Exercise: Ways to Get Moving

• Get up 30 minutes early each morning, and take a brisk walk to start your day
   
• Hand-wash your car; it will save you money and cost you calories
   
• Do household chores or projects, such as mopping the kitchen floor, while watching television; avoid the couch potato syndrome
   
• Walk to do errands that are only a few blocks away; ride your bike to work or to a friend's home (if it is safe)
   
• During your lunch hour or coffee break, walk around your building; burn energy rather than being tempted to snack
   
• Walk your dog on a leash
   
• Rake leaves in the spring, summer and fall; do some backyard gardening
   
• Take the stairs instead of the elevator; walking up stairs is a great calorie-burner and wonderful for your heart
   
• Using a lawn mower, instead of the power mower; in the winter, shovel the snow by hand, if you are fit
   
• Buy a portable phone so that when you are talking, you can walk around and burn calories
   
• Making homemade bread without the machine; kneading the dough by hand uses up calories
   
• Park at the far end of the parking lot to get a longer walk to work; get off the bus one stop ahead of your destination, so you can walk the rest of the way
   
• Plan an active family vacation or weekend, rather than a sedentary one; instead of sitting in a beach chair, go canoeing, hiking or snow skiing

Source: American Dietetic Association, The American Dietetic Association's Complete Food & Nutrition Guide, 1998.