Dusting your hutch is NOT a workout!

Today I have a little rant about a pet peeve of mine.  Those of you who do not live in Stay at Home Mom World may not be familiar with this phenomenon, but I think any SAH's reading this will relate. You either DO this, or it drives you as crazy as it drives me. (If any of my friends are reading this and do what I am about to describe, know that you personally do not drive me crazy, but I do think you're in a little bit of denial!)

Here we go... I can not stand it when people...

count cleaning the house as a workout!

I used to be on a discussion board for new moms trying to lose weight after baby. In that group, as some people do in "real life", we set goals for working out. Either days of the week ("I'm going to work out 3 days this week") or minutes ("I'm going to work out for 120 minutes this week"). Often "regular" people do this too. It's pretty common for people to set a schedule to go to the gym or run or whatever 3-5 days a week. Or, for stay at home moms, even once a week is sometimes a victory!

I think that is why it's so easy for the moms to enter into this crazyland of denial where everyday tasks suddenly count towards health related goals.

It is true. I have actually read workout posts from women that consist solely of info like the following:

"For today's workout I dusted my entire house and also vacuumed."

Seriously? All I can think is, "Man, that lady must have a gigantic house!"

I know I shouldn't care - it doesn't hurt me if random mom thinks she's done 20 minutes of cardio because she mopped her floor - but as someone who actually DOES work out, it does offend me a little bit. And it scares me that there are actually people out there who really think they are exercising simply by existing in their everyday world.

I live in a 2 story house and have walked up and down my stairs about 10 times in the 7 hours I've been awake today. Count 10 minutes of cardio for me!