How to get fit by spending More time in the Kitchen

Most of us know every fitness excuse in the book and have used them more than once, you know the ones, all those reasons why you can’t make fitness a priority in your life.

• I’m too busy to take time for fitness.
• I can’t afford a gym membership.
• My job exhausts me too much to exercise.
• The idea of a fitness plan just plain overwhelms me.

Quick Links:

Breakfast Fitness

Lunch Fitness

Dinner Fitness

Get Your Family Involved

Any motivation for fitness is squelched pretty quickly by these excuses. So much so that you can’t see how easy it is to get some fitness time every single day. The trick with becoming fit is all about adopting the correct mind set for exercise, with the realization that exercise does much more than merely make one feel better, it provides a myriad of health benefits that exercise brings. With the an attitude driven by motivation, one may find that instead of making excuses not to exercise, one will look for ways to exercise.Fitness could begin in the very room where your waistline is more apt to expand than contract. That’s right. You could get fit in your own kitchen, without spending money or even changing out of your pajamas first. The kitchen is your fitness secret weapon. Start getting fit in the sacred space where you spend quality time, all the time. No need to leave the house. No need to even leave the breakfast table until you’ve got a nice and easy calorie burn going on. In your kitchen, you’ll find a great many useful items and spaces to build muscle and get your heart rate up. Apply some creative thinking and a desire to make the best of what you’ve got for better health. Let’s break it down by meal times.

Breakfast Fitness

Our days often begin in the kitchen, so it’s a natural place to make some fitness happen as the sun comes up.

• Grab two coffee cups. While the coffee pot is percolating, do some bicep curls and other resistance arm exercises with a steady grip on the cups. By the time your coffee pot is full, you’ll feel your arm muscles heating up. Fill a cup for your spouse and one for you and enjoy your hot java with a smile.
• Before you clear the breakfast plates, rest your hands on the back of a kitchen chair for support. Stand behind the chair with your feet flat on the floor a few inches apart. Bend your knees with your back straight, about halfway to a full squat. Stay there a few seconds then slowly rise back up. Repeat 15 to 20 times. Clear the table and begin the rest of your day.

That was pretty doable, right? It’s important to make it really easy, at least at first. Just a couple of exercises around each meal can make a big difference in your health more quickly than you might think.

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Lunch Fitness

• As the soup simmers, do 12 jumping jacks.
• Stand with knees slightly bent, your feet on the floor a few inches apart. Hold the soup ladle or a wooden spoon over your right shoulder with your right hand, hanging it down behind your back. Reach behind your back from the other side with your left hand and grab the other end. Gently stretch through the shoulders and torso. Switch hands and repeat. Wash your hands and the ladle. Serve that delicious soup.
• Figure out what sequence and exercises make the most sense with your daily kitchen routine. Keep in mind your safety and that of those you live with at all times. Don’t exercise near the hot stove or on wet surfaces.

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Dinner Fitness

• Before setting the table, rest your hands on the top, with feet on the floor and knees slightly bent. Lean over the table with elbows slightly bent. Straighten your right leg back behind you and lift it to just under hip level. Gently pulse your right leg up and down about an inch. Do this ten times. Switch legs and repeat. You’ll feel the stretch through your butt and upper thighs. If you have enough energy, do another set on each leg. Set the table and enjoy your restful meal.
• After you fill the dishwasher after dinner, stand in place and lift your knees up toward your chest one at a time. Give each of your knees a pat with a hand as it comes up, giving it a height for which to aim. Repeat 30 times for each knee to feel your abs and thighs engage.
• Now turn off the kitchen light. Your fitness day is done. You didn’t have to trudge to the gym. All you had to do was stick with your daily kitchen routine to slip some easy exercise into your day. If you have the kitchen space, perhaps a sit down exercise bike would be another great way of exercising any time when time allows, set it up somewhere away from the stove and with a window view.

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Get your family involved.

They’re in the kitchen with you every day, too. Pass a big plastic bowl from person to person while seated at the table, after the meal has been cleared. Then pass it back the other way. You’d not only get more fit with your family in the kitchen, you’d have new reasons to gather and giggle together, too. About Peter Markovic is passionate about healthy living and fitness.

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