Exercise Schmexercise...

So I decided to give the whole exercise thing a try. Thursday I sat around for three hours *thinking* about exercising and then finally I gave in. I did the arms and the legs sessions on my 10 minutes pilates dvd for a total of 20 minutes. Then I took a 2 hour nap.

Friday Matt forced me to go to the gym at our apt. complex. I went and did 20 minutes on the Arc Trainer and some two upper body machines. Friday night I was ready to go back to the gym. Yesterday I was going to be lazy and not work out at all, but decided about halfway through the day to do it anyway. I did 20 minutes again on the Arc Trainer. Last night I had so much energy I was washing dishes by hand. Now, normally I won't even use the dish washer let alone by hand. Matt came back from the store and saw me doing that and wondered what in the heck was wrong with me. Today I was full of energy again. I,again, was not going to work out today, but ended up walking 30 minutes on uneven terrain up and down hills through the woods at Eddie's horseback riding lesson.

I really need to to some ab exercises because that is where the bulk of my weight is. I really like that Arc Trainer. It's kind of like an eliptical machine, but doesn't have the arm movements. The first time I used it my thighs burned so bad I thought I was going to die. The second time they didn't start burning until I was about 3/4 done. So hopefully the more I use it the easier it will be on my thighs.

I will definitely keep up this exercising gig though if I keep this energy level up. Now I just need to start eating better and cut that darned pop out.

The Drug Crazed 60s and 70s

If you don't already know, I am a huge fan of cookbooks.  I especially like old cookbooks.  I have a large collection of Betty Crocker and Better Homes and Gardens cookbooks from the late 1960s and early 1970s.  I am in the mood to clean out old clutter.  As a result, I thought perhaps I should pare down my cookbook collection.  I've been looking through some of them tonight which inspired this post.   I have written in the past about the horrors of the Jello cookbook.  Let me tell you Better Homes and Gardens really didn't do much better.  I truly believe the recipes in these cookbooks were the inspiration of a cook on acid.   I mean, do you want to have Golden Nugget Meat Pie for dinner tomorrow night?  I know I sure don't.  I didn't even look at the ingredients.  The name alone was enough to scare me away.  I have a JC Penney catalog from 1972 so I know for a fact that clothes designers were on acid.  Now I'm convinced that the cooks in test kitchens were too.  They had to be on some kind of drugs. 

I leave you with an example of a tasty 1967 treat from the Better Homes and Gardens Jiffy Cooking:

Deviled Ham Pie rates high as a luncheon dish.  Deviled ham is surrounded with pastry, then topped with asparagus spears.  Prepare easy cheese sauce from canned soup.   Yum.  I know I can't wait to try it.

So basically you put a pie crust in a pan, spread one 4 1/2 oz can of deviled ham on the bottom, top the ham with a 3oz can of mushrooms, then put another pie crust on top of the whole thing.  Bake for 15 minutes.   In the mean time heat up a 10oz package of frozen asparagus.  Also heat one 11oz can of cheddar cheese soup and 1/4 cup milk.   Arrange the asparagus in a spoke fashion on top of the pie and then cover with the cheese sauce.