The Mommy Exercise and Diet Plan

I belong to a gym, and I try to go about 2 or 3 days a week. I wish I could go more, but things come up. No need to worry. I came upon this article that began:

People who are too busy working and running a household to hit the health club or the treadmill can stop feeling guilty. A decade of cardiovascular studies by a creative research team offers a simple, natural alternative. Their findings make it easy for anyone to look at their daily tasks and build solid exercise into their normal routine.

The article lists tasks that burn a suprising amount of calories, like shoveling snow (don't need to), mowing the lawn (we have a gardener), golfing (that's Hubby's department), and shopping (BINGO!). So now I can tell Hubby I'm going to work out, then head off to the mall -- with no guilt! It's the truth, riiiiiiiiiiight?

I do, however, want to add some activities to the list.

1. Listening to your 5-year-old explain the plot of A Night at the Museum for the 80th time and still sounding interested.
2. Upon hearing your toddler say, "I have to go potty!", running up the stairs, picking her up, running down the hall into the bathroom, stripping off her clothes, and throwing her on the potty, all the way saying, "Don'tgoyetdon'tgoyetdon'tgoyetdon'tgoyet..."
3. Attempting to carry 2 baskets of laundry down the stairs, only to slip and fall down about ten of them.
4. While unloading the groceries into the trunk of your minivan, yelling at your kids to "Sit down and buckle up!"
5. Mopping the floor after your toddler has just spilled her milk and trying not to show her how upset you are.
6. Balancing a cup of Starbucks and your child's artwork, while holding your child's hand to cross the parking lot as you open the car door at the same time.
7. Forgetting to eat lunch because you were trying to complete your "To Do" list (which never seems to get done).
8. Listening to your toddler tell you again about what everyone in her mommy-and-me class wore for Halloween. Two months later. And you were there.
9. Dropping your preschooler off at school, running to Home Depot, Target, and the Post Office, and making it back in time to pick him up.
10. Rinsing out poopie underwear... again.
11. Trying on clothes in a dressing room with your toddler and keeping her entertained.
12. Talking on the phone, folding laundry, and scolding your son for building his Legos on the dog (all at the same time of course).
13. Trying to shop at Costco with two kids in tow during the entire month of December.
14. Stomping up the stairs yet again to tell the kids to be quiet and go to bed.

I myself can attest that these activities, if performed correctly, can get your heart pumping, and should thereby be burning at least some amount of calories. If they "technically" don't, they zap my energy enough that I deserve at the very least an immediate dose of chocolate or a nap to aid in my recovery. (If not a mojito.)