Enjoy Health, Enjoy Family, Enjoy LIFE!!

 An interesting play of events.  Yesterday at an I Ho Chuan meeting, Sifu Brinker taught us about our health being the number one priority in our lives.  Today, at church, I was asked to speak to a group of women about just that. . . . health.  The main lesson was on being self reliant, and health was one of the 6 important categories of self reliance.  The other 5 being spiritual, educational, financial, employment, and food storage.  Naturally, part of what I spoke about was my martial arts, as it is 100% the reason why I am as healthy and as fit as I am.  At Silent River Kung Fu, in sept of 1998, is where it all started: going from overweight and inactive, to fit, healthy, and enjoying so many fun things.

My health is something that I never ever take for granted.  Life has a lot of demands, and not many of them are fun, although they are a necessity.  So, I like to take time out to have fun.  Besides my kung fu, I also rock climb, hike, back pack, kayak, mountain bike on ski hills, cross country ski, snow shoe, and "play" with my family.

Here in lies the most important reason for me to want to stay healthy.  There is now a somewhat embarrassing video on facebook that was taken by one of my daughters at a family traditional holiday gathering.  The video is of me dancing around my living room with my 2 grandsons, and at one part, with my daughter.  Part of what was video taped and not put on facebook, is me also dancing with one of my son in laws.  I danced for about 15 or 20 minutes straight, and we really boogied hard.  I turn 50 in a few months, and how lucky I am that I can enjoy activities like booging up a storm with my grandbabies, or taking them sledding, or kayaking, or camping and hiking with all my kids and grandkids.  I want so much to be an active grandma, or nana as my babies call me.  I have 2 more grandbabies coming this year, and I want to be able to do things with them too.  As my grandkids get older I have plans to take them into the mountains to camp, hike, and bike, and I want to teach my grandsons to rock climb as well.  Pretty hard to do those things if I am not healthy and fit.

On the other end of the scale, is my mom.  She is not healthy in any way, form, or "shape".  In fact she is obese, tipping the scales at close to, if not over, 300lbs.  She has health issues up the ying yang, that also lead to her being severely depressed.  Her husband, who is much younger than her, also has major health issues that stem from, amongst other things, alcohol abuse, and other self inflicted bodily abuse like improper eating.  He, being more than 20 years younger than my mom looks as old as her, if not older.  With the both of them having health issues, this affects their abilities to work.  This leads to financial issues, which feeds the depression.  The depression is like a rolling snowball, that builds and builds.  They have no ambition to change things.  They feel stuck, and so no initiative is taken to improve their situation.  One of the things that would help my mom and her hubby a lot, is family.  My mom gets extremely uplifted when her family is around her.  This is not something that happens often.  Three of my moms 4 children live in Alberta, along with 9 of her 12 grandchildren, and all her great grandchildren, one of which she has never met.  My mom lives in B.C.  All of us, in Alberta, are only within 150 km of each other.  The catch?  My mom can't come to Alberta to visit because of, "TA DA!". . . . . her health.  Her weight has caused such severe pain in her back, legs and hips, that she can not come to visit and spend time with family, the one thing in life that brings her great joy.

I do not want to live my life like that.  I do have arthritis in all my joints and my neck, but because of my good health, I can still do things I enjoy.  I do not let the arthritis put a damper on my quality of life.  Every time I have a full physical, my doctor always tells me the same thing.  "You are the healthiest person to walk through my door".

My family is so important to me, and having fun with them of even more importance.  I don't want to just sit in a chair, and look at my family and talk to my family, and watch THEM have fun.    I want to be in there like a dirty shirt playing with everyone when we go to the waterpark: climbing the stairs to go down the slides, tubing in the currents, and splashing around in the wave pool.

 If I don't have my health, I don't have my employment, I can't improve my education, or finances, or do fun things with family.  Without my health, my life would have far, far less meaning, as I would not be able to shovel driveways for seniors, or make supper for a sick family, or babysit my grandson when his mom is in hospital having another baby, help a daughter move, or teach kung fu to kids.  Without my health my life would have far less quality, as I would not be able to mountain bike, dance, or hike the Pacific west coast trail.  Without my health, my life would be in financial ruin as I would not be able to work.  Without good health, so much of what I enjoy in my life would not exist.

In September of 1998, I took the plunge and joined kung fu.  Soon after, I started my journey as a fitness instructor, and then continued on my way to black belt.  I went from 155 lbs, to 130 lbs.  I went from about 35 %  body fat, down to 17% body fat.  Things continued from there, and led me to where I am today.  Every day when I go through my list of things I am grateful for, my kung fu, health, and family are always at the top of the list.  EVERY DAY!  Because every day I am grateful.