Don’t take counsel of your fears, like my right knee.

Don’t take counsel of your fears, like my right knee.
General George S. Patton was one of most successful combat commanders in United States history and
one of the chief architects of our victory in Europe in World War II.
One of his favorite sayings was “Don’t take counsel of your fears”.
I always understood that to mean that it natural to have fear in certain instances. We are human beings
and fear is something we all have felt at sometime in our life.
But what I think General Patton wanted to tell you is that while it natural to be fearful, don’t let that fear
overwhelm you.
Fight back!
Take the situation that has caused you to be fearful and turn it around so that you can make the situation
work in your favor.
Like my right knee.
As you know, I was vastly overweight for at least 40 years of my life. As a result, as my Doctor explained
to me, the excess weight caused the cartilage in my right knee to grind down over time until the cartilage
basically disintegrated. This caused the bones in my knee to impact each other without the buffer of the
cartilage. This caused a lot of pain. And my left knee was not much better.
Luckily I found a few solutions.
First, I tried to add anti-inflammatory foods like Blueberries, broccoli, bell peppers, mushrooms and
tomatoes to my meals. I cook with extra virgin olive oil. And I take turmeric (a spice you can add to your
meal or take by capsule), every day.
This helped a lot.
Then I lost 125 pounds which reduced the stress on my knee.
And finally I realized that my knee is a bit fragile and try to be careful about taxing it too much.
As a result I can walk just about anywhere including using stairs, bike ride at my leisure and workout on a
rowing ergometer for over an hour just about every day.
I am essentially pain-free except for the occasional rainy day.
So I took a problem and turned it around to my benefit.
So I suggest to you when confronted with a problem that causes some fear, don’t be afraid, in most cases
you can work your way past it.
Be smart, devise a plan, execute it, and if does not work, go back to the drawing board and come up with
Plan B.
I have said that over the years I must have tried at least 199 times to lose weight and get back in shape.
I succeeded on the 200th
try

Remember, if I can do it, you can do it.
Good luck,

Tom
October 17, 2020