Work Out!

     Everybody should exercise.  Going to the gym and wearing special gym clothes is the cool way to do it.  This family takes to cheap route, fulfilling our exercise requirements by staying in motion around the house and around the neighborhood.  Mike and I take two mile walks around the tracks at the municipal complex.  We also ride our bikes about five miles each time we go out. Mike has an app on his phone that maps the route and keeps track of the distance and the speed we travel.  The other day, just for a hoot, he used that app when he mowed the lawn.  Here's the route he traveled, all over the yard:

Google Maps plotted every step Mike took.  He walked 1.47 miles.  It took 57.59 minutes to mow the grass.  His mowing speed was 1.52 miles per hour.  According to a calorie counter I found online, he burned 392 calories.  http://www.fitday.com/webfit/burned/calories_burned_Mowing_lawn_general.html

   
     I burned 552 calories digging the seven holes for planting my new shrubs (see April 25th's blog entry).  http://www.sparkpeople.com/resource/calories_burned.asp  If I spend four hours painting a room, I've burned 1,104 calories.  I'll expend 336 calories cleaning the oak tree stringy things out of the rain gutters.  Sewing, something I love to do, burns only 81 calories per hour.  I'll have to eat light on the days I sew.
     The moral to this story is to keep moving.  And, at our age, you might also have to take an Advil.