Real talk: how many of you count calories, get paranoid when you reach your limit and find yourself at the gym working out long hours to bring those numbers down? Once upon a time… that was ME.

The mere idea of exceeding my calorie intake drove me crazy! I used to workout twice a day some days, and although I looked great on the outside, I hated how I felt internally. I was spending extra time at the gym, which meant time taken away from my kids. I felt tired, guilty and simply just burned out, yet, I was scared to quit out of fear for gaining the weight back. There is some kind of phobia one gets when they finally lose the weight after months/years of trying. They NEVER want to go back to the old days.

It took years for me to feel comfortable in my skin regardless of what the scale said (but that’s a different story).

When the gym life became overwhelming, I started looking into other means of getting rid of those unwanted calories and found that there were indeed numerous ways of burning calories without ever walking into a gym.

Here are some of my favorite methods:

1)    Having SEX

Having sex has the potential of burning up to 300 calories plus more. Need I say more?

2)    Playing with your Kids

Ever play a game of hide and seek or tag and not feel like you haven’t worked out? LOL!! Feel free to give yourself bonus points if you have toddlers that are consistently getting into stuff and you have to run after them!

3)    Cleaning the House

Tidying up at home always has me breaking a sweat. Between vacuuming, moping, and organizing you can quickly burn up to 250 calories and more.

4)    Playing Sports

The Mayo Clinic has listed out 32 fun sports and the number of calories you can burn after 1 hour of activity. Check it out here.

5)    Shopping Shopping SHOPPING

It’s the perfect way to burn calories! You’re walking from store to store and carrying bags after bags.Can’t get any better than that!  

6) Dancing the Night Away

Call your girlfriends and make it a night to remember, as you dance to your favorite tunes, sweat and burn calories all in the process.

As always, I’d love to hear from you. Do you stick to a routine and only workout at the gym? Do you go more than once a day? Are you fixated on the idea of burning a set number of calories?

Just remember, the idea here is to live a healthy lifestyle, to have fun with it and make it part of your day to day routine. Working out should never feel like a JOB that you don’t want to be in. You do NOT have to go to the gym every day, and you certainly do NOT have to stick to a specific diet.

It’s your journey, make it fit your life and enjoy the process while you’re at it.

Yours,