Senior Citizens Learn to Stay in Shape for Life

Ben Fiore of Huntington Beach used to be a meat-and-potatoes man. He rolls the r when he says french fries, as if he’s fondly remembering a past lover. Now, at age 65, he’s a strong, trim vegetarian who exercises at least an hour and a half a day.

So why is he spending his Saturday morning at a health fair for senior citizens?

Marjorie Miklos of La Palma, who looks as if she’s never touched a french fry, is 51. So what’s she doing at a senior citizen’s health fair?

“We feel really good about being here,” Miklos said. She touched a hand to the strand of pearls around her neck, against her pink Nike running uniform, and added: “We’re doing something for ourselves and having fun too.”

Fiore and Miklos were part of a small crowd of people at a senior citizens’ gathering sponsored by Kaiser Permanente in Huntington Beach. It is only one of many companies or city agencies that periodically sponsor health fairs for older people. The crowds are often barely large enough to keep the event going, which surprises Miklos and Fiore.

“We learned a tremendous amount today,” Miklos said. “I’ve been doing tummy exercises, and now I know I’ve been doing them all wrong.”

Fiore said, “I learned there is a right way and a wrong way to do stretching exercises; now I’m going to do them the right way.”

Fiore and Miklos, who are engaged, do not see themselves as physical-fitness fanatics. What they are concerned about is growing old in a healthful way, both mentally and physically.

Doctors at the health fair emphasized that stress adversely affects physical health. A good way for senior citizens to fight stress, they said, is to keep themselves socially active.

“Social contact gives you an outlet to relieve stress,” Miklos said.

“When you’re 75--we learned today--that’s when you can get in a more depressed state,” Fiore piped in. “That’s because you’ve not been socially active, and you’ve let a lot of little chronic ailments build up by not taking care of yourself.”

He slapped his stout chest and said: “That’s not going to happen to me.”

Fiore, an office manager for a law firm, and Miklos, who works in customer services for a major company, said their own relationship stems from their interest in health and keeping active--they met two years ago on the dance floor.

“I was divorced (for five years), and you go through about two or three years of just real devastation,” Fiore said. “You wonder what went wrong with your life. But you finally learn that it’s a big world out there and a lot of other people are in the same boat as you.”

Their feelings are apparent. He calls her sweetheart; she calls him angel.

Miklos, recently divorced when they met, said their favorite way to spend time together is long walks and exercising.

But after Saturday’s seminar, some of that will change.

“I’ve learned that a lot of exercises that I do--push-ups and knee-bending, for example--are not doing that much good for someone my age,” she said. “Walking and stretching exercises are much better.” For her age? At 51, she’s not exactly ready to shop for a cane. But Miklos believes that it’s what she does now that will affect her condition when she finally does get old enough for discount bus fares.

The couple, who said their wedding date is not set yet, plan to grow old together. They also plan to go to more health seminars.

“Like one doctor said, 20 years ago, 65 was old; but it’s not old today,” Fiore said.

“When we do get old, we want to make sure we’ve got our marbles together.”