Fitness is Fun!

Our Sisterhood blog and Instagram posts have often alluded to our “fondness for fitness”….and its true, we do believe that fitness is an essential part of a healthy lifestyle. In fact, even when we are not exercising, we are certainly thinking about doing it, (some of us spend an inordinate amount of time thinking about doing it). The obvious conclusion is that, although we are in general agreement as to the health benefits of exercise, we each incorporate varying levels of it into our daily routine. On the whole, however, we believe that as a Sisterhood we have an unusually strong commitment to our well being.

In addition, we each maintain a healthy diet (some of us even include beer, wine and Lemon Drop Martinis as dietary essentials, of course always careful to not over imbibe 🙂 ) and for the most part we are conscientious consumers at the grocery store. We read labels, consider fibre, sugar and salt content and we all bring our own reusable bags. What more could one possibly do?

Well, lets take a close look at each Sister’s daily routine and see if there is any room for improvement. Probably not, but self reflection is a valuable lifestyle evaluation tool and it never hurts to take stock and perhaps refine our daily activities. We are certainly the first to agree with the adage that change is a good thing, and we welcome it. In a break from the usual, we will begin our analysis in reverse chronological order. Lets get started!

Little Sister

Little Sis is fortunate enough to be married to a gourmet chef….. well, not really, but he is very talented in the kitchen and since Mag never really learned to cook, it is a marriage made in heaven. He looks after the grocery shopping and meal preparation. All Mag has to do is show up, and eat the meal. Her husband even does the clean up….Wowzers!

In their spare time both Mag and her husband enjoy following the Pittsburgh Steelers. Lately, this has taken the form of watching game reruns from the relaxing ambience of the sofa, sometimes accompanied by beer and junk food. Don’t worry, as soon as they develop and approve a vaccine for Covid-19, this will be but a distant memory.

As far as exercise is concerned, both Mag and her husband are fond of long walks with their dog ( the famous Biscuit) and bike rides.

And as illustrated by the pictures below, she also has a unique take on the benefits of weight lifting 🙂

Middle Sister

Middle Sis has chosen to take a kinder, more gentle approach to life. She is a devoted practitioner of both yoga and meditation. To set the mood for another productive day, mornings will usually find her in meditation, practicing yoga and writing in her journal…..not all at the same time of course 🙂

Because her husband is vegan she is faced with the daily challenge of cooking both balanced and tasty meals, and we believe that she has mastered both. In her few spare moments, she can be found scouring Pinterest, or reading cookbooks for exciting new recipes. (You can look forward to her sharing some of those recipes at some point in the near future)

• 

• 

Up until recently, Middle Sis had been working with a personal trainer once a week. An unfortunate injury has curtailed that activity somewhat indefinitely, but she hopes to be back in the gym very soon. For the time being, she is restricted to crocheting, which is not really a hardship, as she just keeps on pumping out dishcloths for her friends and relatives. 🙂

Big Sister

Big Sister takes fitness very seriously. She works with a Trainer 3 times a week and at least 2 of the other 4 days, she is on the treadmill walking, or doing a combination walk/run. One might think she is dedicated and motivated…..Uh, no….She is afraid of her Trainer! Not really, but she often wonders where she would be if she hadn’t found someone to keep her on track….the mind boggles 🙁

Because she is the only member of the Sisterhood who is over 65 and thus in a high risk category, Big Sis has been isolating. Her daughters have been especially vigilant on her behalf. These Covid Commandos phone every day to make sure that she isn’t breaking any of their edicts. As a result, she has resigned herself to Zoom workouts followed by binge watching Netflix, Acorn, Britbox, Crave and Amazon Prime. And yes, she subscribes to all of them!

The only other physical activity she gets is tending her garden and fighting slugs…. she is in a battle with slugs who are devouring her pepper plants, and she is losing. She takes great satisfaction, though, in setting out an inviting saucer of beer for said slugs and every evening a few more “belly up to the bar.” She is anticipating a miraculous pepper plant recovery in the near future.

Analysis

At this point, you might be asking yourself “What has this got to do with Betty?” Well, Mom was always very physically active. At various points in her life, she was a bowler, a curler, a golfer and throughout her life, a swimmer. As she got older, walking became her” go to exercise” and that is where the Sisterhood enters the picture. Through Mom, we each realized the importance of “just moving” and as you already know, we walked with her on many occasions. We each have varying levels of committment to ‘just moving”, and there are many different definitions of the term “fitness,” but in our own way, on a daily basis, each of us carries on her “fitness legacy, and really, that’s all that matters….. don’t you agree?

Betty would love that!

We plan to publish a new post every Monday, so stayed tuned for our next one which is a guest post done by our aunt entitled “Hands of Love”