I'm getting old.
And thinking about fitness all the time can be really tiring. There is WAY too much information out there to process. I had two grandmas, both of whom would be around 100 today if they were still alive. One was very thin and one was....thick. :) Do you think they sat around worrying about their figure and cholesterol all day? So not. They were too busy. Busy serving their families and others. Busy cooking and cleaning and working.
That brings me to my #1 thing:
Eat food that your grandmother (or great grandmother) would recognize.
I read that sometime last year and it has stuck with me. Especially when I notice how many boxes of food are on the conveyor belt at the grocery store. The less processed stuff and the more "real" food---the better.
And my #2 thing:
Work hard and don't be lazy.
My grandmother (the thicker one) raised five kids and fed at least 10 people three meals a day. Her in-laws lived with them as well as a brother-in-law, she and her husband, and the five rug rats (my dad being one of those). They lived on a farm and my grandmother worked HARD. I remember my dad buying Nanny a radio to sit by her chair. She fussed about it being too nice and how he shouldn't have done it. He said, "Mom, you worked all day for us kids and worked in the fields too and if I want to buy you something now I will!" :) I knew the lady who sat in her chair quilting and watched soap operas, but that wasn't who she was when she was younger. The Bible has a lot to say about being lazy too. So....get up and work!
My number 3 item comes from something I read online a few years ago. It was from a diet that I'll not link to today, but this line just cracked me up. After some introductory comments, and before the explanation of how to fix it all, the author said this:
"You eat too much and you eat the wrong things."
You know, thank you. Let's be honest here. Multiple cokes a day, plus Little Debbie's snacks are not on the road to fitness. We all struggle with some level of denial. Look at that skinny girl, I ate the same amount of food she did at dinner--what's up with that? or I really don't eat THAT much! Yeah. You know what you are doing wrong and chances are it's perfectly fixable. I'm talking to myself here.
So that's it. My three things to remember. Fitness ain't rocket science. What are your three?
(This the only Mr. Linky available to me right now. Just click the image below and do the same thing we always do.)
I think alot about our Grandmothers and Great-Grandmothers and how they didn't have an option to be lazy like we do. Well, I guess there's always been lazy people, but in our modern age we have things almost too easy. And their generations seemed to be healthier, too. Good thoughts!
ReplyDeleteYou know what else? My neighbor, who is in her late 70s, was telling me where she grew up there wasn't even a grocery store. You had to go miles just to get milk or cream and a day trip for other things. We talked about how much better we would be off (financially too!) if we did NOT have all these stores and fast food joints around us. Can I go live in the boonies please? :)
ReplyDeleteSo wise! You know what I love about your tips? They aren't the mainstream norm. I often wish we lived in much simpler times like our Grandmothers. They had such clear purposes to their days. Thanks for hosting this...I look forward to this every week :)
ReplyDeleteI too think a lot about the way older generations were much healthier without diet books, diet food, etc.
ReplyDeleteYour thoughts on work are dead on. Thanks for sharing, Brenda, this was good.
My husbands grandmother used to always say something that was just funny to me.
ReplyDeleteWork like a mule
Sleep when your dead
And she did, that woman was always working on something , even if it was just moving one pile of stuff to another pile of stuff or sweeping the dirt. She was always sweeping the dirt, I still don't get that one?!
I agree whole heartedly with all your tips !
And P.S. we are all getting old, we are just in varying states of it
well said, brenda! great topic for the week. i have enjoyed reading everyone's posts and really thinking about how to make it a reality. big thing i am learning...don't wait til monday to start! i am always thinking...ok, i will start on monday. you know, new week, fresh start, etc. and then i end up eating like a man on death row because monday is THE DAY...i wonder how many calories i have consumed because of that? sigh
ReplyDeleteThis is gonna be great!! Maybe we can make a "compiled post" - merging all the ideas into a simple list??!!
ReplyDeleteI love this post. Isn't it the truth!
ReplyDeleteAw, I called my grandma 'Nanny' too. I really miss her. *sniff*
ReplyDeleteShe was a hard worker too. Both my Nannies were. Always stringing beans, or cooking, or cleaning something. Almost never sat still.
I need to get in on that.
Nice to meet you! Great tips!
ReplyDeleteYou mean my coffee with milk and sugar plus my Cap'n Crunch Peanut Butter Crunch cereal wouldn't pass these tests? Why am I overweight again?! ;)
ReplyDeleteBrenda-You bsolutely nailed it all right on the head. I remember talking to my grandfather once about marriage. i was going on and on about how my husband and I had already talked about how if we ever had struggles we would get marriage counciling and how we were actively trying not to become a statistic. My grandpa just shook his head and said, we never thought about those thinks, we just did them. There is so much that we think about versus our grandparent who just did things with out pondering every little detail. The information age is great but sometimes I think we get analysis paralysis and get stuck on information overload. I would love to get out of that gear and shift into a gear where I can get up, get moving and get stuff done.
ReplyDelete