I know you see it on the guestbook all the time–people encountering adversity. Some people handle it well, and others are overwhelmed by it. The person’s response to adversity often bears little relationship to the nature or complexity of the adversity. For some, even just forgetting their meals for that day can throw them into a complete tizzy, and for others even very grave problems or injuries become simply situations to be dealt with. One thing’s for sure, we’ll all encounter it at some point during our challenge, so let’s take a look at how to deal with it.

Adversity can take all kinds of shapes, anything from an injury to working overtime, sickness of a loved one–there’s no way to anticipate all the different types you might encounter during a challenge, but a bit of good planning and preparation will get you through.

PRIORITIZE: If your adversity involves the health, welfare and safety of your family members, clearly you owe it to yourself and them to take whatever time and attention is required to tend to their needs. Your health is important, but health maintenance or improvement certainly should take second to health emergencies. Your own injuries and illnesses deserve the same as family. In other words, if you’re too sick or hurt too much to work out, DON’T! Get yourself well enough to do it right, and then get back in the game. The tricky areas are in the “other” categories. For example, you’re a guy and it’s your anniversary, but it’s also not a free day. What then? If you really don’t know, you’re probably not going to be married very long anyway! If your wife doesn’t suggest moving the celebration to a “free day,” you just move your free day without even mentioning it! By the way, I also wouldn’t advise telling your wife that you consider the occurence of your anniversary during a week day to be “adversity!”

PREPARE: Some adversity can actually be nullified by prior preparation. For example, I mentioned above that forgetting your food can be a near tragedy for some. Well, I have done that, so today I ALWAYS have backup food at work. It’s canned tuna, and packaged oatmeal, so it’s always “fresh” and I can eat it if I have to! We have grandkids whom we like to see when we can, and when something comes up that provides an excuse to go there, it is sometimes when the dog kennel isn’t open or is full. We found a dogsitter who could come at almost any time when we called her, and today she is our number one choice when we want to jump in the car and drive to Iowa! Adversity averted!

HAVING THE RIGHT MINDSET! Though it seldom feels that way, almost nothing in our lives happens without a reason. Our first thought when the car won’t start or the bad news telephone call comes is: “Why me, Lord?” A minute’s reflection would tell you that this isn’t helpful, but somehow we think we just had to feel that way. But we don’t. We can control our feelings by controlling our thoughts through a process of consistently and purposely meditating on positive things. Tommy Newberry, in a wonderful little book called “The 4:8 Principle” uses a bible passage as a guide that instructs us to meditate on things that are true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent and praiseworthy. These “things” can be blessed events in your life, or the fact that you are loved unconditionally. Your spirit will guide you to the powerful thoughts that can help with the right response to adversity.

Learning the right ways to deal with adversity is one of the great fringe benefits of your BFL challenge!

I am so glad that when Ruth and I started with body for life in 2000 we didn’t really know a thing about the program other than that a local man had won the contest the year before. We read an article in the Lansing paper about Tom Archipley, and since we were looking for a “quick and easy way” to get fit and look good on the beach for our 25th anniversary in Hawaii, we decided to check it out and BOUGHT THE BOOK!

I think if we had just stumbled onto this by the recommendation of a friend and then had come to the website to see what it was all about, we would still be scratching our heads! I doubt we ever even would have started the program, let alone finish.

BUT, we read the book, took our “before photos,” and then started trying to figure out how we could do some of this at home and some at the YMCA. We ordered some Myoplex shakes and bought some Betagen at the local GNC, printed out our workout schedules from the book, and away we went! On the way, we read and re-read that book until the cover literally fell off!

You know, even though as I look back on it we were totally clueless, we still had good results–not great–but good. It wasn’t that we got lost or had a bunch of adversity or anything, but we just failed to understand that this is a LIFESTYLE, not just a diet with an exercise program!

When I think back on our baptism of fire, and how weird it all seemed, that’s when I’m so glad I became a champion–so that I could try to find people who are as confused or ignorant as we were about about body for life, and bring some clarity to something that’s quite simple, but gets really complicated if you don’t see the BIG PICTURE!

If you don’t get the whole picture, you can be like the blind man who thought the elephant was like a snake. (He touched the trunk.)Those who need to lose some fat tend to think body for life must be a quick weight loss program–sort of like Atkins with exercises! Those who need to get a handle on an eating disorder that has spiraled out of control tend to think of BFL as a bootcamp for bulemics! It’s the structure and discipline that they crave–so that they can stop those cravings! Those who are suffering from real life, self-inflicted health problems tend to see BFL as sort of a cheap trip to the hospital! For them, it’s all about lower cholesterol, blood pressure, and insulin levels!

They all have a piece of the picture, and a much more important piece than the “look good on the beach” piece that we had! 

Today, I laugh about that goal we had. Yes, we did it, but the goal was so shallow, so superficial, that as soon as we got home, we were done with this 6 meals a day, work-out-every-stinking-day routine! DONE! Well, o.k., in about two weeks I started again, because I kinda, sorta missed that structure, those health results, and that fat loss that I experienced in that first challenge.

I guess that’s really how you get the big picture, one piece at a time. Hopefully, reading these blogs helps a little. Each one is, in a way, a piece of the overall picture that helps make this the greatest fitness program on the planet!

This is your chance! What piece of the picture do you wish I’d write about? If I already have, I’ll tell you Thursday where to find it. If I haven’t, I’ll put it in the rotation!  I love you guys who read this blog and leave all the feedback. You always have some great ideas, and this is the time to let me know what you’d like to read next!