If This Fit Mom Makes You Jealous, Wait Until You See How Old She Is
No matter how many fad diets and 60-day exercise programs out there promise the fountain of youth, we all know deep down that long-term health is a matter of smart eating and regular exercise. If only it were that simple to keep it up, right?
If you’re looking for inspiration to finally get serious about your health, and worry that it might be too late to have the body you want, we’d like to introduce you to Chinese social media star Ye Wen, a fitness model, health guru, and mother.
She looks pretty good for a 30 year old, right? Wrong. But only because she’s not in her 30s.
40s? Guess again. She’s 50. That’s right. The big 5-0.
By now, you might be wondering what dark magics and ritual sacrifices she has made in order to keep her body lean and shapely, and her skin smooth and youthful.
According to Wen, the secret of her youth, vitality and all-around good looks doesn’t lie in a fad diet or complex fitness program with worksheets and an online community. She’s an avid swimmer, and also enjoys rock climbing as a nice way to get outdoors and stay in shape.
Though Wen describes herself as being “plain” throughout her youth, she started thinking about exercise when she turned 30 and decided that swimming would be a good way to stay in shape. She was hooked instantly, and has pushed past new benchmarks to become the endurance swimmer she is today, 20 years later.
To wit, she has swam the strait of Malacca in Malaysia and crossed the Han River in South Korea — a combined length of 800 miles.
She swims a few laps every day and does toning exercises for a few hours each week to keep her muscles taut and youthful. Of course, all the exercise in the world means nothing without a healthy diet, which Wen observes religiously.
She has become a fitness icon on Weibo (China’s Twitter) where she inspires her followers daily with her fitness routine, lifestyle and youthful appearance.
Wen has two goals: To become a Victoria’s Secret model and to keep her exercise regimen going strong until she’s well into her 80s. One look at her body, and it doesn’t seem that either of those goals are all that unrealistic.
In a report published last year in The Journal of Physiology revealed that as people grow older, those who take activity and diet seriously tend to stay youthful-looking longer. The study, performed by researchers at King’s College London and the University of Birmingham, England, looked at the effects exercise and dieting has on aging. While looking your age has a lot to do with genetics, it found that exercise and diet are your best bet for maintaining your youth longer.
So next time you look in the mirror and think that you’re just too out of shape or too old to finally get serious about your fitness and health, remember Ye Wen and how this fit mom looks in a bikini at 50 after just doing some consistent exercise and careful eating.
