Debbie Reynolds Show Segment

Debbie Reynolds - Fitness Activist Given: May 23, 1996 at AARP Biennial Convention- Denver Colorado, 1996 Staying Fit Staying Healthy Staying active is one way to enhance the quality of life. Easy-to-do exercises will keep you moving.

The following is a portion of her presentation ....I was so excited when that went. Oh my gosh, I was so thrilled when they said to me, "Now you have this thing, you know, Menopause." and, oh, I said, "Oh that's great. Oh I'm so thrilled. This is exciting, I'll be through with all of that." They said, "Now you just take this little pill. Because if you don't take this pill, Premarin, of course, your bones will crack and you'll just disappear." I said, "I felt OK." "No, no. You have to take this purple pill or the patch." So I put the patch on, I tried that because that's a very good thing if you live a normal life but not if you're in the theater where you have to put hose on every day and then the patch comes off and then the patch is on the hose and the hose are feeling really good and I'm tired. And I have the healthiest hose in the whole danged world. They didn't have arthritis, Osteoporosis, nothing like that. Oh then I went, so then I did, I took, I had to take the pill because I couldn't keep the patch. The patch kept moving up all over, you know, wherever I took my costume the patch would wind up on my neck, you know, and the audience, well they, one lady one night she was pointing. I said, "What's the matter?" She said, "What is that patch on your neck?" It had moved all the way up from my butt to my neck and I had a healthy neck, I tell you. No Osteoporosis in my neck at all. You girls have to take that Premarin. Do you take that? Yeah. Well no. OK, so we're really good and we take it and then we read these horrifying articles that say if you take it you're at your own risk. So if you don't take it you're going to die and if you take it you're going to die so you might as well just go out and get drunk. No, so I take it, you know, because I don't want to get, you know, all bent over like that because I have Osteoporosis too you see. So I decided, I went back to the doctor because I feel good. I really felt, because my work, you know, my working out exercise, I really feel terrific and I went back and had my examination, this is a couple of months ago, you know, and the doctor says, "Oh Debbie, you're just in great shape. I'm just so happy you're just doing so well in your back." I said, "Well, my back hurts all the time." He says, "Well, but for your age you're just doing great." He said, "I just have to tell you you have something new." I said, "Yeah, what is that?" "Well have you heard of dryness?" You boys don't know but you don't have to listen to this. If you expect to ever, every do anything, you're going to have to listen to this one. I can not believe this. I said, "What do you do, you mean, down there I have dryness. It's not your scalp? Can I get something like Head And Shoulders for this?" He says, "No, no, we have a pill for this." I said, "I'll tell you I'm so sick of pills. I'm not going to take any more pills. I'm not. I'm going to call, I am going to call Florence Henderson and I'm going to get a bottle of Wesson Oil and a turkey baster and that's it." You guys will love it. You'll slide right out of bed. Where did he go? I don't know. It's true, it works. I'm putting mine away now. Just going to let it rest. You know it's time to retire anyway. Too busy with it anyway. I tell you, I just, I sometimes wonder when I put, you know, as a female I always wonder how we make it. You know, how we raise the kids and give birth to the kids and cook and shop and take care of our husbands and we adore, you know, we adore you. But then when we get the children, there's so much to do we can't take care of you so well. You know what I mean. So exercise in the bed together. That's a good idea. I hadn't thought of that because I don't do that. That would be good. You know, there are a lot of exercises you can do together and of course I always say, when you work with somebody else it's much easier. Like have a group over to your house of the ladies, or the men. Like a lot of men too. I did a little exercise tape, I don't promote it because I don't. I hate pushy people if they, "Here, buy this." makes me crazy so I don't even bring it but it's very good. It's 40's music and it's, you know, stretching. Richard Simmons does a very good exercise program for the “oldies but the goodies”. They’re actually very good and if you do it, they work. Because the main thing is always the stretching which we don't do enough of, walking, swimming, I don't know if any of you love to swim, I love to swim. I put a ballet bar in my swimming pool which is probably illegal but I didn't ask anybody so nobody said no and I don't know any policemen to invite in so so far so good. And I exercise in the, in the pool. You know, I hold onto the bar, put my legs up on the side and do every kind of stretching and it's wonderful because if we could do half an hour a day, our lives, our bodies, cause see, our minds are terrific, unless we have Mentalpause. And I know sometimes that happens. Sometimes you remember, sometimes you don't but if we're really lucky and our faculties stay well up here, then it's, we really need to keep our bodies together. What does that mean? Well I changed my, how I ate totally like 12 years ago. Just totally and a lot of men would never approve. I don't eat meat. Once in a while I'll have a little chicken and fish. Very rarely. Mostly I eat pastas and vegetables and I know that sounds so boring and being from Texas I have to have a taco once in a while and my pinto beans, you know, my chili beans, but that's protein. So I really have changed the way that I eat and I, salads actually bore me but I'll just pretend I'm a rabbit and I do it because they are good for us and I'm the worst at taking my pills. You know what I mean. We're supposed to take Calcium right and they have this new pill now.....