My daddy passed away at ge 90 in July. Mom has slowly started getting more active to the point that she has now joined a gym! She, too, comments on how great she feels, etc., and says she wishes she had done this so much earlier!

You give me encouragement on perhaps suggesting Atkins to my mom, too… She is really frustrated with her weight and is just like me: a sugar addict.

It was actually really cute yesterday. She always calls me after her workout, right? To debrief me while she’s all excited, totally adorable. Well, remember how I said I told her she could have half a small banana on training days? She totally digs that; LOVES bananas. Well, she forgot yesterday and pouted when she got to the physiotherapy study where she’s training. “My daughter told me I could have half a banana before I work out and I forgot it!”

So the physio says to her: “Do you WANT a banana?”

Heh. He had one. Awesome. So she shared it with him and then did her workout.

Her workouts are going really well too - she’s up to 18 minutes on the exercise bike.

Now, you HAVE to understand the significance of this. My mother has never so much as gone for a WALK with me.

Ever.

She used to pay me the (oh, now I’m dating myself) DOLLAR to walk the mile to the grocery store to buy her cigarettes. I’d get to … wait for it … keep the change.

I always spent it on candy.

Anyway, for my mom to get on an exercise bicycle and pedal for that long is seriously a miracle.

I phoned her today to see how she’s feeling. She’s fine everywhere else, but she’s really feeling her core work! Mummy’s got sore abs! She’s in bed with her beloved hot-water bottle on her tummy, for comfort.

So damned cute.

How exciting!

She’s so excited! It’s really inspiring to see her all stoked about this. 12 minutes on the bicycle today; this time on the flat. He had her going down the hill before, and only for 5 minutes, then 8, then 11… she’s having a little trouble with crunches, but that’s coming up too. She only managed 2 the first time. This time she did FOUR.

I really want to see how the physio has her training. He’s defininately getting somewhere - he had her pulling today, and she was amazed that it worked her back!

*beams*

I’m not directing her training - the physiotherapist has a little gym setup in his office for showing his clients how to rehab their injuries. He’s doing the workouts with my mom. He had her do 5 minutes on the exercise bicycle the first time. Hah. Here’s how that conversation went:

Mom: “I’m here, but I’m not going to do the exercise bicycle today”
Physio: “You’re doing the bicycle.”
Mom: “Okay, but I’ll only do a minute”
Physio: “You’re doing FIVE.”

ME, she can push around - Mom gets to pull “rank” and there’s nothing I can do about it. The physio, on the other hand, bullies her.

It’s awesome!