Fitness: the best shield for stress

I have never been the most athletic person in any sport I have competed in. I have never taken home a trophy for running track or been the star basketball player. The most I ever got was a participation award and a pat on the back for “playing” on a team that I spent the time bench warming for.

However, physical activity has reduced the stress in my life and helps me reach beyond my limits.

I was overweight in high school and it was tough for me. I struggled with weight loss and being able to run half a mile. I had worked at a gym for several years and lost weight, but I couldn’t find the motivation to push myself beyond my limits.

It caused me so much undue stress. I would worry about my weight and become depressed. Once I was depressed I would eat and once I started eating comfort foods, I couldn’t stop. This caused me to gain more weight and the vicious cycle continued. I wanted to break the cycle and run a half marathon, but could I actually do it?

It was a slow process and it hurt. Every day I would wake up and think “Is this really worth it?” I liked eating comfort food and I loved to sleep in, but once I had someone to hold me accountable it became much easier to find my way out of bed in the morning.

“Let’s go, Haney!” that’s what I looked forward to in the morning. “Keep up, Haney!” is what I held on to when I struggled with pain from my deployment to Afghanistan.

The more it hurt inside the more I ran, praying that God would heal the pain of losing friends. War became easier to deal with when I ran. I would concentrate on the importance of being able to carry the heaviest guy in our Platoon because he weighed almost 225 pounds. When bad situations happened or friends were killed, I ran further and pushed harder.

Many people don’t realize how much physical fitness can reduce your stress in a hard situation. I knew it had helped me when I was struggling with pain from my deployment, but when I found out I had cancer I questioned even working out anymore.

I had just returned from Paktika and Wardak province in Afghanistan and I was in the best shape of my life. I was 132 pounds, in a size four, and you could wash clothes on my abs. I was diagnosed with Papillary thyroid cancer and only 21, “How the hell did I get cancer?!” I thought to myself trying to be strong, but instead of giving up I worked relentlessly. Day after day I would wake up and try to do some sort of exercise before I had surgery to remove my thyroid.

I was glad I had been working out so furiously because when it came time for my surgery my body bounced back quickly. I started to exercise a couple of days into recovery. I was feeling great until I found out I had to have a second surgery.

Questions began to run through my mind. This time I stopped working out and became depressed. I sat in my room alone and wanted to wither away. I went in just as I had before and this time I came out with pneumonia.
I knew what my body was telling me. It was mad because I had left it to rot only giving it the bare minimum to survive.

I felt like an idiot for questioning what physical training could do for your body and stress levels. Even though I had struggled, physical fitness had lowered my stress and helped me stay positive. It made me feel great and I looked great too, but here I was, sick as a dog, finally realizing how much of an impact physical fitness has on my body.

Working out has helped me to handle extremely stressful situations. My work out routine has been there for me time and time again. You might even call my work out routine a friend who is always there to pick me up.