Meet Theresa, a good friend of mine. She’s also a good grandma! Her grandkids range from Danny, age one, all the way up to Lisa, who just started high school last fall. In all, Theresa has nine grandchildren, and she manages to keep up with them like nobody’s business. I asked her to share some of her secrets. Here is our conversation:
Q: Tell us your secret, Theresa. We all want to know how you can keep up with nine grandkids!
A: It makes me feel so blessed to have them! That’s probably the number one reason I can keep up with them. Gratitude. And I don’t want to miss a single moment, if I can help it.
Q: You and I have talked about your diet before.
A: Yes, absolutely. At least eighty percent of the time I eat a low-fat, whole-food, plant-based diet. I would say lately it’s more like ninety to a hundred percent. I just don’t want to risk it.
Q: Why don’t you tell us why you originally switched to a healthy diet.
A: I was tired all the time, my blood pressure was high, my cholesterol was high… the works. So I started searching to see if there was a way to reverse all of that. I found out that there was, through diet, so I threw myself into the diet. What I discovered was that I had so much more energy than ever before. There’s a documentary I tell people to watch on Netflix, called Game Changers. And there’s this guy in it that says something like, “I don’t have to keep up with my grandchildren. My grandchildren have to keep up with me.” I almost feel like that sometimes, and it makes me so happy.
Q: Besides a healthy diet, what else do you do to keep up with the grandkids?
A: Let’s see… Well, I get a moderate amount of exercise. I try to walk for half an hour or so every day. I also have been taking CBD gummies, usually on a daily basis.
Q: Do you really?
A: Yes. It’s said that they help you recover from exertion faster, and you know that I exert myself a lot. They also are supposed to help you sleep better, and I can tell you that I enjoy a good night’s sleep.
Q: Do you FaceTime the kids?
A: (Laughs.) Almost every morning! The youngest ones usually FaceTime me! Danny and his sister Cody, who is three. Danny’s one and a half.
Q: Can you imagine what it would be like to be that age and able to use video chat on a phone?
A: It’s like what they promised the future would be like when we were little!
Q: So you would say that you live a pretty healthy, happy lifestyle.
A: Absolutely. And honestly, I stay healthy for them, not myself. For example, I occasionally think about zipping through the drive through for a burger or fried chicken. But I don’t. I think about my grandkids, and I decide to skip it. I eat the whole foods, and I never regret it. I think about sitting on the couch all day, but I get up and I get moving. If it weren’t for my little darlings, I’d eat whatever I wanted and park myself in front of the TV, and I’d either have a hard time moving around, or I’d be dead.
Q: Jumping back to the CBD stuff we were talking about, I meant to ask one more question about that: Do you ever use them for stress?
A: Honestly I don’t think I have a lot of stress in my life! But who knows… maybe that’s because I take the gummies. Mostly, though, I think of it as whole body wellness with CBD.
Q: Are there any other supplements you take?
A: Besides vitamin B12 and CBD, I try to get everything else from eating a diverse, healthy diet. And for my vitamin D, I try to take my walks outside in the sunshine.
Q: I love a good walk in the sunshine.
A: Me too!
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