4. Welcome to the Human Race
Most people don’t think of themselves as athletes or competitors.
The fact is, we’re all in a race: the human race. We run to work, rush
through business, race through lunch, dash to the store and tear
through our errands. As we get older, life seems to get more compli-
cated rather than easier, and more time-consuming. We wonder how
we’ll keep up this pace for the rest of our lives. The truth is, most peo-
ple don’t. The average person spends the last dozen or more years of
life in a state of gross dysfunction, relying on others for care and just
waiting to die. Many spend a lifetime of savings to maintain a few
more moments of a poor-quality life. Instead of enjoying the road to
life’s finish line, most people reach it only after an agonizing death
march.
Welcome to the human race. It’s analogous to a very long journey,
say, of 1,000 miles. If you were going to go that distance, you’d have
to prepare for it, following certain rules. You’d have to find the foods
that best match your individual needs for optimal energy. It would
require physical preparation. You would need to assess for dysfunc-
tion to prevent injury and disease. You would have to make lifestyle
adjustments along the way that increase your fitness, health and
human performance. If your life is like a 1,000-mile journey, just how
are you preparing for it?
A healthy person has enough body fat to fuel a 1,000-mile jour-
ney. And, I’ve actually trained athletes who successfully completed
long endurance races, including 1,000-mile ultramarathons, Ironman
triathlons and others. And many, including Mark Allen and Colleen
Cannon, continue to be successful following their careers as profes-
sional athletes. To achieve their athletic feats, their training wasn’t
excessive. In many ways, these athletes employed a basic program
similar to the one you can use in your life’s journey as discussed in
this book.