My great-grandma Mary was a great role model for my family as she showed us that no matter what your age was you could always learn new things and keeping active was key to longevity. Many of you who know my family probably remember Grandma Mary. Grandma Mary lived to be a few months short of 95 years old and she lived independently until she was about 94 years old. She was truly one of a kind as she never missed any activities in our family, never missed Sunday church, and would jump on the opportunity to learn new things. At her age, it would have been very easy to throw in the towel and give up, while letting others cater to her needs, but she had a spirit to live that was in-stopable. Her son, my grandpa Marshall (my dad’s dad) had the same personality and it really showed through with his battle with cancer.
You may wonder why I am even sharing these stories with you as they do not relate to food or nutrition, but in reality a spirit to live and the desire to make those small efforts at healthy living is key to success! We don’t expect you to take everything we recommend or talk about and do it all at once, but focus on one thing at a time and remember something is better than nothing!
It’s easy to come up with every excuse in the book to not exercise and not eat healthy, but we need to throw the excuse book out the window and focus on small changes or modifications and remember something is better than nothing! If you know you need to increase your fruit intake, start by adding one serving to your daily intake. If you know you need to get more exercise, start by adding a 10 minute walk to your day’s routine. Push yourself to learn new things and stay as active as you can be as this will not only help improve your health, it will help you live a long and healthy life like my Great Grandma Mary! Start by doing some reflection and prioritize your tasks and goals. The sky is the limit!
-Kelsey
