Celebrating a wonder woman

Today is a special day. It is my grandma's 100th birthday!
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This powerhouse of a woman has taught me many lessons and I am here today to share one of those lessons with you.

Although she is no longer in this world, she is a constant in my life.

Let me give you some background…
My grandma was the oldest of six children in a rural farming family in Saskatchewan. The majority of her life was spent on a farm with many or all the farm responsibilities you can imagine. From picking eggs out of the henhouse to caring for calves who's mother died in delivery, to feeding all the men on the farm (almost right up to her final years).

She would chase cattle back into the right pasture and close barbwire fences regularly. She supported my grandpa and later my uncle during the entire harvest. She cared for a massive garden, flowerbeds and coming into the Fall could be found busy in her kitchen making various recipes from canning to baking and everything in between.

Did she ever sit down?

I assure you she did enjoy an over-steeped tea most days and a sit down to read and keep up with current affairs with the paper.

Don't get me wrong, she lived and breathed the farm but she was also a school grade teacher too!

I come by the busy-bodied lifestyle naturally.

My grandma was physically active but did not exercise a day in her life.
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You can be a physically active person and not exercise a day in your life.


I distinctly recall trying to teach my grandma how to do some stretching exercises. I can remember being in her living room, down on her plush rugged floor trying to help her with some exercises for her back pain. This was likely when I was an undergraduate student eager to get people to exercise. She point blank said to me, "I don't exercise." At the time, I thought, 'oh come on Grandma, you can exercise.' But I didn't have the insight I have today.


You can be a physically active person and not exercise a day in your life.


She never learned how to ride a bike nor did she ever try a yoga class. Yet the amount of occupational and domestic physical activity she did her entire life is what I believe kept her in her farm house up until her 90s.

She passed away a month shy of 95 years old.

She is an example of how including physical activity (any bodily movement that requires muscle contraction and oxygen consumption) not exercise (planned, structured, repetitive physical activity) can add years to your life.

With this past week having the International Women's Day, I look to my grandma as an inspiration of a hard working woman who did what she needed to do to keep herself moving without ever stepping foot in a gym.


You can be a physically active person and not exercise a day in your life.

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Who is your inspirational wonder woman this week?

If this physical activity philosophy speaks to you, please consider signing up for my free mini online course, ASSESS. It dives into this concept by allowing you to be curious about what physical activity you are currently doing and just maybe you too are not exercising either! And that is okay.
Stay well and happy moving,
Lisa