A study published this week in JAMA says that women need to exercise one hour each day to keep those pounds from coming on as they get older. It was assumed that the women were on normal diets.

If every woman in America read about this study at the same time,  you could have heard one loud scream all over this land. Perhaps you would have joined in if you are female.

TPR’s story quoted a vigorous exerciser who said that for women, time is a four-letter word.

You bet. As many women run on the treadmill of their daily lives, the word that they need to do still more definitely is not welcome.

However. News from the front first.

One of my closest friends tells me that swimming saves her sanity and keeps her fit, too.

She is a family care-giver, one of those who have the 36-hour days. The work of monitoring someone who has Alzheimer’s is a strain, no matter how much the care-giver loves the patient.

She calls, sobbing, from many time zones away, that she is a terrible person for getting short-tempered at the end of a long day and many disasters averted.
Of course, she is not a terrible person. Quite the opposite.

“I have discovered swimming is what I have to do for me to keep going. Many days I swim and cry at the same time. I am suspended in the water. It holds me up. I don’t hold it up. The water asks nothing of me. I am free in it. That makes all of the difference.”

This is the most powerful testimony to the benefits of what I prefer to call activity. Exercise has become an oppressive word to many. It needs a good PR person, one who understands that “should” and “ought” don’t win the hearts and minds of women with way too much to do already. Researcher-physicians appear oblivious to how this news hits their target populations.

Let me say right here that many women really do not have an hour to themselves most days. I know one woman who works two jobs. “I don’t even have time to read my Bible,” she says. The nature of her work is such that she works her body to meet this new standard anyhow. What follows is not meant to make light of the load millions of women carry as employees, family care-givers and more. I do understand. This may not work for you so please don’t feel worse if it doesn’t. We don’t need more women feeling worse about lifestyle issues.

I prefer the word, activity, in place of the word, exercise, as it is less oppressive-sounding. But that is just me.

Now, after many qualifiers and preemptive apologies, here it is. The secret to getting that hour of activity in every day.

Choose an activity which makes you feel so good that you cannot stand it if you do not have that in your day or your week.

You cannot stand it if you don’t do it. That’s the magic of the secret. You desperately want to do this.

Priorities get reordered or fall in place somehow when you find your favorite.

My friend the care-giver will get up at 4:30 a.m. if she must to get her swim time in because it makes her feel better and stronger. Maybe other women who have major care-giving responsibilities will be inspired by her example.

Instead of “activity” being one more thing to add to a long list, maybe it is what enables a woman to make it through her long list a little more easily and, certainly, feeling better about it.

I cannot explain it. I just know this works. When I die, were my son to put some wording on a headstone, the obvious choice would be, “…Just give me one more minute and I can…”

My secret is Pilates. My teacher rebuilt a back that tolerated nothing, nothing, nothing extra. It really was a problem when even flat shoes made it irritated with me. That’s over. Mainly, though, it is the peacefulness and the power of Pilates which has me walking out the door feeling as great as I did at age six. Carefree. How good does it feel to feel six again? Imagine. I’d all but kill for this.

Granted, this does not meet the one hour a day standard the JAMA study says is needed but I have other happy ways to fill in. Briskly walking with our Welsh Terrier who is overjoyed about going for a walk. This may be her Pilates for all I know. (Actually, her “activity” likely is chasing critters she thinks have no place in her back yard. It does a lot for her, let me tell you.)

Long before the Great Recession, there were stories about women whose careers were going well who still worried about ending up as bag ladies. It was reported that even Oprah did.  She set aside money which she would never touch so she had no bag lady worries and could go about her daily media mogul business. Smart move.

Me? I worry, given the gift of good genes I apparently inherited, that I will be 99 and in a nursing home—and without Pilates money. That is how much it does for me and how much I love it.

Of course, it will not be lost on you that these two examples  are of women who need the exercise so much they are willing to do whatever it takes to get it. One is an over-burdened care-giver and the other is the owner of a back which would be a real diva were it a person.

Look around. Many walkers love getting outside. Many treadmill users loathe the machine. Both are “walking.”

To win at the “activity” game, you need to find the one that gives you even more than you give it.

Meanwhile, my friend swims two hours a day when things are really bad, not just one.

She has found her safe, happy place to get her “activity.” So have I.

Good luck in finding yours.