Can we please agree to a moratorium on tedious, feel-good articles and press releases that would have you believe things like shopping, 30 minutes of housecleaning, or parking at the far end of the parking lot count as exercise.
Just so we are clear, the following are NOT exercise:
- Housecleaning (it doesn’t matter if your house is so nasty that you work up a sweat)
- Shopping (I don’t care how heavy your bags are)
- Golf (see shopping above)
- Yard work (just because your back gets sore doesn’t mean it’s exercise)
- Running errands
- Bowling
- Don’t worry, I’ll think of more…
Sure, all of these things are better than parking your butt on the couch and watching American Idol, but please do not believe that these things will improve your fitness or help you lose weight.
A writer of one of the newsletters I receive made a great point: If housecleaning was exercise, wouldn’t hotel housekeeping staff be the fittest people on the planet? They do housework 8 hours a day, every day!
I’ll tell you what, with all the travel I did in my previous life, I’ve stayed in literally hundreds of hotels, and your average hotel housekeeper is generally not the picture of fitness.
And I don’t want to hear from you golfers either. Ever look around the 19th hole at the country club? Plenty of people golf 2, 3, or more times weekly and still can’t see their shoes.
Face it, if you want to lose weight, improve your health, and get fit, you need to stop kidding yourself that these things will actually get you there.
If you won’t make the commitment to eat right and do real exercise on a consistent basis, all the golf, shopping and housecleaning in the world will not make even a little difference in your health.
Dave Soucy is an entrepreneur, coach, trainer, motivator, husband, dad, and former fat guy. Learn more about him here.
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[...] – You’ll notice golf isn’t on the list. I still don’t think golf is exercise. Sorry. About the AuthorDave Soucy is a coach, trainer, motivator, husband, dad, and former fat guy. [...]