Dish Duty

Does anyone else sweat when they are washing dishes, or is it just me? I don't know if it's the extremely hot water I use or the vigorous scrubbing action, but I swear I get hot and sweaty doing the dishes (especially if I let them pile up for a day or two and I have a good half hour of washing to do; our dishwasher is broken and hasn't worked since we moved in 10 months ago -- husband seems to be in no rush to replace it). It could also be the sun shining down on me directly from over the sink, and it could be the cup of coffee I suck on while I wash; I'm not sure, but I do know that I usually turn on the ceiling fan in dish preparation so that I can maintain my core temperature.

It feels like some form of exercise.

In fact, much of the housework feels like a form of exercise: sweeping, vacuuming, cleaning the bathroom. By the time I'm finished cleaning the house, I am often just as worn out as I am after a run, which is precisely why I try to run before I clean. If I think to myself "I'll go run after I finish picking up and when I get done folding the laundry," inevitably I never go for that run because I'm pooped. Maybe I feel tired after cleaning because I do so many things the hard way, but I get that from my mother. She always cleaned the kitchen and bathroom floors on her hands and knees instead of with a mop because she reported that it burned more calories. I, personally, mop the kitchen, and Swiffer much of the rest of the house that has wood flooring, but I also clean the bathroom floors on my hands and knees.

Because it burns more calories? No. Two reasons: A. It is too small a space to mop. You can't really mop behind the toilet very effectively and I usually end up smacking myself in the head with the mop handle trying to maneuver in the tight space. And B. I like pretending to be Cinderella. It's something I've envisioned every time I do housework since I was five, and it's a fantasy that works for me. It would probably be much easier too if I had a few helpful mice to aid my work and sing me some uplifting songs instead of a dog who tracks through my efforts and doesn't sing one note, but one can only have so many trained mice in a lifetime and I'm saving mine for when I have kids (I think they might come in handy then; after that, I'm working on obtaining a few trained monkeys to run behind me in class and erase the board -- there just aren't enough trained animals in the world to do my bidding).

Anyway, I haven't run yet today, and I only plan on running a few miles this afternoon at the gym, but I do also plan to do some lifting (I have been slacking on that lately). However, after that powerful workout from the dishes, I'm thinking perhaps I could shave a mile off my run (I don't know how many calories I burned during the dishwashing session, but I would guess it was at least 20 -- not quite a mile's worth).