The best thing I did as I approached my 6th decade was to ditch the expensive skin care, anti-wrinkle products and actually start using natural, pure coconut oil and/or vitamin E as a skin and body moisturizer. In fact, I started alternating olive oil and virgin coconut oil for cooking as well. The subtle taste difference is delightful and the enormity of compliments on my skin and youthfulness of its texture is enough to keep this going for quite a while longer.
A Few Other Things to Keep it Moving
The other thing I am doing is keeping my commitment to move on a daily basis. On a regular basis. Consistently and continually and with full range of motion. Obviously, I am doing much of that movement with Pilates, yet I am coming clean with the fact that I have also begun to intersperse a few weight-resistance movements with my cardio workouts for a *little added* intensity. #KeepItMoving is my mantra.
I had to hit the weights in the gym. I am a black woman with a few curves. I teach Pilates daily. I do something for myself every day; including Pilates, Yoga, cycling or running. There is no more active Energizer Bunny then me, or at least so I am told by those that can’t figure out where my energy comes from at #DamnNear60. But that’s just the point. I am well past menopause and my body has found its “level of satisfaction” with many curves, weight and body fat distribution. Did I mention my curvy bottom and shapely legs?
After a bike accident three years ago, I started to slow down while I rehabilitated my body. I lost considerable strength, stability and mobility through one side of my body. My activity level slowed down and comfort foods set in and one day I looked up and knew I was 10-15 pounds heavier. I never stopped moving, I just wasn’t moving wtih the same level of intensity or enthusiasm. Not feeling good about that.
I started running more consistently, added more ice cubes to the white wine (diluting it, of course) and added 2x strength and resistance training back into my gym routine. Weight-resisted squats, leg presses, extensions, curls, adduction and abduction; upper body rows, frontal and lateral raises, etc. All the “square-box-machine-supported” stuff I haven’t done in 7 or so years. I needed and *wanted* the load to the muscles and joints of my lower body and my upper body needed additional strength development to support lifting my lower heavy bottom, so it could also not be ignored.
Then 3-4x weekly I use my studio (or other colleauges/teacher’s studios) for all the mindful, rotational, mobility, stretch, strength and pilates movements that keep me limber and exhilarated, like working around the #WundaChair on one spring. I have come to an honest acceptance of the fact, that it doesn’t have to be one without the other. I like both tastes; olive oil and coconut. I like both plate and spring resisted movements. The struggle to be a purist to the method of moving by eliminating one form of resistance training for another has become an unnecessary conversation in my head.
I know. Aging gracefully is so damn hard. We need to #KeepItMoving, and as Lena Horn said, “It’s not the load that breaks you down, it’s the way you carry it.”
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Gina Jackson, is a classically trained Pilates Teacher and has been teaching along the Gold Coast of Hudson and Bergen County, NJ for the past fifteen+ years.
Certified by Power Pilates of New York, Gina has trained with Master Teachers Bob Liekens, Susan Moran and Brett Howard; loved workshop training with Cary Regan and Blossom Leilani-Crawford and has particularly enjoyed listening to the personal stories as told by Pilates Elders, Kathy Grant and Lolita San Miguel.
An active teacher and blogger, Gina manages a private personal training business supporting a myriad of clients, teaching all to honor their health, strength and life with the principles of Pilates at its core.