BEACH TONED

My husband Steven, watched as I dropped my yoga mat, hand weights and giant balance ball into the middle of the living room. “It gets harder every year.” I complained as he helped me push the coffee table back to give me more room.

“I know.” he agreed. “That's why I spend every night on the treadmill.”

“I hate the treadmill.” I grumbled. “In fact, I hate exercise!” I then went back to my search for all the exercise equipment I'd hidden around the house. “Why does it have to get harder every year just to look acceptable in a bathing suit?” I called from our bedroom.

“It the same thing for everyone!” Steven called back.

“Not making me feel any better.” I said as I searched under our bed. “What ever happened to that thigh squeeze thing I had?” I called out.

“You sold it at our last garage sale.” Steven called back. “Along with the abs zapper and butt burner you didn't like.”

“Oh.” I came back into the living room to go through our DVD collection. “I really need to put these in some sort of order.” I said as I searched for my yoga video. “I should have a section just for my exercise videos.”

Steven stared to laugh. “That would be a small section.”

I ignored him as I held up a video that went with the thigh crusher. “If I'd been able to find this for the garage sale I could have gotten more for the equipment.” I said as I tossed it behind me on the couch.

I finally found the yoga video, took the wrapper off and popped it in the machine. Sitting on the couch next to Steven I took the remote and started the video.

Steven looked over at me. “What are you doing?” he asked.

“Watching the video.” I explained as I took a sip of water and fast-forwarded through the beginning section.

“Aren't you going to get on the floor and do what they're doing?” he asked.

“Not until I look through it first.”

“Why?”

“Because when I get a new video I like to do a quick run-through to see if I'm going to like it.”

“What if you don't like it?”

I pointed to the thigh crusher video next to me on the couch. “It goes with that one for the next garage sale.” I took another sip of water and hit the fast forward button again.

“What about...”

I had to interrupt him. “Steven, could we talk about this later?” I asked. “I'm in the middle of working out.”

Steven looked over at me.

I held up my water bottle and pointed at the television. “I'm hydrating and previewing.” I explained.