FITNESS PROFILE | JEANNE TESSIER LESPERANC
Cultivating good health
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How do you keep fit? Visit our discussion board to share health tips, diet secrets and physical activities that help you stay in shape. |
By Zenaida Serrano
Advertiser Staff Writer
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Biceps bulged out of Jeanne Tessier Lesperance's Nike T-shirt sleeves as she grasped a rope tied around her waist and attached to a towering mango tree in her backyard.
Lesperance, 73, slowly demonstrated how she rappels down a steep hill behind her 'Aiea home to clear brush and plant fruit trees. It's one of Lesperance's many beloved garden projects.
"I would sleep out there, eat out there, stay out there," Lesperance said with a beaming smile. "I don't stay in the house. I love the outdoors."
Gardening every day with her husband, Jerry, is just one way that the retired nurse stays active and healthy.
"Sometimes I go until it gets dark, but my husband stops me," Lesperance said, laughing. "Once you get down the hill and you get going, you kind of forget the time."
In addition to toiling around in dirt outdoors, Lesperance goes to a gym three days a week for step aerobics classes and weight-based workouts.
"It feels so good," she said. "I get euphoric on exercise. ... I think everyone feels better with exercise."
FAMILY BLESSING
Lesperance has been active as long as she can remember. She spent her childhood on a farm in Minnesota and her teen years in California.
"I'm one of eight children, and there was always a lot going on in the house," she said. " ... and I was a strong farm girl."
When Lesperance was 19, she vacationed in Hawai'i and decided to cash her return ticket home after falling in love with the Islands. Then she met her husband, who was in the Coast Guard.
Although the Lesperances moved away for nearly 17 years, they returned in 1974.
"Living in Hawai'i, that's the biggest blessing outside of the family," Lesperance said.
Family has always been important to Lesperance, who has been married now for 52 years. Lesperance and her husband have three sons, a daughter and a grandson.
Her loved ones are the reason health is such a big priority, Lesperance said.
"If you take care of yourself, than you're better able to take care of your own family as long as you can," she said.
And although age may be catching up with Lesperance — she suffers from osteoarthritis — it isn't stopping her.
"I still do the things that I did when I was young," she said. "It just takes longer."
LIVES OUTDOORS
Lesperance also keeps mentally active by scrapbooking, rubber-stamping and card-making. She enjoys watching movies with her girlfriend and travelling with her husband to countries like France, Canada, Italy, Thailand and China.
But of all her interests, working outdoors is No. 1.
"My life is working in the garden," Lesperance said with a sparkle in her eyes.
In addition to clearing brush and planting more fruit trees at the bottom of the hill in her backyard, Lesperance and her husband are working on putting cinder blocks as steps down the hill to make it easier for her husband to join her.
What's the secret to her energy and strength?
"Keep it going, all the time," Lesperance said.
There are things she can do now that she couldn't do years ago, she said.
"I can rappel down hills because my legs are really strong," Lesperance said, standing up to flex her leg muscles. "I can lift all those cement blocks when we're going down the hill."
Lesperance said she's been blessed.
"It's like some people can sing beautifully or some people have musical talent ... but I think the gift that I have is the gift of good health," she said.
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| TIPS FOR SENIORS
"You have to have a little common sense as you get older," Jeanne Tessier Lesperance, 73, said. "Start slowly. Listening to your body is a really smart thing to do." The International Council on Active Aging offers these tips: • Get a checkup with your healthcare provider before starting an exercise program. • Pick a program you'll enjoy. Some people like the gym for a structured workout; others enjoy a neighborhood walking club. Either will improve your fitness, daily function and quality of life, but only if you do it regularly. • Determine your style. Would you prefer a class or going solo? Are you a morning or night person? Does indoor fitness appeal or would you prefer to play outside? Be realistic about your ability. • Start slowly. Many people are eager to get started and sometimes overdo it, which makes them sore and then they stop. Find your base line by recording your activities each day, tracking how much time you are sedentary (e.g., sitting at your desk) or active (e.g., walking to the bus stop). At day's end, count how many hours you have and haven't been physically active. Then look at when you could fit some short bouts (e.g., 10 minutes) of brisk walking into your day. • Find an exercise buddy to keep you motivated. Whether it's a friend to walk with in your neighborhood or a personal trainer in a gym, that appointment makes it more likely you'll do the walk or workout. • Check the International Council on Active Aging's Web site, www.icaa.cc. Go to "Consumer section," click on "Welcome back to fitness," then "Tips on how to become more active in 2006." JEANNE TESSIER LESPERANCE'S WORKOUT REGIMEN Workout habits: Lesperance goes to a gym for an hour on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays for step aerobics classes. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, she spends another hour doing a weight-based workout that focuses on all her major muscle groups, using weights of 8 to 14 pounds. She also enjoys yard work and walking with her husband. When and why I started working out: "I've always been very active." Good foods/bad foods: Lesperance buys organic foods and also grows her own fruits and vegetables, such as oranges, mangos, bananas, avocados, tomatoes, cucumbers and beets. Her favorite breakfast, made with a Vita-Mix blender, is a mix of soy milk, raw oatmeal, frozen blueberries and strawberries. "It's like a treat every day," Lesperance said. Her weakness? Taco Bell's Taco Supreme. "That's awful ... but it's so good," she said. Biggest motivator: "Now I'm motivated to keep in good health because of my family, to take care of them so they don't have to take care of me." What saves my sanity: "Working in the garden." Fitness goal: Lesperance and her husband, Jerry, 76, were married 52 years ago at a chapel in Pearl Harbor. For their 40th and 50th wedding anniversaries, they renewed their vows at the same chapel and at the same time of day as when they married. Now Lesperance is looking forward to her 60th anniversary. "We decided that was what we were going to do: stay really healthy and celebrate many anniversaries," she said. Dream job: To care for "lots and lots and lots of grandchildren." Next challenge: "To be doing this stuff, all this stuff I'm doing now, when I'm 100. Keeping as fit as I am now as long as I can." Advice for those in the same boat: "Finding a partner to exercise with, to me, is half of the battle, because then, even when you're not motivated (to exercise), the other person may be that day," said Lesperance, who gardens and walks with her husband, and goes to the gym with a neighbor. |
Reach Zenaida Serrano at zserrano@honoluluadvertiser.com.
