When you have a ton of house chores to do every single day, who would have enough time or energy to go to the gym?
Then you have to pick up the kids, pay the bills, do some grocery shopping in between and make dinner as well. It’s not an easy task and time isn’t definitely on our side.
What you don’t realize is the things you do around the house keep you stay fit.
Yes! House chores count as exercise!
When my mom does laundry, she saves the water in 16L paint buckets and hauls them two by two to wash down the driveway. She’s as fit as a fiddle! Some people think she’s my sister.
Not all house chores keep you fit. If all you do is load the wash or the dishwasher, that ain’t much of a work out.
I’m talking about house chores that never fails to make you sweat!
1. Babysitting
Babysitting? Seriously? You may be thinking that but yes, my dear moms. It helps you stay fit. Breastfeeding alone gets rid of calories but taking care of your baby, e.g. running around, lifting them, bathing, for an hour burns about 104 calories.
Imagine how much you burn the entire day since taking care of them is a 24/7 job!
2. Doing the Laundry
Okay, so maybe we aren’t in the stone age where we do our laundry by hand but take for example hand washing your baby’s cloth diapers. You can burn about 100-220 calories depending on your weight and that’s only half an hour of hand wash laundry!
How many times does your baby poop? How often does he need cloth diapers? You do the math. ?
3. Gardening
Digging, pulling out weeds, lifting heavy bags of soil and moving heavy pots around is a full body workout. You work your gluts, thighs, triceps and biceps. Not to mention the healthy strain it gives your core.
You’ll sweat a lot while gardening and say goodbye to 315 calories for every 30 minutes depending on your weight. Better get digging!
4. Shoveling Snow
Now this is a pain-in-the-ass chore but it’s the best full-body workout you’ll get in the winter. You’ll definitely be developing trimmer arms and legs. And all that flinging of heavy snow will work your shoulder muscles.
You’ll probably break a sweat even in the cold. 476 calories per hour, baby!
5. Raking Leaves
Nothing like raking crisp golden leaves during the chilly autumn season. You will find this chore quite enjoyable. Being in the midst of beautiful warm colors and in the process of losing 450 calories every hour.
Work your triceps and biceps and get through leg day at the same time! Two birds with one stone.
6. Mopping, Waxing and Buffing the Floor
Half an hour of mopping the floor will burn you 119 calories. Waxing and buffing the floor manually is almost twice the calories burned in half an hour. That’s about 476 calories in an hour!
It may be a boring chore but just remember The Karate Kid. Wax on, wax off.
7. Cleaning the Bathroom
This is probably the chore that I hate the most but always do anyway because of how much sweat I produce. Living in a tropical climate country is just an added boost to the sweat production!
It’s not an easy chore. It can be gross and hazardous to your health because you’re exposed to strong chemicals. The brighter side to this? You burn about 200-250 calories for every half hour you’re scrubbing the grime off your tiles. Of course, a clean bathroom afterward is a pretty decent reward also.
8. Mowing the Lawn
Sitting on a motorized high power mower will burn you 170 calories. Mow by walking a power mower back and forth and you burn 374 calories. Use a hand mower and bid 408 calories goodbye every hour!
Is your lawn fenced around? Put on your bikini and get a tan at the same time! ?
9. Painting a Room
Did you know that for every 30 minutes, you burn 160 calories? Sum up the total hours you’d actually need to put in to finish a room plus the amount of time and effort needed to put all the furniture back in. That would have been a week’s worth of treadmill time.
And you get a pretty room and stained clothes that need to be hand washed. Another potential 220 calories ridden of!
10. Tidying Up
Random chores like putting stuff away, making the beds, gathering the laundry or dusting counter tops will still help you burn off calories that you’d be happy to live without. For every half hour of tidying up, you burn 130 calories and work a lot of muscles by bending down, scooting down or lifting things up.
See moms?
You’ve actually been getting your regular exercise without even knowing it because of the numerous things you have to take care of.
The house chores come 3rd to taking care of your husband and your kids and most of the time it’s unappreciated. But no worries. Your body sure does!
Make house chores fun and less mundane by putting on your favorite tunes. Doing your chores while dancing to the Beach Boys will surely add up to the calories you burn and it brings up your endorphin which is your happy hormones!
Dance and jam your way through your house chores and be fit in the process!
Got any special tricks under your mom’s belt that makes your house chores even more of a workout? Share them with the moms here.
