Whenever someone thinks about going on a weight loss plan or tries to lose stomach fat, the common thinking is that they need to do hours in the gym to achieve their weight loss goals.
But if you follow a healthy and sensible eating plan then you can and will lose your weight and if you combine this with regular incidental exercise then you will also get fitter and speed up your weight loss.
And the great thing is that even the smallest of movements can burn off calories – things like housework, walking the dog, playing with the children and cooking can all burn calories.
Check the expenditure chart below to see exactly how many calories you burn off doing all sorts of activities.

Activity	Calories Burned
Digging in your garden	Digging the yard is a vital chore when you’re gardening. Just 30 minutes of digging can burn off 315 calories, and it works your arms, thighs, calves and shoulders – and if you do it for over 20 minutes, you get your heart rate up and boost your cardiovascular system.
Cleaning windows	You can burn lots of calories just cleaning your windows – and depending on how tall your windows are you can burn off even more. Cleaning windows for 30 minutes burns off around 125 calories and works your arms and shoulders.
Walking the dog	Walking the dog offers some great resistance exercise – take your pup out for a long bracing walk and you can burn off up to 200 calories an hour.
Cooking/food preparation	Preparing food can actually burn over 100 calories per hour – especially if you’re doing lots of washing, chopping and lifting of pots and pans.
Playing with the children: Softball	Just messing around with the children in the park throwing a softball around can burn off 180 calories per 30 minutes of continuous play.
Playing with the children: Jump rope	Jumping rope is a brilliant exercise for burning calories – jumping rope continuously for 30 minutes actually burns off 365 calories.
Washing the car	It may be a bit of a surprise, but washing the car is a great way to burn off calories – washing it for 30 minutes will burn 140 calories and will help to tone your arms and stomach, especially if you have a tall car.
Playing on a games console	Playing interactive games on a console such as the Wii or the Xbox Kinect can help you to burn loads of calories whilst having fun – half an hour of medium intensity exercise on the Wii Fit can burn off 150 calories.
Scrubbing the bath	Baths are a bit of a pain to clean, but what might make the job a bit sweeter is the knowledge that scrubbing away the scum for half an hour can burn off a massive 200 calories.
Running up and down the stairs	This easy exercise is something most of us will do many times a day – half an hour of going up and down the stairs will burn off 285 calories.
Going bowling	Bowling with your friends is a great way to spend an evening – and knocking down those pins can burn 210 calories per hour.
Kick boxing	If you have the energy to spend an hour at a kick boxing class, you can expect to burn off a massive 500 calories.
Vacuuming the house	Vacuuming is a chore no-one likes doing, especially when you have to vacuum the stairs. But vacuuming the whole house for an hour can burn up to 210 calories.
Planting a herb garden	Planting a herb garden with the children is a fun activity that everyone can do together – spend just half an hour digging and planting and you’ll burn off 120 calories.
Mopping the floors	Mopping the floor is yet another job that can be a bit tedious, especially lugging the mop bucket around the place. But spend half an hour making your floors sparklingly clean and you can burn off 100 calories.
Ironing	Ironing, surprisingly, burns off 70 calories per 30 minutes. Up the amount of calories you burn off by pressing down firmly with the iron and dance around at the same time. Make sure you swap arms occasionally so you get the same muscle tone in both arms.
Watering the plants	Watering the plants in your garden or indoors with the use of a watering can that needs to be refilled frequently can burn off a massive 100 calories every half an hour.
The Post Pregnancy Exercise DVD	Even though the work out sessions are broken into bite sized chunks of 10 and fifteen minutes, per hour you will burn between 450 – 550 calories per hour. The DVD is very time effective and even on one ten minute session you will feel the burn!! – you can view it here
Carrying shopping	Carrying shopping bags can really work your arms and improve tone. You can burn up to 190 calories every half an hour carrying shopping, and even more depending on how heavy the shopping is.
Dancing	Having a dance, whether you have a boogie with your children or whether you go to a dance class, can help you to burn off 320 calories an hour. All the more reason to go dancing!

 

And for the ULTIMATE SAFE, EFFECTIVE & TRUSTED Post Pregnancy Workout – see our EXPERT Post Pregnancy Exercise DVD below – you can purchase and see more information on it here
The DVD can be followed by all mums (for example new mums or mums with older children) and can be followed by someone with a basic or a more advanced level of fitness.
Lisa Westlake is our incredible fitness instructor and postnatal exercise specialist throughout the DVD. With her extensive physiotherapy experience and qualifications (Lisa is one of the most awarded fitness professionals in Australia), Lisa is the perfect fitness instructor to bring The Healthy Mummy Post Pregnancy Exercise DVD to life – you will love working out with her. (You can see our Q&A with Lisa with commonly asked questions on the DVD here)
The exercises in The Healthy Mummy Post Pregnancy Exercise DVD are effective and safe and Lisa will guide you through each of the workouts. As well as assisting in the improvement of your overall fitness levels, the workouts in the DVD will also help in the burning of calories, the improvement of your core strength and the strengthening of your pelvic floor.
The six workouts are broken down into 10 and 15 minute sections that you can do when it suits you – or if you have the time and energy you can do the DVD as one 70 minute continuous workout. The Healthy Mummy Post Pregnancy Exercise DVD also covers special considerations post-birth, such as caesarean sections, back strains, muscle separation, incontinence and pelvic floor issues.
[pb_vidembed title=”The Post Pregnancy Exercise DVD” caption=”” url=”http://vimeo.com/73423922″ type=”vem” w=”600″ h=”450″]

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