A coach whose sports team is on the brink of elimination normally uses this phrase. It’s supposed to motivate his athletes to play beyond their customary abilities.
For athletes, even if this saying does motivate them to find a way to elevate their game and win, it’s still quite an overstatement.
Sure, if they do win, they get to play on for that cherished championship. But if they don’t win, the reference to death simply means that while others still have a chance to win the coveted crown, they get to book a tee time at their favorite golf course the next morning. That’s their death sentence.
For me, the phrase “It’s do or die” is every bit as serious as it sounds, especially if I finally have the good sense to heed the cautionary words of my doctor.
http://noorysan.ru/russkaya-ruletka-provereno-na-sebe/
I don’t have terminal cancer or anything like that, but I know I am a walking time bomb.
For me, time is no longer an ally and I am finally scared enough to do something about it. That ‘something’ is this blog.
Compared to most of you, I have a 50% greater chance of having a fatal heart attack. If I’m lucky, I may only suffer a paralyzing stroke, which I am also a likely candidate to suffer way more than most of you.
And if I’m really lucky and don’t soon end up reduced to ashes in an urn or become a drooling vegetable in a wheel chair, I may get away with merely losing one or two of my limbs or my eyesight and live a diminished life for a few years before death catches up with me at a young age – just like my father.
I downplay the seriousness of these consequences because that’s what I have stupidly done my entire life.
Russian Roulette
I can no longer afford to play Russian Roulette with my life because the symptoms of all the consequences I mention are mounting.
I am a diabetic who must now take insulin injections daily because the four medications I am taking orally are ineffective at maintaining normal blood sugar levels.
And the four additional medications I am taking for high blood pressure are becoming increasingly ineffectual as time goes on.
Despite eight medications, a blood thinner, another medication to control the stomach ills that all those meds cause, plus yet another pill to control pain from severe arthritis, I have never been closer to a heart attack or stroke.
I know it and I am even starting to feel the symptoms more and more – the tingles in my fingertips and toes, the sudden shakes when my blood sugar count is high, the blurry vision in the morning, the endless fatigue and so much more.
https://news.vanderbilt.edu/2015/01/06/nashville-community-health-forum/
Apart from these life-threatening maladies, I am now days away from a complete knee replacement with a second artificial knee to follow. While my pending bionic knees have nothing to do with diabetes, both are affected by one commonality – my over-sized body.
I used to joke that my perception of the obvious is incredible, but that clearly was not the case – until now. This blog changes everything. It has to be my catalyst for change or I’m a dead man. Quite literally, it’s do or die for me.
Perhaps many of you reading this think I should receive the Oscar for Best Screenplay in an Over-Dramatization, but I know me and my failings. This is my admission that I have hit rock bottom. For many years, by living an unhealthy lifestyle, I have been committing suicide on an installment plan. Through this blog and with your help, I will achieve lasting good health.
You Too?
What about you? Are you sickly most of the time? Are you a heart attack in waiting?
I know I am not alone when it comes to the issues of obesity or ill health. In fact, there are millions of me out there. Ideally, through this blog, we can help each other. Together, we can stop our deathly decline and we can help each other reclaim our good health.
I have already proven that I cannot do it alone. What about you? Through this blog, none of us will be alone on our mutual journey back to vibrant, excellent health. I seek to create an effective and successful social networking support group where everybody benefits.
If you have been where I am and somehow fought your way back to good health, you have much to share with me and the new friends I will make on this blog. Please participate in our discussions.
And if you have the good fortune to have only known good health, through your examples of healthy living, you can inspire us and show us how to improve our lives.
For me, the years of stupidity and failure end with the start of this blog. I will lead the way through my research and writings and documented results of the healthier me starting right now. We will learn from each other and improve each other’s lives as a result.
For me, this blog finally represents my commitment to “do” rather than “die” and I hope this blog is the answer for another famous expression – “Better late than never.”