“I’m doing things I’ve never done before in my life,” says Nita Abraham* (62), as she hefts a 20-pound kettlebell upward, feet firmly planted on the deck of her lanai. “I’m using kettlebells and doing pushups and planks, but not because I want to lose weight.” Behind Abraham, an avid gardener, a profusion of leafy fronds frames a serene view of the neighborhood pond shimmering in the Florida sunshine. “I care about my well-being well into the future,” she smiles. “It’s a pivot from what our grandparents used to do.”
Abraham and her husband moved to Southern Florida when they became empty nesters during the pandemic, leaving a longtime home in Chicago where they raised three daughters. Now a grandmother of two, and a licensed real estate broker, Abraham looks forward to an active, semi-retired life. “But” she adds, “I want to be healthy for as long as I can as I grow older.”