55 + 1 = 56... and Advancement

Advancement - 15-20 per cent of income.

The title to this category caught me off-guard at first. What could they mean by "advancement"? Here's the scoop:

Now for another main heading of our budget - advancement or development. Under this heading come health, recreation, pocket money, personal care, automobile expenses, gifts, contributions and education.

Okay, I get it. The "pattern" budget includes separate columns for both "health" and "automobile expenses" - acknowledging that these items probably make up the lion's share of expenses related to advancement. This is such a wide-ranging category it's going to be tough for me to come up with any kind of estimate as to what I'm spending, but I'll give it a shot.

Under health we list medical and dental care and drugs. Regular visits to your physician and dentist are cheaper than emergency measures necessitated by neglect. The Chinese pay their doctors to keep them well, and this seems to be the best idea of all. Hospital insurance, costing two to three pennies a day, is a wise investment for every family, even though they may never need it. And meeting bills caused by illness, through membership in an insurance association, is a method which is now becoming available.

Thankfully, in 2010, I can count on more than just "hospital insurance" - as long as I'm employed at my current job, that is. I spend $73.70 per month on medical, dental, and vision insurance premiums + $39.16 per month on long- and short-term disability premiums. During the past month, I've also spent $70.00 on co-pays. As near as I can figure, I've spent $35.58 on medication and vitamins during the past month. Though my premiums are steady from month to month, these last two figures will always vary. My total spending on health during the past month is somewhere in the neighborhood of $218.44.

Monthly automobile expenses include my car payment ($210.14) and car insurance ($60.17). I've only spent $26.33 on gas during the past month, but I'd better deduct from that the $18.63 I estimate spending on gas for my commute to work during the past month. (That falls under the "shelter" category in my vintage budget.) That leaves $7.70 spent on gas for non-commuting travel. I haven't had any maintenance or repairs this month, so my costs are definitely on the low side. My total spending on automobile expenses during the past month is about $278.01.

Recreation almost deserves to be listed under health, so essential is it to well-being and happiness. It is not at all necessary to be extravagant in order to have fun, but neither is it wise to be stingy to the point of starvation.

Sadly, I can't think of anything I've purchased during the past month that truly counts as recreation. Something to think about...

Magazines, newspapers, books and circulating-library fees all come under the head of education, as do fees for professional associations, school expenses, etc.

Nope, nothing here. I don't have any magazine or newspaper subscriptions. I rarely buy books, and the libraries I visit don't charge any circulating fees - unless you're late! I don't have any expenditures to chalk up to education during the past month.

What's left? Personal care --- here's where beauty products, haircare, and other toiletries come in ($63.24 during the past month). I've spent $10.79 during the past month on gifts and $11.00 on contributions. The one item I haven't really been able to categorize, but seems to fall into the "advancement" area, is a bouquet of tulips I bought last weekend for my desk at work. I guess I'll just have to consider that $12.95 as pocket money!

My total spending on "advancement" during the past month = 594.43 or 16% of my gross monthly income of $3666.67. I fall squarely into the 15-20% figure recommended by the authors of The Manual when it comes to this category. Next up: Savings.

PS: I weighed in at 138 this morning --- 1 lb. closer to my mini-goal of 134 by Saturday, February 20. All aboard! It's full steam ahead on the reducing train!!!

Shampoo in the Shower

Let's face it. As much as I enjoy my nightly baths, there are times of the week and times of the month when an invigorating morning shower hits the spot. On Saturday and Sunday mornings - when I sweat hard during a 65-minute walk at the park - I need a shower to feel fresh and dry for the rest of the day. And when Aunt Flo pays a call, I couldn't do without a shower before heading out in the morning to face the world. The rest of the time, I'm perfectly cool with a nightly bath. I've come to prefer 'em. I love that squeaky clean feeling when I crawl under the covers at night --- and there's something about all that hot water that puts my head in just the right space for dreamland.

Folks in the '40s were just coming themselves to appreciate the virtues of a great shower, and showers were becoming popular enough additions to postwar American bathrooms that Good Housekeeping dedicated an article to washing your hair in the shower in its March 1947 issue. I'll bet they've got some advice that might be helpful to me:

Why not wash your hair in the shower? Once you get the hang of it, you will never go back to shampooing in a bowl. Try it this way. Before you strip, have everything you need at hand - cream shampoo or a cup into which you have measured enough liquid shampoo for two sudsings, a small brush, a towel placed where you can reach it with your eyes shut. Wet your hair thoroughly; then keep away from the spray when rubbing suds into the hair. To rinse, face the spray or turn your back, as you like. Either way, shut your eyes, and as the water begins to run clear, turn so that a strong spray can be concentrated on every part of your head. Your hair will be more thoroughly rinsed with less trouble than ever before; you'll step out clean from top to toe; and you won't have to mop the bathroom floor.

Good Housekeeping seems sold on showers! At least when it comes to washing hair. Isn't it funny how something which seems so natural to we shower-takers today had to be broken down step by step like this. Even the process of rinsing the hair. Well, I suppose washing my hair in the bathroom sink would seem just as unnatural to me. Here are some additional tips included in the article. Thank goodness I don't have to worry about dandruff!

• Whether you shampoo in a bowl or in a shower, always brush your hair thoroughly before you start, in order to loosen any clinging dandruff.

• Be sure to suds every part of the scalp and hair. Uneven cleansing is often the cause of drab locks.

• Use a hand brush or small hairbrush to rub suds around the hairline, behind the ears, and on any spot where dandruff is likely to be troublesome.

• Rinse until the water runs clear. Without perfect rinsing, it is impossible to have glossy, springy hair. Use a hand spray if you don't shampoo in a shower.

• In hard water, use a soapless shampoo or a soap shampoo specially made to rinse out in hard water. Or follow soap rinsing with a lemon or color rinse, to remove curd.

Can anyone guess who's famous gams those are in the photo at the top of this post?

Week Forty-one: The Mission

It's that time again... I was planning to launch a new housekeeping mission this week, but I'm itching to kick things up another notch with my vintage beauty missions instead. I've got some serious momentum goin' on and don't want to lose it!

Fitness
An article in the October 1945 issue of Good Housekeeping includes a series of exercises designed just for the "tubby teen." (They didn't pull any p.c. punches in the '40s!) Luckily, they're accompanied by little drawings, because the written descriptions are very spare. I think these would make a nice addition to my morning exercise routine:

16. Waistline. [Lying on your back,] touch right foot to left hand, then left foot to right hand.

17. Hips. Lie on back, bicycle with legs in air. Repeat, lying on side.

18. Thighs. Hold on chair to balance yourself and swing leg back and forth.

19. Ankle. Roll each ankle 20 times, making a big circle with your toes.

I think I'll do 20 reps of each. Speaking of which, for the sake of consistency, I think I'll increase the reps of each of my other "limbering and stretching exercises" to 20 apiece.

Reducing
My weekday lunches are still a work in progress. I haven't by any means mastered this mission yet. Just yesterday, I left all my plastic containers sitting in the dish drainer in the kitchen at work. Again! Which means I had to pack a leftover frozen lunch today. I'm going to continue chipping away at this goal during the week ahead. Today is payday, and y'all have given me some great ideas about lunchware - so I'm hitting the stores this weekend!

Grooming
And here's the next step in the 1946 grooming routine. After taking my evening bath (or morning shower on the weekends), drying briskly with a towel, and applying deodorant:

Give your crowning glory a good swishing with the brush, dampen ends and pin up curls.

Hmmm... Well I certainly brush my hair after my evening bath-and-brief-shower, but I can't sleep in the curlers I bought. I've been rolling my hair in the mornings after re-wetting it under the shower for a minute. This step was definitely designed for the woman who only washed her hair once a week - and needed just to wet the ends on a daily basis in order to put it up in pin curls. The next step in the routine is one I could truly benefit from in the evenings:

Brush teeth carefully.

I always brush my teeth in the mornings - sometimes twice --- but I don't always remember to brush them in the evenings. And my dentist has been after me forever to floss regularly. I think I'll make brushing and flossing my teeth each evening my new mission.

"Be a safety-first girl..."

My little apartment has been in a state of upheaval for the last few days. I had some minor plumbing issues with the bathtub/shower, but it was enough to throw off that part of my routine entirely. After cleaning the bathroom on Saturday, I didn't want the tub to get all scurvy again before I had maintenance up to scope out my problem --- so I've been taking showers only since Saturday morning. Well, the maintenance guy was here yesterday and replaced my shower head and all the metal fixtures in my bathtub. You should have seen the water pressure I got this morning! Practically blew me out of the bathroom. I'm excited to get back in the bathtub this evening, though.

You know what I did learn during the last few days in Showerland? If I roll my hair up when it's freshly washed in the morning, it doesn't hold the curl nearly as well as when I wash my hair the night before and just wet it in the morning. I also found out that I'm way more excited now by the clean-ability of my bathtub fixtures than I am by their look. Once upon a time, I might have been concerned only with the fact that they were cute. The first thing I did when I got home yesterday was to check out those fixtures to see if they'd be easy to keep clean. And I think they will. Score 1 for the housekeeper!

My lunches for the last few days have been almost identical to Monday's. (I'm a one-woman household and that soup has got to be eaten up!) I'm definitely not feeling any afternoon hunger - which is a happy surprise considering that the vintage lunch has 2/3 the calories. One more day of the creamy broccoli/egg-salad combo and I should be ready for a new vintage lunch menu on Friday. This next one sounds a little, well, strange. Will I be able to choke it down? Will I actually enjoy it? Stay tuned...

I'm going to try the night-time deodorant thing tonight. The first time I read through the 1946 grooming routine, I thought it was nuts to apply your deodorant immediately after taking your nightly bath. Wouldn't you want to be as fresh as possible in the morning? Wouldn't you sweat it all away during the night??? So I was chatting with a friend the other day and she told me that she'd recently started using one of those new "clinical strength" deodorant/antiperspirants. Strangely enough, the directions on the container tell her to apply it at night! Maybe those vintage beauty experts were onto something after all. Well, we've sure got the right conditions to give this technique a run for its money. Temps should reach 104 or 105 degrees F. again tomorrow.

By the by, 169 seems to be my watermark when it comes to matchmaking. Since Monday, no less than two people have suggested setting me up with somebody! An acquaintance wants to set me up with a 44-year-old engineer who's a friend of the family. She describes him as "a little nerdy," but very athletic (hiking and swimming). She's one of the kindest people I know, so I'm intrigued. One of my closest co-workers also wants to set me up with a friend. Which would probably be a bad idea seeing as she's also kind of a supervisor of mine. I think I'll try to pass on that one!

Breach of Etiquette

Ladies, I'm sorry to say that I committed a capital breach in vintage etiquette this morning...

I went out in public with my curlers.

*gasps, shrieks, and fainting*

Granted, it was 6:15 and I was only walking to and from the laundry room in my apartment complex. And that the men who live in my complex are all frumps themselves. It takes time for those clothes to dry --- if I'd waited 'til then to roll up my hair, my hair wouldn't have had time to dry before I needed to leave for work.

Etiquette experts of the 1940s railed against the woman who lolled about at home with her hair in curlers. Your husband, particularly, should never - under any circumstances - see you in this vulnerable state. (They didn't even mention wearing your curlers outside the home. Guess that wasn't on their radar!)

There is no excuse for coming down to breakfast in hair curlers undisguised. If you put your hair up in curlers, then wear whatever is becoming to you to cover them - perhaps a bandanna tied on like a bathing cap, perhaps some pinned-on puffs. At the moments, milliners are showing evening helmets made of curled “belting” ribbon to imitate a wig. They would be excellent for breakfast! Anyway, not curlers.

“Be Polite, Even at Breakfast” by Emily Post
(Milwaukee Journal, January 28, 1940)

Women who worked outside the home had no excuses either:

She is often just as tired as her husband is - not only that but she has to take time for cold cream and curlers at some moments when they are both at home…

If you need curlers on your hair, cover them with an attractive turban. This can be made by wrapping silk or net around your head.

“Working Woman Tends to Relax Into Dowdiness”
by Josephine Lowman
(Spokane Daily Chronicle, June 18, 1940)

Despite her dictum against hair curlers, Miss Post does relent a bit when it comes to housecoats at the breakfast table:

But may you wear a housecoat? Certainly, if it be a zippered or buttoned princess dress. But not a wrapper - at least not if you go to breakfast in the dining-room with your family, still less if you work in the kitchen. And yet - if you and your husband breakfast alone and you have servants to prepare it and serve it, a negligee (if it be glamorously becoming) does fit into the picture of breakfast-for-two-at-home.

Rats! I guess only one or two of these beauties will do.

Curly Top

It's like Christmas every day here at Casa Jitterbug!

Putting my hair up in curlers totally makes me feel like a kid on Christmas Eve. I'm still very new at this, so I'm never quite sure how the curls are going to come out. It's kind of exciting --- waiting with anticipation while the hair dries. I have to remind myself to be patient. Though the hair on the top of my head dries pretty quickly, the hair on the bottom takes a bit longer. When it's finally time to take the curlers out, it feels like I'm unwrapping a present I didn't even have a chance to shake beforehand.

When I began taking nightly baths the week before last, I was psyched to have the chance to work a "wet set" into my schedule. So after looking about to see what's out there, I picked out a set of self-holding rollers by Scunci. They're wrapped in a material kind of like the prickly side of a piece of Velcro. My hair is very fine, so the last thing I need is to lose any strands unnecessarily in clips or pins.



What I'd forgotten is that you can't sleep on curlers like these! Sponge curlers, maybe. Maybe even rag curls or pin curls. I gave it a good try the first night I took a bath, but it definitely wasn't going to work. Back to the bathroom. Took out all the curlers and resolved to re-wet my hair in the morning and try it again. And that's how I've worked it into my schedule ever since. When I get up in the morning, I duck my head under the shower to get my hair good and wet again. Then up in the curlers so it can dry while I go about my morning chores. Just about the time I finish my breakfast, the hair is dry and ready to unroll and style. A little hairspray, and my style holds for the better part of the day. It's usually a bit looser late afternoon/early evening, but still pretty curly. Hey, if I brushed it a bit more and pinned up the sides, I might even be able to pull off that pageboy I was picturing about a month ago.

I haven't tried using any setting lotion or other product before curling the hair, but suspect the style would hold even longer if I did so. Any recommendations for product that'll make curls a little more glossy, but still natural-looking? I suppose the right setting lotion would've been super important was I truly a '40s gal and washed and set my hair only once a week...

Also - I'm a complete dolt when it comes to rolling my hair. My bangs definitely need the smallest curlers, but what about the rest of the hair? I'm not really shooting for a tightly curled look, so is it best to use the biggest curlers on the top of my head with medium curlers at ear level and small curlers at the bottom? Or am I going about this backwards? I don't want to end up with triangle head. And should the curlers be rolled into place horizontally or vertically?

It's a Girl!

I've gotten some great compliments from women lately. A co-worker whom I see only once every couple months asked me the other day if I had new glasses. "Nope." "Your face looks different," she insisted. So we gabbed for a good long while about my diet and exercise regimen. A friend of mine told me yesterday how young I was looking these days. Incredible compliments, I tell you --- I'm so grateful. The women around you can build up your spirits and your resolve in a wonderful way.

But it's the reaction of men that has been the zinger.

It started on the street one morning as I was walking to my office building. A middle-aged man looked directly at me and gave me an appreciative smile. It's probably the first time that's happened to this former frump in several years and it caught me completely off-guard! (I think it must have been the red lipstick.) The men I work with are all too dear and polite - and much older than I am - to even breathe a word to me about my having lost weight, but some of them smile in a new way when they see me lately. Kind of in a curious, appreciative, it's-nice-to-see-a-pretty-woman-around-here kind of way. Like they'd like to ask what I've been doing with myself, but there's a rule in the Book of Masculine Etiquette that a gentleman never brings up weight around a lady.

It's not that I'm interested in what any of these particular men think of my looks, but it has been a strange and novel experience for me even to sample that kind of admiration again. I'd forgotten the power that an attractive woman can have when it comes to men. I don't think I've sensed that power since I was in my early to mid-twenties. Oh, it was heady stuff in those days... These days, I'm more than content that the men I work with, for instance, think of me simply as a trusted and accomplished colleague. I guess they just happen to be serving as a kind of mirror to me lately. Allowing me to see myself in a new light.

Maybe it's my crush. (I'll call him Curly.) There's such electricity in the air for me these days - I don't know which end is up when he walks by. I guess what I'm trying to say in a very clumsy way is that I'm actually feeling like a woman again. And it's been a long time coming. It makes me teary even now just to try and express this in writing.

When I had to shop for some new clothes (in a new size) a few weeks ago, I picked out clothes in colors - passionate lipstick pinks and bright, beautiful yellows. What a change they brought to my old wardrobe of neutrals! Blacks, whites, grays, khakis --- now I'm reaching for colors that make me feel more feminine than I have in years. I even bought a silk flower on a clip to wear in my hair. Since picking up a set of curlers a few days ago, I've been experimenting. It feels so good to have a little bounce and sass to my hair. I'm going to start sounding like a broken record soon, but it's a far cry from the buns and ponytails and the ever popular hair-tucked-behind-the-ears look that had become my signature hairstyles.

Gosh, if this is what losing 20 lbs. can do, I can't even imagine what I'll find myself thinking and feeling - and doing - at 40!

The Smartest Coiffures

Brush all the nighttime tangles from hair, and comb carefully into place, pinning securely.

One of the gifts my mom and dad gave me last Christmas was a lovely vintage dresser set. A brush, comb, and mirror with gold-tone handles and a burgundy moire-type panel set into the back of the brush and mirror. They were still in the box they'd been sold in and, to all appearances, had never been used. Well, I decided it was time to break 'em out this week in honor of my latest grooming mission. What luxury to use a brush with nylon bristles! I haven't spent all that much time in the hairstyling aisles, but it seems like all the brushes today have either those hard plastic bristles - with the knobby ends that often break off - or boar bristles.

Here's an article from the January 22, 1940 edition of St. Petersburg, Florida's Evening Independent. Didn't think there was a technique for hairbrushing? Leave it to the beauty experts of this era.... There's a technique for everything! The article promotes hairbrushing as a nightly ritual, but there's no reason why the same techniques wouldn't come in handy when setting your hair in the morning.

The smartest coiffures at the moment absolutely demand healthy, shiny hair which shows the excellent results of meticulous grooming. Whether you have retained your long bob, are wearing your hair up in front and down in back, or really quite short all over the head with soft curls or a roll in the nape of the neck, your coiffure won't be completely flattering or manageable unless you brush it at least five times a week.

If your present hair brush is indeed a sorry sight, by all means invest in a new one. Choose a brush with long, flexible bristles and a handle which fits your hand...

Hold your brush lightly in one hand, lean forward, relaxing your body as you do so, then place the bristles against your scalp at the hairline and continue on out to the ends of the hair. Let the bristles become embedded in your locks. Don't simply brush the surface, neglecting scalp and hair underneath.

When you straighten up, brush upward from nape of the neck to ends of the hair. In other words, don't stop brushing until the scalp is tingling and every hair has been brushed and polished. Repeat five nights a week and, within three months, you'll notice an enormous difference in the texture of your hair and the ease with which the waves and curls fall back into place after the brushing.

If you have dandruff or your hair is too oily or too dry, supplement the brushing routines with weekly scalp treatments. There are special tonics designed to correct scalp ailments. Brushing is most important, however. It's the great cure-all.

Track and Field

My routine descended into pure chaos last night.

I was late getting out of work. Rushed to Trader Joe's to do my light marketing. Raced home to wolf down my supper and change. Hurried over to the rec center - which closes at 8:00 - and found myself nauseous before I had walked for even 10 minutes. A quick supper and a workout do not mix. I powered though 30 minutes, then gave up the game. (I'll make up the missing 30 minutes during my lunch hour tomorrow.) I was still feeling so crummy when I got home that I just curled up and went to sleep. Hey, I had a great night's sleep --- nine hours for a change --- but when I finally crawled out of bed, my apartment was in disarray and there was extra tidying to do. Believing that the envelope I needed to drop at a mailbox was my Father's Day card, I rushed out to work without even having finished my morning routine. It turns out just to have been a student loan payment with plenty of time before the due date. My Father's Day card was mailed a few days ago! One misstep after another this week. There must be a full moon approaching.

Actually, it's only when I make mistakes like this that I have a chance to really learn what's working - and what's not - with my routine. Like perhaps it isn't a good idea to try and do my light marketing as well as my workout on the same night. I think I'll move my light marketing forward to Thursdays. There'll still be plenty of time for cleaning the bedroom if I get home 15-20 minutes later than normal on Thursday evenings. Wednesdays will be a workout-only kind of night.

Something else that's not working is trying to add errands to my morning commute. "I'll just stop at Walgreen's on the way in" or "I'll just drop this off on my way past the post office" or "There's plenty of time to run by the library book drop." With all the extra haircare and lipstick and stretching-and-limbering exercises in the morning, there simply isn't time to do anything extra. And I usually end up with these errands in the morning, because I've been to lazy to stop and do them on the way home from work. The evening commute is a much better time for errands --- unless it's workout night, that is!

And it turns out that I'm not very good at styling my hair. I've attempted a 1940s pageboy twice this week. The first one was semi-successful. The second was a flop. Hairstyling is definitely a craft that requires patience, and that's never been a forte of mine. I know so little about my hair. Would it take a wet set or will it need heat to hold a curl? What do you even use to make pin curls? I've been using a curling iron, but I'd much rather use a method which would take less product to stay in place. It sounds like the pin curls create the longest lasting curl. What kind of curlers were women using in the '40s? Or are pin curls literally made using pins?

I'm going to need another inch or two in length before I'm able to do a good pageboy, so in the meantime I'm going to try and assemble the tools I'll need and get plenty of practice. My mission doesn't really dictate that my hair be styled in vintage fashion, but I think there's something to be said for having a vintage quality to my hair - even if it's styled with a more modern look sometimes. Our grandmothers wouldn't have dreamed of leaving the house with the frizzy bedhead that's so popular today. (Imagine the looks they would've gotten!) Hairstyles were glossy, sleek, controlled - and curls were king. It probably looked a lot healthier, though I'm not sure they were using any less product than some women use today even if only to achieve to perfectly tousled look. I think I'll strive for something in the middle here. Can I achieve a shiny head of curls with minimum product?

Oh, how I wish I was having an easier time with reducing my calories... Truth be told, I should probably have held off on this step for just a little while. I did great last week in changing my snacks to fruits and vegetables --- during the early and middle part of the week, at least. At the end of the week, I was strafed with cravings late at night. Pushed through them the first time, but gave in to them the next two nights in a row. When my scale showed a loss on Monday morning, I figured I'd go ahead and jump into the next mission. But thus far I've cheated two out of three nights. The same experience. I don't have any real powerful cravings until late at night. Bedtime. Sure, I could try doing the small, healthy snack thing, but I know me. One bite and I'd go bananas and eat much more than I'd planned on. I'm an all or nothing kinda gal, I guess. The only reason last night went okay is probably because I was already asleep!

I'm not proud of any of this, but I wanted to put it down here and lay out what this experience has been like. Those late-night cravings feel like a hurdle - and if I could just jump over it once, I'd be able to do it again and again. I must have really done a lot of snacking late at night in order for this to be such a problem now. They're phantom cravings in a way. Like the phantom pain somebody who's lost a limb feels in the place where that limb used to be. It's going to take some time for those cravings to subside.

It's strange what an emotional experience reducing calories - really getting to the nitty-gritty of dieting - is turning out to be. For years after an illness I suffered in my mid-twenties, I ate everything and anything I wanted. I was so frustrated with the side effects of medication and the complications from surgery that I figured the least I deserved was to eat whatever I wanted. In the beginning, I needed to. I was dangerously underweight and needed to put some weight on my bones. (That stage didn't last too long!) Eating was an easy fix when the process of physical recovery in other ways was prolonged and painful. During the two years after my next-to-last surgery, I gained about 80 lbs. And so when I feel those cravings late at night, all those old anxieties come right on back with 'em.

I guess I can only take this one night at a time. Just focus on the one in front of me and no further. If I can fill the rest of this evening with good, honest work - the bedroom is calling! - maybe I can jump the hurdle tonight. Tomorrow night can take care of itself.

7+1=8

In the immortal words of Gabriel Heatter, "There's good news, tonight!" I've finally found the edge of that plateau. When I stepped on the scale this morning, I weighed in at 186. That's eight pounds. Eight hard-won pounds.

I'm eating the first of my portion-controlled suppers - complete with a serving of yellow carrots, spinach, and cannellini (courtesy of Green Giant) - and I'm off to the rec center in a few, but I wanted to make a quick post and share the good news with my dear readers.

Here's my question for the day... I had my hair cut over the weekend with a 1940s interpretation of the pageboy in mind. Something like the hairstyle in the picture below. Can any of you talented divas give me any advice on pulling off a style like this one?

Week Thirty-one: The Mission

Fitness
As I continue my transition to using the indoor walking track for my weekday workouts, I'm going to begin adding some muscle toning exercises to my daily routine. In the 1940s, they were called "limbering and stretching exercises" and recommended by beauty experts as an ideal supplement to a brisk daily walk. I've found a ton of these in vintage newspapers and magazines, but here are a few from a 1940 edition of the St. Maurice Valley [Quebec] Chronicle for use before and immediately after getting out of bed in the morning. I'll start with these:

1. Before you get out of bed in the morning, do this routine five times: stretch body out with arms out at sides. Lift both legs simultaneously as high as you can, even, if you can, over your head; then down again, slowly.

2. Here is a good stretching exercise that helps to develop the bust and improves the posture and figure generally: Stand with feet slightly apart, arms down at sides. Stretch arms in front up and over the head slowly as far as you can, without straining, then slowly return to original position. Repeat this several times.

3. To improve hips and waist and improve general line of figure: (A) Stand with feet slightly apart, abdomen in, seat well down, fingers interlaced and raised high over head, arms making a frame for the face. Keep face framed by arms throughout exercise, and body absolutely steady from waist down. (B) Swing forward till body and arms are horizontal. Swing body round to right side and travel upwards till arms are over head once more. (C) Turn to the left and swing the body round and down till body and arms are once again horizontal, as in B.

Reducing
In the spirit of reducing my calorie intake, I'm going to begin limiting the portion size of the prepared, pre-packaged foods I typically eat at dinner and for lunch on the weekends. One of these kinds of foods would usually make up my entire meal. Now, I know perfectly well that I can't go from 0 to 60 overnight, so I'm going to do this in steps. This week, I'll try to cut the portion size by a third --- where I would normally eat three pieces of frozen tomato/pesto/mozzarella pizza, I'm going to eat two. If I would normally have 3/4 of a bag of frozen mushroom fettucine, I'll make it 1/2 a bag. What I'm going to do at the same time - and this is equally important - is to fill up the rest of the plate with veggies. They don't have to be anything fancy or anything that requires much time or energy in the kitchen. Frozen or canned vegetables will do just fine for now. Something to try and trick my body into feeling just as full as it would have with that larger portion of the pre-packaged foods. If I can make a go of this, I'll cut the portion size of the pre-packaged foods by another third next week.

Grooming
My face has been powdered, my lips are painted... it's time to attend to my hair! Here's the next step in the 1946 morning grooming routine for young women:

Brush all the nighttime tangles from hair, and comb carefully into place, pinning securely.

In honor of the occasion, I betook myself to the salon this weekend. A rare event indeed for this reforming frump! I'm launching the mission with a new haircut and some freshly manicured eyebrows.