Today is rainy and overcast—my favorite kind of day—that reminds me of the English countryside wet with dew in the early morning. Luckily, we’ll have rainy and overcast days throughout much of this week, and I can just stay indoors and exercise.

I’ve received a request for secrets to my fitness and diet routine:

“Your exercise/eating advice is soooo good. You could totally come out with your own book…”

I created a worksheet for my personal use, and I’m providing links to helpful resources. On a daily basis, the worksheet tracks the quantities and calories of everything that goes into my mouth, as well as my exercise activities and the calories and carbs burned, time duration, speed, and incline.

In many ways, I’ve been lucky to have genetically dodged the effects of aging. Eventually, I’ll qualify for senior discounts, but right now I have no visible gray hair or wrinkles. When I was in college and throughout my 20′s, my dress size was 0. By the time I was in my late 20′s, my dress size was 2. In my 30′s, still a size 4. These days, I have no need to wear tailored business clothes, so in Oklahoma’s hot climate, I prefer clothing that weighs only about 3 ounces and that have a looser fit.

At middle-age, I began to notice that whatever I ate stayed on my body. Previously, I could have gluttonous binges and never add an ounce to my physique. Through working with a personal trainer and dietitians, I learned that once a woman enters her 30′s, her metabolism slows down, which means the rate at which your body burns calories decreases. Men, on the other hand, generally burn more calories at rest than women, which is probably how the nursery rhyme about Jack Sprat and his wife got started. Even at rest, muscle burns more calories than fat, which is why a combined program of diet and exercise works best. Continue reading Diet and Fitness Plan