Walter Saunders, an interview about health at any age.

We spent this last week at my childhood home for spring break. It was a lovely week of rest and family. Something I always love about being home is getting to spend time with my (almost) 92 year old Grandpa. He is a fountain of wisdom and experience. In the past few years he has changed his eating habits and started exercising with the goal of losing weight and remaining physically capable. 

It is always exciting for me to see someone feel more able in their body. It is part of why I love teaching yoga, and part of what I find so fascinating about food. I also find it interesting to learn from different people's experiences. Listening to my Grandfather talk about the changes he made, why he made them, and how much better he feels, was interesting, exciting and motivating for me. I wanted to share a bit of this with all of you! I hope you enjoy him as much as I do!

My hope is, if you have time, you will watch this interview and you will take from it these few things. Motivation, (he made the decision to start exercising and changing his diet at 87).  Encouragement, (start small and just keep moving, I wrote a bit about this in my last post).   Everyone's path is different, ( EVERY BODY works differently, find what works for YOUR BODY. This goes for food/diet, exercise (yoga/lifting weights/walking/swimming/dancing...)) . 

Here are just a couple of the questions he answered:

IBL: What made you decide to  start exercising?

WS: I weighed 240 lbs, my ankles where swelling. I couldn't hardly tie my own shoes, and I had a long talk with myself. I made up my mind I was going to loose weight somehow.

IBL: If you could only choose three movements, three exercises what would you choose?

WS: That's tough to figure out. I imagine my squat, pushups, and walking or dancing to get the heart moving.

Here is a video of him demonstrating the squat that he uses and describes in his interview. This is a great way to build up leg strength with support for balance.

Keep Moving Everyone! 

Yoga In Peace Out 

Irene