Lemonade Anyone?

This is a difficult and confusing time for our country. In my lifetime, I’ve never experienced citizens being quarantined to their homes or told we couldn’t go to our parks or had our schools and business’ shut down. What makes it even more odd is that many of us are not ill. Seemingly, most of us are healthy and physically feel no different than we did a month ago. But now we live in fear of our neighbors. I know that sounds extreme but let me explain.

I went to CVS this afternoon to pick up some medicine that I take regularly. There were only a handful of people in the store, but you could feel everyone sizing up everyone else, especially if you weren’t staying away by the required distance of 6 feet. Most people were practicing social distancing. If I turned down an aisle and saw someone, I turned around and went the other way, somewhat out of politeness but mostly out of fear that they may have the virus and cough or sneeze as I was walking by.

So, what do we do? We stay in our homes with our families as instructed and take advantage of this opportunity to be together. In my house, on a weeknight prior to the quarantine, it was rare that we all got to spend even an hour together. The kids would be going to practices and games and my wife and I would cross paths for 45 minutes while she grabbed one child, I took the other, and off we went to the next event. I’m not naïve and I know this situation that we are all going through is far from ideal and disturbing our normal lives. In fact, it can be dangerous and even life threatening but, I have to say, I don’t mind being forced to slow down for a while. I’ll call it my silver lining. I think we are so conditioned to go, go, go that we don’t remember that if everything was taken away: your job, your things, even your freedom to come and go as you please, what is left? The people you love and the people who love you.

So how does this relate to fitness? Well, it’s not about the kind of fitness to which we've grown accustom. It’s not about squeezing in an hour after work, running to the gym after we drop the kids off at school or taking a class to have an instructor push us to our physical limits. It’s not about a HIIT workout because we need to cram in the next thing on our schedule. No, this is about taking a walk or going for a bike ride as a family. That act of being together and doing something active in the fresh air is what is keeping us mentally fit these past few weeks. I see family after family just taking a stroll to break up the day and get away from the TV or computer. They’re playing basketball in the driveway, having a catch or kicking the soccer ball on the lawn; not in preparation for any competitive endeavor but simply because it feels good to move and it’s mentally freeing. This type of exercise is a daily vacation to reset, recharge and remember what’s truly important in our lives. I know it feels like we’ve been handed a big bag of lemons over the past few weeks, but this unprecedented event should remind us: change is the only constant, and this too shall pass. We can either worry and fret about what’s coming next or accept our “right now” and do our part to stay physically and mentally healthy.

Do something positive with that bag of lemons. Lemonade anyone?

Our country’s Founding Fathers knew the benefits that exercise provided for our overall well-being. Here are a few quotes to remind us of the importance of physical activity.

“Leave all the afternoon for exercise and recreation, which are as necessary as reading. I will rather say more necessary because health is worth more than learning.”

— Thomas Jefferson

“Health was amongst (if not the most) precious gift of Heaven, and without it we are but little capable of business, or enjoyment.”

— George Washington

"Want of exercise occasions want of appetite,"

— Benjamin Franklin