If you find that some days make it hard to get in that run, walk or treadmill routine, try a good dose of housework instead and lose a chunk of calories anyway.

According to this source, regular cleaning activities like washing dishes and mopping the floor (among others) burned about 50,000 calories per year. Wow!

In other words, standard household chores are equivalent to walking more than 22 miles each and every year. It's something we have to do anyway, so instead of having the spouse or kids (or housecleaner) clean that house, do it yourself and get some calorie burning in there.

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Marries couples bicker. And, they bicker. Oh, did I mention that they bicker? In many cases, the breakdown of communication that occurs when household chores come up every day is the source of this madness. Put kids in the mix, and it gets even worse.

How can cleaning, the activities of the kids, cooking and relaxation time be carried out? If you try to go at it all without a plan, chaos will probably reign supreme.

The answer, believe it or not, is writing all these responsibilities down and agreeing on every "chore" you can possibly think of. That's right -- just like the fridge door chore list you made for the kids. Think this will prevent fights and nasty looks? Of course it will.

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Do you consider your housework to be a workout? In most cases, it should. Simple work (or not so simple) such as running the vacuum, washing windows, folding clothes, sweeping the floor and washing the dishes all burn calories.

In fact, instead of having a maid, try cleaning your own home for a month and see if you feel better due to the exercise. Or, if you already clean your own home, try vacuuming fast and washing toilets and sinks in a rapid motion. After a while, you'll see that housework really can be a workout. And, a darn good one at that.

Try these other tips on for size:

• Gardening -- Water plants with a watering can instead of a hose, and alternate carrying the can on each arm.
• Sweeping -- Clean not just your driveway, but offer to do your neighbors', as well as the sidewalks.
• Washing your car -- Use a bucket that you have to carry, not a hose.
• Cleaning and re-arranging -- Thoroughly clean out rooms in your home, carefully moving objects to clean every area.
• Walking or bike riding -- Leave the car home, if practical, to get to work or to run an errand.

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Regardless of where you're at in your life, it's important to get a little bit of exercise every day. This isn't to say you have to do a 3-hour workouts every morning, but it's important that you do something, anything, to get moving, not only for your waistline but for your health. Here are some ways to get some activity in every day:

• Do some housework -- it's good for you and your house.
  
• Walk! Anywhere -- to the post office, on the treadmill, or around the mall.
• Do some gardening or some yard work -- raking the leaves is a great workout. So is shovelling snow.
  
• Wash and wax your car
• Get outside with the kids -- even if they can't walk for themselves, grab the stroller.
  
• Dance. Do it in your home, to your favourite song, and if you're self-conscious, do it somewhere no one can see you.
  
• Take the stairs. Yes, you've heard this one before, but that's because it works!

For me, I ride my bike or walk to do my errands. That way, I'm getting exercise and still getting stuff done. How do you fit in exercise?

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It may come as no surprise to many that a recent study concluded with the fact that men perform less housework than women. When it came to married men, even less of them shared the housework load.

this study did not just encompass the U.S. -- 27 countries were involved here along with 17,000 women and men. Out of a total weekly amount of 21 housecleaning hours, men performed just over nine hours of it.

There was a pretty large distinction between married couples and men and women living together (but not married). In all, it was suggested that the division of household labor changed when marriage entered the picture. So married ladies -- does your man measure up to you when it comes to housework?

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Is housework physical activity? Sure. Does housework burn calories? Of course. Does it count as real exercise? That's where the argument comes in. Depending on who you talk to, housework is either a workout waiting to happen or it's just a means for people to fool themselves that they're getting exercise. My personal opinion is that although housework is a great way to be active (especially if you really throw yourself into it) it's more of a supplement to an exercise plan than an entire exercise plan all by itself. This article makes a lot of good points about why housework doesn't count as a good fitness regimen, including the lack of increased resistance as you get healthier and the fact that many tasks are done fairly quickly so hour long calorie-burning charts aren't realistic.

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I just returned home from a friend's house. Since everyone seems to know that I'm the Fitzness chick, conversations always lead into that arena. Not that I bring it up, but I think people are desperate for answers and take wise advantage of the expert in the room. Today's question was from a woman who "exercises" all the time doing housework, but still can't manage to lose the forty pounds she's gained since her last pregnancy.

Although the solution was painfully obvious to me, I'm completely positive this poor woman thought she was on the right track. Folks, housework is not exercise. Sure, it's active and it's certainly better than loafing on the couch, but it is not exercise. Exercise is deliberate. Usually involving some sort of sneaker or exercise attire. Same goes for yard work and chasing around the kids. Not exercise. Especially for the people trying to lose a significant amount of weight. In order to do that, you should be consistently moving at a moderate to rapid pace, huffing and puffing, stinking and sweating for an extended period of time. Household activities will not get your heart rate high enough for 30-40 minutes. No way. Plus, lifting the wet mop is never going to provide for curvy and strong muscles.

So. I broke her heart just a little bit, but I also gave her hope. It's not impossible for her to lose that weight, she just has to change the way she goes about trying to accomplish it.

Dieting sucks, and I think anybody who is or has been on a diet can relate to the fact that it feels like it comes down to practically one calorie at a time. So burning 100 calories might not sound like much right off the bat, but think: if you do it everyday it can really add up. And these ideas are things you can definitely do everyday. Here are just a few of the random daily activities that you can do to burn 100 calories, and barely notice: vacuum for 25 minutes, golf for 20 minutes (and what golf game is over in just 20 minutes? bonus!), play Frisbee for 30 minutes, push a stroller 30-40 minutes, weight train for 15 minutes, or do aerobics for just 10 minutes.

There are 20 ideas on the list total, so if none of these few work for you there's bound to be something that will.

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A new study of more than 200,000 women suggests that doing household chores like dusting, mopping and vacuuming was significantly more cancer protective than playing sports, or having a physical job.

While it's long been known that physical exercise lowers the risk of breast cancer -- most likely due to the resultant hormonal and metabolic changes -- housework is the only physical activity that's been shown to have positive effects on both pre- and post-menopausal women.

This isn't to say that there's something inherently cancer protective about the act of mopping itself, but rather that moderate physical activity, like housework, may be more effective in reducing a woman's risk of breast cancer than more rigorous, but less frequent exercise.

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