I came across an article in my local paper a couple days ago (meant to clip & scan it but forgot and now it’s in my outside recycle bin so, sorry, but I'm not fishing it out) that focused on how women weigh more these days because they don't do as much housework as compared to how much they did back in the late Sixties.
My gut reaction was that I was appalled someone would even begin to do this kind of a study. I mean it isn’t like men used to do the housework back then but they too were also much trimmer simply because the fast food, high fat crap diets and endless hours of sitting on one’s ass hasn’t yet filtered into the mainstream way of life and work. How dare this man put that kind of bullshit off on women!
But then I got to thinking, my house could really use a good solid cleaning. And I’m kind of lacking in cardio points this week. Maybe I should pull out the vacuum and go all Magda on my living room. Think Ethan Hawke in Gattaca only without the six pack abs. Well not yet, I haven’t cleaned this week.
And as a side note, whatever happened to Ethan Hawke? And how did I not recognize his amazing hotness until this very moment? I really need to watch Reality Bites in the next week or so. Damn.
But I digress.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not about to run a vacuum over my floors and expect to lose weight or tone my muscles or anything but when I think about the way I clean my house I can’t help but wonder just how many calories I actually do burn. Obviously cleaning isn’t a daily activity so it isn’t part of a solid workout plan but that raised another question for me – can any movement be considered part of a solid workout plan? And if I do enough moving in a day – cleaning, dancing, fifty random jumping jacks, power walking as I shop at the mall – does it count toward my calorie burn?
Last weekend Matt, my sister and I all headed to my mom’s place to celebrate her birthday and on Saturday night we had a couple drinks and a lot of laughs to some random tunes. Gloria Estefan, the Xanadu soundtrack, “Jesse’s Girl”, just to name a few. I haven’t been dancing in what feels like forever so, with the music playing, I simply got out of the chair on the sun porch and started doing some serious cardio dancing. For about a solid hour. And it felt great!
Let me tell you, I sure was sore the next day in my sides, thighs, hips & butt so I know I worked something. But then I got back home and it was back to my standard one hour a day workout. Do daily tasks. Sit on ass writing (read: play Angry Birds for hours). Eat dinner. Workout. Pretend I’m actually changing my lifestyle.
Realize I’ve been lying to myself.
If I want to get in shape, really get in shape, I need to get off my ass more. A lot more. Now I don’t plan to go and fool myself into thinking I have to join a gym and workout six hours a day on nautilus equipment to get where I want to be, but I sure can’t see myself achieving my goal of losing ten pounds before my friend’s wedding in April while I veg out on the sofa all night after my one hour workout.
It's time to get up and get moving.
Now if you’ll excuse me I need to go put my pretty pink bow in my hair and move said sofa because there are a shitload of dust bunnies underneath it and it’s apparently my job as a woman to make sure they’re cleaned up.
And I’m going to do it while I dance to some Eighties pop music.
9 comments:
Ethan is complete hotness. New chapter in the "Before" movies is out this year. Before Midnight - Jesse and Celine are back and I can't wait to see them. Before Sunrise and Before Sunset are two of my very favorite movies.
Also - he's currently on Broadway, I think.
But as to the rest of your blog...I agree that it's complete bs to put all of this on women. There was an amazing Fresh Air about how food manufacturers all got together and researched ways to make their food "taste better" ie. more fat, salt and sugar - so they could sell more. Now those same manufacturers are being called to task for addicting us to that crap.
Good luck Jenn. I'm walking more these days and while I'm feeling it, I've yet to see a result. This is one long and painful process for me. Sigh.
Ha I want to lose 10 pounds before we head to Boston in May. My jeans are a bit too snug. :)
After I saw Beyonce's show during half time of the Super Bowl, I sent a text to Katie...."I need to exercise." So yes, I need to get moving too.
Pfft! Those kind of articles are just plain annoying.
Seems like the population of most advanced nations are getting fatter, regardless of gender and I blame it on all the crap that they put into today's manufactured foods. Heck, Twinkies has enough junk in it to embalm a nation !
Dancing !!! Lord it has been a million years since I've danced and to think that I was once a professional Go-Go dancer! Darn, time does fly.
Jenn you are a hoot... I will wear my purple bow when I clean the house, lol.
I am going to add dancing into my exercise routine I am starting once I am allowed to... I love dancing and I have tons of music that I can enjoy while doing it, thanks for the reminder :)
When I was a Tucson snowbird in January and February, I learned how to line dance and two step, went to several dances, and did aerobic water exercise three mornings a week. Otherwise I did my usual life. Now I'm in Sedona and the hiking is no problem at all.
The housecleaning? I did that when we lived in a Tucson park model, but I've already called our every-other-week housekeeper to make arrangements for the first few days after we get home next week.
My first thought was the same as yours, that it's ridiculous to say that women are in worse shape now because of no housecleaning. I grew up in a neighborhood filled with housewives. Most mothers did not work, but raised kids and did housework. Some were overweight, some were not. The differences were from many things - eating worse foods, genetic disposition, alcohol consumption maybe. Housework? Maybe it was a contributing factor to the thinness of those women who went at it obsessively, but I'd hardly say it was the biggest cause either way. I call bullshit!
I'm too tired and lazy to comment otherwise so I'll just "like" this for now. :)
Jenn, where do you find all these strange articles? Do you just have a sixth sense for all things chauvinist? Lol, I'm not sure how much of that is true (if any) but I can tell you that I was in much better shape when I worked for my mom's cleaning business. That being said she's always been overweight, so I'm not sure what my point is. Maybe it has less to do with weight gain/loss and more about the activity - any activity - keeping your bones & muscles strong? That's about all I can decipher from it.
Ethan Hawke... yeah, whatever happened to that guy? I used to love Reality Bites, I still remember how my mom hated saying the name of that particular film.
Also, I'm blogging again. I couldn't stay away forever I s'pose. Stop by and say 'hi' if you'd like. It gets lonely here. :-/
People with nothing better to do always come up with these kind of useless studies! Maybe you should do it while listening to some music from the 60's!
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