I recently read a couple of very encouraging articles that I would like to share with you:

The first story is about an amazing individual that is on the verge of making the Olympic swimming team, as the oldest female swimmer in the history of the Olympic games. Her name is Dara Torres. The other article is about a former body builder that was determined to restore his body to its physical peak, his name is Max Moore, 75 years of age.

. *After struggling for years to have a baby, Torres finally became pregnant with Tessa. At the time, she began swimming again for exercise, because, she says, she had terrible morning sickness and she’d “rather throw up in the pool gutter than next to the StairMaster.” But predictably, Torres soon found herself racing “whoever the middle-aged guy happened to be in the next lane,” even when she was noticeably pregnant. Three and a half months postpartum, she raced at the Masters World Championships. Fifteen minutes after nursing Tessa in the bathroom, she swam the first leg of the 50-meter freestyle relay in 25.98 seconds — fast enough to qualify for this week’s Olympic trials. One can read the mommy fitness blog to find some tips.

Torres is now 41 and the mother of a 2-year-old daughter, Tessa Grace. She broke her first of three world records in 1982, at 14, .and she has retired from swimming and come back three times, her latest effort built on an obsessive attention to her aging body. Last November in Germany, Torres clocked 23.82 seconds in the 50-meter freestyle short course, breaking the American record and making her one of only five women to swim the event in less than 24 seconds.

The day after she got home to South Florida, she had a bone spur shaved out of her shoulder. In early January, she had another operation, to deal with a torn meniscus in her knee. After all of the setbacks, challenges…she is one qualifying race away from making the Olympic team!

….. . . . ………………………………. . . . . . . . . . . . .>. . . . . Max Today, At age 21(below)

**It wasn’t until Max retired in 1997 that Max had the time to get back in the gym and get back the body he craved.

Max visits the gym three times a week lifting weights and using the rowing machine.

He said: “My biggest shock when I stepped back into the gym was that all the weights had gone metric.

“Back in the 1950s, they were all in pounds so the kilograms took a bit of working out.

“I do a lot of rowing and can row 2,000m in ten minutes.

“Fish is good for you so I usually eat that three times a week too.

“I think a lot of people think once you get to my age, there is not much point of challenging yourself to do something.”But I’m living proof of what you can do, even if you are 75.”**

Both individuals have families and both have busy lives, their stories prove that when the mind is put on task anything can be accomplished and at any age.

These and similar stories motivate me…how about you?

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Sources: *NY Times,** MailOnline. . . . . .. . . . . .