Bathing Suit Chronicles

The Power of Growing Older

I am now three months into my personal ‘get-back-into-those-overpriced-white-wool-slacks’ program with Taylor Catrett. I started right before Halloween, not merely for the back-into-my-pants goal, but so that I could eat as many pieces of candy corn as I could without not being able to face myself in the mirror just before Thanksgiving. Better yet, eat two pieces of mince and three pieces of homemade apple pie, to demonstrate Pilgrims’s Progress.

The other holidays, Christmas, New Years’ and various January birthdays, will come to a mental end on Super Bowl Sunday, coming the first week of February. But wait, here comes Valentine’s Day and all those heart-shaped chocolate mind patties. Dare I stop, especially as I can now wear those white wool slacks? Actually, I don’t wear them that much, as every time I do, I have to take them to the dry cleaners. And that hurts my budget, so I am looking for ways to ease the attacks on my bank account.

Just for fun, I started looking for free stuff on the Internet so that I can keep my fingers busy, out of the bowl of candy, and away from the dry cleaners.

Thank goodness I am old. Advantages to this start with FREE STUFF.

You don’t even have to belong to AARP to start your own program. Click here for today’s offering, a full list of stuff, beginning with the story of a woman who got a free house.

Other free stuff can start with the library, where you can find information about just about anything. And, here’s my shameless plug for my workplace: Almaden Valley Athletic Club, where we have a free lecture on Money Management on Tuesday, February 1. Click here to find out more.

And, keep on moving.

Thank you, Jack. And Eunice.

We lost one of the most incredible fitness gurus of the 20th and 21st centuries a couple of days ago. Whether a personal trainer, pilates instructor, or simply one who takes advantage of ‘working out’ at an athletic club, you owe a lot to Jack LaLanne.

I am of the latter, who, as a little girl, did my share of jumping jacks while my grandmother counted for me. In the background, my mind’s eye recalls the black-and-white image of Jack on the television placed at the end of my grandmother’s bed.

“Don’t stop. Do this every day,” Jack would shout.

“Keep it up, raise your arms higher, Jean, so you won’t end up like me,” my grandmother would echo.

Eunice Smith, my grandmother, had severe rheumatoid arthritis. I had never seen her walk. She insisted that if I exercised “just like Jack,” I would be immune from the debilitating disease. So, every Saturday and Sunday, I was forced to jump and stretch in her room.

“You are doing this for me,” she would say. I thought that Jack LaLanne invented ‘jumping jacks.’ I hated the silly way I looked, yet obeyed her direction, as I didn’t want to get ‘arthur,’ Eventually, I had to admit that I usually felt better after my 30 minutes of exercise.

I can still hear Jack's voice. Eunice’s too, although she died on September 5, 1965 (the September day that would later be the exact date my daughter would be born).  

Click here to read “Eight Lessons on the LIfe and Work of Jack LaLanne” by Seth Godin.  He says it best.

An inspiration to everyone, dear Jack.

Now, I am 66. I am marketing director at an athletic cub. I do not have arthritis. Thank you, Jack and Eunice!