We spend a lot of time figuring out how to do our work more efficiently.  That’s fine — unless we are doing it so we have more time to spend on the couch in front of the TV.  Did you know that you burn more calories doing nothing at all than you spend watching TV?  I’m not sure why, unless the television lulls your metabolism as well as your brain into inactivity.

Anyway, if you are wanting to work more activity into your life, you might try to do the opposite.  Do things the hard way.  That comes easy for me!  My motto is “If there are two ways to do it, do it the hard way first.”

Seriously, you can get an extra edge of calorie burn by making things just a bit less convenient.  Put things you use a lot on a higher shelf so you have to reach more. The stretching will be good for your muscles.  Move the trash can so you have to take extra steps to reach it.  Put things away one at a time instead of gathering up an armful to dispose of at once.  Look at all the little jobs you do every day.  How can you make them into calorie burners?  If you do them quickly instead of at a leisurely pace they won’t take much more time out of your day and you can wind up with more steps on your pedometer and fewer calories stashed around your hips.

Eating to live and living for Christ,

Susan Jordan Brown