LIVING THE GOOD LIFE
Simple Principles for Strength, Balance, and Inner Beauty

FOREWORD
by Amy Grant

I first met Ruth in February of 1993, four months after the birth of my third child, Sarah. As any new mother will tell you, during this nursing-intensive stretch of life, one’s emotional pendulum can swing pretty hard from euphoria to despair. Sleepless nights, the constant demands of motherhood, and an unrecognizable body shape had me feeling overwhelmed. In spite of the positive pressure to get in shape that work has provided me over the years, I couldn’t seem to muster the enthusiasm to invest in my physical appearance this third time around. What did sound good to me was cashing in on my collection of 501 Levis and investing in an affordable line of muumuus.

Enter Ruth.

On the recommendation of a long time friend in the music business, who had had some real results working with Ruth, I made an appointment. I had had a very exercise-intensive, body-buffing daily regime with a trainer several years ago. And even though the contoured physique staring back at me in the mirror was one that I never thought I would see, I still came away from that time feeling pressured and inadequate to maintain yet another area of my life.

How can I put into words the impact of the journey that I began that day with Ruth? We started at the beginning… with balance, posture, and simple exercises that she explained to me would build up my infrastructure, the subtle strength around the joints that protects your body. She encouraged me to walk or jog or do anything to get my metabolism going. I didn’t. I couldn’t yet.

Still, she would show up at my house, and week by week we would work on the same principles: balance, subtle structural strength, and gradually we added small increments of weight. And we talked. We talked about what a healthy mental image for a woman in her thirties would be, and how that differs from a healthy image of a twenty-year-old, a sixty-year -old, etc. We talked about family, about relationships, about life.

In a way I was envious of Ruth for the simplicity of her life. She had no children, a job where she called her own shots, fewer demands on her time. She celebrated simple things that I wanted to celebrate, but was too busy to enjoy. Over time, I began to see Ruth’s life more clearly… her unique pressures, the demands on her heart, her mind, and her time. I relearned the lesson that no one has the perfect scenario. We are all invested in other people, in work, in dreams for the future, and so we all experience the same kind of pressures in life.

Slowly, something began to change me. Almost a year into my work with Ruth, I went on my first jog. I started making time to walk. What I was compelled by in Ruth was a centeredness in her spirit, an absence of any manipulation of me, but a genuine desire in her for me to value and cherish the life that had been given to me by God.

In exploring my motivations for exercise, I was forced to take a long, hard look at the way I valued my own life, not for what anyone else thought of me, but what value did I place on my own existence, on my own journey through life?

As I started to experience a change in attitude toward my own body, I began to feel continental shifts in other areas of my life. How could I honor my body and yet turn a blind eye to emotional areas of my life where I was so embroiled in denial and pain that I was merely functioning? Ruth had warned me that I couldn’t look at changing one part of my life without being willing to change other areas. Of course, I didn’t understand what she meant at the time. Now I do.

Along the road to my own health, Ruth has given me books to read. We joke about the fact that I have skimmed them all and finished none. But the process is underway. The simple exercises that Ruth and I have been doing for years, the exercise of respect toward myself and others, the exercise of taking a simpler approach to life have strengthened not only my body but my mind and spirit as well.

When Ruth told me that she was going to write a book about her approach to health, I was thrilled. I just hoped that she could capture the simple essence of her example in words. I respect Ruth as a musician, a health and fitness professional, a woman, a friend, and now a writer. She has been more of an inspiration to me than she could ever know.

This book is a celebration of the sacred journey of life. Simple. Profound.

Enjoy.

Amy Grant