Exercise saved my life. If I look back on the connect-the-dot moments of my life, there are direct correlations between the peaks and valleys and the role exercise has played in helping me not just cope but thrive.
I was never the athletic kid, but by the time I was 12, exercise and I had forged an unbreakable bond. A couple of years earlier, when I was just 10, my father died. Suddenly. One minute he was there, the next gone. A massive coronary took him out.
After several years of crying, and lots of internalized grief, I strapped on running shoes one day, sprinted until I stopped crying, and never looked back. I had discovered a secret weapon to deal with sadness — exercise.
