Starling Fitness: Daily writings on Fitness, Diet, and Health

My mom has the Post-Thanksgiving Christmas Shopping down to a science. She arrives at her first choice store five to ten minutes before it opens, rushes in, buys the one or two items on her list and sprints for the checkout stand: repeat, repeat, repeat. Christmas shopping with her is an efficient and tiring ordeal. Sure, you get all your Christmas shopping done in about three hours, but afterward, you’re more tired than thirty minutes after the turkey dinner the day before. Here are some tips to get the most of your shopping workout:

• The Mall Is For Walkers: It might seem like lazy shopping to go to the mall because there are so many stores in one spot, but the point that you miss is that you end up doing a lot of walking in that mall. Wear your running shoes and you’ll last a little longer.

• Running Gets You There Faster: If it means you have to run to beat the other people rushing for the low priced televisions, running gets you there faster. Very few of the other shoppers are willing to run while they are getting their three items that they want from this particular store. If you sprint between the items, you’ll burn extra calories AND get what you had on your list.

• Carts Are For Wimps: Carrying your products in your arms not only builds upper-body strength, it lets you be more agile when dodging other shoppers. A cart is a big and bulky thing to negotiate through the narrow aisles of the store. Use a hand basket or just carry your items and you’ll be faster. Plus, you’ll feel it in your arms the next day.

• Standing In Line Is A Way To Burn Off Nervous Energy: Sure, you can stand still in line like a zombie, but if you are fidgeting, bopping from one impulse item to another, and bouncing a bit, you’ll not only burn off that nervous energy, you’ll burn a few extra calories.

• Fisticuffs Are Never The Answer: I worked at K-Mart for over seven years while putting myself through college. Every year, there was a fist fight. It might seem like a good workout to physically fight for the last 40-buck microwave, but you’ll just end up stuck in a room in the back of the store for an hour or so. Let the other person get the good deal. You’ll find something better later, I promise.

Me? I think I’ll just avoid the frenzy. After seven years of retail slavery, I vowed never to shop on the Friday after Thanksgiving. I think I’ll get my workout the old fashioned way. I’ll just run around my neighborhood. It will probably be abandoned, so I’ll have my run of the sidewalks.