Coffee with a Punch!

As I entered the gas station near my house at 5am, I was looking forward to my routine hot cup of coffee.  It started out as a normal morning, but as I walked in I felt a man right on my heels, looking me up and down.  I poured my coffee and secured the lid.  Again, I felt the man just staring at me.  I decided to make eye contact and wish him a good morning.  When I did, I was staring into the thickest pair of eyeglasses I had ever seen.  “Good morning.”, I said.  The man shifted his eyes from me to his coffee cup.  He was dumping powdered creamer in his cup annnnnd all over the counter.  I bet he used half of the container.  I felt like we were both in a cloud of creamer dust trying to talk to each other.  Without looking up he asked, “You workout?”  I answered, “Yes Sir.”  He turned as if he were a cowboy about to pull a six shooter on me, and pointed to his stomach.  “I’m 77 years old and I walk 7 miles a day.  You don’t think that’s enough?”, he asked still pointing to his stomach.  Being a goal oriented Strength Coach, I of course asked, “Enough for what?”  At this point, he was still pointing to his stomach and stirring the paste in his coffee cup.  He stopped stirring and excitingly said, “Punch me in the stomach.  Go ahead!  Punch!”  And soooooooo…..I did.  Well, not really a punch because I envisioned security cameras in the store recording a young man knocking out an elderly man.  This snowballed into visions of myself in handcuffs on WLOS and/or Entertainment Tonight.  So in a flash, I karate chopped the gentleman’s stomach, fully expecting to feel my fingers go through his stomach, across his vertebrae, into his spinal canal, thus severing the spinal cord, annnnnd paralyzing a man who was probably a War Hero.  Instead his stomach stopped my hand, jammed my fingers, and yes, caused me to make some sort of audible cry for help.  I’m not really sure what it was because I may have blacked out as well…a little.  Then I said, “Yes Sir…7 miles is enough.”  The elderly man smiled and winked at me through the twelve sheets of glass that made up his eyeglasses.  I paid for my coffee and drove to Underdog.

So what lesson did my fight with the old man at the gas station inspire me to share with you?  Take a self-defense class?  Don’t mess with old people?  Don’t make eye contact with people at 5am?  Stop drinking coffee?  Not at all.  My message to you is : BE EXCITED!

Be excited about the things you have…the things you do…and the people you interact with in your life.  And yes, even be excited about your exercise program.  We all know attitude is a huge factor in your adherence to a specific nutritional pattern and exercise program.  I don’t even want to go that deep though.  I just want to tell you to be excited about what you’re doing for your health.  Be excited you’re doing something so positive for yourself.  Be excited you are extending the years you get to share yourself and your gifts with us, the world.  If you have children, do not complain about the way you “have to” eat or that you “have to” go exercise.  Let them hear your excitement about working out and eating healthy foods.  This will set up positive pathways and habits in their own minds.  I’m not saying you have to go around town demanding people punch you in the stomach, but you can certainly talk about what you’re doing, ask others to join you, and give someone an encouraging wink.  You never know….Your excitement about your own life may make all the difference in the world to another.  Lastly, if you happen to run into an elderly man wearing thick glasses, with what looks like mud in his coffee cup, and he asks you if you think walking 7 miles a day is enough for a 77 year old…look down at the ground and simply say, “Sounds good to me sir.”   Then turn…and calmly walk away my friend…just waaaallllk away. 🙂

 

4 thoughts on “Coffee with a Punch!

  1. Angela Tiller says:

    I love your post, Keep them coming!!!!

  2. I have been thinking about this concept of being “excited” with the things I do in my life. Generally speaking, I am. Except….when it comes to exercise. I may be excited about the results- physically and mentally, and it is exciting to share that time with my friends. But I would like to actually be happy and excited DURING my exercise. So yesterday while I was working out (and not particularly enjoying the moment), two people’s faces popped into my mind.

    The first was my Daddy. He has been the single most influential person in my exercise-life. When we were little, he would get all five kids up before school and we would hop on our bikes following him as he went for his morning run- what a sight: my dad, five young kids on bikes and the dachshund all in sync. My Daddy was an athlete- he was over 6 feet tall and weighed 220 pounds- all solid muscle. He ran, wrestled, boxed, and lifted weights his whole life. Then he and Mom moved to NC, Daddy with the intention of finishing out his life hiking our beautiful trails. Shortly after the move, he was diagnosed with a muscle wasting disorder which quickly robbed him of the ability to fulfill that dream. While I was running my fifth suicide, I thought at how EXCITED Daddy would be if he could do the exact thing I was complaining about. How he would love to feel the sensation of working a muscle to its core, to fatigue knowing that he was rebuilding it to the next level of strength.

    The second person who popped into my mind was a beautiful woman I had met the night before. She was about my age. Five years ago, she was an incredible athlete. She had run a 100-mile race! Sometime thereafter, she suffered a stroke which left her as a different person- difficulty in walking and certainly impossible to consider running. Yet when I met her, she was training to run a 5K even though the left side of her body is severely injured. She was excited at the thought of running again! Seeing this made me realize, again, that anything can be taken away from us at any given moment. That is why it is essential to be excited about EVERYTHING we are doing.

    It is truly difficult to be excited when your body is screaming at you, however, yesterday for that last suicide run, I smiled at the thought of how excited Daddy would feel if suddenly he could get up and do what I was doing!

    • Shawnna says:

      Thank you for that Rosie…i often catch myself daily as I complain about something that someone less fortunate would be so thankful to have an ounce of. I need the reminder to love my large quads as they move me through suicides easier and be “excited” while doing them. I too grew up with super active parents…dad playing hockey and my mom teaching gymnastics to little ones and a stint at selling dyno gyms door to door. I can remember how i loved to get on that machine and make it move when I was probably 10 years old. Good ‘ole memories. For me It is the environment at UD that makes working out exciting and of course the results from the hardwork even that much more rewarding. Thank you Anthony!!

  3. Shawnna says:

    That made my day….laughing out loud at my computer by myself. That is just hillarious! I would have had to say to that sweet man, “clearly 7 miles a day is enough but that much powder creamer is going to kill you!”

    Love your posts…So glad you have invested in your blog…it is exactly what I knew you would bring to it. joy, laughter, insight and wisdom and much more!!!

    shawnna

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