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.

From the Top Down

When I began giving my bedroom a weekly cleaning last February, my round of chores was pretty bare bones. I've been fleshing it out ever since and have finally come up against the last of the bunch - the one I was avoiding. This chore was recommended by The Manual on a weekly basis. For me, it's going to be a monthly chore:

Brush ceilings and walls when necessary.

I've been puzzling over this one for awhile now. Standing in the brooms-and-mops aisle of every store I've been into - gazing at all the tools and trying to decide which would do the job. Luckily, The Manual devoted a chapter to "Walls, Ceilings and Woodwork" - so back to the book I went. Time to study...

It is extremely important that walls be dusted regularly and often if more difficult cleaning tasks are to be avoided. Walls that are neglected in this respect soon acquire a film of greasy dust that attracts and holds still more dust and which inevitably becomes embedded and difficult to remove.

The only exception to this rule occurs in the case of papered walls. In soft coal regions or industrial sections dusting papered walls is not advised, because soot will be grimed into the paper no matter what method of dusting is used. An annual cleaning with a dough-type cleaner is recommended.

In other regions where dust and cobwebs are the only problem, papered walls may be dusted with the suction attachment of the vacuum cleaner.

There are three tools for dusting walls:

1. A soft wall brush of hair, nylon, lamb's wool, yarn or sponge rubber, with a long handle.
2. A fiber or corn broom covered with an "apron" of soft clean cloth, such as cotton flannel.
3. The dusting attachment of the vacuum cleaner. If you have this attachment use it, by all means, because it eliminates any scattering of dust.

Work from the top down, giving special attention to high mouldings. There is one exception to this rule: if cobwebs are present, whether they are spider webs or dust cobwebs, remove them with an upward lifting stroke to avoid streaking the walls. Cobwebs of any sort are sticky, and if they are pulled down against the wall they will leave a trail of dirt that is hard to remove.

The hose on my little bag-less vacuum works just fine when I'm using attachments to clean something near or along the floor, but I certainly can't stretch it high enough to reach the upper parts of my walls. There were some lovely extension dusting tools in the stores - complete with pictures of happy people dusting their ceiling fans on the packaging - but I hate bringing home another one of those tools with plastic handles. And that's practically all you can find these days. I didn't mind purchasing a new mop or broom back when they all had wooden handles. You know that's going to break down someday at a dump somewhere and return to the earth. But all those plastic handles... Eek! They'll be here long after the human race has run its course. Alien scientists will spend their summers doing digs on the third planet from the sun and have to presume that Swiffer was the name of some ancient god - and that ancient peoples were performing some sort of religious ritual in waving these brightly colored sticks about.

I've kind of settled on option #2, laying a flannel dusting cloth over the top of my broom and using that to dust the walls. It's not terribly efficient, though, as I keep having to readjust the cloth. (And how to dust "from the top down" when you get down to about the height of your waist? I find myself having to dust from side to side at that point.) What kinds of tools and methods do y'all use when dusting your walls? Should I be using a larger piece of flannel - something big enough that I can literally tie it up around the top of my broom? Maybe that's what the authors of The Manual meant in calling that an "apron." I see this chore popping up on the list for my bathroom as well as my living room, so I want to get it right.

Any ideas for brushing the ceiling? My ceiling has a pebbly kind of finish, so my improvised tool doesn't work at all on this part of the job... And is the tool in the foreground of the photo below the one this Illinois housewife was using in 1941 to dust the ceiling and walls of her living room?



Well, it's time to fly. One more push in cleaning the bathroom and I can have all my drudgiest chores out of the way in time for the Sabbath. (My Saturday hasn't been all work! I spent the afternoon having a lovely picnic in the mountains with my sister and nieces.) Here's my newly revised weekly housekeeping routine for the bathroom:

Open windows top and bottom for free circulation of air.

Pick up and replace small articles belonging in bathroom.

Gather up to take out soiled linen (to hamper, if dry), and articles belonging in other rooms. Collect trash in waste basket. Roll up bath mat or rug.

Wipe mirror.

Wipe tile behind washbowl and tub.

Clean bathtub and metal fixtures (be sure to wipe shower fixtures and clean soap holder).

Clean toilet bowl with brush. Wipe outside of bowl and closet with cloth used for that purpose only.

Clean washbowl (be sure to wipe base as well as top; also clean soap holder).

Straighten towels and wash cloths. Put out fresh linen.

Sweep floor. Gather up dust in pan.

Floor should be washed.

Replace bath mat or rug. Close windows in cold or damp weather.

Sunday, Monday, or Always

"Oh, yeah," I thought to myself this morning when I heard on the radio that today was the big day. The transition from analog to digital television was made today here in the United States. At least, I think it was. I felt the tiniest bit tempted to turn my TV on to see if it was picking up the new signal, but decided against it. This was big doings in the Jitterbug household last winter when they were planning to make "the switch" in February. I'd purchased my converter box, fussed about trying to pick up stations, figured out - finally - that my set would need a digital antenna, set that up and fussed about some more. Everything was in order when I parted ways with my television three weeks ago, so I'm sure it's fine now.

One of the things I'm certainly not missing about TV - analog or digital - is the constant grumbling about weather. Oh, those local newscasts... They'd moan and groan if it was in the 60s ("Too cold!"), they'd moan and groan if it was in the 90s ("It's a sizzler out there!"), they'd gripe about the slightest breeze ("Gusts of up to 40 mph!"), and rain? Forget about it. The softest shower was built up to be some massive rain system moving through the city. As if the griping and groaning and going over it again and again is going to make the slightest difference. It is what it is outdoors. All you have to do is open a window and you can see and feel what's going on out there. If your allergies are acting up - yep, there's pollen on the move. I can see how important forecasts would be if you were a farmer or if you lived in a Northern climate during the winter. I know firsthand how great Doppler radar is when a snowstorm is moving in. I used to get really frustrated hearing all that grumbling from the anchorpeople several times a day. (Not frustrated enough to just turn off the TV, mind you!) But it's an irritant that's gone now. Completely absent. I don't think I've heard a weather report of any kind in three weeks and I'm surviving quite nicely.

Another subtle shift for me is that I think I'm becoming more attentive to things like song lyrics. Music that was once more background for me than foreground is now the main attraction. If I'm sitting here tapping away at the keyboard and listening to big band, I'm really paying attention to the song. And this is probably going to sound goofy, but it's as if the lyrics of ballads and things are beginning to seem more passionate - and sexy at times - than they used to. Frank Sinatra singing "Sunday, Monday, or Always" is all crazy sexy to me now, and I probably would have written it off as a nice tune several weeks ago. It's kinda funny. Today's singers think they need to practically have intercourse on stage in order to elicit the same reaction that Sinatra got just from the way he paced his lyrics. And the catch in his voice. The bobby soxers were swooning in the aisles, but I'll bet there was many a housewife who stopped - iron in mid-air - to close her eyes and listen with a smile...

I'm getting ready to spend a few hours catching up with my kitchen. Because of the changes I've made to my housekeeping routine this week, I just wanted to post the revised list of chores I'll be doing on a weekly basis in the kitchen. These would have been daily tasks for the '40s housewife - and probably still are for many of you!

Open windows top and bottom for free circulation of air, or open kitchen ventilator.

Rinse and stack dishes, pots and pans.

Check and reorganize foods; put away.

Collect all refuse and put in garbage can.

Wipe off top of refrigerator and all work surfaces in need of cleaning.

Wash dishes. Dry and put away, if not room to rinse with hot water and leave to dry.

Wipe off surface of range. Clean spilled food from drip pan or oven.

Dry damp work surfaces.

Dust radiator or register.

Take out garbage; put clean lining in garbage can.

Clean sink. Rinse dishcloth or mop; hang outdoors if possible.

Collect soiled towels; wash. Hang fresh towels.

New Routines

Did you ever notice that as soon as people find out you're regularly walking, they come out of the woodwork to try and make you their walking buddy?

First, a co-worker asks me if she can match me up with a friend of hers who needs a walking buddy. Then another person I know through work tries to get me to commit to a walking relationship. I hope I don't come off as impolite, but I'd really rather walk by myself. Let's face it. Sometimes walking with another person can speed you up --- sometimes it can slow you down. The people I pass when I'm walking are almost always in pairs. And the last thing I want to do is to have to rush to the park to sit around and wait for somebody who might be late showing up - and then might show up toting a kid or two. Complete with strollers. I've got business to take care of!

I gathered up all my courage Monday evening and went into the rec center to purchase a membership and take my first indoor walk on the walking track. The rec center may be located just a few steps away from the park where I've been walking on the weekends --- but it's a whole new world in there! It's louder for starts. The walking track is built around a basketball court with racquetball courts nearby. There's lots of testosterone in the air as most of the people using the basketball court are young men in the 15-25 age range. I've only been there twice, but I'd say there's a more competitive feeling indoors than there is with the folks using the outdoor track. (It's actually the first time I've wanted to check my rear view in the mirror to see whether those new exercise pants are flattering or not!) The track is pretty small, so I can easily do 30 laps in a 60-minute walk. Thank goodness for that iPod. I'd perish without it! I'll still have a chance to walk outdoors one day a week. The rec center is closed on Sundays.

As for snacks, I'm doing remarkably better at the only-fruits-or-vegetables thing than I thought I would. Of course, it helps that nectarines are in season here. I picked up some beautiful, small nectarines last weekend at one of the natural foods stores. They've got a great selection of produce and I was in quest of some parsnips for my vintage dinner - but the nectarines caught my eye. Have you seen how big the fruits are in some of the supermarkets these days? They must be breeding super-sized fruits for super-sized customers. And bigger isn't always better. I'm a nectarine nut, so imagine my excitement when I saw these massive nectarines at the supermarket last summer. Ack! They were mealy and bland and never got to that lovely soft stage where the fruit just melts in your mouth. Anyway, I've been having one nectarine every day at about 3:00 in the afternoon. That's it for snacks. This weekend will probably be more challenging than my weekdays have been, but I'm feeling ready to face the enemy.

Here's the menu for my vintage dinner last Sunday:

Parsley Buttered Potatoes
Pan-fried Parsnips
Molded Salad of Cranberry Sauce (canned), Celery and Apples
Butterscotch Pudding with Nuts

I haven't had Parsnips in years. In fact, I remember being slightly traumatized the last time I ate them. It's been a long time, though, so I figured I ought to give them another shot. They have a spicy, celery-type scent as you're working with them, but once cooked they were pretty bland. Didn't taste like much of anything. What I've heard since then is that Parsnips are tastiest in the fall when they're fresh from the soil. Alas, my first attempt at a non-gelatin Molded Salad was a dismal failure. I tried just heating up a can of the jellied cranberry sauce, adding the celery and apples, and putting the concoction in the fridge to chill - but it never quite set. I'm going to track down some of the agar a couple of my readers mentioned and try that next time.

It's Thursday evening, which means that it's time to clean my bedroom. The first order of business will be the daily chores recommended by America's Housekeeping Book (1945). This will be my new weekly routine for the bedroom:

Open windows top and bottom for free circulation of air.

Remove all bed covers; stretch over end of bed, or over chairs, off the floor. Remove soiled bed linen; place near door to be taken out. Place mattress pad over chair near window to air.

Bring in cleaning equipment: carpet sweeper or vacuum cleaner (according to need), dust mop, dust cloth, damp cloth. Bring in fresh bed linens.

Turn mattress top to bottom one week, and end to end the next week. Make bed.

Dust high objects if necessary (mantels, high shelves, window frames and sills, tops of bookcases, etc.).

Dust radiators covers if necessary.

Brush upholstery if necessary. Straighten covers. Plump up pillows.

Dust furniture and low objects if necessary.

Dust exposed wood flooring with dust mop if necessary. Use carpet sweeper or vacuum cleaner on rugs or carpets.

Polish or wash accessories and return to place with other objects removed during cleaning.

Final touches: Straighten draperies, shades, curtains, etc. Take out cleaning equipment and waste basket. Bring back clean ash trays, accessories, flowers and waste basket. Close windows if desired.

I'm kicking off my new monthly chores (recommended in 1945 as weekly chores) by making my bedroom the featured room this week. So here are the extra chores I'll also be doing in there tonight. Brushing walls is a whole new thing for me this week. More on that in another post...

Collect lamp bases, bric-a-brac and dressing table fittings that need polishing or washing, and dresser scarves to be laundered.

Brush walls when necessary. Dust high mouldings, door frames, window shades and Venetian blinds when necessary. Brush draperies (or use brush attachment of vacuum cleaner). Dust mirrors, pictures, lighting fixtures, lamps, woodwork; wash any of these articles if necessary.

Dust radiators (covers and coils) or registers; clean thoroughly when necessary. Brush baseboard or use brush attachment of vacuum cleaner. Dust book shelves and books as necessary. Wash windows when necessary.

Remove cushions from upholstered furniture. Use brush attachment of vacuum cleaner on furniture (getting into all crevices) and cushions. Replace cushions.

Rub wood surfaces of furniture to polish; apply wax or polish when necessary. Polish metal hardware if necessary. Wash glass table tops.

Use vacuum cleaner for cleaning of rugs and carpets.

The evening is short and I've got a bed to strip. Time to shed my dress and get to work!

"Rest, Relaxation, Correspondence..."

When I embarked on this experiment, I knew there was no way - with a full-time job outside the home - that I could keep house to the standards of a 1940s housewife. Without hesitation, I moved most of the jobs that were done on a daily basis in the '40s household to my "weekly" column. Yet, all these months, I've stuck to the goal of being able to get all of the jobs my '40s counterpart did on a weekly basis done right on schedule.

Well, maybe this would've been possible if I didn't have any friends or family. Or unexpected errands to be run or workouts to be done. But I do, and so it's not. Adding a weekly cleaning of the bathroom to my list of chores has tipped the scales, so to speak. Even a 1940s housewife built time to rest into her day. I see it right there at 2:00 p.m. on weekday afternoons: "Rest, Relaxation, Correspondence, Reading, Personal care, etc." Sundays don't even show up on The Manual's skeleton housekeeping schedule. They were set aside in most American households for a well-deserved and much-needed rest, for worship, visiting with family, going for a drive... maybe even just sitting a spell on the porch.

So my housekeeping routine's about to undergo a little renovation. What I'm planning is to move most of my weekly chores to a monthly basis. Not all of 'em. Things like laundry, ironing, and changing the bed linens do indeed need to be done on a weekly basis. Each of the rooms in my home will still be getting some pretty dedicated attention once a week, but I'll rotate between the rooms each week when it comes to the more thorough chores done on a weekly basis in the '40s. The bedroom one week, the kitchen the next, then the bathroom, then the living room. If I master things at this pace and feel like I could step it up a notch at some point, so be it. For now, I think these chores will be more than enough to make a lovely home. And me a lovelier person than the grump I became last weekend!

It's funny. Being an aunt has given me the ability to see the world anew as my nieces discover it for themselves. Being a housekeeper has given me the ability to protect and cherish my free time. I used to squander all my free time on neither work nor rest. I value it now in a way I never did several months ago. More than ever before, I want to be really enjoying myself in my occasional hours of rest --- to be with people, to see the sights, and - most of all - to be outdoors.

Calorie Reduction

If you think the 21st-century diet industry is a wild and crazy place, check out this article from the August 21, 1940 issue of the Milwaukee Sentinel. The author, Ida Jean Kain, rails against the tricks and shortcuts offered to those needing to reduce. (Incidentally, Kain later authored the diet plan that Roxanne is putting to the test over at Shapely Weight from 1958.) And there were tricks and shortcuts aplenty. Somebody anxious to trim her figure in the '40s could try anything from replacing two meals a day with low calorie biscuits, joining a reducing salon, taking sweat baths or salt rubs, massage, mysterious "slimming" drinks, and even amphetamines... Kain reminds her readers that lowering your calorie intake is the only path to success. I'm printing her article in full here, but it's the next to last paragraph which truly caught my eye:

The latest trick in reducing is the neatest. Some ingenious and enterprising manufacturer with an uncanny understanding of the overweight psychology has evolved a method whereby you take his product in place of two meals a day and reduce. You could take anything in place of two meals a day and reduce. You could take an apple but it wouldn‘t keep the doctor away!

This is just calorie cutting in another guise. Instead of telling you to hold your calories down to 1,000 a day, the proponents of these plans get the same calorie deficit by having you take a synthetic product low in calories in place of the two meals. If you consistently omit two meals a day, you are fairly certain of reducing - but unless the substitute supplies all the protective elements you must have, it’s a risky business.

There are foods on the market which are low in calories and can be safely used in place of high calorie foods - they are in a different class. They do not purport to take the place of meals. It is suggested that they be used in conjunction with well balanced, low calorie meals to contribute satiety. You may find it easier to stay on a diet if you use some of the low calorie biscuits or breads because you can eat more of them without exceeding your reducing allowance.

But nothing in this world can reduce you unless you keep your calorie intake below the number expended daily in energy. Sweat baths, soaps, salts, creams, rubber girdles and all the long list of “reducers” are futile unless you keep your calorie intake below the number expended in energy! Then the stored fat is burned to make up the deficit.

Massage, although often advocated for the overweight, is not reducing. It is an excellent means of stimulating the circulation and improving the muscle tone. It shortens stretched muscles and improves your measurements. But it does not reduce weight.

I don’t even try to sell you on exercise as a reducer! The amount you are likely to take regularly will not help you to lose any appreciable number of pounds. When you consider the number of calories you have to burn in exercise - 4,320 - to lose one single pound of fat, you can see that you would not get very far on exercise if you ate as you pleased! But exercise tones the muscles and gives you a lovely figure.

When you understand the separate roles of a low calorie diet and streamlining exercise, it is not so easy for you to be led astray by the promises of substitutes!

Zowie! You have to burn more than 4,000 calories just to eliminate a single pound of fat?!? That means that even the 60 minutes of brisk walking I did last night (370 calories for somebody of my size) barely made a dent. No wonder I'm having such a hard time actually dropping pounds. I clearly need to investigate some changes in the food I'm eating. Imagine how much progress I could make if I was actually doing the two things at once...

Intervention

*sigh*

I might as well have done nothing for the last two weeks. No exercise, no deprivation. I weighed in at 187 this morning, which means that I've lost 0 lbs. in the last two weeks. Heck, I was losing 0 lbs. per week while I was living a completely sedentary lifestyle and eating whatever I liked! Why not just do that again? It was a lot easier...

This is really starting to piss me off. Of course, I've had a bad attitude about everything for the last few days, including the housework. I didn't get finished cleaning the bathroom 'til late last night and then I had to get up at the crack of dawn this morning to start all over again with the wash. What am I doing it all for if there's no time when it's finished just to relax and enjoy my clean house?

Maybe it's just the heat that's really getting to me. In any event, it's time to stage another mid-mission intervention. Two weeks of hard work for 0 lbs. just doesn't feel like a good trade for me.

Fitness
Walk 60 minutes a day, four days a week. I'm going to make the transition to using the indoor track this week. One more lunchtime workout today to make up for last Friday (long story) and then I'll plan on using the indoor track Monday and Wednesday evenings and Saturdays and Sundays.

Diet
I think it's clear I'm going to have to dramatically reduce my caloric intake if I'm going to begin losing any real weight. All the modern authorities tell us that healthy snacks and small meals spread throughout the day is the best way for people to eat, but I'm going to trust my instincts here: When I lost 40 lbs. in my early twenties, I didn't do it by continuously eating. Instead, I chose not to snack at all between meals. As much as I've enjoyed my little power snacks for the last week, I think they leave me more susceptible to late night temptation. It's as if they're keeping me from getting used to the feeling of hunger - and waiting it out. I think I'll see if I can't find some middle ground here. I'm going to allow myself to snack as often as I like between breakfast and 7:30 p.m. as long as I'm snacking only on fruits or vegetables.

Attachments

So I'm putting the finishing touches on my lips in the bathroom this morning, when suddenly - out of nowhere - comes this terrific explosion and sound of shattering glass. From the kitchen.

I jumped, then cringed inwardly, ticking off the things I'd last done in my kitchen. Had I left the glass I'd just washed on top of a burner that hadn't been turned off --- as happened in The Casserole Dish Disaster of 2007? Had some of the leftovers in my fridge imploded? I reluctantly tiptoed out towards the kitchen and what should I see but my ceiling fan with a bare bulb and the glass globe in fragments. Everywhere.

Scratch what I said a few weeks ago about cleaning those lighting fixtures. Maybe that's not such a good idea after all!

It's Thursday evening. The glass has been cleaned up - at least all the glass that's visible to the human eye (I'm sure my feet will find some more) --- and it's time to get cracking on my weekly cleaning of the bedroom. I think I'd also like to start using some of the tools on my vacuum cleaner to really get into the edges of the room where the carpeting meets the wall. As nice as it is just to vacuum those wide, open spaces, it's the edges of my bedroom that seem to accumulate the most dust and little bits of paper and things. The Manual has lots of advice to offer on operating and caring for vacuum cleaners. Here are some of the gems:

Operate the cleaner slowly in a straight line, lengthwise of the rug.

Go over each section twice to remove embedded dirt and grit.

Familiarize yourself with the attachments and their uses. Once you discover how easy it is to attach them and how many tasks they make easy, there will be no danger of their becoming a poor investment through lack of use.

Pick up pins, hairpins, tacks and any small sharp objects before using the vacuum cleaner.

Empty the dust bag after each use (suction action is lessened by dirt in the bag. Shake the dirt into a deep waste basket lines with a paper bag, to avoid scattering dust.