I have always been passionate about health and fitness, but unfortunately a health condition prevented me from fully participating in most activities. Early in my life, I was diagnosed with AV nodal reentrant tachycardia, a condition that wasn’t remedied until I was 21. The condition made working out, and frankly walking somedays, challenging at best. After a singular bad episode, I was hospitalized on a Saturday, diagnosed on a Monday, and had a radio-frequency ablation that Wednesday. My life changed in an instant. Five years later, I ran my first of three marathons and continued to run, cycle, swim, and weight train until fate, once again intervened.

In October 2000, I was out for a run when I tripped on the lip of a sidewalk. What should have been a minor injury became a living nightmare; I was a victim of physics. My knee went into the ground with such force that it shot my femur into my acetabulum (part of the “ball-and-socket” of your hip joint) shattering it. I was told I would never run again. While I might always walk with a limp, a year after my implant of a shiny titanium plate and screws, I ran again and ultimately completed many half marathons, including two in Iceland and one in Dublin.

Adversity always strikes when you least expect it. On January 1, 2020, I fell on a patch of ice while walking to the starting line of my annual First Run. I broke my fibula and needed surgery to repair the damage.

And yet, I persevere. Don’t get me wrong; I’ve railed and cried and wallowed in self-pity. But I’ve also gotten up and found ways to make fitness – and my health – a priority. Today, I’m all about the Peloton. It has been a lifesaver at a time when I don’t know if I’ll ever run again. And it’s been invaluable during the pandemic.

I am not a fitness expert (although my daughter is!) nor am I a certified nutritionist. But I love sharing what I do and why. And despite the adversity (and numerous surgeries), there is not a day that goes by that I am not grateful for my health.