Were you the kind of kid in high school who was always picked last in gym class?
I was. In fact, my team usually wanted to “trade” me to the other team. In that way, due to my lack of athleticism, I could be a liability to my new team.
In one particular gym class, I wanted to impress my teammate who had just moved into our neighborhood. So I was thrilled when he, as the quarterback on our team, called my number in the huddle. My assignment was to go deep – possibly to score the winning touchdown right before the bell was scheduled to ring.
When the ball was hiked, I ran down the field as fast as I could, hauled in the pass from my neighbor and was proud to take the ball into the end zone for the score! But when I turned around to see the jubilation and celebration from my teammates, all I saw were players from both teams rolling around on the ground in laughter. Rather than proud, I was now mortified.
So you can imagine my disappointment when I got to college to find that Physical Education was still a required class.
“I thought I was finally done with all that humiliation!” I lamented to a friend.
“Why not take Aerobics?” he suggested.
“I don’t want to dance around in silly little tights,” I sighed.
“Not that kind of Aerobics,” he corrected me. “Running.”
Running? One-foot-in-front-of-the-other? Even I would have a tough time messing that up in a gym class.
So I enrolled in the class, and started out running, in my jeans.
“You know,” I said to my friend, who was also taking the class as we ran along. “This really isn’t that bad.”
Then the instructor gave us each a copy of Dr. Kenneth Cooper’s book Aerobics. The more I read, the more engrossed and dedicated I became.
I bought a pair of sweat pants and a pair of Nikes. Primitive by today’s standards (this was 1975), the Nikes were blue canvas on top, with a yellow waffle on the bottom. But after I slipped them on, I felt as though I were running on a cloud.
The time eventually came to take the final exam. Whoever could run the farthest in 12 minutes would be guaranteed an “A” in the class.
During the exam, I began to pass my classmates (including my friend) one-by-one. Finally, with less than a half minute remaining, all that separated me from an A was a single runner – the best runner in the class.
But he was the type of athlete who would run in shorts – even in the dead of winter (and our college was located in Erie, Pennsylvania, which was plagued with blustery winds and lake-effect snow).
All of a sudden, with mere seconds remaining in the class, while making a sound that resembled a locomotive, I chugged ahead of the fastest runner in the class. Imagine that, ol’ four-eyes getting an A – in a gym class!
That class changed my entire self-concept. I had never before been an “athlete.” But now, I went though a metamorphosis that was similar to the class dunce suddenly realizing he could be a genius.
Since that day in the spring of 1975, I have run over 35,000 miles (nearly 1.5 times around the earth), including completing numerous marathons and half marathons.
In addition, in each of the last six years, I have covered over 1,000 miles on my bicycle.
You don’t need to run. You don’t need to ride a bike.
The key is to find a form of physical activity you do enjoy. Then, like that famous American philosopher Michael Jordan advises, “Just do it!”
I also follow the simple, easy-to-follow nutrition advice from Dr. Cooper who wrote the Aerobics book: “Five is fine but nine is divine.” (Dr. Cooper is referring to the number of daily servings of fruits and vegetables.)
Three other nutrition keys:
• Eat foods as close as possible to their natural state.
• Avoid foods advertised on television. (These are usually highly processed foods that are also high in sugars, fats and carbohydrates. When was the last time you saw carrots advertised on TV?)
• Do not drink your calories. (Calories from liquids usually have very little nutritive value.)
For many of the high school jocks who enjoyed bullying me in gym class, very few of them today can walk, let alone run, a mile, I have not been seriously sick (meaning having to see a doctor) in over 30 years. I take no medications and have no aches or pains. In fact, I still feel like I am in high school!
While those former jocks now huff and puff, not only am I in better shape than I was in high school, I also weigh less (with a 31 inch waistline) and have more energy and vitality.
And I would be lying if I said that I don’t get a kick out of the fact that those high school jocks now just look a whole lot older than I do, too!