Last week, I spent a lot of time at airports. As I wandering around the magazine and book stores, the headlines were screaming at me: How to lose weight fast.

Most stories were still talking about New Year’s resolutions and losing weight now has replaced stop smoking as the number one resolution.

But I never saw an article on how not to gain weight in the first place. Maybe you can’t sell stuff to people maintaining their weight. Maybe there are too many people trying to lost weight. [How did they gain weight in the first place?] Or if you’ve  maintained your weight for years, you’re doing something right so why read a magazine?

I have been watching my weight since I was 12 years old. And that’s a long time ago. I must have had a boring summer at that time because I memorized the calorie table. All those bad things that people ate in the late 1950s were just as bad as now.

A small bag of potato chips is 155 calories and you can finish that in an instant. A slice of American cheese was 100 calories, before they used 2% milk. I decided that there were indeed bad foods. And on top of the list was potato chips. Now you can add corn chips, fritos and all fried stuff. I haven’t had a potato chip since I found out how many calories it had.

I have a set weight. If I go over a pound, I cut back. Calories in, calories out.

And Exercise?

Everyone has time to exercise. We wouldn’t have 500 TV stations, if people were so busy, not to mention all those nail salons.

Unfortunately, my daily life has never given me the exercise I need. So I have to go to the gym, go hiking or go for a power walk. I aim for every day so I do it about five or six times a week.

The idea is to incorporate an hour of exercise, without it being a big scheduling deal. When I punched a clock, I exercised between 5 and 6 am. No one needs you at that time. That’s why our local YMCA opens at 5:30 am.

Eat less and Exercise more is never going to sell books and magazines but it works.

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