- Matthew McConaughey’s 93-year-old mother Kay says avoiding stress — and maintaining a healthy lifestyle — are the keys to a long life in Austin Lifestyle
- Known as “MaMac” by her family, Kay says she avoids stressful situations and knows “I don’t have to fix everything”
- She also does Pilates four times a week, and her trainer Nonna Gleyzer says “young people can’t handle” the moves Kay does
Kay McConaughey — known as MaMac by son Matthew McConaughey and his wife, Camila Alves McConaughey — says the secret to being so vibrant at age 93 is simple: “Don’t stress.”
“The biggest thing for me is I don’t stress,” Kay says in a recent issue of Austin Lifestyle. “Like, if you and I were really good friends and, and you were talking to me and you had a situation, I would listen to you and I would give you advice and if you didn’t take it, then that’s it, I wouldn’t stress over it.”
The trick, she says, is to understand that she doesn’t “have to fix everything.” “For me, that’s a very positive,” she said. “Women think they always have to fix everything, and I don’t think that way. I will help you, but I’m not going to stress over fixing everything.”
Jenna McElroy for Austin Lifestyle
When asked how she might handle a stressful situation, the mother of three explained, “I don’t let myself get [into] them, trust me, I don’t. If I see that’s where I’m headed, I back off. I’m not going to let people do that to me.”
However, as she shares, a peaceful lifestyle is just part of it. Since 2020, Kay has been doing pilates virtually with trainer Nonna Gleyzer, who has worked with Gisele Bündchen and Jennifer Garner.
As Gleyzer tells the outlet, she was at first hesitant to start training Kay, whom she met through Camila, due to her age. But these days, she says Kay is “kicking my butt, and I’m a former gymnast from the Ukraine.”
Jenna McElroy for Austin Lifestyle
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“She’s made so much progress and challenges me more than I’m challenging her. Her abs are like a rock. Each session, we do 80-100 different ab exercises. Young people can’t handle it,” Gleyzer says of Kay’s prowess, which she showed off in the magazine.
Kay also tries to eat healthily. “We never have any sweets in our house, ever,” she tells the outlet, with her only indulgence being wine — specifically, wine from Kendall Jackson: “I have a glass at 5 o’clock and then I have a glass when I go to bed.”
She only eats seafood and chicken, sharing that she also loves her daughter-in-law Camila’s coleslaw, and will only have red meat when visiting her son and his family.
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Jenna McElroy for Austin Lifestyle
“They like red meat and I would never refuse it, but it’s not something that I would choose,” Kay explains. “My father was very healthy and he taught my sister and I that you are what you eat, and you are what you think, and I’ve tried to live by those two things, really and truly, because if you think you’re dumb, guess what? You’re probably dumb. If you think you’re smart, then you’re probably smart.”
“So, I have always thought I am what I think,” she explains, “and that’s why I think positive.”