Hello everyone!  This past week has been a hot one, and it is hard to believe that the calendar page is already on August.  Where did the summer go? 

Last week I focused on the concept of healthy body weight.  I hope every one of you took me up on my challenge to start appreciating your body for its power and ability!  Team Do! had the opportunity to appreciate our healthy bodies this past weekend in Wausau, WI.  We raced in Wausau 24, a mountain bike endurance race in which you strive to finish as many laps as you can in a 24-hour period. The course was just shy of 11 miles, and consisted mainly of rock gardens and extremely large roots.

I remember when I was first learning the ropes of mountain biking, two women riders took me out to Harmon Park, an off-road trail in Inver Grove Heights.  The first thing they noticed about me was that I hated going down hills.  I would brake and descend so slow, they would have to wait for me at the bottom.  They finally told me I needed to stop fighting the flow of the trail.  I needed to let go of my brakes, and trust my reactions to the elements.  It didn’t happen right away, but slowly I learned to let go.  Slowly, I gained the confidence to hit those descents wide open.

Mountain biking for me has been a great parallel to life.  It is inevitable that you will fall down.  You may even get a couple bruises or scars, but you learn to pick yourself up off the ground and get back on the bike.  One could even take that statement and compare it to the battle of losing weight. 

For me, my struggle with weight has been a lifelong fight. I went from being a 2 lb. “premie” to a plus-sized kindergartner. As the pounds packed on, so did the ridicule and teasing from other children. Childhood was one cruel “Titanic” joke after another, and my only solace came from the comfort of food. By the age of 20, I was huge.  While food had comforted me, it had also destroyed me. My cholesterol was well above the norm for a female my age.  I had heart palpitations that terrified me whenever I exerted myself.  I had swelling in my legs that needed to be biopsied. I was an insurance company’s worse nightmare.  

It’s been nearly three years since I finally resolved to lose the weight and get healthy.  I still have the biopsy scar, but my cholesterol is perfectly normal and healthy, and my heart is strong enough to last hours in the cardio range.  I refer to my past as “pre-healthy”.  I haven’t paid a cent to a hospital for any of those previous ailments post-healthy.  No longer am I a nightmare to my insurer, but instead I am in their commercials!  I am proof that you don’t have to spend the rest of your life off your bike.  Pick yourself up!  Dust yourself off!  Get moving and remind yourself that food is only a necessity for our bodies to function properly, NOT a bandage for when you fall.

These are the thoughts that were going through my head over the weekend, especially around lap four or five (miles 44-55 if anyone’s curious!).  I was remembering pre-healthy Sam, and how she would have never considered an endurance race as possible.  And as I came to a huge downhill, full of loose rock that I couldn’t see the bottom of, I kept my hands off the brakes and trusted my abilities.  I trusted post-healthy Sam.  And what do you know?  She didn’t need a bandage!

For clarification, should you actually fall while biking and require a real bandage, that’s okay!