Women find exercise benefits bodies, souls
By Paula Rath
Advertiser Staff Writer
Kalei Inn of Makiki believes in multitasking. When she was studying for her doctorate in the sociology of education at Stanford University, a professor told her to "never make a trip carrying one thing, and never do just one thing at a time." The advice stuck. The 56-year-old, whose glowing skin and taut figure belie her age, juggles three kids (ages 24, 22 and 15), a home, a husband and a career as a corporate consultant and executive coach.
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Six years ago, a friend gave Inn a year's membership to a health club. She started slowly, working out once a week and building up to twice a week during a six-month period. Now she hits the club five or six mornings a week. "You see results when you go from zero to anything, so that got me hooked," Inn said with a light-hearted chuckle.
Kalei Inn works out at least five times a week, which she says helps her to "connect with and take care of myself."
Her workouts include yoga, fitness ball and muscle conditioning classes, and use of the elliptical machine for cardio workouts, so she can read while exercising.
While her original motivation was that "my clothes didn't fit as well as I would like them to," Inn finds that exercising in the morning fills mental, physical and spiritual needs. "It's a time for me to plan and to connect with and take care of myself. Once I have had my own time in the morning, I can be 100 percent for whatever comes my way during the day."
An added benefit is the flexibility she has achieved, as well as an increase in stature for her petite frame: "I think yoga has made me taller. I used to have to use a stepping stool to close windows, and now I don't. Yoga has stretched me to greater heights."
Inn views ironing, that oft-hated chore, as a fitness activity. "There's a rhythm to it and it's satisfying. I change hands and turn it into a triceps workout. I even do leg lifts while ironing."
Inn said women often carry around a lot of unnecessary "psychic weight." Her advice is simply to speak the truth. "Say what you really feel, and take time to clarify if you are not making yourself clear. And be clear about your boundaries — what is OK and what is not. Later saying to yourself 'Why did I say that?' and kicking yourself is a waste of energy."
She sees women placing the needs of others ahead of their own. "You can get a lot of strokes for doing things that society tells you are good. This can derail you. Only you can know what makes you smile every day. You need to ask yourself: 'Is this what I want, or is this what I think I should want because society tells me so?' "
Some thoughts from other fit women over 40:
• Gerry Brown
"If you try to do too much, you set yourself up for failure." That's the message from Gerry Brown, 47 (but looking 10 years younger), wife, mother of two (ages 16 and 19) and director of makeup for Paul Brown Salons.
The self-disciplined Gerry Brown squeezes in her workouts at home, walking for two miles a day and working with weights. She also does her own half-hour abdominal workout and then puts on leg weights and dances around the room, giving her mind and body some time to be free and unfettered.
Brown recommends doing "a little bit at a time. If you can't walk two miles, then walk 15 minutes."
She makes a point of parking far away from her destination and always taking the stairs. "Our lives are too sedentary. We need to do any little thing to get our bodies moving."
While she's not a health-food fanatic, Brown tries to avoid processed foods. "White is the enemy — white rice, white pasta, white flour, white sugar," she said. However, she does not eschew dessert all the time.
She also finds her job energizing: "You can't have a better job than helping women to look beautiful."
• Kashmir Gellatly
We caught up with Kashmir Gellatly in New York, where she was visiting her 15-year-old daughter who was there for a summer dance program. At age 54, Gellatly looks much younger, with her long, lean limbs and beatific smile.
An entrepreneur, Gellatly owns Kismet Imports. She handles all aspects of the business: buying, sales, delivery, inventory, accounting.
She also spends a great deal of time driving her daughters to ballet, paddling and other extracurricular activities.
Gellatly makes it a priority to seek balance. Her favorite tools for mental and physical fitness: yoga and meditation. "Yoga gives me such clarity. It enables me to be centered and focused and to look at the big picture and not get caught up in botherations. I remind myself to take a deep breath and look at things in a different way. I try to look within myself for answers, because you can't control what's out there in the world."
Gellatly feels the conventional definition of "meditation" is too narrow. "Meditation doesn't mean sitting with a straight back and your eyes closed. It can be any moment you are doing something you truly love. It can be that moment when you are driving along in traffic and see a rainbow, and you sigh, and suddenly all the tensions are released from your body."
It's important, then, she said, to sustain the picture of that rainbow and to remember that "some people come here to visit and see only one rainbow. But we live here and see rainbows all the time. We're so lucky."
