Want to stay fit and healthy like a 1950s housewife? It’s all about eating in moderation and being more active! No fad diets and extreme exercise are needed.
While weight is not a good indicator of health, and we need to learn to be happy with whatever body we have, we can often need to or want to lose weight.
I personally want to lose weight because I suffered a blood clot that turned into a life-threatening saddle embolism in July of 2021. While my weight wasn’t the cause, extra weight can raise your clot risk, and I want to do everything I can to reduce my risk of clots in the future.
In general, we keep finding that diets don’t work. Most people who diet end up gaining more weight in the end. They don’t tend to be sustainable, and we often end up with a bad relationship with food.
Often, a better way to improve our health is to focus on increasing our activity level. This can end up in weight loss, but more importantly is good for heart health and our overall well-being, including mental well-being.
That’s why I love this 1950s housewife “workout.” It’s all about being more active, and it helps us get more done at the same time!
Staying Fit Like a 1950s Housewife
According to a study by the women’s magazine Prima, they burned more than 1,000 calories a day doing housework. Now we burn just around 560. That almost 500 calories burned is like two candy bars. Not that you should be eating candy bars every day, but that’s a lot of calories.
The Daily Mail even has an article about how 1950s housewives stayed thin, where they show how women used to burn so many more calories with housework than we do now.
It’s not to say some women weren’t trying fad diets and even dangerous diet pills those days, they did, but they also were more active than we are.
Eat a 1950s Diet
People in the 1950s generally ate more food at home and had smaller portions. Even plates in the 1950s were smaller than they are now. They still had desserts, but usually in smaller amounts and a bit less often. Moderation is usually the key to a healthy diet, and there was more moderation in the 1950s.
Vacuum More Often
Vacuuming is a good exercise, and it is a chore many people are starting to do less often. Vacuuming often is better for our allergies and overall health, especially if you have pets.
Try a 1950s Cleaning Routine
It’s not just vacuuming that burns calories, all cleaning tasks get you moving. If you really want to give the 1950s housewife thing a try, then try a 1950s cleaning routine. It’s a fun experiment and will really get you moving.
Cook from Scratch
Cooking from scratch is often better for us, tastes better, and uses more labor, so you burn more calories. It’s best if you pick healthy meals, but it’s okay to make room for treats as well, and making them yourself is better than buying them.
Start a Garden
Gardening is a great form of exercise and can be pretty rewarding. You can start a flower or vegetable garden. If you really want to be like a retro housewife, start a victory garden.
Use a Clothesline
Clotheslines save money and help your clothes last longer. It also gets you moving and some vitamin D. If you have never used a clothesline before, I have lots of tips for using a clothesline to help you get started.
Do Some Spring Cleaning
Spring cleaning is becoming a thing of the past, but it’s a great way to get those seasonal tasks done and burn some calories at the same time. And don’t just do this seasonal clean in the spring, get in the habit of doing a big clean each new season.
You can even try a 1950s spring cleaning routine to really spring clean like a 1950s housewife.
Walk or Bike More Often
A lot of families only had one car in the 1950s, so women did a lot more walking. If you are in a walkable area and can walk to some of your chores or friends’ houses, it’s a great way to move more.
If that’s not really an option for you, a simple walk around the block can be nice, or you could meet a friend at a local park for a walk when the weather is nice. Riding a bike is also a great option. Especially if you need to go a bit further.
Try a Vintage Workout
There were also some workout trends for 1950s housewives. The Jack LaLanne Show was a popular workout show for women in the 1950s, and there were other popular 1950s fitness routines people enjoyed.
It can be fun to try one out. Most were quite simple and can work even for those with minimal workout experience.
In general, the key is to get moving and clean more. If you are able to add in enough activity, you may need less time in the gym, and you will be getting two tasks done at once.
Deanna Piercy says
I’ve read those statistics about 50s housewives, too, and keep saying I’m going follow their example. I’ll join you in this experiment. In fact, I’ll blog about it tomorrow and share your post.
Shel Harrington says
Well, that sounds like an interesting challenge, Lisa! I wrote a post last year called “4 Things We Did Better in the 50s” Had I thought of it, this would have made it 5! Love, love, love swimming – as a matter of fact I’m headed out to do a few laps right now at 9:00 p.m. So I’m with ya there. Keeping a cleaner, more organized house? A life-long dream. Maybe I can talk myself into the dual clean/slim mindset with you!
Lisa Sharp says
If you do it let me know how it goes. 🙂 And I’m going to have to go read your blog post. I really love the 50’s!
Stephanie says
I’ve actually had this in mind as I’ve been organizing/decluttering/entirely overhauling my house this summer. I definitely struggle with being as active as I need to be, and so I’ve made it a bigger point to be on my feet more, and I’ve made some good changes. Cooking from scratch definitely keeps me on my feet, for sure. All that chopping and sauteeing, followed by the the inevitable clean-up. Good thing I’ve learned to love cooking! The only negative trade-off is that now that I’m in the mindset of always looking for something else to clean…I’m always finding things I need to clean. It’ll be 9:30 at night, I’ll be exhausted, and my eyes will stray to that pile of stuff on the stairs, or remember there’s a cup in the sink. I’ll leap up, fix the problem, sit back down…and then three minutes later I’m up again, having spotted something else! Ah well, it’s good for heart health, right?
Lisa Sharp says
That’s great! Since I work on the computer all day I’m trying to take breaks to do something active often. Sitting is so terrible for us and the short bursts don’t feel like much work but it adds up.
Patricia McMinn says
Great idea, and if you don’t like cleaning, mowing the lawn will also burn some calories. ?
Lisa Sharp says
A lot of calories with a push mower, even more, if it’s now powered. 🙂
Heidi Crice says
I will attest to this working. I didn’t know it was called this. I started staying home with my baby and been on a cleaning spree all summer. I lost 15 pounds I wish life was more slow like and less electronic and fast paced.
Bree says
We never had weight issues back then .. just look at the photos from that era, slender was the norm and fat was an oddity .. nowadays fat is the norm and slender is the oddity. The turning point was when TV remote controls were invented and became mainstream.
Lisa Sharp says
This is simply not true, plus-size people have always existed. Being overweight can be caused by many things. This post is about ways to get fit and healthy, you can be those things at different weights.