Here Is Why You Should Never Ever Give Up

Sunday, the 25^th of September at 10p.m was a very sad day for Kenyans and to the rest of the world. However to me, it was a chance to celebrate the life of Wangari Muta Maathai, one of the greatest Kenyan women that ever lived.

This is the day that she passed on to the other side after weeks of battling it out with ovarian cancer. I choose to celebrate her life and not to mourn her death because we can learn so much from what she said and did for the whole wide world to see.

She was the first African woman ever to win the Nobel Peace prize for “her contribution to sustainable development, democracy and peace.” in the year 2004.

She also was awarded the Right Livelihood Award. These are just a few of the over 50 honorary awards that she has received throughout the world in her lifetime.

She also founded the Greenbelt movement in the 1970s, was an elected member of parliament and served as Assistant Minister for Environment and Natural Resources in the government of President Mwai Kibaki between January 2003 and November 2005.

One of her more memorable fights for the environment was when she stood up to the previous President’s Kanu regime that wanted to erect a 60 floor story building in the middle of a National park called Uhuru Park where trees were planted and the general public use to relax and spend their leisure time in. She did win that fight although amidst a lot of blood, sweat and tears.

Just thinking about Wangari Maathai’s struggles in life that lead to her incredible achievements got me thinking of adversities or setbacks that I have experienced in my life in terms of hindrances that I may have experienced in my quest to lose weight and build muscle through various body building techniques.

One particular incident comes to mind.

Here is the story;

We had gone to the gym for a general workout session a couple of years ago with my University classmate and gym partner; let us call him Tim for security purposes.

So we were at the gym with Tim, just warming up our bodies in preparation for the workout session to come. When we finally start the workout session at our local gym, a man suddenly walks in with a funny looking top that resembles a sweater and pink gloves that look like mittens. He looked 40 years of age but was well built with a clean shaven head.

He walked in and paid no attention to us and went straight to the bench press and loads up a couple of barbells. We look in amazement as he goes on to lift the “heavy weight” with ease and crunches out a couple of repetitions.

After a couple of sets, he comes close to us and says that he could not help but overhear us talking about various bodybuilding supplements and our experiences with them. He then introduces himself as a University lecturer, fully qualified in pharmacy.

He unleashes a couple of technical terms that we can barely understand in an attempt to convince us that he really is an expert in that industry and he knows what he is talking about. We bought it, needless to say.

He then went further to offer us a “special supplement” that he had been working on in the lab that he claimed was safe and would get us ripping muscles in no time at all with no side effects.

As weightlifting enthusiasts, Tim and I were interested in what he had to offer and sought more information from him. He told us that he had just finished working on a sample and was already patenting the “product” as we spoke. He then promised to give us a special test of the concoction before he rolled it out. We were excited at this eventuality.

The next day, the man did keep up to his agreement and brought as a packet of this “special supplement” he had been working on for ages. We paid him about 10$ a piece and quickly went home to try it. We followed his instructions on how to prepare it and used it for 2 weeks.

However, in the third week, we noticed no major changes in our bodies. We then confronted him and asked him why his “special supplement” is not performing as well as he claimed it to be. He just told us to be patient for a little while longer for the “special supplement” to act in our bodies.

We never saw him again at that gym. We also later realised that he had scammed so many people at that gym from the gym attendant and that we were not the first ones to fall prey to his charms.

Crestfallen we were to say the least. So how does all this relate to Wangari Maathai’s life or even Health and Fitness? You may ask.

Well, although we were conned by somebody at the early stages of our body building journey, we did not let that “minor” obstacle that cost us a lot of time and money to prevent us from reaching the goal that is being fit and healthy.

In life, we all experiences obstacles in our paths in one way or another. Be it in my life, or even in Wangari Maathai’s life. That is not to say that we should accommodate them.

I know that this may sound cliché, but the character of a person is not made by how many times he/she falls, but by how many times he/she rises up after falling.

I hope this story gives you more motivation to lose weight. My quote of the day is “Hard work will give you power; being lazy will make you a slave.” Proverbs 12:24

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