I sat up today, about 20 minutes into my pilates workout and said, I just have to make a post. The day has a half hour of pilates, a ½ mile swim, 2 mile run, tai chi for an hour with a great master and then off to skate. I get up early and while this is an exceptional day with fitness, the rest of the week follows with at least two sports and could include, rowing, a half hour of basketball at a favorite spot, a little time with weights and hopefully my first spin class--something I’ve been a chicken shit on attacking. It is an ‘unknown’ element and that first day you just have to suck it up! I hung up the bike for a while, too much ice outside, although I do not mind the cold. When I get my weight down a little, I am heading out to dance! That could be ugly, but got to learn sometime. Confidence, confidence, confidence.
But I want to tell you why I am doing this. I want you to know more about my blog and what I truly believe is an opportunity for me. As for you reading, that is up to you. Take from it what makes sense, but hopefully you will see that there truly is something behind my return to fitness.
Thirty years ago I had it in my head to do anything but cook. I came from two generations of the restaurant business and I wanted a life of sports. My initial thought on going to train in Florida instead of heading to Georgetown University was not exactly popular. In fact, it met with laughs in my house and with a lot of my golfing buddies. I was small, wiry, not too aggressive and easily psyched out. A big drive for me was 275 yards--not far by today standards. But I loved the sport. Something about hitting and hitting and hitting that made my life enriched. I ran and hit thousands of balls a week. I was only an above average golfer but my heart said: “Go for it! This could be your life.”
I ended up at Georgetown, and on the golf team. Each night we hit, played and then worked on building endurance. One of the ways we did that for wrists and arms was using a heavy medicine ball. By some freak accident, one night passing it back and forth, harder and harder, it flicked off my thumb. I heard a small snap! But I kept at it. A later whirlpool reduced swelling. But it was sore, very sore. Three series of x-rays at Georgetown Medical kept saying no break. Shots of cortisone before I played promised relief. At least initially, until one day my wrist would not longer flex, and all the cortisone would not liven the motion. I was out. Out for the season. I returned home for more x-rays, calling Georgetown for the initial films. Unbelievable! Right in front of two specialists, THERE it was! The BREAK! It had been there all along and I had been hitting thousands of balls and at least a hundred rounds of golf under cortisone gritting my teeth and all along it was just plain broken!
There rest, as they say, became history. Three and a half years of casts with three operations fitting in pins, taking them out, and refitting. When it was all over, the result was a mostly immobilized right wrist, a lot of anger and a choice: forget golf and find a new career or stay angry. I became a well-trained cook, then a Chef, then a Chef/Restaurateur. For over thirty years with the same energy, I attacked cooking. I became famous. I made money and lost money. I got married and unmarried. I made a name and then stopped. I am a good, sometimes a fabulous cook. But my heart 30 years later is still into that golf ball!
And one more thing…..I have absolutely no interest in growing older. I can see the way to being younger is to drop my weight and my style of living to a place where I want to be. I want the body and life of a 35-year-old. I spent 37 years from the moment that wrist broke to now growing my career as a chef. Now I want at least 15 of those back. And I aim to get it. So I designed Vegetable Alchemy and my Cell Cuisine™ to get me there. I believe in my goal.
As for you? Only you can answer. But to go with me, you have to believe, it is all in the BIOLOGY of BELIEF .* Stay tuned. Buddha once said, “Your work is to discover yourself and then with all your heart, give yourself to it.” That puts my web site in perfect harmony with where I am: I am all about getting younger! Happy Monday!
*The Biology of Belief, by Bruce H. Lipton, Ph.D.
Next up: Thoughts from the science happening around ‘Senescence’.
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