I should be cracking an adult beverage with a couple of former college housemates after trying to improve on my last DEKA Strong performance last month, unfortunately I am not. The five-hour one-way trip did not take place.

However, not happening may actually have worked out for the better. Following my workout this past Tuesday which was a posterior-chain heavy program, I noticed my right hamstring tendon (attached to the sit bone if you can relate) was still aggravated from a previous squat session. Not enough to keep me out of the competition, but noticeable in deep squat positions, likely to affect me during the 24″ box jump overs. On top of that, I detected a familiar sensation in my sinus-eustachian tube (ears) that I did not appreciate feeling.

Sure enough, Wednesday morning came and the overnight drainage and sinus pressure hit and I thought “damn it”!, here we go again. I periodically get these sinus issues that start with a tickle in the throat or some blocked ear drainage and then my body goes into full on battle mode for the next 2 days. Already tapering my workouts for the event on Saturday, I had Wednesday slated for an active rest day, with Thursday a light lifting session and Friday a travel day to Des Moines, Iowa.

I loaded for bear. I did two doses of Athletic Greens during the day for some immune boost along with my daily NRF1, NRF2, and NAD+ regimen. Shooting a dose of zicam nasal spray and plenty of water, I prepared to ride the wave. The next day came the pressure headache and another round of the same self-medications. Sleeping wasn’t a problem like years past with the turning from side-to-side to allow sinuses to drain, in fact I slept pretty sound. The mucus never turned colors, staying clear the whole time. I sat out the Thursday workout, even though I probably could have forced my way through it, instead doing a few easy burpees and sit ups to move the blood.

By Friday, on cue, roughly 54 hours in, I felt like “ok, I’m a little tired, but I’m going to power through” and prepared to pack up for the trip. Just then I received an email from Deka that the event had been canceled for an undisclosed reason. Hmmm….karma? Coincidence? Not being a self-centric narcissist, I wouldn’t think an entire event that effects everyone involved would be canceled just because I wasn’t 100%, but sadly, it doesn’t take long to visit any of the social media sites to find out a vast majority of the people there DO believe the world rises and sets to their needs. No, this was just a fortuitous adjustment to my plans as it allowed me to take my pickup in for brakes (first time in 192,000 miles), continue to recoup from the sinus crap and plan my next event.

Instead of attacking a Deka Strong as planned and either drinking beers with friends, or driving home tonight or tomorrow, I went ahead and completed my Thursday workout that was skipped, went for a 1 mile walk as the outside temperatures rose above 40 degrees melting a good portion of the snow and took care of some things around the house.

I could be one of those people coming on and ripping the event, coordinators and volunteers for their last minute cancelation and crying and whining about wreaking my plans either because they want the attention, or they are legitimately just that selfish and emotionally unstable to get angry over something out of their control. But, instead, I opted to look at the opportunity to adjust my plans and adapt to the change.

Change your outlook on life. Adapt to changes when they come. You cannot control everything, but you can control how you choose to respond.

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***And for clarification, my self-treatment regiment listed above is not to be taken as medical advice for dealing with any particular ailment YOU may be having regardless of how similar. That is just how I dealt with it. I haven’t been to a doctor or walk-in clinic in over 7 years (other than a work-mandated/OSHA annual respirator fit test and lung capacity check up) since a cervical fusion surgery, and at 52-years old I am not on a single prescription medication. My NRF1, NRF2, and NAD+ products are something I have taken for years now as daily supplements and from my sole perspective, are a large reason why the last pharmaceuticals I was prescribed were the pain killers from the surgery (which I kicked after 3 days) and z-packs for what used to be chronic sinus and upper respiratory infections going back to my youth. I’m not against doctors, in fact it was a cardiologist who turned me on to the NRF2 activators, I just don’t waste resources unless I’ve broken something or it’s been a few days without improvement. Ya, ya, I can hear it now “then it might be too late!” Sorry, I have never bought into the propaganda about health check ups every 6 months and all that jazz. We’ve been indoctrinated into being hypochondriacs….just look at the number of pharmaceutical ads on TV. Keep a running tab of how many you see and then they tell YOU to “ask your doctor”. Why? Shouldn’t that be YOUR job to inform the doctor??? Ugh…don’t get me started, or better yet, that might be a posting for one day when I’m feeling a bit bitchy and tell you how I feel about the FDA and the financial addiction of the pharmaceutical industry.

Bottom line, if I’m living an active lifestyle and doing what I enjoy and I’m taken from this world, I have no regrets. The regret would be hiding in fear of everything life throws at you and succumbing to the anxiety of what lies with tomorrow’s sunrise.