There are so many different ways to exercise and try to stay fit: some work, some don’t; some are expensive while some are affordable; some are fun and most (if not all) are quite painful. One of the “funnest” ways I have found of doing a bit of exercise is dancing while doing chores. This may or may not have been inspired by the “taking pictures while running” bit in Jim Carey’s movie Yes Man. Or maybe it was just boredom and deciding to try to make something that is plain tedious, well, a little fun.
Now, this is the kind of thing I’d recommend you do 1) if you’re not lucky enough (or affluent enough) to have a maid or some sort of help for doing household chores and 2) if you have the good fortune of being able to do your chores while listening to loud music and ideally in complete privacy. Let’s face it, most people do their cooking and dishwashing while OTHER people watch TV or get to do their leisurely activities. So if you play loud music in the kitchen, you’ll hear a lot of “Mom, can you turn that down, please?!” Or your spectators might not be as appreciative as you’d like them to be of your salsa/merengue/zumba/perreo/gettin’-down (insert wild dancing term here) abilities and talent as you might like them to be.
You must understand: not everyone appreciates the artistry in doing housework while gettin’ down to some sultry reggaeton beats. Or the Herculean effort it takes to try to get back up. The work of art might not even be in the dancing, but in the comedic genius of your performance (that sometimes only you can understand and find absolutely hilarious). The rolling of the eyes and the “Mom’s so weird” muttered comments (or even the dog silently walking away with a look that can only be interpreted as shame) just tells you they don’t understand what innovative performance art through chore-cercising is all about.
But if you’re lucky enough to be able to do this in complete solitude, I wholeheartedly and unequivocally recommend it. It is just fun. You get to sing—most of the time really out of tune, but who cares? None’s judging you. You get to move around and you don’t have anyone staring at you, making you feel like you’re in a zoo. You even get to be creative and improvise some new dance moves (that you would never, ever, ever show in public—unless you’re Elaine Benes and they’re paying you millions to do that on Seinfeld). You get to choose your own playlist, use the whole floor to express your creative juices, repeat a song 5 times if you so feel like it, you get to rest or stop altogether whenever you want to and best of all, you get to have some fun with something you absolutely hate doing. (Disclaimer: That last point may be a complete fabrication and/or a blatant lie, included here for dramatic effect, poetic license or to prove a point that may very well be impossible to prove.)
I tell you, though, you may not lose a pound, not a one, and you may even break a plate or two and burn dinner more often that your family will have the patience for, but the hours (okay, more like minutes ‘cause who can dance for hours?) you spend shaking your booty to some Shakira or Calle 13 while doing all those boring chores will give you the energy (and laughter) you need to make the effort worthwhile.
These are some good tunes to get you going on your chore-cercising fitness routines from now on.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2BjolAI5MY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0RD4Jqgw7w&feature=channel&list=UL
