The daughter of my good friend  in California is an ice skater.  At the tender age of eleven, she is training with professional coaches have brought other ice skaters to national titles and Olympic Gold.  She hopes that she can someday join the ranks of our nation’s most elite and celebrated athletes.  Her training schedule requires dedication and consistency—she practices six days a week.  As her Mom explained, in the skating world there is an adage:

Miss one day of practice, and you notice.

Miss two days of practice, and your coach notices.

Miss three days of practice, everybody notices.

Seven weeks into my new training regime at Fitness Together, my workout routine was interrupted.   My mother, who had traveled to Buffalo, NY to visit her grandson, had a medical emergency.  She was checked into an Emergency Room, and later an Intensive Care Unit.  For the next two weeks, instead of spending my mornings complaining about the perceived pain of my voluntary workouts, I spent my mornings witnessing the real pain of an involuntary health crisis.

I suppose that if I were a dedicated fitness enthusiast with years of practice, I would have made time for exercise regardless of the 12-hour days I spent in a hospital room.  But, for me, it was all I could do to manage the situation at hand.  Figuring out how to walk, run, or do sit-ups in the midst of all of that wasn’t something I felt willing or able to make happen.

But after a few days, I noticed something.  Much to my surprise, I realized I was missing my workouts.  For the first time in my life, I actually felt that I would rather be exercising!  The feeling wasn’t strong enough to go do something about it, mind you, but it was enough to  admit that my training sessions were indeed having a positive impact on my health and well being.

There’s nothing like a week or two in a hospital to help you find a million new reasons to be fit and healthy.  As I watched people who couldn’t breathe on their own, who couldn’t move without assistance, who needed tubes and medications and bed pans and more, I gained a deeper appreciation for my current state of  health, and a strong desire to move from relative good health to optimal health.

When I finally made it back for a session with my personal trainer, it was obvious to everybody (in this case me and him since I train in a private suite) that I had been gone for a while.  But, it didn’t feel like starting over.  It felt more like coming home.

Although my interrupted workouts further delayed my already slow visible results (weight loss and muscle tone),  my absence actually did wonders for my mental  preparedness.  I have gone from clutching the boards of the rink on wobbly legs to skating out into the middle of the ice, willing to try whatever scary move my coach wants me to attempt. 

I don’t think I’ll ever win fitness gold, but at least I’m willing to consider myself a contender.