Living Strong

I've got a hunch about cancer. I think it's afraid of strength. The strength of chemotherapy, the strength of a scalpel, the strength of good old muscle and cardiovascular fitness, and the strength of a positive attitude. When you shake the thought from your mind that cancer is a deadly disease, and just focus on making yourself as strong as humanly possible, you've already dealt the disease a serious blow.

Throughout my battle, I never once gave credit to the cancer living in my body for being insidious and threatening. I never thought it was smart or powerful or capable of besting me. I didn't see a need to empower the disease by being afraid of it or doubting my chances at beating the crap out of it. This was a competition: me vs. cancer. And I wasn't going to waste one moment looking at wonderment at the foe I was about to fight. Cancer was a little punk that had only temporarily gotten the upper hand because it was racking up a bunch of points when I didn't even realize there was a game going on. No matter what, I was going to put it in its place.

My confident attitude, however, didn't lessen my desire to push my body and demand nothing but the best from it. Just because cancer was a little puke didn't mean that I wasn't going to prepare like crazy to fight it as aggressively as I could. Day in and day out, I hit the gym, working my heart and my muscles. I got my body into excellent shape precisely so that it could tolerate my treatments as well as it possibly could, and deliver a little message to "the cancer": you picked the wrong person to mess with, fool.

Today, I had a consult with one of my trainers, Wayne, at Educogym. It had been about two months since he'd taken my measurements, back when I was a little frail from surgery and not at all in shape, still benched by my doctors until my wounds healed up perfectly. Despite the fact that I'm beating cancer in a blowout at this point, my body still knows what time it is. I weigh 132 pounds, my waist is down to 30 inches, my body fat percentage is sitting pretty at 29%, and in the last two months I've managed to lose fat and gain muscle despite not working out at all during chemo weeks. I have managed to bounce back from a massive surgery stronger and fitter than ever, and I made those incredible strides WHILE undergoing six rounds of post-op chemotherapy. And without performance-enhancing drugs or even good old meat and dairy.

I'm on my way to truly living strong, and despite the great news today, now is not the time to sit back and eat a cupcake and lounge on my couch (though it is VERY comfy). It's time to ramp things up and work even harder. Because that's what a warrior does.