Shop Till You're Thin!

In about an hour I am going to make the trek out to the mall for some Christmas shopping with a friend, the same as Mr. Kawaii and I did earlier this week (although I was too busy to blog about it afterward - bad Denise!).  Although it may seem odd to post mall-shopping as an exercise, the truth is that you burn a pretty fair amount of calories while shopping - whether at the grocery store or at the mall.

Shopping, particularly extended shopping (an hour or more) includes some of the very same exercise moves that you loathe at the gym: walking for extended periods of time, lifting objects of weight, and if you're trying on lots of clothes there's squatting, over-the-head reaches, and any number of other odd movements you might make trying to get a good look at yourself in the mirror.  

Don't believe me?  I looked up some information on shopping as exercise - every woman's dream - from Nutrition ATC and found an article that backs up what I'm talking about.  In an article found on their site (originally published by StarBulletin) they state that a 200lb person can burn as much as 750 calories during a 3 hour shopping trip at the mall just by slowly walking from store to store and standing in line.  They also note that a "super shopper" who is more active (fidgeting in line, picking up and inspecting merchandise, waving to friends or flustered mall staff) may burn an additional 100 to 250 calories during the same time-span.

All that adds up to a workout that can't be found ordering Christmas presents online.  Who needs a better excuse to get out and get shopping?  A word of warning though - avoid the food-court lest all your shopping exercises be undone by pretzels, cinnamon rolls and fried foods.  I'll see you there!

(And I promise to try to find an hour somewhere in my day to do some yoga too.)

A Quick Break

Although today was my "no workout" day, I got a lot of physical stuff done!  Today ended up being a day of shopping at the conjoined twins of Lowe's and Home Depot, hauling cement bricks from the shelves to the cart and walking from one end of the box-stores to the other in the hunt for various home-project necessities.

Prior to working out on the regular, a day of shopping would have worn me out and made my body ache. I was pleasantly surprised that I was able to pick up heavy objects and load them on the cart myself without having to ask for help. I also didn't have to take breaks to rest my achy feet/back/knees at all, and at the end of the adventure still had energy to spare.

I've also noticed that my clothes are starting to fit much better than they did when this blog began, and that is more encouraging than anything else!  I'm beginning to enjoy being "me" again, and reconnecting with the comfort my wardrobe once offered.  God bless the exercisers, for they shall inherit new pants!