“Miss Nelson is Missing” & Your Fitness Journey

“Miss Nelson is Missing” & Your Fitness Journey
Written by Fritz Nugent

When I was in second grade, my teacher read us a book called, “Miss Nelson is Missing”. The book begins with the children in Miss Nelson’s class being little brats. They take for granted her kindness. Then one day Miss Nelson is missing, and the class’s new substitute, Viola Swamp, shows up and loads the kids with work and homework and takes away their story hour. When Miss Nelson returns, the children are so happy to see her that they behave well. They learn that they have it pretty good with Miss Nelson.

A week after reading this book, for a single day, my teacher called in sick and was replaced by a teacher dressed like a witch. She treated us very poorly. She gave us time limits on each assigned task. The tasks were way harder than anything that we had learned that school year – multiplication, cursive, some other terrible crap for 8-year olds. As I sat at my desk determined to do my best, I looked around and noticed that some of the other kids started crying and quit. Then the substitute-witch would take them outside, and a minute later they would come in holding back a smile.

I lasted the whole day without breaking, but inside I wanted to start crying and quit, too. Right before the bell rang, the teacher told us the scenario – that she was another 2nd grade teacher from next door dressed as a witch. Then our regular teacher came in, also dressed as a witch because she did the same thing to another poor class. The teachers thought it was hilarious. I remember the kids looking around like we had been hoodwinked. Even though I “lasted” and fought through until the end, I was wrecked from the stress.

How does this relate to your fitness journey? I’ll tell ya. Don’t treat YOUR body how our teacher treated our fragile little psyches. Our witch-like substitute gave us too much work at a level too high and it broke us all whether we quit, or not. Your body is breakable. So is your mind. Learn your limits and work to progressively and intelligently push them onwards. If you push too hard, too fast (like the witch pushed us poor little kids), your body and mind can break or burn-out, or both.

Many of us in the fitness world pursue health, wealth, and personal meaning. This journey that we are all on is, hopefully, a long one. My goal is to move as well or better when I am 70+ than I do now (without robot-gadget-attached-limbs, bio-synthetic soft tissues, or a full-on body replacement – who knows what will be possible in the coming decades). I wish the same for you. Like the children in the Miss Nelson story who took her kindness for granted, I strongly urge you to not take your body’s current ability and level of wellness for granted and push yourself too far beyond your capabilities. You only get one body and one mind. Make them last. Cherish your health!