Stretch and Kvetch: The Yenta's Guide to No Sweat Exercise

This book is for anyone fifty or older who wants to be on an exercise program, who needs to be on an exercise program, or who has tried exercise programs only to find them boring, strenuous, time consuming, and slow to show results.

You have a closet full of walking shoes, running shoes, step shoes, and cross trainers; more pairs of tights than Baryshnikov; and your treadmill is gathering dust in the spare bedroom.

Your gym memberships are in the multiples, and after an hour of huffing and puffing with perfectly-chiseled aerobics instructors, you find yourself easing your sorrows (or congratulating yourself on your efforts) by scarfing a pint of Ben and Jerry's most chocolate, crunchiest fudgiest ice cream.

You're tired of wondering if calories do or don't count, if you should eat more or less protein, and if your daily food groups should include red wine, white wine, or no wine. And you've vowed that if Pritikin, Ornish, Atkins, and Jenny Craig don't work this time, maybe next time you should call Kevorkian.

You're looking for exercise you're not even aware is exercise. Well, here's our solution. First, forget the weights and isometrics, forget the '10 weeks to thin thighs and flat tummies,' and please, forget trying to figure out what body type you are. Throw away the charts that show how many calories you burn by vacuuming and mopping (hopefully you hire someone who burns calories that way).

We are not doctors, exercise physiologists, nurses, or nutritionists. We're yentas. A yenta is a gabber, a know-it-all, one possessing a busy mind.

And to us, a busy mind makes a 'busybody'; hence this guide was created. Yentas can always make 'something out of nothing,' and if this book makes you smile, well, you've successfully endured your first no-sweat exercise.

This book is for you. We hope you'll like it. If not, there's always a new class starting next Tuesday....