Thursday, April 16, 2020

Stealth Cardio


Some people don’t like vegetables, so some other people who want those vegetable haters to live long and healthy lives figure out ways to hide veggies in recipes when appealing to reason doesn’t work.  I like most vegetables and have a Mom Look that can compel at least the consumption of a character portion of almost any food.  But I’m going to apply the principle to cardio exercise.  Here are four ways to “hide” cardio in stuff we do anyway.

1.     Do it faster.  Raking up leaves in the yard?  Do it as fast as possible!  Set a timer and try to beat the clock!  Also works with general tidying, vacuuming, and the like.
2.     Do it inefficiently.  This works particularly well if you live somewhere with stairs.  Take a separate trip up and down for each item that has traveled to the wrong level.  Go back for the sweatshirt you forgot upstairs or the glass of water you left downstairs.
3.     Do it while you’re waiting.  Reheating lunch in the microwave?  That’s two minutes of dancing or jacks or jump squats or skating back and forth on the kitchen floor in socks.
4.     Do it as a contest.  Race your spouse to get the trash cans out for garbage day.  Challenge your kid to laps around the table.  Make a bet that you can do one more jumping jack than your roomie.

And if all those things seem just too silly, then turn up the music, put on your grown-up exercise pants, and just get the cardio done.

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