Deborah on Staying Youthful

Deborah Szekely, our founder, did a speech on staying youthful the other night that was very enlightening.  At 90 years old she still has so much energy and passion for health.  Did you know that Deborah still does pilates three times a week and goes for a three hour walk on Sundays.  It’s so inspiring!  If she at 90 years old can do that, there is no reason why the rest of us can’t do something every week to get ourselves in shape and good health.

She started out her speech saying that we are a nation deprived of oxygen.  Many of us work at computers all day and are breathing shallow without recognizing it.  Getting plenty of oxygen is so important for how our body’s function and especially for the brain.  We learned that we should be breathing from the pit of our stomachs to get ample oxygen into our blood stream.

In order to stay young, we need to think young.  For example, even though Deborah is 90 years old, she said that tells herself that she’s 60.  Be the age you want to be and then act like you are that age.  She mentioned that on a recent Sunday that she was with her family.  Her daughter went horseback riding and she decided that instead of just laying around relaxing, she was going to swim.  After all, she should have no problem swimming if she was 60 and not 90.  So she went swimming to get some exercise in that day.

She talked about how fitness is so important.  Being active is what helps us get maximum oxygen into our system.  Do something every day makes such a huge difference in our health.  Exercise is not just about losing some weight or looking better in our clothes, it about having good overall health.  Without our health, we just can’t do all the things that we want to do.

In addition to exercise, the way we eat is extremely important.  If you want to eat healthy, there are three things we need to try to do when we eat.  Eat organic, eat locally and also seasonally.  Deborah went on to say that nature provides us with the right foods at the right time.  Eat more locally grown seasonal fruits in the summer and then winter vegetables during the cold weather months.  Eating organic is also extremely important not just for our health, but for the environment as well.  By eating organic we don’t ingest toxins into our bodies and we protect our soils from contamination of toxic chemicals.

It was such an honor to hear Deborah speak about health and her journey throughout her 90 years.  There is always something new to learn from her!