the bleachers two weekends ago, and I’ve been in the gym doing mostly floor exercises and stretching. Next up, are pool workouts and more resistance bands.

The up-sides of this situation:

• I learned how to rest again. It had been YEARS since I spent an entire weekend laying in bed on my back just staring at the ceiling.
• I know more about diet and fitness than the average person does. I’m armed with enough knowledge to get right back on track as soon as my body allows me too.
• I started writing on a regular basis again. Last year, I was focused on graduating with a BA in creative writing from NYU, and a number of other things. Outside of that, and work, I didn’t do much personal writing. Once I sat still, conditions were ripe.
• I know more about physiology now. I ask a lot of questions of my physical therapists so I’ve learned a lot in terms of injuries and how the body heals. I’ll work out safer going forward.
• I have a trainer on standby for as SOON as I’m ready.
• Although I’m active, I wanna do more. I wanna go hard in the gym. Kick box. Squat. Try Krav Maga (a form of mixed martial arts). But I’m blessed.
• This is a lesson in patience.
• Oh, and since my butt is a bit bigger now, I’ll be able to train my legs and glutes hard to maintain this shelf-butt effect, while whittling my waistline down with proper diet and ab work. #POW It’s all about proportion ladies!! (I love that BOW, BOW, BOW look. But I digress!…)

I try to find something positive in every setback and every detour. It takes mental conditioning to be able to think positively – the same way it takes mental conditioning to lose sixty pounds – JUST by changing diet and exercise habits (no gimmicks, no surgeries, and NO shortcuts).

I’ll be alright. I’ll have days when I’m alone and I break down in tears at the thought of not being able to do what I WANT to do. That’s perfectly normal for a person who wants to actively pursue everything they set their mind to (that’s me). But then I think about the up-sides and focus on what I CAN do.

Concussion symptoms (headaches, dizziness, imbalance, etc.) can last up to a year. My orthopedic surgeon assures me that the pain from neck and back sprains should subside in a few months. Who knows? I have six months til summer.

Never give up, even if it means creating a new normal for yourself – because with every setback, comes the opportunity to learn and grow stronger.

Related articles

• http://blackandwhitefitness.wordpress.com/exercise-routines/ (blackandwhitefitness.wordpress.com)
• 5 Workout Mantras That Are Bad for Your Body (news.health.com)

Categories: Blogging, Inspiration, Personal Stories

Tags: Brooklyn NY, Divine Intervention, Fitness, Health, Inspiration, Life, Life Change, New York City, Obesity, Reflections, Setbacks, Training, Weight loss