Scrubbing & Cleaning: The new gym alternative?
I love to have a clean house, but I don’t always love to do the cleaning up. Well actually I do like to the cleaning, but on my own terms. What I mean by this, is that it’s done when I want to do it (sometimes at night, sometimes in a morning, but always when I actually have time to spend doing it properly) and it’s done properly – which is simply a dig at my husband, who never lifts anything when cleaning!
But it occurred to me this morning, when I was wiping down the kitchen doors (why do they manage to look so grubby after only a week or a fortnight?) that housework could the my new exercise routine. I know that each month we are going to try out a new sport and you can see these posting on Ceroc dancing and Power walking, but what about the actual task of cleaning.
I thought about what i’d like to get to get done today and this is my wish list to make me feel better (and also for any visitors who call, not to think that I never clean up and live in a permanent hovel!)
1: Clean kitchen floor (sweep and mop)
2: Vacuum hall and stairways
3: Clean windows at the back on the ground level (which is a horrid task, but a lovely bird has pooped all down it, which is disgusting to look out of when you are eating your tea!)
4: Clean bathroom (Including wiping out shower unit, which is a bit of a trick as i’m quite short and need a chair, and have no sense of danger)
So looking at the list above I reckon it will take about 2 – 2.5 hours of time. I have just Googled it and you burn anything from 207 – 382 calories an hour cleaning for “general, domestic procedures” so I will burn approx 625 calories by cleaning for 2.5 hours (based on 250 calories per hour) . That to me sounds like a LOT of exercise and also a lot of cleaning. But what’s the issue when there isn’t really any disadvantages, apart from the fact that your weekly budget for Pledge will go through the roof, but if your waistline reduces what’s the issue? So my thinking is that for the next 5 days or so, I might give this a go, if I carry out 1 hour of cleaning a day until next Sunday, that will be approx 1750 calories (and in the process a VERY clean house)… the only issue is my boredom threshold may not withstand the wiping, mopping, scrubbing etc but i’ll give it a go and report back next week
Out of interest what do you do which isn’t really “sport” but helps you keep trim or lose weight? Let me know
