Fit for Dixie

The following is edited from an article that appeared in the December 2000 issue of 180 Degrees True South.

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Anda one anda two anda breathe, breathe

Have y'all noticed that our "period dress" would hang on our ancestors like a croker sack?  New commitment for Southerners -- get slim and trim, lean and mean and ...  

by Connie Chastain

I don't remember when I first noticed it.  Maybe it was when my sister suggested that we do some proSouthern demonstrating in Pensacola -- wearing Confederate period costume.  I was skeptical.  Ladies back then had a thing about having a waist -- which I don't have at the moment.

Then, it would catch my attention again when I compared War photos with reenactment snapshots. On average, we have grown substantially w-i-d-e-r than our Confederate forebears, even as they were before  the Yankees tried to starve them out.  They were not only lean -- they were strong and possessed awesome endurance.

They worked hard -- in fields and mills and on the railroads.  They plowed with mules, gathered their own harvest, shoveled coal, felled trees.  Women, too, worked hard taking care of home and children,  feeding livestock, drawing water, cooking meals over wood-burning stoves in heavy iron cookware.  They ate simple foods, most of which they raised themselves.  They rose before the sun and retired early, because a life of physical work demands good physical rest. Their work hardened their muscles and made them strong.

Few of us work like that today.  Fewer of us cook and eat like that.  As subjects of the Empire, we work at sedentary jobs and and partake of sedentary leisure.  We spend hours watching the Empire's vacuous television programs without moving a muscle.  We pop Lean Cuisine into the microwave and call it supper.

We have a tough row to hoe ahead of us, if saving our heritage iis truly our goal.  We will need not only our wits about us -- we will need that awesome physical endurance demonstrated by our Southern and Confederate forebears.

Let's do it, folks.  Let's swear off the Twinkies and Ding Dongs -- yes, even the Moonpies and Goo Goo Clusters, temporarily.  Let's get Dixie slim and trim, lean and mean -- because someday, our strength and endurance may be the only thing standing between us and the gulag.

If you are like me -- a little too much of a Southerner -- let's make a commitment to become a lean, strong Southerner.  I won't tell you how to do it -- what diet to try, what exercise regimen to follow.  Find whatever works for you.  Develop your own. If you've bought into the Imperial attitude about health -- that you must have someone's permission to try anything -- ask your doctor for advice. The most important thing, though, is to commit to improving your physical strength and endurance.

Let's create a great wave of health and fitness across the South, not as a trendy fad but as a national characteristic, based not on gimmicks, machines and pills but on our own good sense and commitment to excellence.

If we won't get fit and healthy for any other reason, let's do it for Dixie!