Happy National Senior Health & Fitness Day!

Staying healthy and physically fit is important always but especially as we age. In 2016, I got my Functional Aging Specialist Certificate. The first chapter of the text for that course scared me to death! It talked about how fast you lost your endurance and then your strength as you age. I thought, “That is not going to be me!”

Lao Tzu said, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” This is GREAT advice! If you’re not currently training, you don’t need to start out running 5 miles a day or lifting weights for an hour a day. You might be able to do it but will you continue doing it? Probably not because you will be so sore you won’t be able to move.

Find something you like to do! I love to dance. Dance cardio is currently part of my workout every day because it makes me happy. Along with that, though, I also do bodyweight exercise and bounce on a rebounder.

People think their metabolism slows down as they age but what really happens is that we start losing muscle around age 35. So by the time we are in our 60’s we have less metabolically active muscle and, therefore, can gain wait easily. You have to work on maintaining (or growing!) muscle. My favorites are swinging a kettlebell and I adore powerlifting because I’m super competitive and I like to see just how much I can lift. But you can do bodyweight exercises which can be a complete workout without a gym.

Don’t think that cardio exercise isn’t good for you. It is! But it can’t be all you do. Lift some heavy stuff!

I love to try new things and in the future, I want to run a 100 mile ultra marathon and I want to compete throwing shot and discuss at the Senior Olympics. And I for sure want to do a powerlifting competition. What about you? What are you going to do for your physical fitness?

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Happy International Being You Day!

I LOVE this day because it took me until the age of 41 to realize that being myself was the very best thing in the world to be. I am not like anyone else and that’s a good thing.

I’m super excited for the Ms. Arkansas Senior America Pageant because one of the areas of competition is the Philosophy of Life Statement. I can’t wait to stand on that stage and tell people about how I am unapologetically me and to encourage today’s youth to be themselves.

Remember what Dr. Seuss said, “Today you are you that is truer than true, there is no one alive who is youer than YOU!” Celebrate!

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So what is a Queenager? I’m not sure there’s an actual definition. I was thinking about this new mission in my life and wasn’t sure what I would call it. But, then, photos of t-shirts to buy kept popping up in my Facebook feed, as they will, and they all seemed to have the word Queenager on them. Aha! Queenager is a great word and encompasses the feel I want to give this new direction in my life. I will make the definition and it is:

In my day to day life here, I am involved with many in the veteran community. They are all around my age and older but I find I’m the healthiest one of them all. Their talk is constantly of VA hospitals, treatments, and prescriptions. Every time I’m party to one of these conversations, I’m so glad to not be in that place and it makes me wonder if they wouldn’t be in that place if their mind, body, and spirit were in a different spot. I’m absolutely not judging because I have not walked in their shoes. It’s just something I think about a lot.

For me, I wasn’t always the healthiest person. I am a tall person with a large frame. I like to say I’m larger than life. When I wanted to join the Marine Corps, they had pretty strict weight requirements, kind of like the airlines had for their flight attendants back in the day. I was always around 5 pounds more than the height/weight chart said I could be. In order to go to bootcamp, I had to lose those 5 pounds to make weigh in. My recruiters ran with me and also told me I could take laxatives and water pills to help the weight loss along.

This worked but it became habitual over the course of time I served and, eventually, I was diagnosed with bulimarexia. Not bulimia. Not anorexia. Both of them together. Go big or go home, right?

I was discharged from the Marine Corps when I found out I was pregnant with my second son. I’m not sure how girls do it nowadays because I had to go to a doctor’s appointment in Virginia (we were stationed in Cuba) and was in the medevac system for a couple of weeks when my first son was only eight months old. When I saw him again, he didn’t know who I was. It broke my heart. For me, leaving the Marine Corps was the right decision.

I felt the effects of disordered eating for many years following and I’d like to say I’m past all that now. But it took me a really long time and I struggled with my weight for so many years always trying the latest, famous diet. I felt terrible for a lot of years, physically.

This is the story of my journey from those terrible years to the positive, healthy place I am now. I hope to encourage others to take charge of getting their mind, body, and spirit in order so they can live a great healthy life as they age, not just exist. I hope you’ll come along with me!

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