We ended our weekend from the lake cottage by meeting Matt and Kristi at one of my favorite restaurants in town.  The lake perch was better than any I’ve ever tasted, and there was this side dish of zucchini, tomatoes, and summer squash that was awesome.

We ate well over the weekend.  I tried several new recipes, and all of them turned out great.  Matt did the grilling – so the new chicken recipe I tried turned out to be over-the-top.  I am going to try to hang onto this recipe until I participate in Recipe Swap on the first Thursday of next month, hosted by Randi.

The lake lends itself to taking it easy.  I sit outside a lot, and while watching the kids swim and play on the sand beach, I catch up on some reading, writing (laptop), and look through cook books.  When I go inside, I might dabble in the kitchen a bit and get the night’s dinner recipes started, then go start a load of laundry before going back outside.

The only exercise I do while at the cottage is swimming.  I don’t undervalue the importance of swimming – especially aerobically – I can feel it in my lungs – it’s just that I probably don’t do enough of it to compensate for my normal routines while on the ranch.

I decided that this week that top on my priority list will be my exercise routines.  So this morning, after getting my husband off to work, I let the kids sleep, and I headed to our den – my personal exercise room.  I started with a ten minute workout with Tamilee, I Want Those Arms, (Natural Journeys), using 8 lb free weights.  There are two ten minute segments on this video.  I do one ten segment on Monday, the other on Wednesday, and a Denise Austin bench 15 minute workout on Friday.  If I miss a day, I just pick up where I left off using the pre-mentioned cycle.  This keeps my arms at a minimum of toned level, but the weeks I have the time and the inclination, I have several videos that are 30 to 45 minutes long for the arms.

I made a phone call, and then came right back to the den to do some of my favorite exercises – Quick Callanetics by Callan Pinckney.  There are three of these videos – Hips And Behind (my favorite); Legs; and Stomach.  Each one takes 20 minutes long.  I usually alternate Monday, Wednesday, and Friday with them, but today, I had the need and the desire to do all three consecutively.

I first seen Callanetics in a movie rental store – it was at least 14 years ago.  I was thirty-six and pregnant with my son Joshua (13).  The jacket on the video made an outrageous claim that it would make you look younger after only about a dozen times of doing these exercises.  Yes, that is outrageous, but I thought, why would they put that on their jacket?  I can be so gullible.  I thought there might just be some truth to it, why not try it.

So I bought it, and throughout the pregnancy of a very large baby (11 lbs) I faithfully did the Callanetics for Legs, and the other; Callanetics for Hips and Behind.    I had decided that if I was going to be large all over for nine months, at least I could try to work on slimming my legs. 

  I was amazed. I did no other exercise except for these, and there was a definite before and after contrast.  After the pregnancy, I continued with these,  doing them at least once a week, as a priority over all other exercises – pilates, yoga, and all the rest of my video collection.  Everything else is considered the gravy in my exercise routines.  I put these at the top of my exercise priorities, and then I do others.

I will add this about Callanetics for Legs – when I first started taking English riding lessons four years ago, from the very first lesson, I felt no soreness afterwards.  This is positively amazing if you’ve ever went riding, especially when one tries to post.  I contribute this completely to Callanetics.

Confession – I have not been faithful with Quick Callanetics Stomach video.  I do it, but if I can do another one besides it, I have.  Why?  Because it’s hard.  But, I have been thinking about that a lot and decided that if I just became as dedicated to it as I have been the other two, my abs would probably not be in the condition their in.  I’ll let you know if it makes a difference….