Our first exercise comes quite naturally as we learn to move our bodies as infants. First we do push-ups. After a while we attempt the daredevil roll over. Then we try to learn how to roll back rather than get stranded like upside down turtles. Next we attempt the sit without the dreaded falling over. Eventually we will try to move forward on hands and knees, though we adopt many individual ways of doing this including scooting backwards while aiming to go forwards.

All of this activity comes without instructional videos or gym memberships. We are just designed to be active without any encouragement. In fact a lot of time in childhood seems to be spent being told to “sit still.” Of course contemporary sleeping directives designed to reduce infant deaths tell parents to put the baby “back to sleep.” This produces the unpleasant side effect of a flattened back of the head. So then parents are told to do “tummy time,” when they purposefully put the baby on her stomach to even her head out.

Not missing an opportunity to make money from activities that used to be free, corporations have invented Baby Gymnastics classes where you can pay to have your baby learn these things. Since there are no longer hordes of kids everywhere, these classes exist mainly, I think, to end the isolation of mothers with small children. That is a valid reason to exist as long as no one thinks a baby really needs instruction.

At any rate, I never needed to be encouraged to diet or to exercise in those lovely first months of life. And cod liver oil was the only “supplement” I was given.

My first meal was chosen for me since I was obviously too little to get it for myself. I relied on a ready, free, healthy supply from my mother–breast milk. She was bucking a trend toward formula already taking hold in 1947 and may have been rebelling against her mother’s urge to be “modern.” It was a rounded diet, giving me everything I needed to grow and develop and was my only food for a few months. Then, much to my disgust, I encountered Pablum, a recently marketed cereal for babies. Later we would feed Pablum to our litter of puppies. They seemed to enjoy it.

My siblings were also breast fed until they had the treat of rice cereal added to their meals. By then Gerber had the market on that first baby food and promoted it widely. I remember my mother occasionally leaving a bottle, a can of evaporated milk and instructions to prepare it for the baby sitter for my youngest sister. No commercial formula ever entered our house.

Babies were expected to be pudgy. I remember my mother telling me that when she was young in the 1920’s children were praised for being plump. It was considered insurance against succumbing to any of the childhood diseases still prevalent. The main goal for my diet was that it allowed me to gain weight. Those were the days!

Perhaps it is because people who watch the evening national news shows are generally older, the ads are nearly all aimed at various medical conditions. After a quick disclaimer along the lines of “when diet and exercise don’t work,” they tout yet another extremely expensive new drug to control blood sugar or cholesterol. The assumption seems always to be that “diet and exercise” won’t work because the people in the ads gain all their health after they take the drugs.

Having lived 71 years in the United States and watched the general population gain in girth and shrink in stamina, I have been exposed to countless diets and exercise plans. A women’s magazine doesn’t come out without a “quick weight loss” article or a “how to fit exercise into your insane schedule” tip sheet. Billboards advertise “weight loss surgery,” now available on a payment plan to fit your budget. The freeway touts various gym memberships for $10 a month.

I decided to take my readers on a tour of all the approaches to diet and exercise that have surrounded my life. But I begin with two photos highlighting my early total disregard for ads, billboards and magazines. In one I hold the produce from our garden. In the other I demonstrate my incredible hanging skill!