From a young age I was always busy running around and staying active. There wasn’t a lot to do in a small town and we didn’t have cable TV, so my Mom made me stay outside all the time. I grew up in a rugged mountain area, so I spent a bunch of time year round climbing mountains, hunting, snowshoeing, and living a vigorous life. In college I power lifted and after college I competed in the Scottish Highland games traveling around the country heaving heavy objects and tossing tree trunks. I quit the heavy duty sports a long time ago especially after throwing my back out several times. Diane, the voice of reason said to me, “why are you still doing that? you’re only going to get hurt.” I hate logic. Even though I have gotten cancer 5 times, I still go to the gym at least 4 days a week. I even go when I have a portable chemo pump around my waist. I believe it keeps me going, keeps me alive, and convinces my body to fight off cancer. More often than not, whenever I see a new physician for the first time, after reading my health history they say, “Wow, I was expecting you’d look different.” “What were you expecting?” “Well, given your cardiac and cancer history, I was expecting someone morbidly obese.” “Sorry to disappoint you.” My radiation oncologist, Bruce Nakfoor, MD first treated me in 2004 for lymphoma then again in 2021 for esophageal cancer, so he knows my history and background better than most. Bruce is extremely bright, insightful, and thoughtful. Part of his therapy, is advocating cancer patients exercise during treatment. He believes, like me, that staying fit all the time, even during treatment, increases your life odds. Without blinking, he told me when I was starting treatment again, “If you hadn’t exercised all these years, the cancer therapy you received would have killed you twenty years ago.” I never looked at exercise like that, but on a basic scale I know that staying in shape, even if it is casual, strengthens your body to battle all illnesses – cancer, heart disease, diabetes, etc. If you are out of shape, your body has a more difficult time fighting off illness and living through treatment. You don’t need to climb mountains or throw telephone poles, but get off the couch, quit watching so much TV, eat better, and at least walk once a day. You’ll feel better and live longer. Trust me when I tell you.