Discipline. According to Vicky Cayetano, that's what it takes to be the mother of two school-aged children, CEO of a successful business and the first lady of Hawai'i.
It is also the key ingredient to building a lifelong fitness program.
"Good health doesn't come naturally," says Cayetano, a master of time management. "It takes discipline to eat the right foods in the proper portions, and it takes discipline to make yourself get the right amounts of rest and exercise."
Vicky Cayetano gets out of bed at 5 a.m. every morning and five times a week she can be found in the gym shortly thereafter. On Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays, the first lady helps open the basement fitness center at the First Hawaiian Bank Tower in Honolulu, doing a workout of aerobics, light calisthenics and weight lifting. She developed these morning routines herself, consulting friends, reading books and experimenting with movements that felt good to her.
On Saturdays and Sundays, she can be found at home, burning calories on her stair-step machine and powering up for the long day ahead.
"When I was young, I was very athletic," says Cayetano. "I swam a lot in addition to playing racquetball and badminton. But as you get older, it's hard to get out. I found that getting out on the court was especially tough on my knees. So I started to get my exercise in different ways."
While most Islanders are still doing battle with their snooze buttons, Cayetano has already finished her hour-long workout, showered, dressed and is sitting down to breakfast with her children, Marissa, 16, and William, 13, before sending them off to school.
Then she is off to work and to a variety of functions and appearances that make her morning exercises look almost sedentary. She gets home in the late afternoon and spends time with her children. She tries to get to bed by 10 p.m., but special functions often keep her up until midnight.
Despite the hectic schedule, the traveling and especially the fancy dinners, Cayetano is able to stay fit, thanks to a little discipline. When on the road with her husband, she makes early morning visits to the hotel gym. At her frequent, high-calorie functions, she exercises a little willpower.
"I always try to eat like a king at breakfast, eat like a queen at lunch, and eat like a pauper at dinner," says Cayetano. "Believe me, it is very, very difficult."
She makes it a little easier by focusing on certain areas. "I once asked Dr. Dean Ornish [noted nutritionist] what one thing people should cut out of their diet," says Cayetano. "He said fried foods, not sugar, not red meat. So we try to watch how much fried food we eat -- and we enjoy good fried chicken."
The first lady says that a tougher decision for her was to cut out desserts. "I absolutely love cake," she says. "I can't have just one piece, I'll have two or three. So it is best if I have none at all."
For someone in Mrs. Cayetano's position, that could be a Herculean task. But she does have self-discipline. And besides, if she sneaks a mouthful of cake in the evening, with her workout schedule, the calories will be burned before breakfast.