Active seniors

I’m responding to your request to hear from older people who used to a sedentary life but became active and physically fit.

I’m 59 years old. Exactly a year ago (nearly to the day), I went to my cardiologist for my semi-annual checkup. (I have a very strong family history of heart disease and high cholesterol/triglycerides even with medication.) Prior to coming in for the appointment, as always, I had a fasting blood test. The results weren’t very good, and my doctor also showed me how my weight had been creeping up steadily over the years. My only exercise was walking the dog twice a day; he was then 11 years old and not very spry, so we didn’t go very far or fast. My doctor told me that he wanted me to lose 15 pounds by the time I came in to see him the next time.

Of course, I was quite aware of my weight gain and of how I looked and felt. I kept telling myself I could lose weight, but nothing ever motivated me. However, when my cardiologist told me to do it, I felt that I would be totally embarrassed when I came to see him in six months if I hadn’t lost the weight. That was my motivation. In the past year, I’ve lost 42 pounds – my goal is 45 – and I look and feel wonderful and have lost 3-4 clothing sizes.

Here’s what I did:

1. My lifelong friend Mirabai Holland is a fitness expert and has made several cardio, strength, flexibility and bone loading DVDs directed at aging baby boomers and couch potatoes. She always would send them to me, and I’d sit on the couch and watch them and tell her how wonderful they were. I started working out to her DVDs and have done so almost every single day for the past year, even when I travel. They’re short and so easy to do, and I love rolling out of bed in the morning and not having to go to a gym to work out. (www.movingfree.com or www.easyexercisevideos.com)

2. I’ve started eating smarter. I never thought I’d be able to give up bread, pasta, potatoes and rice, and although I haven’t given them up, I eat very little of these foods, and the bread I do eat is whole wheat/whole grain/sourdough; the rice is brown. I never count calories even though I still eat a lot. I guess you could call this my own variant of the South Beach Diet.

My advice to older people: I strongly believe that diet and exercise go hand in hand and that you cannot become physically fit and/or lose weight without both of these. It doesn’t have to be hard to exercise. Mirabai’s DVDs are low-impact, and there’s one that starts with little five-minute segments, so if you’re in lousy shape you can start really slow. If I could do it, anyone can once they get motivated to give it a try. If I’ve kept this up for a year, I see no reason why I can’t do so forever. And again, I feel so good. Here’s an example. Every year I climb up on my roof to clean the gutters. When I did it in 2009, I swore I’d never do it again because it was scary and made me sore all over. But after losing weight and feeling physically fit, I decided to try it again this year. I hopped up on the roof, had no trouble getting down, which was the really scary part last year, and wasn’t a bit sore afterwards.

BTW, I’m 5′2″. I weighed 165 when I started, and now I weigh 123. My cholesterol and triglycerides have come way down, and my cardiologist is almost as ecstatic as I am! I’m living proof anyone can leave a sedentary life and become physically fit.

-Annie

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