Natural Beauties

Natural Beauties

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Sensational at 60!

Yes, I am telling my age! I am very proud of the fact that I am 60 years old. I have never felt better, and loving every moment. I have finally learned how to slow down and pause to smell the roses!


I believe in God and attend church service regularly. My spiritual beliefs make me anxious for nothing. And because I believe faith without works is dead, I do my best and do not fret over the results of my work or what others may say about it. I perform to the best of my ability to complete my tasks with what I have available.



As for my body, I will not be a slum-lord for this temple of mine, for which I am in total control of the choices I make to take care. I hike regularly, ride my bike, exercise 3 - 5 times a week, enjoy reading, watching a good movie and engaging conversations with good friends. I eat healthy...most of the time...have never been on any type medication (well, I did take high blood pressure medication for less than 30 days once when I was 50 and going through menopause. I took myself off of it and have not had any reason to take any since!!!), or suffered from and chronic diseases and have had no surgeries. What more could I possibly be grateful for!

"I love life, laugh out loud and dance as if no one if watching!"

My sister is 12 years younger than I, and when we have been together, I love it when we are asked "who is the oldest?" Of course, my sister doesn't like it. Buy my point is not to bragg, but to express my gratitude and foresight for listening to my body and heeding to the calls and taking care of myself.

I am often asked what I do to stay so healthy and vibrant. And, I have been encouraged to write about my life as a sensational senior at 60! Well, this is where I start. I will share some of my tips, which I will call Hartfield's Helpful Hints and welcome some of yours also. I obviously don't think I have all the answers, but I do know what works for me will probably, with some modification, also work for you.


Hartfield's Helpful #1

Get adequate and peaceful sleep. I do not go to bed with anger or anxiety. I sleep until I wake up naturally. I have not used an alarm clock since I left my stressful job in corporate America in 1983. Actually, I loved my marketing job in one of the Fortune 500 companies. It was the people that made it stressful. This was during the time of divestiture and many employees had become cut-throat trying to keep their jobs. That is when I decided to take the buyout. I promised myself at that time, for my wellbeing, I would only have jobs I enjoyed. I made the choice and have never looked back.


I am rested and ready for each day. Normally I get up anywhere between 4am & 6am. I get between 6 - 8 hours of good restful sleep. If I am up late because my creative juices are flowing, like they are tonight, and I have to get up early for an appointment, I always wake up on time, naturally. I used to set my alarm clock as a backup to ensure Iwould not oversleep...everytime I would wake up 1 -2 minutes before the alarm was scheduled to go off. Everytime! I have never overslept for an important morning engagement since I stopped using my alram clock when I left corporate America.

Hartfield's Helpful Hint #2

Get involved in some type of regular physical activity. I started playing organized basketball when I turned 50, on a senior women's team. I had never in my life played any organized sports, less known basketball. When I was invited to the gym, after inquiring about the travelling they did, where my real interest was at the time, I saw all these old guys and particularly this 70+ year old man, running up and down the court playing, I knew then I could do it!

As a result of my personal challenge and the help of a very patient coach, we formed the first senior women's basketball team to represent the state of Michigan in the National Senior Games and the World Senior Games. I had no idea this world of senior athletes even existed! I was absolutely amazed at the sports that were played. I attended my first National Senior Games in
orlando, Florida in 1999 at the Disney's Wide World of Sports Arena. It was brand new then. there were almost 12,000 seniors that attended and participated. This was the largest single multi-sport event for men and women age 50 and older at the time. I understand that record has been broken. . Believe it or not, most of the same sports in the regular olympic games are included. I was so impressed and encouraged by the level at which the seniors played. They were darn good...just slower! I have won both Gold and Silver medals in the various competitions, including most valuable player in one of the games...wow!

All of that to say, I was having fun, travelling, meeting new people and getting fit while having a ball...get it...having a ball - basketball...pun intended. I say with regret, the percentage of participation of black athletes was, I think was around 3%. I'll confirm that number later. We, black folks have the greatest health disparities and are not making the best lifestyle choices. We are the ones suffering the most from the chronic diseases that that are preventable with lifestyle changes that includes physical activity. It does take much, and it is never to late.

I will tell you a true story about why it is never too late to get started. We were in Albuquerque, New Mexico participating in a tournament. There were a few of us ladies standing around talking. At the time I was 52 years old. I was very proud of the fact that I was playing basketball and having a good time. I made the statement that I had been playing two years and I started when I was 50 years old. There was this little lady, and i mean literally little, she hada to be no more than 5'2", she said "I have been playing for 4 years now, and I started when I was 80." There are many other interesting stories I could share, but I will stop here.

I hope my story encourages some one. Please share it. I will be putting more of on my website and in future blogs, if I am encouraged to do so. If you would like to hear more, please let me know.

Now, getting back to me helpful hints, I am a morning person, so I work out first thing in the morning. I have worked myself up to almost one and a half hours of workout time. I log each workout, including the time I start and finish, to help me be accountable to myself. My workout now includes:

• Half hour on the treadmill at an average speed of 4.0 tp 4.5 at an incline of 10
• 50 - 100 Lateral Pulldown at a weight of 45lbs.
• 50 - 100 Pectoral Fly at a weight of 25lbs.
• 50 - 100 Pectoral Crossovers at a weight of 15 - 25lbs.
• 50 - 100 Sidebends at a weight of 15 - 25lbs.
• 50 - 100 Mid-air uppercuts, sometimes with 5lb. free weights
• 50 - 100 Sit-ups
• 10 - 15 minutes on the Gazelle
• 10 - 15 minutes (sometime) backwards on the treadmill at 1.9 - 2.0 speed and 15 incline
  

It may seem like a lot to some, but it did take some time for me to build up to this level, through the years. Particularly when I consider when I first started working out many years ago, I would stand in front of the mirror for 2 - 3 minutes and do a few stretches. That is no joke! But, I was consistent and the 2 -3 minutes turned into 5 - 7 minutes, then 10 - 12 minutes and so on.

Each birthday for me brings on new challenges. I challenge myself to do some physical fete that I have never done before. As an example, on my 56th birthday I went on my first hike. We went to Blood Mountain in north Georgia. This city girl was so excited about being in the woods, enjoying nature, it never dawned on me how strenuous it was. I was told later that it was rated as one the most challenging hike this particular group had ever hiked. On my 58th birthday,
rode my bike a total of 75 miles over two and a half days. I particpiated in a bike ride fundraiser we were doing to help raise money for a kidney for a friend. We statred out with the Metro Atlanta Cycling Club. They were on their annual centennial ride, a 100 miles in one day, no, "i stand corrected, in a matter of hours. I loved it and now, more than 4 years later I am still hiking and biking.

Hartfield's Helpful Hint #3

Eat nutritious foods and cut back on land animal meats, i.e., beef, pork, chicken turkey, etc. When I owned my health food stores, I told my customers and am a firm believer that if you eat right, and exercise as you should, there is no need to be concerned about your weight...your body will seek it's own natural weight. You know that we are in an obesity crisis.

Here is another one of my stories, one that awakened me to the fact I needed to change my eating habits. I remember how much I loved to grill spare ribs and douse them with my homemade sauce. I loved them so much, one year, when I was living in Detriot, I grilled extra and stored them in the freezer. I thawed them out in January and February when it was really cold I thawed then and enjoyed my grilled spare ribs with my homemade barbecue sauce! shortly thereafter, I started having headaches and could not figure out why. After reviewing my activities and what I was doing differently to cause the headache, I finally realized it was because of the pork I was eating. Needless to say, that lead to the end of my pork eating days...including pork bacon. I had personal experience of how bad it made me feel. And, although it was soooo very good, I determined it was not worth my ill feelings. Pay attentin to your body and how you feel. Don't sacrifice long term health challenges for short term satisfaction.

I make sure I eat my vegetables and fruit. I purchase my organic fruits and vegetables from the local farmers market. I am not even going to get into the pesticides, processed and GMO foods. Inevitaly someone will say to me that buying organic is expensive. My response has always been the same...you will either pay a little extra on the front end or pay for it big time on the back end with illness and disease...it's your choice.

My beverage of choice is water. I purchased a pitcher with a filter rather than spend money on bottled water. I add liquid drops of trace minerals to raise my akaline level. As it has been found that most diseases cannot manifest in an alkaline environment. They occur primarily in an acidic environment. Did you now that approximately 90% of Americans suffer from a mineral dificiency or imbalance? Trace minerals help with the pH balance that is needed to keep our bodies healthy. I no longer drink sodas. I may have a glass of red wine occasionally after dinner when I am out with a friend.

I drink water, water and more water. When I first started, I did not like the taste of water. which I hear from peole so many times, so, I would slice a lemon and put the fresh juice in a pitcher of water. I did that for a very long time. For me, it made the water more palatable.

While I am striving to become a vegan, right now I am considered a pescetarian. That is like a vegetarian, with the exception of eating fish. My fish of choice of fresh atlantic salmon. But, I have actually been doing pretty good in really cutting down on my consumption of fish. Let me be honest and tell you that from time to time I will have a piece of chicken or turkey and every now and then I will boil an egg for my salad. I use only brown eggs from cage free, grain fed chicken. I also make sure

I include fiber in my diet to keep me regular. For the most part, as we age our digestive systems slow down. If you want more details of my diet, email me with your questions. While I am not a trained dietitian, I know what is not good for me. Having been former owner of a small health food store chain, and doing a lot of research, I know enough about the basics of nutrition and paying attention to my body to keep myself healthy. We must get back to the basics...they work!