‘At 84, I can still do the splits’
I started Keep Fit classes in the 60s when I spotted Twiggy at a jazz class: here’s how I’ve stayed active into my 80s. By
Growing up I hated exercise, and would deliberately lose my navy shorts any time we had to do sports at school. But at 25, after the birth of my third child, I’d put on so much weight that my mother said: “you should really do some exercise.”
It was the early 1960s so that meant going along to her Keep Fit class in a church hall, which I loathed. I later met a woman at a party and she took me to a jazz class in Covent Garden and that’s when my relationship to exercise changed. In those days, the classes were being taught by the likes of Arlene Phillips; one morning, I even spotted Twiggy – who was gawky and awkward as a dancer – trying her best to follow the routine. For the first time, it felt like fitness could be fun. I enjoyed those classes so much that I trained as an instructor, ran my own studio for a period and, at 84, still teach four classes a week. I can also easily do the splits, and 20 press-ups, which isn’t half bad for almost 85.
I don’t think I’ve gone more than two days without exercise in 50 years. I never saw the woman who had introduced me to dance again but I wish I could thank her for changing my life. As well as personal training, I do four classes each week for myself: a strenuous aerobic class for cardio, a dance class and two Pilates sessions. I train across disciplines to maintain what I call the three ‘S’s: to be supple, strong and for stamina. After your 30s, you start losing muscle, so even lifting light weights can help. You also need to be supple to avoid injury, and Pilates is really good for that.
Being flexible helps balance, too. Joints get stiffer as you age, so simple exercises like standing on one leg are crucial, so you don’t fall over when you’re stepping into your leggings. Bones get weaker over time, needing cardio and weight-bearing exercises such as squats and press-ups to strengthen and prevent osteoporosis.
When I got to 80, I thought: this is properly old now. I even wrote a book on the subject, Getting Old: Deal With It. But I’ve begun to notice a real divide between my “old” friends. Either they’re still
whizzing around like me, exercising multiple times a week and running after their grandchildren. Or, they’re walking on sticks, or can’t go up the stairs or bend down to do up their shoes. It’s made me realise that we have more control over ageing than we realise. You don’t have to suddenly
become a bodybuilder once you get your bus pass – this isn’t a competitive sport. My advice to my clients is just to do something small (even if it’s lifting 1kg weights) and maintain it at a level that suits you; don’t strive to do more and more.
I’ve always been petite (though I put on three stone with my five pregnancies), but I keep to a simple food rule: eat like a slim person. I know how hard it is, as I was a binger in my 30s and 40s, dieting constantly to lose weight, then entering a vicious binge cycle again. Eating just one biscuit would promote the thought, “Oh well, I’ve ruined the diet now, so I might as well go on eating everything fattening today and start my diet again tomorrow”.
I finally kicked bingeing after reading a book called Sugar Blues by William Dufty in the early 1980s, which highlighted how awful the effects of the sugar I was eating were on my mental health. It was a eureka moment, and led me to become a diet counsellor. I haven’t binged since.
As you get older, it’s easier to stay in control of what you eat, as your appetite shrinks. I try to choose food for health – and I’d say I succeed around 90 per cent of the time. That means eating protein at every meal, such as milk with cereal or yoghurt for breakfast, a big salad with cheese or eggs for lunch, and for dinner, chicken or
salmon with a variety of vegetables including sweet potato and broccoli. They’re foods that help me to feel full, maintain muscle and preserve bone density. I’ll have a mid-afternoon snack, usually fruit like an apple and grapes and a yoghurt, but I try to stay off refined sugar, as I find it’s addictive and pulls me down mentally. On the odd occasions I do fancy cake or chocolate (my favourite is Dairy Milk), I’ll have it, but that’s perhaps only every couple of weeks.
My eating regime works for me – but trying to follow someone else’s diet is like putting yourself in prison and handing someone else the key. You need a plan that’s doable and fits in with your lifestyle; one where it doesn’t feel like a burden to choose food that you like and will make you feel good. If a diet says you must only have cottage cheese and lettuce for lunch, you’re not going to stick to that. I’m not a fan of restrictedcalorie diets. It’s not much fun being desperately hungry, especially when cooking for your family and trying not to eat it.
There’s no point beating yourself up if you cave here and there. The occasional setback will happen, but it’s nothing that a bit of exercise and healthy food planning the next day can’t fix. It’s amazing how good you feel from treating your body well – and I won’t be hanging up my Lycra any time soon.