Cancer doesn't care how much you exercise

After my diagnosis, all I could think was, "But, I'm the healthiest person I know!" Then, I had to face reality ...

Number 1: Cancer doesn't care how much you exercise. It doesn't care how many marathons you've run, how many times per week you go to the gym, that you can swim a mile without stopping or that you've climbed a 14,000 foot mountain. Cancer isn't impressed by your fitness level.

Number 2: Cancer doesn't care if you shop at Wild Oats or Trader Joes. It isn't frightened by your Kashi cereal. It isn't disheartened by your Naked Food Juice. It doesn't back down when you wield your organic sword and proclaim loyalty to clean eating. Cancer isn't impressed by your grocery cart.

Bottom line: Cancer doesn't care about me and cancer isn't impressed by me.

After realizing this, your first thought is ... if none of this stuff helps, what's the point? A few days after my diagnosis, I was eating blueberries as my dessert for lunch. Next to me, a coworker was eating a Cracker Barrel biscuit covered with cinammon apples topped off by Smucker's caramel sauce. (I'm not making this up.) I looked at that succulent pile of sludge and thought, "A lot of good these antioxidants have done me - I might as well have some sludge myself." As for exercise, you can't help but think morbid thoughts like, "Why would I spend time trying to build muscle when I'm going to start losing it all anyway when my treatment begins?"

As it turns out, I finished the blueberries and left the sludge alone. I like blueberries. I also like exercising. God tells us our body is a temple. So, as long as I am able, I should make choices befitting a temple. Guess I'll just have to be the healthiest person I know ... with cancer (for now).

Real bottom line: God does care about me (and you) and I am really impressed by Him. "Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you." -1 Peter 5:7