Part 3 "If There Is No Struggle, There is No progress!"

This weekend, I thought a lot about my daddy, LJ Stallworth, and his struggles.

My Daddy

One of his struggles was working for Alabama Power Struggle for years and keeping notes of who was being hired and who was being promoted. He recounted the fact that when many other Blacks found out that he was planning to sue the company for discrimination, they no longer wanted to be bothered with him, fearing that they may lose their jobs if they were associated with the law suit. If you knew my Daddy, you know that he kept pressing on until he singled handedly sued and won a discrimination suit against Alabama Power Company, and everyone benefited, even those who shunned him.

Another one of his struggles is that he had an accident while working for Alabama Power Company and lost one of his eyes. Because of the medication that he was taking, he could no longer drink alcohol. This morning, my mother told me about how he lost many of his friends, because he was no longer a drinker. Imagine that!!!

This leads to my struggle. You all know that Berhane, the greatest trainer in the whole wide world, told me that I needed to cut back on the sugars and not drink alcohol for awhile. Just know that when you are trying to make a change in your life, many people will not be comfortable with the change, but like my Daddy, you must keep pressing forward.

Saturday, I was having a moment, I was with friends and I really wanted to be social and have just one drink. One drink can't hurt right?  I texted Berhane in my weak moment and said "I shouldn't drink right?" and his response was "No, you've come tooo far to mess up now." With that confirmation, I was able to resist and still have a great time. (Know that I am grinning from ear to ear; It felt so good to resist.)

Your struggle may not be a social drink like mine, your struggle may be to exercise regularly, not eat as many sweets, smoking etc. But whatever it is, you need to recognize and surround yourself with people who support your struggle.

I wish my Daddy was still around so I could ask him "Who had his back?" when he needed it the most.

I must add what happened this morning that was really good for my abs:

Berhane: "Your hips are really trimming down"

Me: "I thought that hips were hereditary and couldn't go away."

Berhane: "Have you ever seen a skeleton with hips?"

People, this made me holler, and I am laughing out loud right now.

"The best thing for your abs is laughing. Every time you laugh it strengthens your abs. There are even laughing yoga classes. If you start busting a gust, you are absolutely toning your abs."
–Kristin McGee, Pilates expert

You may want to consider being around people Who got your back and make you laugh!

By the way, Happy 93rd birthday Nelson Mandela. I LOVE THAT MAN!!!!

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Part 1 "If there is no struggle, there is no progress!"



Frederick Douglass

“If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom, and deprecate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground, they want rain without thunder and lightning.” Frederick Douglass

The above lines are the beginning of a speech given by Frederick Douglass, abolitionist, in 1857, in New York. He was referring to the struggle for freedom, and the idea that if a man will not fight for his own freedom, he definitely is not going to fight for someone elses freedom, and there is really no reason for anyone to fight for his freedom.

Deep right? Now, I do not want to put my struggles in the same categories as Frederick Douglass'. That would be plain crazy. I have not had to fight for half of the things that Douglass had to fight for: to be considered a man, to own land, to freely travel etc. But, if a person is in the mist of any type of struggle, it may not be the type of struggle that Douglass had, but at that moment, it may feel like it.

So, here is my divergence from literature to talk about struggle and not just any struggle but my struggle. To struggle for something to me is not negative, it is actually positive. It does not mean that you have to fight somebody or struggle against forces for something to happen, but it does mean that you must put in some work and be patient in order to see progress, and a little work ain't never hurt nobody.

I have been working with this trainer, Berhane, whom I absolutely love. Working out with him is the best two hours that I spend each week. Every workout is a struggle, and just when I thought that I had mastered the burbies, he added more burbies and other exercise that are even more challenging than the burbies. If you have never done a burbie before, please try to do at least two and tell me what you think. lol

Each week I look forward to the sessions and spending time with Berhane, but while there, I talk a lot of trash: "You must be mad at me," "Why am I doing this exercise?" "You are ridiculous" etc. One day I was in the bathroom changing into my workout clothes, and I heard a grown man screaming "I AM NOT A MACHINE," so periodically I scream those exact same words.

Today, I rushed in to workout with Berhane, and I was so excited because I had downloaded My Fitness Pal to my phone, and I had started tracking every calorie, and to my surprise, I thought I was doing real good.

Berhane had this look on his face, and that look means that he is really thinking, and that's never good news for me. Like the time when I got on the scale and I was up a whole 6 pounds. He had that look, and he started saying that maybe he was working my legs to hard etc. He was trying to figure out what was he doing wrong to cause that drastic weight gain, and I had to confess that I  felt that if I was doing 8 million burbies a week and was running and biking on my own, I thought that on the weekends, I could go crazy with my drinks and food. And boy did I go crazy.  I got the long, difficult speech about this is about your health blah, blah, blah. In the beginning it was a real struggle not to have lots of drinks and food on the weekend, and guess what? This is a struggle where I have seen tremendous progress. WOOHOO

So, today, he had that same look when I showed him the calorie counter on my phone. He did not say anything, initially, but he had that look as he was trying to kill me. Eventually, he said, how many grams of sugar are you eating in a day. I thought "Oh damn, here he goes again." And I told him the number, but I let him know that the sugar was coming from fruit, and he stated "You should only have 15 grams of sugar a day." Damn, I was just thinking about how good and sweet summer fruits are: nectarines, plums, peaches etc. Oh my!! I was reminded that "you eat and exercise for your health, and tooooo much sugar is not good for the body, even if it comes from fruit." 

Damn, another struggle, now I got to cut back on my favorite summer fruits!!!!!! In my Florida Evan's voice: DAMN, DAMN, DAMN!

When Frederick Douglass stated that if a man will not fight for himself, he definitely will not fight for anyone else, and there is no reason for anyone else to fight for him, I have taken this saying and applied it to my health: I got to keep struggling for my health, so that I can help others struggle for their health, so that I can keep Berhane struggling with me.

Literally, when it comes to my health: "If there is no struggle, there is no progress." It is such a happy struggle, and I am not joking....



Berhane: The Man Who is Struggling With Me!



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