I find myself more and more, doing other exercises then simply going to the gym.

I used to just do the gym 4 times a week for my cardio and weights.

Well, this week, I've shoveled the driveway twice (an hour each time) and today I did an hour of pilates. The other week I did Dance Dance Revolution for an hour instead of going the gym as well.

What is your opinion on this? Do you think a person can get enough calories burnt from these activities? For some reason, I still feel guilty that I didn't go to the gym, and think I am 'cheating'.

I think I either need something to feel better about this, or to get told it is not the thing to do so I can go back to doing the gym more.

I think it's great for you. You're mixing it up for both your body and your mind. Going to the gym can get boring so changing things up keeps you interested and less likely to not do anything at all.

You can always wear a HR monitor while do these various activities to see if you're achieving the calorie burn you want.

I looked up and found out that shoveling snow by hand for an hour (on a 150 lb. person) burns 408 calories! Dance Dance Revolution burns about 640 calories in an hour. I'd say that you're doing an excellent thing for yourself! Not only are you being productive, but you're having fun and mixing things up which increases the likelihood that you'll stick with working out in the long run! Don't feel guilty! Our bodies need to be surprised!!!

I weigh 223 right now, so almost double! Wow. Thanks for that luckymommy.

I know the weight has still been coming off. It must be all in my head that I get paranoid. I badly don't want to fail in my weight loss like I did in the past!

I wear my HRM when I sweep/mop/vacuum my floors and I have burned as many as 500 cals during an hour-ish of work. You can absolutely get a good workout from shoveling, which is even more total body than my cleaning.

Dance Revolution will likely burn more than Pilates, just by the sound of the name. But both activities get you moving, and Pilates is good for strength building.