(Un)conventional Fitness Acitivity 6: Cleaning Your Room/House

Cleaning and Organizing Your Room

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First, let’s see who might get better results with this activity:

·      

           The obsessively tidy and clean

You belong to this category if you almost always see cleaning to be done, even if other people think everything looks immaculate. Worry not. This means this fitness activity is regular (& natural) for you.

Remember how fit Courteney Cox’s Friendscharacter Monica was? I am betting that any one close to her obsession with organization and cleanliness, wouldn’t really have the time or the opportunity to gain weight.

·         The unorganized and/or shopaholics

Well, I confess. I am by nature an unorganized person. I am also a shopaholic so I am constantly adding new clothes to my already stuffed wardrobe.

And maybe I could find  a way to keep the room in order to some level, but I am also a writer, an avid reader and movie-watcher. So add the novels, writing projects, writing stuff and files and the DVDs, and I am in big trouble.

My organizational efforts burn more calories than a session at the gym or hours spent on the dancing floor.

After all, cleaning works pretty much every muscle. You have to pick things up, pull things down, re-arrange furniture &clothes, clean after your mess....

My last organizing activity? Yesterday. The result? Burnt calories, and officially establishing the need for new wardrobes, a bigger room and a bigger house.

How to Make Organizing More Fun

If you are anything like Monica, cleaning provides its own rush and happiness. But for the rest, and especially the intrinsically messy ones like me, there are ways to make the whole thing fun:

Turn on a TV-Show/Movie That Doesn’t Require Much Attention

It can be the re-runs of things you already watched and loved make for great help. You get to laugh and get things done at the same time.

Music and Dancing

Yep, it is always great to turn on great, fast tracks while you finish the task. And if you squeeze in the lovely activity dancing, time might fly without you swearing off shopping for new stuff.

Confession: I did swear off shopping but I am guessing it’ll last only for a short time. I am just being honest here. After all, shopping is a much more fun way to keep fit, remember? J

Do you have suggestions to keep cleaning more fun?

Unconventional Fitness Acitivity 5: How Freelancing Can Keep You Stay Fit

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Well, this one is tricky because the peace of your mind pretty much depends on how much money you are making (and how much you are enjoying yourself), whether your hands and arms are healthy (well carrying around your office around like a turtle and typing like crazy can hurt you at times) and well, physical health and a good internet connection also help.

Now, when I was first planning this post in my head, all was fine in the world. I was healthy, productive and was taking my own advice. Remember the unconventional tips about developing a crush, dancing and hanging with your attractive friends? Yeah, well- I worked a lot, danced about 3-4 times a week  (each session lasting for at least 2 hours), hung out with my best friend who is really attractive (and currently attracting a lot of guys, even the ones she doesn’t want to attract) and I am on the lookout for cute guys who might be worth my time. 

Then, on a couple of Tuesdays ago, I hurt my leg during dancing. Now, I am supposed to rest, which is a really difficult thing for a hyperactive person to do. I couldn’t dance at the Friday parties. Then my modem broke and my home internet connection went to hell, which is a bummer since I am supposed to stay a lot more at home to do that resting and even though I haven’t been typing all that much lately, my arm is now hurting too. 

Oh, yes. Mind you, I didn’t put on any weight since I combined my freelancing routine with dancing. Trust me, I’m not dieting. Or cutting back. At all. So I am pretty OK with keeping the weight constant. But if you watch what you eat a little, being a freelancer might help you shed some pounds too. Here’s how:

*Stop picturing freelancers and writers as people who don’t leave home. I barely stay at home because all the sofas, mess and housework can get in the way. And even walking to your bus stop is some action, especially if you live in a big city.

* Well carrying all that stuff around means you can work anywhere, so you don’t really need to cancel any 

spontaneous opportunities that come your way.

* How heavy is your bag? I think it should count as a minor (or major, depending on the size of your laptop) heavy-lifting activity.

* You can exercise at home. You don’t go to an office where you spend majority of your waking hours. So who’s to stop you from dancing to your favorite songs?

* You can go to the gym in the middle of the week, during other people’s office hours.

Let me know if you can think of more…

Developing A Crush - Unconventional Fitness Activity 3

Yep, that is actually what I am advising. Get out there and find yourself at least one crush. I am saying at least one, because you might get too emotionally invested if you really start liking someone. 

It occured to me that I tend to spend more time in front of the mirror when I have a crush. Those extra minutes spent trying to look a little sexier, taking a little longer to decide what to wear…It is just that inevitably I move more.

I especially remember this one crush - more of an insanely sexual attraction, really. He was just so hot. Tall, dark blonde, great built, sexy face, great voice, perfect style... He even had the best taste in music.I think he knew how perfect he looked so he wasn't easy to approach. He just wasn't the type of guy that made you fantasize about romantic dinners. You wouldn't have the time to think what he would be like your boyfriend, because well, all you wanted was to get him in a room, alone.

Sure, it feels great when we are only looking more attractive for our own eyes alone. It is also fun when strangers admire you too. But I always found it much more stimulating when someone you find hot/attractive/cute thinks the same way about you.

But the downside of having a crush on someone, you can get too involved. So it is much better if you surround yourself with little crushes (objects of your like) rather than just one. Because that one crush might not like you back or he might and things may not work out. So you just might end up falling for your comfort food when things go sour.

You already have a crush? Great. Make the most of it.

How I Lost 16 Pounds By Shopping: A True Weight-Loss Story!

The following actually happened and it is one of my favorite stories to share. Of course you need a little bit of money to do this fitness acitivity and you should be careful about not going bankrupt (Rebecca Bloomwood, anywone???).

 image: stargatecinema. From the movie Confessions of a Shopaholic. Based on the bestselling book by Sophie Kinsella. Rebecca Bloomwood is played by Isla Fisher.

The main fitness tip:
Shop, shop till you drop. Shop for dresses, as it does help with your calories when you keep changing clothes. The more you try, the more calories you lose. The more calories you lose, more dresses fit. You feel better and sexier and get encouraged to wear more clothes. Tinier clothes fit. Before you know, you are trying and buying smaller sized clothes and well...at the end of a couple of months, you have a brand new gorgeous wardrobe and a thinner new you.

Warning: 
This fitness method might harm your finances if you don't watch it and I managed this weight loss in the summer. I wasn't dieting, but I eat much less in the summer than in winter. The heat crushes your appettite.

The story:
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My first year at university just sucked. There is no other way to put it. I had worked hard to get in and it had taken an extremely boring final high school year with a lot of studying around me and some really annoying health problems. On the surface, it was nothing serious. I had a cold. The problem? I constantly had a cold! Imagine spending 2 school terms with mild fever (nothing dangerous but just high enough to keep you agitated), lack of energy and constant headaches. You might think the problem was psychological and yeah, I’d have to agree. But knowing where your problems are coming from doesn’t do you any favors if you can’t change the conditions causing them. So I took  a lot of painkillers (don’t panic, just a couple a day, as suggested by the doctor, when the symptoms were there). Of course they made it a little easier to study but hey, their effects were very short-term.

Long story short, I got into a really good school. By then, I had a different problem. No matter how carefully you stick to your doctor’s instructions, the effects of the pills presented themselves in the shape of chronic stomach pain and nausea, even though I hadn’t been taking anything for months. I could watch what I ate, but then when I got nauseous, anything made it worse. And of course it was stress related as well, again. Because while my school was OK in educational areas, it was far from satisfying in social areas and for me, having fun is everything. So now I had another two terms feeling constantly sick. Now, during school, with a lot of hours and coursework and exams, you can hardly go healthy. But in the summer,  it is much easier to feel full on less food and stay away from greasy stuff. So I stayed away from grease and any type of heavy food. So I ate a lot of grilled stuff, fruit and ice-cream. Yep, ice cream felt a lot easier than muffins and cake. It has a lot of milk and it is nutritious. And obviously, I didn’t need coffee or tea (who needs to stay up to study?). This was the diet.

As for the shopping:

Obviously you don’t spend a lot of money when you are sick. So let’s say that I had some cash to burn, a healthy diet I was instinctively on and as a girl I am naturally addicted to shopping.

Anyway, guess what? I signed up for an Italian course, ate healthily and shopped, shopped till I dropped that summer. The fitter I got, the more clothes looked great on me and the more gorgeous I looked, the more clothes I tried. You get my brilliant cycle. At the end of two months ( eating as much ice-cream as I wanted- though obviously I didn’t eat a gallon a day), I had lost about 16 pounds. I was happy with a whole new wardrobe and no stomach problems whatsoever. Yes, the following term I slowly put back on the pounds slowly  but that has do with coffee, tea, chocolate and the oh-so-familiar vicious cycle of binge eating during studying. 

The moral?

The lesson is obvious: Try to stay away from stress, find a “fitness” activity you love and enjoy yourself. This results in lost pounds without any felt effort on your part. Give it a shot. You won’t regret it.