The easiest way to reach your health and fitness goals are to make overall changes in your everyday life. The most common complaints heard from my clients throughout the years usually revolve around not having enough time to get their workouts in. Life happens. Between work, children and other responsibilities it can get a little crazy and sometimes it’s just not feasible to workout more than a couple days a week.
So what can you do instead (aside from healthy eating) to maximize your efforts at the gym?
I like to adopt the idea of ‘active rest days’. Don’t get me wrong, rest days are super important. Your body requires time to recover between workouts in order to avoid over training which can lead to injuries and other unwanted conditions. But that doesn’t mean your rest days need to consist of sitting around!
So how can you incorporate exercise into your everyday life? Think of the activities that you already do. What do you enjoy? What do you need to get done? By planning ahead and prioritizing your time you can easily turn a lazy rest day into an active (and productive) day instead! With as little as 20 minutes a day of physical activity you will notice positive effects on your health and overall well being.
Here is a list of some of my favorite things (broken down into how many calories burned/10 minutes) that can be done on days off that absolutely count towards your calorie burn for the week! **Please note, it’s probably not a good idea to eat the extra calories on your active rest days in order to get the most benefit.** I looked these up on My Fitness Pal and based them on a 150 pound person. Download the app or check out the website to personalize them for yourself. There are so many other activities as well! Be creative and start setting aside an extra 10-30 minutes a day to get moving around the house!
• Walking, 3.0 mph, mod. pace, walking dog – 37 calories/10 minutes
• Gardening, general – 45 calories/10 minutes
• Cleaning, light, moderate effort – 28 calories/10 minutes
• Cleaning, heavy, vigorous effort – 34 calories/10 minutes
• Moving household items, boxes, upstairs – 102 calories/10 minutes
• Walking, upstairs – 91 calories/10 minutes
• Automobile Repair (washing car) – 34 calories/10 minutes
• Cooking – 23 calories/10 minutes
• Mowing Lawn – 62 calories/10 minutes
• Playing Guitar – 34 calories/10 minutes
• Pushing stroller with child – 28 calories/10 minutes
• Shoveling Snow – 70 calories/10 minutes
• Walking carrying 15 lb infant – 40 calories/10 minutes
• Shopping – 34 calories/10 minutes
PLAYING WITH YOUR KIDS! – 30-100 calories/10 minutes
Have fun being productive and healthy at the same time! I’d love to hear what you do to keep active! Comment below or find me on instagram!
