Consistency gets the job done.
My mama(one Southernism I refuse to give up) is one of the most consistent people I know when it comes to staying fit. She started exercising at age thirty-five, back when that made her just a tad quirky. She loved it though, working out every morning at five-thirty to Body Electric on the PBS channel for a solid hour, six days a week, every week. Sundays off.
She’s sixty-eight now, and years ago she added a three-mile walk to that routine, some weights and a treadmill, and it’s no coincidence that people have mistaken us for sisters(ouch). That habit she developed so long ago at a time in her life when it would have been easy to say, aah, it’s too late to start this, I’m too old – has not only kept her healthy, but beautiful, too. She has this glow that’s, well, enviable. She is also one of the most positive people I know. I’m convinced that, too, is no coincidence.
If I can take a page from her exercise notebook, it is that I don’t have to set the world on fire with record-breaking 5K times or cycle to Delaware and back to feel good about my workouts. But if I make it part of the fabric of my everyday life, I hope I will be where she is when I’m her age. Looking as if I made the time to take care of myself. Consistently.
Tidbits and Nuggets: The Obvious and the Not So Much 