Chic inspiration from NYC

My friend, Babette

One of the unexpected bonuses of going on a wine tour to the Barossa Valley with my husband on our recent trip to Australia was meeting a lovely couple from New York City.  Babette, a retired schoolteacher, and her husband were on an eight-week trip which encompassed Australia, New Zealand and Fiji.

I got to chat with Babette at various points throughout the day.  She was vivacious and bubbly, and I couldn’t get enough of her genuine New York accent (born and bred!).  Thankfully, Babette gave me her card so we could keep in touch.  I was so impressed when she handed me a professionally printed card with her contact details.  I have got to get one of those made!  It is so much more elegant than scribbling down my email address on a scrap of paper.

So, via email I got to follow along on the rest of their trip and heard how Babette went scuba diving on the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, and paddle boarding, sailing and snorkelling in Fiji.  I am so lazy on holiday, and realise now I will really need to up my game hearing about all the great activities she participated in.

From my glowing description of Babette on my previous blog post here, I heard from readers who wanted her to share her secrets on being slim and vivacious.  Superstar celebrity Babette!  I emailed and asked if she might expand a bit on how she approaches food, eating and life in general; basically,

Babette's golden rules for being fabulous throughout life

Here is what she shared:

• She tries to walk 2-3 miles a day
• She exercises as much as possible (more for her head than body!)
• She drinks lots of water (and good red wine!!)
• She laughs a lot
• She surrounds herself with positive people (get rid of negative forces!)
• She keeps both her mind and body busy and enriches them constantly (since retirement she has taken foreign language courses and edit college courses.  It keeps her mind sharp!)
• Her #1 eating rule is NO fried food
• She also avoids white flour
• She eats very few sweets (though dark chocolate is healthy and she finds a little piece of good chocolate is very satisfying)

--

Many of these things I do myself, such as walking most days and keeping active.  I also drink a lot of water (not so much of the red wine for me!) and like to find opportunities to laugh – being silly with my husband, watching funny movies and reading books such as Sophie Kinsella’s madcap titles (she is one of the only authors that I actually laugh out loud when reading her books).  I also find my cats excellent for humour therapy.

I can’t say I avoid fried foods, but I don’t eat them often.  I don’t eat white flour either and I ‘mostly’ don’t eat sweet foods.  If I eat one, I’ll eat a hundred, so I try not to take that first bite of sugary foods.  I don’t count natural foodstuffs such as fruit in that.

From how I viewed Babette on our day trip and what she has shared in emails – all the way from NYC, that still gives me a thrill :) – she has built and maintained healthy lifestyle habits that have helped her enjoy an enviable retirement experience.  Meeting and getting to know Babette a little bit encourages me further to make every year better than the last when it comes to health and fitness, and to not give up and sink into a sedentary, nibbling lifestyle that I know could come so easily for me.

I am also keen to be more of an action girl on holiday.  We haven’t been on many holidays, since my husband and I have owned a retail store for the past twelve years that required at least one of us to be there at all times (except for ten days each Christmas when we would close up).  Now that we have sold that business (as at the end of last year), we are looking forward to being able to travel more.

I’ve never been that sporty and have actually been very lazy when it comes to activities and exercise, but now that I know how good your body feels when you shake it around regularly, I am keen to be that sporty and fabulous girl on vacation.

Babette, thank you so much for sharing your lifestyle secrets, and for being a good sport about answering my questions.  I hope you enjoy your time as a celebrity :)

Chic readers, if you had to say what your top three tips for being fabulous are, what would they be?  They can be real-life things that you already do, or imaginary-idealised-how-you-would-love-to-be tips, you choose!

Fiona

PS. If you have read Thirty Slim Days or any of my other books, I would be so grateful if you could take a minute to leave an honest review on Amazon.  Reviews are so important for authors; they give a reader an idea what to expect or even just help them trust that they will enjoy (or not!) the book.  I welcome all reviews because even the not-so-great ones give me valuable feedback for future books.  You can write a review here, or on your local Amazon if you prefer.