Any Exercise is Good Exercise

I overate a little bit today, just because, but I figure it’s okay since I got a lot of exercise so I made up for the extra food. This morning, after I put the boys on the school bus, Dolly and I made a trip to the supermarket on the other side of town to get some things that the more local supermarket either doesn’t carry or carries for a more expensive cost. No, we didn’t walk to the store; I just said it’s across town; and we’d have to trek a main thoroughfare in order to get there. Besides, how was I going to get the groceries home? We boarded Morrison for our journey; it was after we arrived that we got some exercise. I did, anyway; Dolly was riding in the cart while I was pushing it and doing the walking.

“Big deal,” you might say, but it really is exercise. See, we all know that walking burns calories, and pushing a shopping cart at the same time burns around 70 calories per 15 minutes for me. I’m not guessing, I Googled it: http://www.dietbites.com/Pyramid-Diet/calories-burned-walking-pushing-cart.html I’m figuring that the more weight I push and the longer I walk, the more calories I burn. I don’t know the exact calories burned, but it stands to reason, right? Okay. So, the tare weight of a shopping cart is about 60lbs (I Googled that too: http://www.carriage-trade.com/CartSpecs/586spec.html) and Dolly weighs around 40. That’s 100lbs right there. Now add 50lbs of groceries to that and I’ve got something going on there. I wonder if that fact that the cart kept pulling to the right so I had to keep pulling it back made any difference in the calories I burned. I’m going to say it did help me burn more calories because this is my blog and I say so. Imagine how many calories I used to burn when I took the boys with me also. They each stood on the bottom rack and hung onto the sides of the cart so I was pushing them also. They weighed around 50lbs each and Dolly was around 30. Kids (130) + Cart (60) + Major food purchase (80) = 270lbs total. WOW!!

Anyway, Dolly and I traipsed around the store looking for the items that we didn’t get the other day when we went shopping. For the most part, we were moving along really smoothly because I know where everything that we needed was located in the store. I’m plugging along, burning calories, getting my exercise when there was a sudden slow-down in the process. I couldn’t find the breadcrumbs anywhere. She and I walked up and down every aisle that would possibly harbor the elusive condiment – we excluded frozen, dairy, meat and produce – but we couldn’t find them anywhere. I was still burning calories but not as quickly because I was walking at such a slow pace. We finally had to ask for assistance from a store associate. By the way, the slogan for this particular store – “Where there’s a helpful smile in every aisle” – is way over exaggerated. We had to walk the entire store until we came upon an associate – who was helpful but not even close to smiling. When I asked where the breadcrumbs were located he said, “They are over here” and proceeded to walk me to the exact spot in the store. While I know it’s their job, I really don’t need that much help and I don’t like taking them away from what they were previously doing. Just tell me which aisle and I’ll find it all by myself.

So, he walks us to the breadcrumbs which were located in the bread aisle, of all places. Who woulda thunk it? I checked the baking aisle, the aisle with stuffing, the aisle with other condiments but couldn’t locate them. I never would have thought of the bread aisle because I can’t use breadCRUMBS to make a sandwich, I use them in the process of cooking and baking to enhance the flavor of the meal. I don’t know; maybe the bread aisle is where they’re supposed to be; I don’t really recall since I haven’t bought them in a while. I don’t use them too often so I don’t run out of them too often. No matter; we found them and were on our way. We get home and loaded the bags into the house then I had to pack out the groceries. That’s exercise too since I’m doing the bending/standing routine. It’s kind of like toe touches but different. So I did that and burned some more calories.

Afterwards I took a short break to try to find an easy craft idea for the kids to make something for their dad for Father’s Day. I never buy him gifts, I always have the kids make him something and then we mail it to him. I decided what they would make him and set off to Dollar General to buy the supplies. I’ve got craft stuff here at home; I just needed to purchase the actual items they’ll be decorating. I have to spend some money but I make it as little as possible. Anyway, Dolly and I were searching through that store and found the item but there were only pre-decorated ones that we can’t use. So we left that store and walked to K-mart which is in the same strip mall. We walked the entire store of K-mart which had to be good exercise even though we weren’t pushing a cart. We finally get back to the Customer Service desk to ask if they carry that item and, of course, they don’t. We got a good walk anyway, and then got to walk back to Dollar General to get Morrison.

Dolly and I leave there and go to a different dollar store, which, we searched as quickly as possible since it was disgusting. Just because the items are cheap doesn’t mean you don’t have to clean the store and straighten the items. There was just shit everywhere – not in the literal sense, of course – the items were just strewn all over the place with no rhyme or reason to some of the aisles. We made a mad dash for the door and went to the local supermarket to check the seasonal aisle. Nope, no Father’s Day item but we did pass the “Five for $5.00” movie theatre candy cart and we just couldn’t resist. While I was paying for those items I asked the cashier and the one behind her if they knew where I could find this particular item. One suggested Walgreens, which didn’t have them. We went there after we left the supermarket since it was only across the street. The other agreed with me that Dollar Tree might have them. I wasn’t going to go there today, though, since we’d been in and out of the car all morning and really just wanted to get home. Besides, it’s across town near the first supermarket we visited earlier in the morning. We’ll save that store, and any others, for tomorrow.

So I got all of that exercise and then got more when we finally got home to stay because I was up and down the stairs doing laundry and whatever else I needed to do. Then the boys were home from summer school, we had dinner, and the kids went outside after that. Since I’ve been having trouble with the neighbors again I decided to stand near the front door to keep an eye on my kids while I watched TV. Standing for over an hour has to be burning calories, right? Of course it is. Don’t disagree with me or I won’t let you read my blog. Then I put the kids to bed and bounced on my rebounder – something I haven’t done in a while – for a half hour. I’d say I burned enough calories to allow me to binge a little bit today. Tomorrow I’ll be back on track and will continue exercising on a regular basis whether it’s rebounding, yoga or both. It always makes me feel good besides being beneficial.

A good thing to remember, though, is next time you need some exercise, you can always head to the local supermarket. Get a cart, walk around the store at a rapid pace filling the cart, then just reverse the walk and put everything back where you found it. I’d tell you to just leave the cart there full but then a) you wouldn’t get the benefit of the extra walking/cart pushing during the return trip and; b) a store associate would get stuck staying late at his or her shift to return all the merchandise you so rudely removed from the shelves and didn’t return. That’s not fair. However, if you actually do leave the cart full and get caught trying to leave the store, you never read this blog. Right?

Until next time…peace to all.