essays

Being Fit And Aging Gracefully    

tennis manI’m no spring chicken. I may be the least athletic of all my family if you judge athleticism by medals, Revere bowls, plaques, and other such prizes. Anyway, I’m trying to stay fit, and its hard work. Mom has lived to age 95, and I figure, that aside from good genes, it was probably the athletics, walks in her elder years, a lifetime of healthy low fat diet, and a short nap every day that did it.

Naps and the real estate business don’t mesh very well, or at least I haven’t figured out how to do it. Type A’s may have a hard time with naps. I mean I have goals to accomplish. Even on vacation I still have to carry out goals like walk around the lake every day, climb a mountain, go up and down the hill at least once a day, go places and do things, meet people and do home improvement tasks. So scratch naps.

healthy mealGood diet I can handle, although Dick adores and seems to thrive on fat and junk food. He’ll eat something horrible after supper if he doesn’t get “something
good” at dinner. So I lapse. Let’s face it my figure ain’t what it used to be. There’s this tissue that sort of swings around the upper arm and the upper thigh. Where did that come from? And loose stuff that sort of slides down from the rib cage and lands at the waist. What’s with that? I’ve always said I would like my wrinkles because they show character, a good life lived, and they are all mine. The truth is I seem to like them somewhat less than I said I would.

Exercise I love if it’s fun. I love tennis. I love to walk somewhere interesting, and I love to hike, especially climb mountains—though I’m sort of out of shape for the over 8500 feet part. I hate machines. I detest gyms. But I do my duty treadmillsat Curves, reluctantly. It used to be rewarding because I always thought I was doing such a good job. Now however we are all rigged up to computers, and the computer tells me every day that I haven’t met my goals. Now you know when you have reached the top of the mountain or managed to hike a certain trail and haven’t had to be rescued. No computer tells you that your range of motion is no good. You know that the next morning. Enough already.

Grace. Now this one may be tough. Mom has aged gracefully. I remember after Dad
died she said to my brother and me “Don’t worry, you are going to be proud of me.”
We are. Will I be sweet? Will I be able to handle what is delivered to me with grace? And what will I do when I don’t get a call saying “I just wanted to hear your voice. I love you so.” My god, I just don’t know.

Lucy Noyes is co-founder of La Puerta Real Estate outside Albuquerque, New Mexico and has a million stories in her head, just waiting to get out.

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