One of the things I’ve been struggling with is losing 10 pesky pounds that never seem to exactly go away. My personal trainer is encouraging me to find more ways to burn a few extra calories during the day, conceding that it’s really, really hard (especially with summer starting and my son home) for me to find a dedicated 40 minute block of time each to work out. It doesn’t help that, with the notable exception of swimming — which I can’t do each day, I hate exercise. I’m a playing outside sort of person, and I have other interests, so my trainer suggested a few things that I can do each day to burn calories.

After a little tooling around on the Internet, I found a calculator on About.com that helps you determine how many calories are burned with each activity. Most of the calorie counts come from that. It is important to note that these estimates are based on my weight (which I’m not going to share here), and actual calories burned by you depends on your weight, metabolism and other factors.

   1. Take the stairs: This one is obvious, and you’ve heard it several times. But it’s still effective. My trainer says that since I work from home, I should take a few breaks a day, when I rest my eyes from looking at the computer, or get lunch, and take five minutes to go up and down the stairs. For 10 minutes of stair climbing, you can consume 92 calories.

   2. Shopping: This may not be good for your pocketbook, but How Stuff Works points out that you can use up to 243 calories an hour just by pushing a shopping cart around. Try not to get too carried away buying things, and focus on healthy food choices.

   3. Mow the lawn: Get off the riding mower and push the mower around. If you mow for 30 minutes, you can burn 147 calories. You can burn the same amount of calories gardening, while enjoying the fresh air. If you are digging in the garden, you’ll burn even more.

   4. Laundry: Concentrate on what you are doing as you do the laundry, and consider folding clothes standing up. How Stuff Works says that you can burn 72 calories when you fold clothes for 30 minutes, and that ironing can burn off 76.5 calories in half an hour.

   5. Music practice: I was really excited that this was an option. My trainer said that practicing music can be a way to get things going. Playing the piano burns 85 calories in 30 minutes, according to the About.com calculator. Playing my guitar should also burn a few calories.

   6. Housecleaning: Not that I like housecleaning any better than exercise, but apparently it can be a good way to burn a few extra calories: 196 for 30 minutes of vacuuming, scrubbing and other similar chores.

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