South Beach Diet - quick question re Exercise

does cleaning count as exercise as well?

I'll leave this one for Barb to answer. In most cases, participants are ding formal exercise like walking and gym activities.

I meant in addition to my exercise...I work all day on my feet walking around in kind of close quarters...I am a manager at mickey d's. after work I come home and do brisk walking on 1 day then cardio the next. I alternate my days..and I do my exercises daily.but I also clean daily due to being single mom of 3 boys. I was just wondering. I noticed under May exercise challenge someone added the amount of time they cleaned?

I think cleaning is exercise. I know that sometimes I feel more wiped out after cleaning my house than I do after a workout.

on fitday they let you count everything from grocery shopping to cleaning. you can look up at how many calories it actually burns there. anything you do to be active is good, as long as that isn't your primary workout. :)

IMHO, movement = exercise. However, for weight loss, I believe the goal is to have some form of intentional cardio exercise that raises your heart rate for a set period of time...in other words, you should be a bit breathless and sweating!

when i clean the bath tub i am sweating and out of breathe. lol

for me personally I never count anything but what i do in the gym as exercise.

I say movement is movement, and all forms of exercise and movement are good and should be supported. We are all on our own personal journeys to being healthy- moving our bodies more and eating healthier foods. One persons hard workout is another persons stroll through the park. But, hey, it's all good! And while I hate cleaning and do it at a snails pace, someone else may get their heart rate up as they scrub and vacuum like a maniac. Whatever works as your form of exercise and your way of moving your body beyond your normal day to day life is good!

I ordered a new piece of "exercise equipment" yesterday..a reel lawnmower!..you know, the "old fashioned kind" wth no gas or motor!

Our second lawnmower (not a cheap one either) in 3 years keeps going out and we keep having it repaired (the thing that makes it easy to push keeps dying and it is next to impossible for me to push that big old thing without it)
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So, just for fun, we were laughing and said we had to get one of those "old" kind...and did some research on them and found they burn about 400 calories an hour. Since they are quiet, you can get out at the crack of dawn before it gets too hot and dangerous and cut grass while the neighborhood is sleeping and avoid sunstroke!. I read that they are NOT that hard to push and are really better for your lawn. The thing is you have to walk at a fast pace..I'll let ya'll know if I keel over in the middle of lawn!:rofl:

If you are serious, make sure that the blades are set at the proper height for your grass type and that the mower blades are sharp. Nothing makes a push mower stall out like dull blades. We switched over about 2 years ago and it cuts better than the old one with less noise and irritation. DH can now mow with his headset on :)

I'm finally getting a chance to read posts after being gone at Wood Badge. I tend to think that if it gets your heart rate up then you can count it. Most cleaning I do at home I wouldn't count because it isn't enough of a workout for me but I will count the cleaning of the camp that I did this weekend as well as carrying tables, benches and chair when it was time to clean up the camp. I did a ton of walking to even if our official "hike" wasn't very long. Hmm, I also helped build two bridges. That has to count for something!

I will tell you that if you are very sedentary and you get up and mop your whole house and clean the bathrooms you absolutely could count that for exercise.

I was very sedentary and I will say this: I never dreamed I had the stamina that has emerged since working out with my trainer last week. I am pretty darn tough!