Slimming down can start with cleaning up

I consider exercise vulgar. It makes people smell.

- Alec Y. Thornton

Still trying to keep the weight off in the new year?

Do it efficiently. Do it while working.

A healthy 150-pound person will burn up 100 calories doing a lot of things.

Here are some useful ones:

Vacuum the floor 25-35 minutes; wash the dishes or iron the clothes 45-50 minutes; rake leaves 20-25 minutes; wash and wax the car 20-25 minutes; wash windows 20-30 minutes; or paint 35-40 minutes.

See, you don't have to sign up for a gym or even wear a sweat suit to use up the calories and keep off the pounds.

You can even come over to my house to do it. (The rake will be leaning up against the back door.)

l

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: The statistics on sanity are that one out of every four Americans is suffering from some sort of mental illness.

Think of your three best friends. If they're OK, then it's you.

l

MAILBAG: Lloyd, Lynn and Michael Creech send postcards from Austin and Houston, Texas. Penny and Chuck Ballas send a card from the Greektown section of Detroit, where they "lost all our money at the casino. All we had left was enough to buy this postcard!"

l

TODAY'S JOKE: One day a little girl was sitting and watching her mother do the dishes at the kitchen sink. She suddenly noticed that her mother had several strands of white hair sticking out in contrast on her brunette head.

She looked at her mother and inquisitively asked, "Why are some of your hairs white, Mom?"

Her mother replied, "Well, every time that you do something wrong and make me cry or unhappy, one of my hairs turns white."

The little girl thought about this revelation for a while and then said, "Mama, how come ALL of grandma's hairs are white?"

Reach Bill Kirby at (706) 823-3344 or bill.kirby@augustachronicle.com