I am a passionate promoter of exercise and I love traveling alone by train. The dining car provides three new acquaintances each meal. After the initial chitchat, I ask about what exercise they do and create an opportunity to talk about the importance of stretching and strengthening exercises.

The response is almost always the same—a confession that they are not doing enough and want to do more. Rarely, someone has started to get into a new routine with a personal trainer because they feel the need. Then I can tell them about my video exercise kits.

As the meal draws to an end, I ask them to guess my age. This is the fun part. They guess 70 and I say 91! The reaction warms my heart and inspires me to keep following my passion.

At 55 I had a painful knee and my hands began to seem arthritic. I needed to consciously keep these moving. In my 70s I began to lose flexibility and strength. Rather than accept this as "part of the aging process," I got into structured exercise. My husband and I moved into a continuing care community where I found a new hobby: promoting exercise and becoming a role model for the community.

My exercise kits came from my desire to make a difference in this supportive community. The funds generated by the kits are returned to the community. One kit is for seated exercise and another for those able to get on the floor.

I am grateful to have a pain-free body with the help of my exercises, a skilled massage therapist, a careful diet, and nutritional supplements, and currently no prescription drugs.

The importance of exercise is not a new idea. We're just slow learners. Hippocrates, who lived more than 2,000 years ago, told us all parts of the body which have a function, if used in moderation and exercised in labors to which each is accustomed, become healthy, well developed, and age slowly. But, if unused and left idle, they become liable to disease, defective in growth, and age quickly.