I sit here writing this with a sinus headache, and a cough.  I've been trying to nurse myself back to health for about a week, and I'm getting there, but I'm still just not 100%.

Here's the good news.   This whole experience is making me appreciate my normally healthy body so much more.

Two days into my illness, I was feverish, achy, and absolutely miserable.  I groaned the silent prayer, "Dear Lord, don't ever let me get sick and die!"

I can't imagine being uncomfortable and sick for months, or years on end.   My heart breaks for anyone who's had to walk that road.  I would much rather get hit by a bus, or die trying to fend off a Mountain Lion on a trail run or something.

Unfortunately, even if I start J-walking while texting, or running through the wilderness smeared in honey, and raw meat, there is still the possibility that I will get sick and die of some sort of slow, painful, disease someday.

So why even worry about nutrition and exercise?   If we're all going to die anyway, and we don't get to pick exactly how we go out, what's the point?

Well, that's a bit like saying..."Houses burn down all the time. It could happen to anyone.  Why not have a little fun, and set my curtains on fire!?!?"

This year I had the privilege of hearing CrossFit founder Greg Glassman speak at a business conference. In his talk, he stated that an estimated 70% of Americans die of preventable causes.

What can prevent the illness in that 70% slice of the pie?   Proper nutrition and exercise... or in even simpler terms... CrossFit.

Even as a CrossFitter, I can't guarantee that I won't get sick and die someday, but as much as it is up to me, I'd like to give myself the best possible chance to live a long healthy life, or to die some sort of "blaze of glory" death.

Any moment now, a meteor may crash through my ceiling and leave me at the bottom of a smoking hole in the floor, and if that happens, I'm cool with that.  I Just don't ever want to have to explain to my family that I'm leaving this world early because of my intense love for eating chocolate Donettes on my couch.

This holiday season, I hope you make more good nutrition choices than bad, and I hope you'll make time for exercise.  Who knows?  with any luck you could die in a skydiving accident on your 90th birthday :)

We're all playing the odds a bit in this life, but the more good choices we make, the more we minimize the risk of long term illness, and maximize the possibility of a long, WONDERFUL life.

See you at the box!

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P.S.  Click below to design a death-defying custom speed rope :)

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