Today’s activity? Housekeeping.
Don’t scoff.
According to the calorie counter at MyFitnessPal, I burned 454 calories cleaning my apartment today. To put that in perspective, for someone my weight, running (or according to the website, jogging) three miles at a rate of 10 mph burns 435 calories. That’s three six-minutes miles. I burned more calories today cleaning than I would have burned if my chosen activity of the day was running, because I have never in my life completed a mile in six minutes and cannot even remember the last time I ran three in a row.
Eight different times today, I set a timer for fifteen minutes and straightened and cleaned as much as I possibly could before the buzzer went off. When it rang, I was a little out of breath and sweaty. So I might have burned more calories, but since I am dealing with a website that considers a six-minute mile “jogging,” I’m going to go ahead and measure my activity as light (rather than heavy) housekeeping.
But no matter what you call it, here’s the best part – my home is two hours cleaner now than it was this morning.
Yep. I’m feeling pretty proud of myself.
I think MyFitnessPal just became my favorite app. Don’t be surprised if I start measuring everything I do in how many miles I saved myself from running.
M. Suzanne Terry 
Impressive! My body work is not going to really get going until I’m back from delivering youngest daughter to Oxford. So I’m also counting alternative activity tho I haven’t been as methodical as you yet.
Helping someone get moved and settled definitely counts! And goodbyes should count as a marathon – they can take a lot out of you.
I always feel like I never have enough time to exercise and clean. Apparently, I could be doing BOTH AT THE SAME TIME.
Keep up the great work!
I was surprised to see how many calories it burned. Illuminating.
Thanks for the encouragement, Emily!
This had me giggling at the end!!!! I’m with you though 😉
I’ve seriously been comparing everything to the six-minute mile. It is my standard against which all activity is measured. I might even start including it in the posts. 🙂
Yes! 🙂