Health

It Is Never Too Late To Exercise

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

January 31, 2002 / 8:40 AM EST / CBS

Getting older is no excuse for getting heavier. CBS Tokyo correspondent Barry Peterson reports that for one man, self-preservation is a matter of self-determination.

Ambassador Thomas Foley is America's top diplomat in Japan. But what most people don't know is that he is also in top shape.

"Exercise becomes a bit of a compulsion," says the ambassador. "But I think it is a good compulsion. If it isn't a little compulsive, I don't think you'd probably be able to do it over a long period of time."

To get here means eating right and exercising, but for most of his life, ambassador Foley did neither. And for a long period of time, stretching across almost four decades, he didn't do it.

When he entered congress in 1964, he was a six-foot-four-beanpole, as he puts it. But by 1989, when he was elected speaker of the house, he carried a lot of weight-and not just the political kind. He tipped the scales at almost 300 pounds from years of a sedentary lifestyle.

So at the tender not-so-young age of 61, he started fighting back. Dieting trimmed off 90 pounds, but it's the exercise that has been keeping the weight off.

"I think it's the old story," says Foley. "It's just with me, at least. If I didn't work out a lot and watch the food somewhat, I'd gain weight again."

The fact is that the ambassador has a few advantages over us regular folks. First, he's the boss at the embassy, which gives him more control over his work and his workout schedule. He also uses a personal trainer to maximize each session. But the single most important ingredient is the one he supplies himself--discipline.

Part of what drives him is a competitive personality-which carries right over to exercise. Don't forget that ambassador Foley is now 71 years old. Age has left its mark. He used a cane when he presented his diplomatic credentials to Japan's emperor at the palace, the result of an operation installing an artificial knee.

It was only a temporary setback for a man who now gets his aerobic exercise by bicycling around the emperor's palace.

"I think exercise is a good thing not only to prolong life, probably, but to have a better quality of life," says ambassador Foely. "That's worth something and it takes an investment. I've put a lot of hours into it, but I think it's worth it."

This exercise late-bloomer enjoys each new challenge. When a sporting goods chain opened a rock-climbing wall in Tokyo, guess who was the first one up. "I'm physically stronger than when I was forty," says Foley. "That's something I'm going to try and continue."