As the uninvited visitor stalks the streets of America, how do we deal with the stress of the pale rider known as the coronavirus?

Time to dust off another skill I developed whilst living abroad for 20 years. Without a work visa or the ability to get one, I had to find other ways to spend my time living in challenging third world lands. Exercise became one of those ways.

The skills had began at the ripe, young age of 21 while still in university. Beginning to have back problems due to scoliosis, the book Miss Craig’s 21 Day Shape Up Program for Men & Women entered my life. Not too different from DVDs I still use almost 50 years later.

Carefully following the book’s illustrations, each night I followed a cotton leotarded Miss Craig as she demonstrated the exercises. One required a tennis ball to roll out on, early version of the Yamuna, Pilates and Jill Miller balls that I still use today.

My first group class was a yoga class on a towel in Lima, Peru where I learned more Spanish than yoga. My mother-in-law’s BFF was a British dance teacher who use the Royal Academy of Dance system, teaching  a morning ballet-based exercise class with live piano accompaniment.

Back in the USA working full time and all the overtime that I could find while my husband went to graduate school, exercise fell to the wayside except for hand juicing grapefruits that fell from 4 grapefruit trees at our rented one bedroom home.

Then in 1981 came Jane Fonda’s Workout Book. With a new baby and pre-schooler, I loved those moments when I could open my Jane Fonda book and “do Jane.” Babies make great free weights!

Moving to Puerto Rico and then on to Curacao, Jane’s book moved with us. She didn’t even need a work permit visa.

Then a game changer-videotape. I could watch Jane, making following an exercise routine so much easier, no pesky pages to flop closed or to another page.

That precious video was my class for years. Sometimes the videotape was popped into the machine in an empty house as a dozen friends did Jane. I’d go to the back of the class given that the music and cues told my well-trained brain and muscles what was next. At home under ceiling fans, I’d do Jane alone, or with my chum D–, as our third friend N– sat on a cushioned bamboo chair smoking and commenting about how fabulous, hard working we were.

Well it was 1984.

In 1986 in Guayaquil, Ecuador, at back-to-school night I met the youngest daughter of my Peruvian dance/exercise teacher, S–. Since she too was a dance teacher and I had an aspiring dancer, 8-year-old daughter, I talked S into teaching dance to Jennie.

It was the beginning of a beautiful friendship with S– as she opened dance school that grew and grew.

One day S– said that the expat ladies were begging her to teach a morning exercise class, but “Candace, I’ll only do it if you come too.” Grumbling that I didn’t DO group classes, preferring videotapes and I didn’t have access to a vehicle often, S– said, “I’ll pick you up too.” So I went with S– three times a week to her group ballet exercise class. Within a dozen or so more years, S–‘s dance school had exploded to over 250 students.

Once back in the USA, it was back to videotapes. The Jane Fonda videos were joined by Karen Voight workouts that a dance teacher friend recommended as the collection grew. Somewhere between living in Connecticut, Mexico City and St. Louis, videotape was replaced by DVD. The best of my collection was repurchased, with their older stretched out videotapes versions retired.

Today my curated collection includes: Rodney Yee, Leslie Sansone, Jill Miller, Karen Voight, The Melt Method, Eli Newsom, Ana Brett/Ravi Singh, Yamuna, my local Tai Chi teacher’s homemade DVD and my current go-to-on most days, the 4-disc/40 routines by the inimitable  Miranda Esmonde-White.

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When my darling mother-in-law lived with us abroad for 3 months at a time, she’d watch me workout as she sipped coffee. How was I so disciplined?

I told her it was easy. When not exercising meant I had pain in my back, exercising was easy. And now with the stress of the uninvited visitor, coronavirus, I’ve no where to go and no excuse not to do a routine a day. So please excuse me, while I go do Miranda.