Well it seems I have the jump on the competition when it comes to holiday travel.  I’m flying out to New York City tomorrow for some super secret fabulousness.  I’ll tell you all about it as soon as I possibly can.  But as I frantically stuff things into a suitcase, I thought I’d give you just a few MORE ideas about how to rack up more steps on your pedometer–HOLIDAY STYLE!

1.  The Airport or Train Station: Is a great place to walk.  After you’ve spend endless hours snaking through lines, stripping nearly naked for security and dragging a metric ton of luggage on and off the shuttle bus, you may have some anxiety to walk off.  And given the delays so typical during this season, you will probably have a lot of time to kill.  So why not spend some time getting extra exercise trotting around the terminal?  You’ll have plenty of time to sit very still, nay crammed like a sardine when you get on the plane!  One thing I’ve started to do to ease this process is to always wear exercise clothes while I’m traveling.  If you want to walk down the jetway in 4-inch heels then I say get down with your bad self.  But I travel in a nice pair of athletic pants, a sweat wicking top, a sports bra, an athletic jacket and tennis shoes.  This way, I’m ready to bust a move whenever the urge strikes.  And given all the other ways travel is uncomfortable, I figure I can at least get around wearing comfortable clothes.

2. The Grocery Store: Thanksgiving is the mother of all grocery shopping holidays.  Unfortunately, everybody in the known universe seems to go there at the same time.  Why not do yourself a favor and stock up on groceries this week?  You might not have time to formalize your list, so grab a cart and go up and down all the aisles.  (Just be careful not to pick up too many impulse items!)  Grocery stores have gotten bigger and bigger.  So carefully carting down all the aisles can really add up to quite a distance.  Don’t forget to park further from the door for extra steps.  And for heaven’s sake, be polite and walk the ten extra steps to return the cart to the rack.  I’m talking to you.  Yes, you!  I can see you trying to cantilever that cart up to the light pole to save yourself 15 extra steps of walking.  I can see your cart rolling loose across the parking lot and terrorizing little old ladies and shiny cars and their new paint jobs.  Seriously.  Return your cart!  (Rant ends.)

3. At Home:  Okay, let’s be honest.  We are all frantically cleaning our houses right now, trying to convince our mother-in-law that their son did not marry a pathetic, housekeeping-challenged, slug.  It’s pathetic.  Around this time of year, I tend to wake up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat murmuring things like, “Behind the fridge.  What if she looks behind the fridge?!”  I could tell you to just chill out.  But this is an awesome time for getting in extra steps.  Put on some cleaning music. (Acid Death Metal works well for this, and has the added bonus of being extremely annoying to any obnoxious neighbors.)  Clip on a pedometer, grab a broom and get to it!  One technique you can use to get in extra steps is to put things away precisely where they belong on the first trip.  Typically, I pile all the stuff that needs to get put away at the bottom of the stairs or perhaps in a large cardboard box that I will ultimately drag into the garage and try to forget.  But if you take each thing and put it away, not only will you have the satisfaction of someday being able to find that thing again, you will also get in some extra steps.  Plus you get the privilege of standing at the door, looking at your domain, and reciting that line from Poltergeist, “This house is clean!”

So that’s three extra sneaky ways to get some extra exercise in and add to your step count this Thanksgiving.  And maybe, just maybe, the walking will relieve enough stress to keep you from being homicidal by Black Friday.

Love,

The Fat Chick

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