“Pilates just finished” Bridgett, the instructor shouted across the gym to the middle aged couple entering the room. I was the last to leave as I finished rolling my mat.
“Is pilates something for someone fat like me? The rotund man patted his stomach.
“Don’t’ say that about yourself” Bridgett didn’t skip a beat as she scurried toward them.
“Well, I have to do something about my core…” he flushed.
Bridgett stopped squarely in front of the man circling his palm and patting his abdomen.
“It’s so great you want to come. Yes, we can work on your core no matter what level you are.”
“Well, I’ve never done it before but I need something to help me get in shape,” he chuckled.
“It’s great you’re here! I commend you for it. But, I will tell you something I don’t say in class “Health is 80% diet and 20% strengthening and stretching. If you don’t change your eating habits, the exercise can’t help you the way it should.”
“Oh man,” the inquirer frowned at his wife who stared in rapt attention as Bridgett continued.
“It’s very simple. Your stomach is the size of a fist. You don’t want to overload your stomach” Bridgett held her arm out in front of her and clenched her hand.
Portion control? Don’t we all know that? It’s just not as easy as it looks. And her fist looked really small.
“This is how you eat. It’s not hard.” She held up both hands thumbs and index fingers meeting.
“Pretend this is a plate—half of this plate is vegetables.” She drew an imaginary line down the middle. “The other half is divided in two quarters. One quarter is carbs. The other quarter is protein.”
“You mean meat?” the man asked. ‘Yes, beef, chicken, fish…
The couple nodded in unison.
“Do you know the three things you have to do to be healthy?” she smiled and waited.
Exercise and diet…the couple hesitated….”what’s the third one?”
“It’s Exercise, Eat less and Eat right.”
Bridgett spun back toward her equipment and then about faced. “Come back on time Saturday. She smiled and ran back to the sound station.
Three E’s, it seems pretty easy to remember. But to do it? I wondered as I left if they would begin the conversation about their diet between now and then?
After all, I wasn’t serious about lowering my sugar intake until my husband was diagnosed with diabetes. And my friend didn’t change her diet until the doctor warned her she was headed toward a heart attack. Is it enough to hear the same old, same old, one more time a different way?
Or do we all have to wait until it gets worse…before it can get better?